Abstract
The author contends that before the first translation of a Chinese play into English in 1736, the English understanding of Chinese drama was pieced together through a pan-European sharing of information gleaned from the accounts of missionaries and travellers. Such accounts suggested correspondences between European and Chinese drama, which, rather than assert the supremacy of European culture, sought to demonstrate European compatibility with a politically stable and economically prosperous China.
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Thorpe, A. (2016). Chinese Drama in the European Imagination Before 1736. In: Performing China on the London Stage. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59786-1_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59786-1_2
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