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Volume 4,Issue 2

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26 February 2026

Research on the Local Reconstruction and Contemporary Transformation of Chinese Literary Classics: A Case Study of the Wu Opera Three Times' Beating the White Bone Demon

Wei Zhang1
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1 Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu 610000, Sichuan, China
LNE 2026 , 4(2), 132–137; https://doi.org/10.18063/LNE.v4i2.1518
© 2026 by the Author. Licensee Whioce Publishing, Singapore. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

In the early Qing Dynasty, Li Yu proposed in Occasional Notes with Leisure Motions that "changing the tune means changing the old tune into a new one. Change brings freshness, while unchanged leads to staleness; change brings vitality, while unchanged results in rigidity[1]". Its core emphasizes that artistic creation should not be rigidly constrained by ancient methods, but should innovate on the basis of inheritance, endowing tradition with contemporary vitality[2]. Six hundred years later, Three Times' Beating the White Bone Demon created by the Zhejiang Wu Opera Art Research Institute, with its creative transformation of the classic masterpiece, confirms the contemporary value of this aesthetic proposition[3]. This paper puts forward the core concept of "local reconstruction", and holds that the success of the play is not a simple formal innovation, but a systematic aesthetic reconstruction of Journey to the West based on the artistic characteristics of Wu Opera itself. 

Keywords
Wu Opera
classic adaptation
local reconstruction
contemporary transformation
opera aesthetics
References

[1] Li Y, 2019, Random Notes on Leisurely Interests. Yunnan People’s Publishing House.

[2] Geertz C, 2016, Local Knowledge: Essays in Interpretive Anthropology. Commercial Press.

[3] Fu J, 2021, An Appreciation of Chinese Opera. Peking University Press.

[4] Wang AQ, 2020, A Theory of Aesthetic Categories in Chinese Opera. Culture Publishing House.

[5] Liu Z, 1997, Chinese Folk Culture of Mulian. Bashu Publishing House.

[6] Xu HT, 2010, A History of Zhejiang Opera. Hangzhou Publishing House.

[7] Zhu HB, 2021, A Critical Study of Journey to the West. Shanghai Sanlian Bookstore.

[8] Zheng CY, 2004, Traditional Culture and Classical Opera. Hunan People’s Publishing House.

[9] Xie BL, 2006, A History of Contemporary Chinese Opera Literature. Higher Education Press.

[10] Hu Z, 2018, Stage Design. Shanghai People’s Fine Arts Publishing House.

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