Two Plays by Kuo Pao Kun
Kuo Pao Kun

This volume brings together two of Kuo Pao Kun's later plays. These plays represent part of a new phase in his creative work, one that is characterised by an epic engagement with history. In Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral (1995) and The Spirits Play (1998), Kuo examines the vagaries of history to protest and resist the spiritual and cultural castration of the individual by harsh political regimes and the oppressive grand vision. At the same time, the plays also work at transcending specific historical realities in order to foster a deeply resonant but also discomfiting response in his audience, one that Kuo hoped would lead them to traverse comfortable boundaries so as to reach other states of perception.