Abstract
This chapter is a study of two interconnected theatrical reinterpretations of Turandot, an eighteenth-century comedy by Italian playwright Carlo Gozzi (1720–1806) based on a supposedly Persian story—Nizami Ganjavi’s Haft Paykar (The Seven Beauties): one by Brecht under the title Turandot or the Whitewashers’ Congress (1953) and one by the Chinese dramatist Wei Minglun in chuanju-style (Sichuan Opera) under the title The Chinese Princess Dulanduo (1998 and 2012). After tracing their “urtexts” from Nizami Ganjavi to Gozzi to Puccini, the chapter focuses on the similarities and differences between the two plays under study. Even though they have different (albeit related) hypotexts and their plots differ considerably, Brecht’s and Wei’s Turandot adaptations resonate with each other with regard to their sociohistorical, philosophical, and political concerns.
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Notes
- 1.
See Bertolt Brecht, Collected Plays: Eight (London: Methuen, 2004), 250–251.
- 2.
Fisher, Burton D. Puccini’s Turandot-Opera Classics Library Series (Opera Journeys Publishing, 2002).
- 3.
For my references to the characters in Gozzi’s play, see John Louis DiGaetani, 44.
- 4.
See Fisher 22.
- 5.
I refer to several texts of Turandot: John Louis DiGaetani’s Carlo Gozzi: Translations of The Love of Three Oranges, Turandot, and The Snake Lady, with a Bio-Critical Introduction; Friedrich Schiller’s Turandot: The Chinese Sphinx; and Giacomo Puccini’s Puccini’s Turandot.
- 6.
See Martin Esslin.
- 7.
The Chinese translation of Brecht’s Turandot was rendered by Li Jianming; the editor of the anthology is Zhang Li.
- 8.
The summary of Wei’s play is based on Wei Minglun’s script The Chinese Princess Dulanduo in Wei Minglun’s book Hao nüren yu huai nüren: Wei Minglun juzuo xuan (Good Woman/Bad Woman: The Female Plays of Wei Minglun).
- 9.
See Wei Minglun’s book Hao nüren yu huai nüren: Wei Minglun juzuo xuan.
- 10.
Xumei zhuowu (须眉浊物) is a phrase in Wei Minglun’s Chinese Princess Dulanduo to describe “men are dirty things or men are dirty.” Wei did not explain how Dulanduo got this opinion in his chuanju adaptation. However, this saying appeared in the Chinese literary masterpiece A Dream in Red Mansions. A Dream in Red Mansions is probably one of the first literary work as the source to mention that meaning of xumei zhuowu , as “woman is flesh and blood made of water, man is flesh made of mud,” see Lian Ping’s article “‘Trashy Men,’ Really?” in 2016.
- 11.
My interpretation of Wei’s version draws in part from Liao’s article in Wei’s book, 264.
- 12.
My interpretation draws in part from Wang Guosheng’s article in 2006, 135.
- 13.
“Playing the Vertical Flute to Attract the Phoenix” (吹箫引凤) is an ancient Chinese folk story about two young people falling in love through the music they play. Nong Yu, daughter of a duke, who has turned down many marriage proposals, is good at playing the sheng (reed pipe wind instrument). One night, Nong Yu plays the sheng and then seems to hear it echoed in heavenly melody in the distance. Nong Yu falls ill afterward and loses all desire for food and water. Her father, the duke, finds Xiao Shi, a young man from a poor family and a gifted xiao (箫, vertical flute) player, who is the source of the heavenly melody Nong Yu has heard. Nong Yu recovers from her illness without treatment. From then on, Nong Yu and Xiao Shi play the sheng and the xiao together day and night. Drawn by their beautiful music, a dragon and a phoenix come and take the young lovers far away where they live happily thereafter.
- 14.
This interpretation is my understanding of Wei’s Dulanduo based on my phone interview with Wei Minglun in December 2016.
Works Cited
Liu, Kaikui. 2018. Personal Phone Interview, August 13.
Mencius. 2015. Mencius. Trans. David Hinton. Berkeley: Counterpoint.
Wei, Minglun. 2016. Personal Interview and Phone Interview, May and December.
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Zhang, W. (2020). Modernity, Chinese Culture, and Intertextuality: Bertolt Brecht’s Turandot and Wei Minglun’s Chuanju Play Chinese Princess Dulanduo. In: Chinese Adaptations of Brecht. Chinese Literature and Culture in the World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37778-6_5
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