It may be founded on domestic life or on some historic scene.

Sometimes the history of a province of the Chinese Empire is the theme.

The plays are mostly comedy.

There are no grand tragedies like those of the old Greek poets.

The Chinese have had no such writers as Sophocles or Euripides, no such creators of plays as Shakespeare, and they have no such actors as a Garrick or an Irving.
We were invited to seats on the stage--which had no curtains, everything being done openly.