Copyright
Timothy Thursto; Tsering Samdrup;Published On
2025-09-16Page Range
pp. 1–46Language
- English
Print Length
46 pages
Translators’ Introduction: Contextualizing Amdo Tibetan Comedy in Post-Mao China
This introduction discusses key information necessary for readers to be able read and understand the comedies presented in this volume. It begins with a discussion of the history and recent sociopolitical contexts of the Amdo region of Tibet, a description of how khashag performances emerged in Amdo as a result of Chinese political support, and introduces the life and career of Menla Jyab. Next an analysis of some of Menla Jyab’s language practices helps to demonstrate how his work is both traditional and innovative. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of Menla’s cultural critique to introduce the structure of this volume.
Contributors
Timothy Thurston
(author)Timothy Thurston is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Associate Professor in the study of Contemporary China at the University of Leeds. His research to date has looked extensively at Tibetan comedic dialogues. His book Satirical Tibet: the Politics of Humor in Contemporary Amdo (2025, University of Washington Press) and publications in peer reviewed journals like Journal of Asian Studies and CHINOPERL have all examined some of the comedies translated in this volume. Thurston is also editor of Western Folklore.
Tsering Samdrup
(author)Tsering Samdrup is from an area of Amdo near to where Menla Jyabb called home in childhood. He completed a PhD at SOAS, a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Leeds, and is an assistant professor of instruction at Northwestern University. With research primarily focusing on Tibetan linguistics, key publications that support his volume include “Humilifics in Ma bzhi Pastoralist Speech of Amdo Tibet” in Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 42(2): 222-259, and his translation of the Menla Jyabb’s “The Dream” was published in Yeshe: A Journal of Tibetan Arts and Literature and Humanities.