Tea House

By Lao She

Translated by John Howard-Gibbon

1957, Translated 2003

Bilingual Series on Modern Chinese Literature

The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press


Lao She is the humorist and satirist who wrote the heartbreaking novel, Rickshaw Boy, also known as Camel Xiangzi. In his excellent introduction to Tea House, Tam Kwok-Kan introduces the unique format of the play and its historical relevance. All action occurs in a Beijing tea house owned by Wang Lifa. Wang is a put-upon but determined host to a large cast of characters, who, like him, are trying to support themselves and their families from the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, through the Nationalist consolidation of the People’s Republic of China and the Second Sino-Japanese War. Lao provides snapshots of life in Wang’s tea shop from 1898, 1911, and 1945. As China undergoes these dramatic upheavals, Wang Lifa proves to be an everyman and survivor, keeping his family and his business safe despite economic and social uncertainty. We witness the decay of the tea house over time through changes in the qualities of chairs, tables, and wall decor. In one period, the Eight Immortals look down on customers, some of whom still sport queues; in another, garish posters feature alluring models advertising cigarettes. The one unchanging element in the mise-en-scène is the increasingly ominous sign that warns, “Don’t Discuss State Affairs.” Some sixty characters appear in the play, including friends of the proprietor, waiters, two generations of fortune tellers, two generations of sex traffickers, opium addicts, soldiers, deserters, students. and various iterations of the police. Starving women enter the shop to sell off their starving children; a greasy eunuch buys a girl of fifteen to be his bride, and two deserters try to buy a child bride they can share between them. Lao reveals that while almost all suffer inhuman losses during this period, some make short-term gains, such as a landlord class acquaintance who sells off his acres to build foreign-style factories. He styles himself as an industrialist who will provide labor for the poor, but he becomes a victim of the next “reform” when those in power burn his factory to the ground. Lao argues that years of instability and short-lived reforms have benefited only the parasites who prey on the good people of China. A fortune teller–a charlatan– reveals that in times of chaos, people are more willing to part with their earnings because they are desperate to know their fate. While others forgo new clothes, he lines his robes with golden silk. Police come to grouse and drink tea, but as time goes on, they demand protection money from Wang; eventually, they become enforcers for the state, earning cash every time they assault a student on the street or beat up a woman. The son of the pimp makes an alliance with a politico and schemes to set up a sex trafficking network that will reach across China. As the tea shop enters a critical phase, Wang does what he can to protect his family from those he loves, hanging all his hopes on the chance that his freedom-fighting son will survive and that his wife and daughter will find sanctuary in the northern mountains. Tam Kwok-kan’s excellent introduction provides an overview of Lao She’s literary career as well as an inspiration I was unaware of: Lao She was a fan of Dickens!

Eunuch Pang: (Already seated) What! Two hundred taels of silver for a peasant girl!

Pockfaced Liu: (Standing in attendance) A peasant girl, yes–but she’s really very handsome. In the city, properly made up, with a bit of training, I guarantee she’ll be not only beautiful, but well-mannered as well. I work harder for you than I would for my own father. I haven’t left a single thing to chance.

(Soothsayer Tang returns)

Wang Lifa: Soothsayer, why are you here again?

Soothsayer Tang: There are troops and police everywhere. I don’t know what’s going on.

Eunuch Pang: They’re probably looking for Tan Sitong’s remaining followers, aren’t they? Relax, Soothsayer–no one’s after you.

Soothsayer Tang: Thank you, Your Excellency. Now, if you could just give me a few puffs on that pipe of yours, my life would be really rosy.

(A number of customers, having sensed trouble, leave the tea house one by one.)