Teahouse

Lao SheNorthern Literature and Art Publishing House (Beifang Wenyi Chubanshe) · ChinaAug 2020

Rating 4.6
Word count
32K words
Chapters
6
ISBN
9787531736707

Tags

Featured Fiction Social SpectrumStage ClassicsSmall FiguresStreet LifeNostalgiaSatirical StyleBeijing FlavorTide of the TimesLate Qing and Early RepublicOld Beijing

Summary

Wang Lifa, owner of the teahouse, dreams of making the one his father left him thrive. He works every connection he can, yet harsh reality mocks him at every turn until the ruthless society finally swallows him whole. Qin Zhongyi, a national capitalist and regular customer, starts out determined to save the country through industry and ends in bankruptcy. Chang Siye, an open-handed Manchu nobleman, takes up an honest living after the fall of the Qing dynasty. The whole play unfolds in a single Beijing teahouse, where customers come and go—every walk of life, high and low—and this one teahouse is a small society in itself.

Editor's review

Teahouse is the magnum opus of Lao She, a master of modern Chinese literature, and is hailed as "a jewel in the history of Chinese drama." This enduring three-act play, set in the Yutai Teahouse, uses the shifting fortunes of vivid characters—proprietor Wang Lifa, industrialist Qin Zhongyi, and the Manchu nobleman Chang Siye—to brilliantly refract nearly half a century of social change, from the failure of the Hundred Days' Reform through the warlord era to the eve of the founding of New China. With seemingly effortless brushwork, Lao She compresses grand historical narrative into the confines of a single teahouse; every line of dialogue carries the imprint of its era and the flavor of human experience, demonstrating astonishing artistry in "seeing the great through the small." Reading Teahouse is not only to appreciate a dramatic text but to hear an elegy for an old era and a prelude to a new society. Lao She's profound insight into everyday urban life, his incisive dissection of national character, and his consummate Beijing-flavored language make this work transcend its time and continue to provoke deep reflection on society, human nature, and fate. Its Douban rating of 9.4 attests to the lasting recognition of this classic by readers and by time itself.

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Reading tips

  1. Read the whole play first to take in the overall atmosphere and the ensemble of characters, then savor the historical background and deeper meaning of the dialogue in each act
  2. Reading alongside some knowledge of modern Chinese history will make the characters' choices and the inevitability of their fates more understandable
  3. Try reading aloud some of the play's classic monologues or dialogues to experience firsthand the colloquial charm and inner rhythm of Lao She's language

About the publisher

Northern Literature and Art Publishing House (Beifang Wenyi Chubanshe) China · Founded in 1961

Northern Literature and Art Publishing House focuses on contemporary and modern literary and artistic works, literary theory, and translations of foreign literature, while also covering categories such as history, popular science, Eastern philosophy, and world classics. Its collection includes 737 titles, with representative publications ranging from traditional Chinese classics such as Records of the Grand Historian, The Exploitation of the Works of Nature, and The Analects to foreign literary works including the complete classic plays of Shakespeare, Balzac's Old Goriot and Eugénie Grandet (in celebrated translations by Fu Lei), and The Complete Sherlock Holmes. Its author resources span classical figures such as Sima Qian, Song Yingxing, and Confucius, foreign writers such as Shakespeare and Balzac, and translators such as Zhu Shenghao and Fu Lei. The press combines the transmission of classics with an orientation toward general reading, developing a distinctive profile in both the editing of traditional texts and the translation of foreign literature. Public information is limited, so the above emphasizes the publishing profile reflected in the books held in the collection.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. 文前
  3. 第 一 幕
  4. 第 二 幕
  5. 第 三 幕
  6. 附 录

FAQ

Is Teahouse a novel or a play script? Teahouse is a three-act play script written by Lao She for stage performance, but its literary quality is so strong that it can be fully appreciated as an outstanding work of literature.
Will not having seen a stage production affect my understanding of the script? Not at all. Lao She's script is finely detailed, with thorough stage directions and character notes, so readers can vividly construct stage scenes and characters in their minds from the text alone.
There are many editions of this book. What are the features of this one? This edition from Wanjuän Publishing Company generally uses a reliable text and may include a helpful introduction or annotations, aiding readers in understanding the work's historical background and artistic features. It is a dependable choice for a first reading.

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About the author

Lao She Author · China · 1899–1966

Lao She, born Shu Qingchun with the courtesy name Sheyu, lived from 1899 to 1966. A Manchu from Beijing, he is a major modern Chinese writer. His writing long centered on urban life in Beijing and on ordinary people at the lower levels of society. His works are mostly social novels and folk literature, and he also wrote essays and miscellaneous prose. His style is plain yet marked by irony and compassion, and he was skilled at using colloquial Beijing-flavored language to portray characters and their fates. His representative works include Camel Xiangzi, Four Generations Under One Roof, and Teahouse, which have had wide influence. In 1951 he received the title "People's Artist." The library holds 488 of his works, commonly classified under social fiction, classics, folk literature, essays and miscellaneous writings, and exam books, showing that his writing continues to circulate among readers and in teaching.