Women in Traditional Chinese Theatre seeks to introduce Western readers to Chinese classical drama as well as investigate how women have traditionally been portrayed on stage by presenting original translations of six plays from the fourteenth to twentieth centuries. Framed with a comprehensive introduction to the Chinese theatre and its representation of women, each play is preceded by an interpretative summary of the plot, and an analysis of each play's theme and significance. The selections in this volume feature women representing the most popular female archetypes in Chinese literature: the paragon of virtue, the stoic sufferer, the faithful wife, the femme fatal, and others. Appealing to both scholars and general enthusiasts of theatre, literature, and women's studies, this book reveals how the cultural constructs of Chinese women are represented in dramatic literature, and how the theatre, in turn, shapes this representation into the cultural perception of women.

"Ma clearly describes the preeminent importance of female chastity in the ethical codes of Imperial China, showing how several of the play's heroines, though violating other societal expectations, do so in order to protect their chastity and so ultimately serve the gendered political order. The collection seems most appropriate to women's studies courses since, as a whole, it provides a fascinating overview of representations of women on the xiqu stage." - Asian Theatre Journal

"Ma's new anthology of English translations of xiqu (Chinese Opera) plays is a welcome addition to existing resources. ...[the] translations are engagingly readable and provide a fascinating overview of female characters in traditional xiqu." - China Review International