Chinese Opera by Jessica Tan Gudnason, with text by Gong Li. Abbeville Press, 152 pp. $85 This sumptuous coffee-table book differs from other tomes on Chinese opera by providing page after colorful page of 10"x13" portraits of actors in full stage regalia....

A vintage example of Chinese opera was beautifully presented Friday and Saturday evenings at the University of Maryland's Kay Theatre. The Chu Shan Chinese Opera Institute performed "The Monkey King," an episode in the epic saga of one of Chinese mythology's most beloved characters....

Taiwan plans to revise school textbooks to drop references that recognize Chinese historical figures, places and artifacts as "national," an official said Sunday.The announcement is the latest in a series of moves by the island in the past few months to assert its sovereignty as...

At a time when China's government has granted the foreign media greater freedom, it is tightening controls on Chinese who write about politically sensitive or embarrassing topics, human rights activists and journalists say.International PEN, a writer's organization that calls itself the world's oldest human rights...

How Greek Drama relates to Chinese Opera: If it is true that traditional Chinese opera is an art form written and performed through exactly controlled masks, makeup, and props to please and amuse the gods (who are symbolized as figures of humor and intelligence), then the same might be said for classical ceremonial Greek dramas, which were done in amphitheatres as civic/religious events.