THE PLAYWRIGHT

Tong Dik Sang (1917–1959) is one of the most highly respected playwrights of Cantonese Opera in the twentieth century. Being familiar with the classical dramatic literature such as the Variety Plays of the Yuan and the Southern Dramas of the Ming, he not only was inspired by the stories and themes of these old scripts but also became adept at creating poetry of refinement and beauty that was greatly admired and stood out from that produced by contemporaneous scriptwriters.

THE TRANSLATORS

Bell Yung is Professor of music and former Director of Asian Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh.

Sonia Ng is an Honorary Research Fellow of the Chinese Music Archive, Department of Music at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Katherine Carlitz is Adjunct Professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and Assistant Director of the Academic Affairs of the Asian Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh.

THE FLOWER PRINCESS (Dae Neui Fa or Dinühua in Mandarin) has become the most renowned Cantonese Opera since its 1957 premier in Hong Kong. The opera is a serious political drama played out between the Han and non-Han following the fall of the Ming dynasty, and the plot pits romantic love against the lofty Confucian ideals of social hierarchy and moral rectitude. This is the first complete English translation of the opera, featuring text, song titles, speech types, and choreographic and stage setting. It also contains a foreword by Pak Suet Sin (Bai Xuexian), the celebrated Cantonese Opera actress who created the role of the Princess in the original production.

"Bell Yung, Sonia Ng, and Katherine Carlitz, have brought forth a gem of Cantonese literature in their scintillating English translation of The Flower Princess. The text is accompanied by a substantial introduction which not only explains in clear language the musicological and dramaturgical qualities of the performance, but also situates this play on a Ming loyalist theme within the tradition of Cantonese Opera in particular and in the history of Chinese theater more generally.

Nonetheless, the most memorable feature of the volume as a whole is the tragic, yet transcendent, story of the star-crossed couple. It is a tale fraught with love and loyalty, piety and pathos, one which anyone who reads will not easily forget."

── VICTOR H. MAIR, University of Pennsylvania

"With this highly readable translation of Tong Dik Sang's most famous opera, The Flower Princess, Professor Bell Yung and his collaborators have introduced Cantonese Opera, and one of its most beloved playwrights, to the English-speaking world. By including tune titles and all staging instructions in their translation, they capture both the lyricism and performance conventions of Cantonese Opera, which are further explained in an informative introduction."

── CATHERINE SWATEK, The University of British Columbia