Tang Xianzu was a Chinese author, but more notably a playwright of the Ming Dynasty. His humanistic ideals and the generational overlap between him and his more renowned Western counterpart, with whom he was an almost exact contemporary, earned him the cognomen  Shakespeare of the East.

Tang Xianzu the PlaywrightTang Xianzu the Playwright in Concert. Photographs courtesy of Ausfeng Events

This original opera is a recreation of Tang’s otherwise unknown life. It offered vignettes of the major events in his life by showcasing his unswerving ideals in morality and belief in “everlasting love”. Its debut marks a first of its kind in both China and Australia. In modern language, his personality would be described as naively honest, and the way he resurfaced from the grief of losing his wife early, which directly led to his downfall in the political scene, is a path that all males born in educated families at that time strived to follow. Weaved seamlessly into these moments were modern adaptations of Tang’s plays. However, these were sparse and mainly focussed on two of the four Linchuan Dreams – Zi Chai Ji (The Purple Hairpin) and Mu Dan Ting (The Peony Pavilion)....