"Li carries the narrative with excitement and energy so that the reader is carried along by her infectious enthusiasm. Many people in the West interested in Chinese theatre and Shakespeare performance critics will all want to give this excellent work the

"Li makes nonsense of the conventional distinction between scholarly and general reader. Her fundamental honesty heartens the reader to overcome, and indeed relish, the occasional tougher stuff of culture-specific differences. Boldly and excitingly, she h

"Weaving the biographies of major theatrical figures with case studies of principle productions and an unabashedly personal view of the changing society and culture of China during a century of extraordinary turmoil, Li's intimate, direct, and strikingly

Li Ruru is from a famous theatre family and experienced the Cultural Revolution during her teenage years. Later she acquired B.A. and M.A. degrees in drama and literature at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, then left China in the mid-1980s to pursue her doctoral studies and research in Chinese, comparative drama and cross-cultural theatre studies. She is now Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Leeds.