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.
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 ...
