A brief introduction to Wu Jiang, Editor-in-chief of The Story of Peking Opera

Wu Jiang is a first-class playwright who enjoys special subsidy from the State Council. He is a member of the Standing Committee of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. He was born in Beijing in April 1949 and graduated from the Beijing Opera Secondary School, the Chinese language department of the Peking University and the graduate school of China Art Academy. He has been the executive deputy president of Beijing Theatre Arts School, chief of Arts Section, assistant to the director and deputy director of Beijing Municipal Culture Bureau. Since 2000, Wu has become the president of China National Peking Opera Company.

His main works include a dozen of Peking Opera scenarios of Guan Zhong Becomes Prime Minister (winning Excellent Award for new play performance by young Peking Opera team issued by the Ministry of Culture and Excellent Award for new play in Beijing), Eight Delicacies Soup (later changed into Peking Opera TV film), TV artistic play A Handful Snow, the Story of a Revenging Girl, the Life of Martyrs, Lu River and Yi Mountain and Princess Turandot, and Princess Wencheng.

As a book for the popularization of Peking Opera edited for Western readers, this book does not seek the overall introduction to Peking Opera, but chooses 10 classic Peking Opera plays as examples to introduce and explain the performance skills, stage attire, as well as the historical background of the plays, the humanistic spirit they convey while describing the plot of the plays. It enables Western readers to learn the stories of the plays, understand some common knowledge of Peking Opera performance while reading the book. Through these Peking Opera plays, they can gain their primary cognition of the Chinese traditional culture. The book includes several hundred delicate Peking Opera stage photos and illustrations that will allow the readers to enjoy the beauty while improving their perceptual cognition of Peking Opera.