The tragic, the comic, the absurd, and the “grand feast” of French classics

From the tragic and the comic to the absurd, French dramatic classics remain as appealing to the Chinese as ever, like a “grand feast” that never ends. Of the triumvirate from the neoclassical age, Corneille, Racine, and Molière, Molière proves to be the most beloved. Molière’s comedy appeals to the Chinese because it shines biting insight deep into human nature. The more modern classics, especially the existential and the absurd as represented by Sartre, Camus, and Ionesco, burst on the Chinese drama/theatre scene in the 1980s and continue to have transformative impact.