ACTING THE RIGHT PART: POLITICAL THEATRE AND POPULAR DRAMA IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA. By Xiaomei Chen. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2002. xi + 466 pp. $29.95 (paper); $59.95 (cloth)
History--or fate--positions certain authors perfectly to write certain books. Xiaomei Chen is the ideal person to have conceived and composed Acting the Right Part; she has produced a work of comprehensive and groundbreaking scholarship appropriately leavened with deeply felt personal observation. Scholars of Chinese drama (or any reader with even a passing interest in the topic) will turn to it repeatedly, not only for its academic insights, but also for its unique perspective on a tumultuous period in world history.
Chen has been intimately connected with modern Chinese theatre all her life. Her mother, Ji Shuping, acted Ibsen's Nora to international acclaim and performed many other leading roles; her father, Chen Yongjing, was an award-winning set and costume …
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