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Letter from the Editors Now in mid-winter, we are pleased to present the 2002 annual issue of CHINOPERL Papers. Two articles in this issue concern traditional Chinese drama criticism and drama history. Shen Jing explores changing understandings of the term hense .. Sun Mei examines the slippery terminology for nanxi in order to shed light on the history of the genre and performance practice. Their reevaluation of drama history are timely contributions to the field of drama studies. For they. come at an epochal moment when debates about "improving" kunqu and other dramatic forms·converge with performances that celebrate and commemorate the careers of the singers YuZhenfei and Ni Chuanyue, among the oldest surviving graduates oftheSuzhou Kunqu Training School. Bret Sutcliffe contributed· a report for this issue on the November 2001 staged reenactment of the singing contest at Tiger Hill in Suzhou and concert marking the UNESCO world heritage recognition ofkunqu as an oral masterpiece in May 2001. His brief, incisive comments on the state's recognition of kunqu as China's preeminent performing art form and efforts to revive both the art form and its audience provide additional context for their studies .. He also provides the program of the concert to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the Suzhou Kunqu Training School, including performances by Ni Chuanyue. The CHINOPERL Papers editors look forward to further reports and studies. of festival performances like those of August 2002 in Shanghai, which Lindy Li Mark attended, celebrating the hundredth birthday anniversary ofYu Zhenfei. Guan Jiazheng's article introducing 1940s weekly columns on vernacular literature that Zhao Jingshen edited during the brief window between wars for Shanghai newspapers similarly enriches our understanding of the methods and motives for undertaking study of vernacular and oral traditional literature. He sheds valuable light on the close link between the rise of vernacular literature as an area of research and the .creation of "new" vernacular literature in the twentieth century. While a number of contemporary Chinese authors continue to draw on early vernacular works, to update, and adapt the plots, themes, and language of traditional fiction and drama, the link v CHINOPERL Papers No. 24 betw"een study of oral performed literatures and the rise of modem Chinese literature has been too often overlooked in recent scholarship .. Mr. Guan's essay, translated for the present issue by Kathryn Lowry, is one of a growing list of articles Guan has produced based on his index of studies on vernacular literature (su wenxue) and popular literature (tongsu wenxue) that appeared in Chinese newspapers in the late Republican period. David Branner's essay "'Red Cliffs' in Taiwanese Hanbtin" is a linguistic study of recitation practices. He dilates on poetic· meaning as it is achieved through reading. By setting up a clear framework for the enduring practice of generating recitation based on dialect intonation, he explains variations in tunes for song-lyric as localized rather than as distinct melodies. The piece enriches the present issue's focus on change within " traditions of dramatic and poetic practice. The roundtable on oral tradition in the digital age was orchestrated by Rulan Chao Pian at the 2001 annual CHINOPERL conference in Chicago. Presentations marked the role of digital technology not only as a tool for research but also as an agent of change that is transforming and expanding venues of traditional performance. The roundtable was organized by Margaret Wan and included reports by Mark Bender and Fan Pen Chen (in absentia) as well as her own. We have printed the authors' brief synopses of their reports as well as a summary of the lively discussion that they sparked. Kathryn Lowry vi Lindy Li Mark ...

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