The Moon Opera - Tapa dura

The debut novel of one of China’s rising young literary talents—a gem of a book that takes a piercing look into the world of Chinese opera and its female stars In a fit of diva jealousy, Xiao Yanqiu, star of The Moon Opera, disfigures her understudy with boiling water. Spurned by the troupe, she turns to teaching.

Twenty years later, a rich cigarette-factory boss offers to underwrite a restaging of the cursed opera, but only on the condition that Xiao Yanqiu return to the role of Chang’e. So she does, this time believing she has fully become the immortal moon goddess.

Set against the drama, intrigue, jealousy, retribution, and redemption of backstage Peking opera,The Moon Opera is a stunning portrait of women in a world that simultaneously reveres and restricts them. Bi Feiyu, one of China’s young literary stars, re-creates all the temptations and triumphs of the stage the world over in this gem of a novel.

Praise for The Moon Opera:

"What a gem of a novel! Bi Feiyu gives us a glimpse not only into the Chinese opera world but deep into a woman's heart. I hope this is the first of many of Bi's works to come to us in translation." -- Lisa See, author of Peony in Love

"This tiny, perfect novel concerns the hermetic world of traditional Peking Opera.... There are distant echoes of All About Eve ? the young goddess must always usurp the old." -- The Times (London)