THE CHINESE THEATER
Seven hundred and fifty copies
of The Chinese Theater have
been printed from type and the
type distributed. Of this Limited
Edition, seven hundred and
twenty copies are for sale, of
which this is
Number 16
A GENERAL
Chinese Character Type
THE
CHINESE THEATER
BY
A. E. ZUCKER
Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Maryland
Formerly, Assistant Professor of English,
Peking Union Medical College
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
MCMXXV
Copyright, 1925,
By Little, Brown, and Company.
All rights reserved
Published November, 1925
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
To
MY WIFE, LOIS MILES
The genial Reverend Arthur Smith in his“Village Life in China” says that theChinese sometimes finds it hard to understandthe Westerner. As an instancehe cites the case of a tired travelerwho stops at an inn for the night and is told thatthere will be theatricals in the evening. Insteadof sharing the glee of the natives, he gathers histired self together and hurries on to the next villagethat he may enjoy his sleep far away from soundingbrass and clanging[1] cymbal. Possibly this explainswhy among all the books written on China comparativelyfew concern themselves with the theater. Onemight add too that the drama stands on a relativelylower level than some other Chinese arts, for example,landscape painting and lyric poetry. Yetthough his dramas are poor the Chinese actor hasat his command consummate skill to hold the mirrorup to life; he is no less of an artist than his Occidentalcolleague.
Still, the subject has attracted a fair numb