The Selected Plays of Stan Lai (U Michigan Press, 2022) collects a cross-section from the four-decade career of one of the major dramatists of our time. Lai's works, including Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land, are famous throughout the Sinophone world, having been performed in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mainland China. Many lines from his plays have become almost proverbial, quoted by academics and cab drivers alike. The plays collected here are translated by Lai himself, and are suitable for performance (in addition to being a playwright and director, Lai is a theatre scholar with a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley). They retain the humor, theatricality, and pathos that have made Lai one of Asia's most popular playwrights. In this interview we discuss Lai's childhood between the US and Taiwan, as well as his semi-improvised method of playwrighting. Andy Boyd is a playwright based in Brooklyn, New York. He is a graduate of the playwriting MFA at Columbia University, Harvard University, and the Arizona School for the Arts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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