Shiamin Kwa

Wilt L. Idema

The legend of Mulan -- the daughter who disguises herself as a man, dons her father's armour, and heads off to war in his place -- remains one of the most popular Chinese folktales despite (or because of) its lack of supernatural demonstrations or interventions. In addition to a translation of the earliest recorded version of the legend, this volume offers translations of several later iterations of the tale (including the screenplay of the hugely successful 1903 Chinese film Mulan Goes to War) that illustrate the many ways in which the basic story has been reinterpreted over centuries to reflect changes in Chinese cultural, political, and sexual attitudes.

Five Versions of a Classic Chinese Legend with Related Texts

Mulan

When it comes to really knowing a person, is what you see really what you get? Is it ever all you get? In this first critical study and annotated translation of the dramatic masterpiece Four Cries of a Gibbon by the late-Ming dynasty Chinese playwright Xu Wei, author Shiamin Kwa considers the ways that people encounter and understand each other in extraordinary circumstances. With its tales of crimes redressed in the next world and girls masquerading as men to achieve everlasting fame, Four Cries of a Gibbon complicated issues of self and identity when it appeared in the late Ming dynasty, paving the way for increasingly nuanced reflections on such questions in late Ming and early Qing fiction and drama. Beyond their historical context, Xu Wei’s influential plays serve as testimony to what Kwa argues are universal strategies found within drama. The heroes and heroines in these plays glide back and forth across the borders of life and death, of male and female, as they seek to articulate who they truly are. As the actors sort out these truths onstage, the members of the audience are invited to consider the truths that they live with offstage.

Identity, Performance, and Xu Wei's Four Cries of a Gibbon

Strange Eventful Histories

Analyzing the way that recent works of graphic narrative use the comics form to engage with the “problem” of reproduction, Shiamin Kwa’s Perfect Copies reminds us that the mode of production and the manner in which we perceive comics are often quite similar to the stories they tell. Perfect Copies considers the dual notions of reproduction, mechanical as well as biological, andexplores how comics are works of reproduction that embed questions about the nature of reproduction itself. Through close readings of the comics My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris, The Black Project by Gareth Brookes, The Generous Bosom series by Conor Stechschulte, Sabrina by Nick Drnaso, and Panther by Brecht Evens, Perfect Copies shows how these comics makers push the limits of different ideas of “reproduction” in strikingly different ways. Kwa suggests that reading and thinking about books like these, that push us to engage with these complicated questions teaches us how to become better readers.

Shiamin Kwa

Books

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