play is cleverly structured as a "play within a play", using Tian Han's early, middle and late stage translations or compositions of Salome, Nostalgia, Unanimity, Guan Hanqing and The Japanese Opera as links. Through complex character relationships, vivid dramatic conflicts and intertwined plot developments, the trajectory of Tian Han's life is clearly outlined, condensing the life of a generation of masters into five plays and forming a short history of Chinese theatre development