A huge volume containing in translation the entire repertoire of a company of shadow players which Berthold Laufer, Curator of the Field Museum, had bought in Peking in 1901 and which were translated by the famous German sinologue. Though these plays are not presented on the stage, but recited by shadow players to accompany the movements of their puppets that cast shadows on a screen, yet the plots are the same as those of the theater. The book thus serves as a wonderful source for some one wishing to familiarize himself with Chinese plays. Berthold Laufer has prefaced the book with a meaty introduction. Pekinger Volksleben. Wilhelm Grube. Berlin, 1901. Sociological studies on popular customs and usages in Peking. A chapter is devoted to the theater in which numerous summaries of modern plays are given. The author also deals with related subjects: acrobats, story-tellers, annual ceremonies of guilds, etc. Geschichte der chinesischen Litteratur. Wilhelm Grube. Leipzig, 1909. Several chapters are devoted to the drama. Professor Grube, in his discussion of Yuan and Ming plays, is using Bazin’s translations, but in his evaluation of modern plays he is drawing on his long and intimate experience with the theater in Peking. A History of Chinese literature. Herbert A. Giles. Heinemann, London. This well-known sinologue devotes two chapters to the drama, but they are not up to the standard of the rest of this excellent work. Pi-Pa-Chi is the most modern drama he discusses. Das Theater und Drama der Chinesen. Rudolf von Gottschall. Breslau, 1887. This small volume of 209 pages was written by a minor German dramatist without first-hand knowledge of China. The author based his study upon French translations of older dramas. Yet the book is not lacking in remarks showing a keen insight into the Chinese character. La Littérature Chinoise Contemporaine. Soong Tsung Faung, _Journal de Pékin_. Peking, 1919. A volume by a professor of literature at the National University, Peking, in which his critical articles from Peking’s French paper are reprinted. Forty-seven pages are devoted to the theater under headings such as the following: “Origin of the Drama”, “Evolution of the Modern Chinese Theater”, “Ibsenism in China”, etc. Professor Soong follows to a certain extent Wang Kuo-wei’s History of the Drama under the Sung and Ming Dynasties. His thorough knowledge of the European stage enables him to make very striking comparisons. Peking, A Social Survey. Sidney Gamble and Stewart J. Burgess. Doran, 1921. The chapter “Recreations” in this interesting and painstaking survey presents statistics on the number of theaters, their locations, prices of admission, status of the actor and actress, etc. En Chine, Mœurs et Institutions, Hommes et Faits. Maurice Courant. Paris, 1901.