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Chinese Literature
Chaguan 茶館 "The Teahouse"


The "Teahouse" by Lao She 老舍 (d. 1966), published in 1957, is a social critic on the background of a family running a tea house for three generations. The guests of the tea house are coming from all different social groups, from imperial banner man to capitalists, poor families selling their daughters, eunuchs, teachers, police people and landless farmers. The theatre play is famous not only in China, but is also worldwide known for the social engagement of the writer who accuses the circumstances of the poor. Every generation, from the late Qing time to the Warlord Period to the eve of the "liberation" by the communists, is suffering more than the generation before. Communists interprete this theatre play as a critic of the so-called "feudal society" of old China.
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Chinese literature according to the four-category system

July 18, 2010 © · Ulrich Theobald · Mail