Alexander C. Y. Huang's Chinese Shakespeares: Two Centuries of Cultural Exchange demonstrates why the study of Shakespeare in Chinese contexts is a vital topic of such significance. Panels, and even entire conferences, on the topic are common in Asian performance circles, but I always felt that such studies, and even the performances that inspired them, were undertaken primarily to attract audiences who might find Shakespearean material more accessible than plays with more “authentically” Chinese content. Huang's volume has completely transformed my viewpoint. His meticulously researched and thoughtfully constructed study demonstrates that Chinese Shakespeares are as Chinese as any other performances in the Chinese-speaking world. Huang has turned this skeptic into a believer, and I invite any scholar who is interested—or not interested—in this topic to read Huang's thought-provoking volume.
In the prologue and mostly theoretical chapter 1, Huang explains his intention to reveal the complexities within two rather large, weighty...
