New Books in East Asian Studies Nan Z. Da, The Chinese Tragedy of King Lear (Princeton UP, 2025)
Aug 21, 2025
Nan Z. Da, an Associate Professor of English at Johns Hopkins University, bridges the worlds of Shakespeare and Chinese history in her discussion. She delves into the parallels between King Lear and Chinese narratives, emphasizing familial discord and power struggles. Da explores how modern Chinese history resonates with the tragic themes of Lear, reflecting on authority and authoritarianism. She also shares insights on adapting Lear for Chinese audiences and hints at her future projects focusing on the Chinese diaspora.
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Making Calls In History
- Lear's events are unreplicable yet the play teaches how to 'make a call' about historical moments.
- Da links this to Chinese literary concern with judgment and the historian's dilemma.
Early Chinese Adaptations
- Da traces early Chinese adaptations: Gu Zhongyi's 1947 San Qianjing allegorized Lear as Japanese occupation.
- She also cites translations by Lin Shu, Wei Yi, and Zhu Shenghao as routes Lear entered China.
Lear's Strange Relation To Historiography
- Lear resists feeling like straightforward history while echoing Chinese historiography like the Shiji.
- The play foregrounds the historian's duty to preserve records of right and wrong before catastrophe emerges.
