Creative Re-creation in Cultural Migration
Creative Re-creation in Cultural Migration

Summary/Abstract: Lady Precious Stream by Shih-I Hsiung was the first successful West End play by a Chinese playwright. Based on a traditional Chinese opera but with many changes, the play had an enormous appeal to the modern audience in the West. This paper argues that the play is essentially an ingenious re-creation in which Hsiung has undertaken a combination of three roles: translating the original into English; adapting it to the English theatrical practice while maintaining the Chinese convention; and re-writing some of the details. Hsiung is thus able to keep the original cultural elements with sensitivity to the taste, convention, and ethical values of the targeted audience, transforming the ancient Chinese opera into a modern English-language play. Lady Precious Stream reveals the evolution and mutation of literary products that cross cultural and geographical boundaries as well as the significant role a writer may play in transcultural exchanges.

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