Wu Song Fights the Tiger (武松打虎)

This monograph examines Chinese professional storytelling and its relations with literary culture in the past and present. This theme is explored by focusing on the tale of how the hero Wu Song killed a tiger (武松打虎). While the data derive from the author’s research on Yangzhou 揚州 storytelling, its analysis is based on performances and texts from a larger geographical area covering more than four hundred years, thereby shedding new light on the interplay of spoken and written art in Chinese popular culture.