The Chinese lantern : A play

A bustling Chinese studio awakens on a sweltering morning, its walls of woodwork and oil‑paper framing a sleepy master, Yunglangtsi, who slumps over his easel while a chorus of apprentices and laborers idles around him. The stage is alive with chatter: street criers hawk cheap wares, the bottle‑washer Tikipu battles the heat, and a Korean slave‑girl, Mee‑Mee, watches the chaos unfold. The atmosphere crackles with the promise of the upcoming Feast of Lanterns, a half‑serious ritual that seems to galvanize the otherwise lethargic crowd.

Amid the comic banter, the apprentices argue over the value of their meager wages, while the master’s wife, Mrs. Olangtsi, threatens to bind him to a future bride. The dialogue darts between poetry, satire, and absurdity, painting a vivid portrait of a creative community teetering between ambition and indolence. Listeners are drawn into a world where lanterns, plum blossoms, and the looming “Event” hint at larger aspirations, even as the characters stumble through their everyday frustrations.