Books by Tina Lu

This book traces how questions about the nature of the Chinese empire and of the human community were addressed in fiction through extreme situations: husbands and wives torn apart in periods of upheaval, families so disrupted that incestuous encounters become inevitable, times so desperate that people must sell themselves to be eaten.

Focusing on two late-Ming or early-Qing plays central to the Chinese canon (Peony Pavilion and Peach Blossom Fan), this study explores crucial questions concerning personal identity.