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It is hard to tell the metaphorical difference between life and a dream in Buddhism. I argue that Tibetan Buddhism22 not only inspired Lai to write the script for this production, but the influence of the Chinese philosophy that life is like a dream (exemplified by the poem “Life is like a dream; how much can we enjoy it?”)23 also helped to clarify the issues concerning death, life, and dreams in this production. All mortals die and we will be born in the life cycles in the Buddhist wheel of time24. So not only is life like a dream, but also a dream is like a dream.
In this book, I explore these directors’ adaptations of modern Western and contemporary Taiwanese literature, and the two classical Chinese dramas, Peony Pavilion and Peach Blossom Fan. A key contribution of this work is the application of Western theories to the drama and theaters in Taiwan. In the style of comparative literature, my approach is to integrate these Western theories with the drama performances by using critical studies.
1 Diamond’s book is translated from English into Chinese by Lu Chien-chung. See the bibliography.
2 Also see Chung Mindger. Taiwan xiao ju chang yun dong shi (=The Little Theater Movement of Taiwan (1980–90)).
3 Ivy I-Chu Chang. Remapping Memories and Public Space. Taipei: Bookman.
4 Chang Wen-cheng. Mandalian Life Journey: Collective Repetition, Traumatic Recollection, and Historical Representation in Stan Lai’s A Dream Like a Dream. M.A. Thesis. National Tsing Hua University, 2002.
5 Ma Sen explains the reasons why he chose to divide the little theater movement into two stages in the conclusion of “The Little Theater Movement in Taiwan Since 1980” The Symposium of the Conference of Taiwan Modern Theater (1986–1995).
6 According to my interview with Wu Jing-Ji in March 2004.
7 According to my interview with Hwang Mei-shu in March 2004.
8 According to my interviews with Chung and Chang in March 2004. Also see their books I mention in the footnotes 1 and 2 for reference.
9 Many thanks go to these four directors’ generous help to take my interviews and provide production VCDs or tapes for me to copy during the period that I did my research from 2001 to 2004.
10 Judith Butler. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge, 1990.
11 Luce Irigaray. This Sex Which Is Not One. Trans. Catherine Porter with Carolyn Burke. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985.
12 Colin Counsell and Laurie Wolf. Ed. Performance Analysis. London: Routledge, 2001.
13 Elin Diamond combines Brechtian theory of Verfremdungseffekt, the alienation effect, and feminist criticism in the article “Brechtian Theory / Feminist Theory: Toward a Gestic Feminist Criticism.” Drama Review Vol. 32, No. 1 (1988) (p. 14) and expands her analysis in her book Unmaking Mimesis, Routledge: London and New York, 1997.
14 Colin Counsell and Laurie Wolf. Ed. Performance Analysis. London and New York: Routledge, 2001.
15 Among many kinds of traditional Chinese dramas, Kunqu is noteworthy for its exquisite literary script and delicate performing art. Kunqu was first popular in Jiangsu Province and provinces along the Pacific Ocean. Kunqu was loved by many literati, performers and audience members from the sixteenth century to the eighteenth century in China. The most famous script in Kunqu is Tang Xianzu’s Peony Pavilion.
16 I give credit to Professor Daphne Lei’s comment on this point.
17 In this Antigone, Wu also used Go Tsz Si, one of the famous native types of drama invented and developed in Taiwan, to add the varieties of this intercultural performance.
18 The person who tells traditional Chinese stories is a story-telling person, who narrates and explains the basic plot in the beginning of the performance. This kind of performer is popular in the performances of staging Yuan Drama. A story-telling person breaks the ice in the beginning of the performance for the audience to understand what the play is about as an exposition of the play.
19 Sophocles. (1947, 55).
20 Anthony D. Smith writes about multiple identities, the elements of “national” identity, and some functions and problems of national identity in Chapter One “National and Other Identities” in his book National Identity, Nevada: University of Nevada Press, 1991.
21 Tao Qing-Mei and Ho Shu-Yi. Ed. “The Total of Everything.” In an Instant. pp. 119–145.
22 See Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. Ed. Patrick Gaffney and Anrew Harvey. London: Rider, 1996, p. 210.
23 My translation of the Chinese poem “Ren Sheng Ru Meng, Wei Huan Ji He? (
)”
24 Many thanks for my advisor Sue-Ellen Case’s comment on this point in terms of the Buddhist wheel of time.
