The Chinese Tragedy of King Lear

A new reading of The Tragedy of King Lear , the most “Chinese” of Shakespeare’s plays, that finds parallels in twentieth-century Chinese history In Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, King Lear promises to divide his kingdom based on his daughters’ professions of love, but portions it out before hearing all of their answers. Among the play’s themes of filial piety, ingratitude, disharmony, and merit-blind redistribution, Nan Da finds something else: the uncanny similarities between The Tragedy of King