Interplay of the Oral and the Written in Chinese Popular Literature

Vibeke Bordahl, Ph. D., D. Phil., senior researcher at NIAS, has been described as one of the most accomplished scholars in the study of Chinese oral literature. As well as doing much research on the interplay of oral and written traditions in Chinese popular literature and performance culture, over the past decade she has translated the full work of Jin Ping Mei into Danish.Margaret B. Wan is Assistant Professor of Chinese Literature in the Department of Languages and Literature, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA. She has published on Chinese fiction, the interaction of Chinese ballad texts and the novel, and local literature, including 'The Chantefable and the Novel: The Cases of Lü Mudan and Tianbao tu' in the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies (2004). Her book 'Green Peony' and the Rise of the Chinese Martial Arts Novel (State University of New York Press, 2009) illuminates the world of popular fiction, examining a wide range of novels and ballad texts. She received a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

• Preface; Contributors; Notes to the Reader; Introduction (Vibeke BA rdahl and Margaret B. Wan); 1. Jin Ping Mei and the Art of Storytelling (Andre Levy); 2. In Search of a 'Common Storehouse of Convention': Narrative Affinities between Shuihu zhuan and the Judge Bao cihua Cluster (Liangyan Ge); 3. Audiences and Reading Practices for Qing Dynasty Drum Ballads (Margaret B. Wan); 4. Storytelling, Stock Phrases and Genre Conventions: The Case of 'Wu Song Fights the Tiger' (Vibeke BA rdahl); 5. Folk Epics from the Lower Yangzi Delta Region: Oral and Written Traditions (Anne E. McLaren); 6. Chinese Performing Arts and Popular Prints (Boris Riftin); Bibliography; Index