In Popular Culture
In contemporary China, Wu has often been regarded as a traitor and opportunist, due to his betrayal of both the Ming and Qing dynasties. This view has been promoted by those who have an interest in a strongly unified China directed from the Beijing headquarters. However more sympathetic characterisations are sometimes voiced, however, and it is clear that Wu's romance with and love for his concubine Chen Yuanyuan remains one of the classic love stories in Chinese history.
Wu's early life and military career are portrayed in a more positive light in the CCTV television series Jiangshan Fengyu Qing, in which he is shown to be forced into making the fateful decisions which have made him famous.
Wuxia writer Louis Cha's novel The Deer and the Cauldron (鹿鼎記) portrays Wu as a powerful nemesis to the Kangxi Emperor, who sends the protagonist of the novel, Wei Xiaobao, to scout out Wu's forces in Yunnan.
Read more about this topic: Wu Sangui
Famous quotes containing the words popular culture, popular and/or culture:
“Popular culture entered my life as Shirley Temple, who was exactly my age and wrote a letter in the newspapers telling how her mother fixed spinach for her, with lots of butter.... I was impressed by Shirley Temple as a little girl my age who had power: she could write a piece for the newspapers and have it printed in her own handwriting.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“There’s that popular misconception of man as something between a brute and an angel. Actually man is in transit between brute and God.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“All objects, all phases of culture are alive. They have voices. They speak of their history and interrelatedness. And they are all talking at once!”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)