BOOK REVIEWS
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This material gives us a better picture of Chinese theatre in general. The western studies of it are almost entirely based on Peking opera. But the time has now come to show, on the one hand, the originality of each province, and, on the other, within a single province, the graduation from elaborate theatre of the professional troupes, mainly in towns, to simple rural theatre, mostly amateur. In Ho-pei province for example, one has both Peking opera, which reached the highest level of artistic sophistication, and the folk theatre from Ting Hsien district. The translation of this book brings the first important material in a western language on the rural theatre. This is no mean achievement.
Through this volume we see that the plots were often simple; sometimes only two actors were needed. The music and singing had the charm, but also the monotony, of folk music. There was no libretto, dialogue was transmitted only orally. Performances were mostly limited to festivals and the amateur groups rehearsed during the dead season. It involved no elaborate ballet or acrobatics. It praised the same moral virtues as the great plays we already know: faithfulness, filial piety, integrity; but the language was more vivid. It was not impaired by fear of vulgarity, and puns were one of its main assets. The plays at the end of the volume, like the White Snake, Sung Chiang kills his mistress, Drying the tomb with a fan also exist in Peking opera, and comparison of the two versions would be interesting. But many plays only exist in rural theatre, and through such a book they are brought to light.
At a time when ethnologists are more interested in displaying the brilliance of their minds through theories, it is refreshing to be given the raw material, and the reader is free to elaborate theories of his own or just to enjoy a good story.
1972.
ANON
THE BIRDS OF KOREA, M. E. J. Gore and Won Pyong-Oh. Seoul, Korea, Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch, 1971. pp. 450, with many coloured plates, U.S.$15.00 (in Korea).
Although a number of papers have been published previously, mainly in Japanese or in American journals, this is the first publica-