Abstract: In today's circulation, the audience in Chinese-speaking regions are quite familiar with Shakespeare's plays, while Tang Xianzu's plays have gradually come into the sight of the English-speaking audience. An analysis of six adaptations shows that the masterpieces by Shakespeare and Tang have gone through some variations on cross-cultural stages in order to adapt themselves into a different language environment. Often, since some of their subtleties may not be properly conveyed, an adaptation may not fully articulate the meaning or even drift away from the intended message. On stage, however, the direct and sensible image could become a good instrument for interpreting the original text or approaching the text from a fresh perspective. The “images” in the cross-cultural stage productions leave the audience a deep impression frequently. Whenever words are inadequate to convey all the implications, stage productions could “create images” for a “full expression of meanings,” or even “set up images to generate new meanings.” The interplay between “image” and “meaning” is closely tied to the loss of the original flavors and the addition of new implications in the adaptation of classics, thus helping us tackle the issue of how to understand and assess traditional texts on the world stage. When it comes to the accurate comprehension of the classics and their cross-cultural circulation at present, it doesn't make sense to stick to an either-or option; we should go beyond a single standard instead.

Key words: Shakespearean plays, Tang Xianzu's plays, cross-cultural adaptations