Voices of Taiwanese Women: Three Contemporary Plays ed. by John Weinstein (review)

The Preface lays out the overarching themes and structure of the book. Elsewhere, other than in Thrasher’s own contributions, there is relatively little connection between one chapter and the others. A concluding chapter tying the various threads together would also have helped to give a greater sense of unity. However, the common theme linking all of these parts together is obvious, and taken collectively they make a significant contribution to our understanding of the ways in which these melodic building blocks of Chinese music have been reshaped, transformed , and combined into the rich variety of musical styles and repertories we enjoy today. Even for someone like myself who has a long-term involvement in Chinese musical performance practice and scholarship, this book offers many new discoveries, and it is a reminder of how many genres and pieces still remain to be explored and appreciated. J. LAWRENCE WITZLEBEN University of Maryland jlwitz@umd.edu© 2018 J. Lawrence Witzleben DOI 10.1080/01937774.2018.1524426 Voices of Taiwanese Women: Three Contemporary Plays. Edited by John Weinstein. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University East Asia Program, 2015. xx + 230 pp. 18 illus. Cloth $35.00. Paper $20.00. Voices of Taiwanese Women: Three Contemporary Plays, edited by John Weinstein, is a collection of three meticulously translated texts that introduces English-language readers and audiences to contemporary community-based theater from Taiwan. It includes the multilingual Fenghuanghua kaile 鳳凰花開了 (The Phoenix Trees Are in Blossom, 1994/revised 1997), by Hsu Rey-Fang 許瑞芳 and translated by Weinstein ; Women zai zheli 我們在這裡 (We Are Here, 1999), by Peng Ya-Ling 彭雅玲 and translated by Wang Wan-Jung and Weinstein, originally performed in Hakka dialect; and Yinian sanji 一年三季 (One Year, Three Seasons, 2000), by Wang Chi-Mei 汪其楣 and translated by Yawtsong Lee, Weinstein, and Wang Chi-Mei, originally performed in Taiwanese (Taiyu 台語), or Hoklo 河洛.1 The slim volume is a welcome addition to the growing body of translated dramatic works from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, and its focus on women artists and creative work outside the linguistic and artistic mainstream draws attention to a rich, yet often overlooked, side of Taiwan’s vibrant theater world. The volume opens with a critical introduction by Weinstein that situates the plays in relation to Taiwan’s unique cultural milieu and articulates three concerns that 1 As the volume notes in its introduction, “Taiwanese” is one of the terms used to refer to Taiwan’s majority language, the Minnan dialect originally brought to Taiwan by immigrants from southern Fujian. It is also often called “Hoklo” or “Holo” (Heluo), after the pronunciation of the term in the dialect itself (Weinstein, p. 2). This review follows Weinstein’s volume in using the term “Taiwanese.” 84 CHINOPERL: JOURNAL OF CHINESE ORAL AND PERFORMING LITERATURE 37. 1 unite them: gender, language, and community. In Taiwan, as Weinstein notes, male directors and playwrights have been by far the most visible and applauded for their production of “stage plays” (wutaiju 舞台劇), both experimental and mainstream. This bias is not only gendered but also geographic and linguistic, with the most famous artists largely based in Taipei and working in the official national language (Guoyu 國語) of Mandarin Chinese. The plays in this volume, in contrast, introduce the work of two theater troupes run by women that root themselves in local dialects and communities outside of the capital. Over time, these two troupes—the Tainaner Ensemble (Tainanren jutuan 台南人劇團, formerly the Huadeng jutuan 華燈劇團) and the Uhan Shii Theatre Group (Huanxi banxituan 歡喜扮戲團)—have proven central to creating theatrical work that reflects the experiences of ordinary Taiwanese women and men. Weinstein’s introduction also deals deftly with Taiwan’s multilingualism , complex identity politics, and unique definitions of “professional” (zhuanye 專業) and “community” (shequ 社區) theater. The clarity of his explanations makes the introduction ideal for use in undergraduate teaching or to provide background for theater troupes ambitious enough to attempt one of these translations in performance. Ambitious because, while the Acknowledgments note an aspiration to create translations as “performable as they are readable,” none of these plays would be “easy” to produce outside of Taiwan. To be sure, the translations are remarkably fluid, and each play is paired with a dramaturgical guide and useful “Conversion Chart” that lists English...