Julie Orlemanski: I realize that you’ve been researching and writing about Shakespeare’s Hamlet for some years now. When did you first become interested in Shakespeare? What do you find interesting about Hamlet in particular?

Yang Xiubo: When I was 18, I left my hometown to study chemistry. I then became interested in Shakespeare’s plays. I read Chinese versions translated by Zhu Shenghao. 17 years later, I read it in English in Shanghai International Studies University. I took a class on Hamlet. I helped a teacher with her doctoral dissertation on Hamlet. We searched through the books, laughing heartily when we found something interesting.

What is particularly interesting about Hamlet is its beauty. It is similar to A Dream of the Red Mansion, one of the four Chinese classics. There are foils for the protagonist in both. Like his shadows, Laertes’ imprudence, Horatio’s indifference set off Hamlet’s image. There are some “plays-within-a-play”. Hamlet feigns madness. Claudius tries to hide his crime. They pretend to be something they are not. Acting pervades the play, making a puzzling world of mystery. And old Hamlet’s death at the beginning of the play, the famous “play-within-a-play” in the middle and young Hamlet’s death in the end form a symmetrical construction. Every murder becomes a shadow of another.

The “light and shadow” effect constitutes a wonderful world of art. Like a beautiful Chinese ink painting, an image appears, and its shadows as well are shadows of shadows. I wrote about it in my new book, Shakespeare’s Soul, published by Shanghai University Publishing Press recently.

JO: I know you’ve recently been writing about poison in Hamlet. Tell us more about why you find poison to be important to the play and what your arguments about it are.

YX: The image of poison appears frequently in the play Hamlet. At the beginning, old Hamlet is poisoned by his brother with juice of “cursed hebenon” from a plant called “deadly nightshade.” Claudius’s evil has made him diseased. To cure the disease caused by his own poison, he resorts to the further use of poison. He tells Laertes to avenge his father’s death. Laertes agrees with him. Two-fold poison is added to cheating, leading to horrible death.

Poison brings about one death after another, old Hamlet, Ophelia, Gertrude, Laertes, Claudius, Hamlet…The play is a poison system unfolding gradually like a flower with multiple petals. Like a juxtaposition of light and shadows, poison penetrates the whole play, forming multi-fold reflections full of the beauty of art. The repetition of poison and the deaths related to it emphasize the symbolic meaning of poison, which stands for Claudius’ greed and cruelty. The poison is so virulent that it causes a series of deaths. Even the person who uses it can’t escape death.

Poison is the source of Hamlet’s tragedy. Spiritual poison causes the physical one. Young Hamlet falls into the trap of fate because of poison. Poison is the most important theme of the play, which, in fact, could be further traced back to the social evils of the Renaissance. The image of poison is thought-provoking because it is the origin of numerous tragedies in the world.

JO: What’s a quote from Hamlet that you find particularly important for thinking about poison in the play? I’d love to hear your observations and reflections about the quote.

YX: Laertes said, “He is justly serv'd. It is a poison temper'd by himself.” He, Claudius, made the poison that poisons himself. Even though Claudius is a crafty king who could make use of his power to protect himself, he could not escape punishment. Poison poisons the very person who resorts to it for help.

JO: What do you find particularly exciting about Shakespeare studies? Do you have any favorite scholars or favorite scholarly books about Shakespeare? Which ones, and why?

YX: People always argue with each other as if Shakespeare provided everything for everyone. The “Oedipus complex”, Sigmund Freud’s explanation for “Hamlet’s delay” is absurd to Chinese people. There is an interesting phenomenon: some scholars just wanted to make use of Hamlet to prove their own opinion, they never cared if Hamlet’s actions could be explained properly. They just talked about “Hamlet’s delay” rather than his actions to prove the delay to be a scholar’s weakness in action. Of course that could be a wise opinion. But it is not the case with Hamlet. Hamlet is a soldier, too. He could take action if he was willing to, as the latter half of the play shows to us. Those scholars never care about “Hamlet’s business”. But average readers just follow their opinion, causing lots of chaos. They must have known clearly that Hamlet does not in fact delay at all.

Some brilliant minds fascinate me, for example, Hugo said that Shakespeare is afraid of Shakespeare. That is a profoundly interesting argument. Eliot said that some reviews of Shakespeare’s works made people think of the finitude of literary reviews and human beings’ understanding. That’s true. Some theories are too far-fetched to be used here. For example, one scholar thinks that Hamlet must have a fault because a tragedy is caused by a character’s fault.

JO: In addition to Shakespeare, you study Zhuang minority literature and culture. Can you tell us more about Zhuang literature? Do you ever see any connections between these two areas of your research?

YX: Zhuang literature is nearly a virgin field. The Zhuang people, the largest minority in China, are indigenous to southwest China. They still keep their ancient faith and customs in our highly-developed world. The grand Zuojiang Huashan Rock Paintings, and their world culture heritage are awe-inspiring. They are the reflection of Zhuang mythology. The characters in Zhuang mythology surprise me because they are so natural.

There are interesting images in both Shakespeare's works and Zhuang minority literature. To my surprise, we could often find something similar even in vastly different literature. We are related to each other in mysterious ways.