China's Chaplin: Comic Stories and Farces by Xu Zhuodai / Zhuodai Xu, Christopher Rea, Christopher Rea.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Xu, Zhuodai, Author.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (270 p.)

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY Cornell University Press, [2026]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Hoaxes! Jokes! Farces and fun! China's Chaplin introduces the imagination of Xu Zhuodai (18801958), a comic dynamo who made Shanghai laugh through the tumultuous decades of the pre-Mao era. Xu was a popular and prolific literary humorist who styled himself variously as Master of the Broken Chamberpot Studio, Dr. Split-Crotch Pants, Dr. Hairy Li, and Old Man Soy Sauce. He was also an entrepreneur who founded gymnastics academies, theater troupes, film companies, magazines, and a home condiments business. While pursuing this varied career, Xu Zhuodai made a name for himself as a "Charlie Chaplin of the East. " He wrote and acted in stage comedies and slapstick films, compiled joke books, penned humorous advice columns, dabbled in parodic verse, and wrote innumerable works of comic fiction. China's Chaplin contains a selection of Xu's best stories and stage plays (plus a smattering of jokes) that will answer the questions that keep you up at night. What is a father's duty when he and his son are courting the same prostitute? What ingenious method might save the world from economic crisis after a world war? Who is Shanghai's most outrageous grandmother? What is the best revenge against plagiarists, thieves, landlords, or spouses? And why should you never, never, never pull a hair from a horse's tail?

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction: Charlie Chaplin of the East, Xu Zhuodai / Christopher Rea

Authors Preface / Xu Zhuodai

Stories

1 Womans Playthings

2 The Fiction Material Wholesaler

3 The International Currency Reform Conference

4 Plagiarist in Western Dress

5 The Unofficial Stories of Li Ah Mao

Farces

1 The Devil Messenger

2 A Fathers Duty

3 Marrying Indirectly

4 Upstairs, Downstairs: Two Couples

5 After the Banquet

6 The Horses Tail

Joke Names

Publication Notes

Further Readings

About the Author

About the Translator

Notes:

This eBook is made available Open Access under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed March 03 2026)

ISBN:

1-942242-94-8