Behind the Singing Masks

by Xiaoying Wang, Wang Jiren (Foreword), Yawtsong Lee (Translation)

Xie Yingge is a gifted, impassioned Yueju opera artist. At the zenith of her career, however, she is plunged into the abyss of despair when fate dictates that she permanently bow out of stage she so dearly loves. In her famous water sleeves dance, she is able to send her long sleeves spiraling up like a startled dragon soaring through the clouds, but she seems powerless to dissipate the gloom of pain and misery that weighs heavily upon her heart. In the end her passion for her art proves strong enough to sustain her through sixteen long years, in the course of which many people, things and relationships shed their rigidity and hatefulness in a final triumph of spirit and mind over body.


Was it life imitating art or art imitating life?

312 pages, Hardcover

First published September 16, 2014