Pop with Gods, Shakespeare, and AI

Applying the theories of Popular Culture, Visual Culture, Performance Studies, (Post)Feminism, and Film Studies, this interdisciplinary and well-crafted book leads you to the fascinating and intriguing world of popular film, (musical) theatre, and TV drama. It explores the classical and contemporary cases of the literature works, both Eastern and Western, adapted, represented and transformed into the interesting artistic medium in films, performances, TV dramas, musicals, and AI robot theatre/films.  

‘Iris Tuan’s book is wide ranging in scope and diversity, examining theatre, music, film and television productions from both Western and Asian countries.  Tuan also surveys an extensive range of critical and theoretical perspectives, especially from performance studies and popular cultural studies, to offer context for her descriptions of the many different works.  Some of her examples are well-known (Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, Disney’s The Lion King) while others little known outside their place of origin (such as the Hakka Theatre of Taiwan) -- all are approached by the author with enthusiasm.’ 

—Susan Bennett, Professor of English, University of Calgary, Canada 

‘Tuan takes us through multiple examples of contemporary popular performance in theatre/film/TV ranging from "high" art sources (Shakespeare or Journey to the West in films, Hirata's robotic theatre experiments) to "low" (Taiwanese TV soap operas Hakka Theatre: Roseki and Story of Yangxi Palace, Korean film Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds). The reader moves at a speed-dating pace through contemporary culture production and interpretive theories, encountering significant works, controversies (i. e., yellow face), and conundrums selected from China, Korea, Japan and the U. S. and filtered through a Taiwanese female gaze.’ 

—Kathy Foley, Professor of Theatre Arts, University of California Santa Cruz, USA

“Pop with Gods, Shakespeare, and AI is a very ambitious book. Its great virtue lies in its bringing together performance works from a variety of media — the author herself lists Western Literature, Chinese Literature, East Asian Studies, Shakespearean Research, Broadway Musicals, Theater Performance, Film Studies and theories of popular culture. … The 64 color photos are uniformly excellent and make me wonder why I don’t go to the theater more often.” (Bradley Winterton, taipeitimes.com, April 21, 2022) ‘Iris Tuan’s book is wide ranging in scope and diversity, examining theatre, music, film and television productions from both Western and Asian countries.  Tuan also surveys an extensive range of critical and theoretical perspectives, especially from performance studies and popular cultural studies, to offer context for her descriptions of the many different works.  Some of her examples are well-known (Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, Disney’s The Lion King) while others little known outside their place of origin (such as the Hakka Theatre of Taiwan) -- all are approached by the author with enthusiasm.’ 

—Susan Bennett, Professor of English, University of Calgary, Canada 

‘Tuan takes us through multiple examples of contemporary popular performance in theatre/film/TV ranging from "high" art sources (Shakespeare or Journey to the West in films, Hirata's robotic theatre experiments) to "low" (Taiwanese TV soap operas Hakka Theatre: Roseki and Story of Yangxi Palace, Korean film Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds). The reader moves at a speed-dating pace through contemporary culture production and interpretive theories, encountering significant works, controversies (i. e., yellow face), and conundrums selected from China, Korea, Japan and the U. S. and filtered through a Taiwanese female gaze.’ 

—Kathy Foley, Professor of Theatre Arts, University of California Santa Cruz, USA

Iris H. Tuan is Professor at National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. She received her Ph.D. in Theater from UCLA and has been a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University. Tuan’s selected publications include papers published by Asian Theatre Journal, and nine books, including Translocal Performance in Asian Theatre and Film, Intercultural Theatre: Adaptation and Representation, Western Canon in Taiwan Theatre, Alternative Theater in Taiwan, and Transnational Performance, Identity, and Mobility in Asia (edited with Ivy I-chu Chang). Tuan is the recipient of NCTU Outstanding Research Awards.