Shakespeare Global / Local

Shakespeare has been introduced to Hong Kong and China for more than one hundred years. Not only are Shakespeare's characters and stories known to the Chinese as part of the most treasured wealth of world culture, his plays have also become classics of the Chinese theatre, both in the modern and traditional styles. The significance of Shakespeare in Hong Kong and China today can be seen in the fact that the playwright has actually become a site of contestation between the global and the local imaginary in transcultural production. Various possibilities in staging Shakespeare's plays provide Hong Kong and Chinese theatre directors valuable opportunities to exercise their imagination in the transcultural contexts of experimenting with a Western form that can be adapted for local appreciation, which at the same time will add a new dimension to the world reception of Shakespeare.

Contents: Kwok-kan Tam: Introduction: Universalism and Transnationalism in Shakespeare - Kwok-kan Tam: A Translation of Culture: Macbeth in Cantonese Opera Style - Jessica Yeung: Desiring Shakespeare: Xiqu Adaptations of Macbeth - Mike Ingham: «Bottom, thou aren't translated»: Reception of Shakespeare in Asian English-Language Productions - David Booth: The Practicalities of Preparing Shakespeare's Texts for the Stage: Observations in Relation to Theatre in Hong Kong 1981-1998 - Louise Ho: Cultural Adaptation in the Teaching of Shakespeare - Dorothy Wong: Shakespeare in a Hong Kong Frame - Daniel S. P. Yang: Shakespeare at the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre - Michael Mullin: Shakespeare in Hong Kong: An International Perspective - John Gillies: Shakespeare Localized: An Australian Looks at Asian Practice - Meng Xianqiang: The Reception of Shakespeare in China: A Historical Overview - Sun Fuliang: Shakespeare in China in the Twenty-First Century - Masae Suzuki: The Three Japanese Othellos - Koji Takao: The Tokyo Globe in the Context of Shakespeare in Japan.