Book launch: Shadow Woman - The Extraordinary Career of Pauline Benton

October 9, 2013 from 12:30 p.m.-1:30 p.m.
Hickman Building, room 116
University of Victoria, Victoria, BC

Kansas-born Pauline Benton (1898-1974) was encouraged by her father, one of America's earliest feminist male educators, to reach for the stars. Instead, she reached for shadows. In 1920s Beijing, she discovered shadow theatre (piyingxi), a performance art where translucent painted puppets are manipulated by highly trained masters to cast coloured shadows against an illuminated screen. Finding that this thousand-year-old forerunner of motion pictures was declining in China, Benton believed she could save the tradition by taking it to America. In this Lunch and Learn Grant Hayter-Menzies will launch his new book, "Shadow Woman - the Extraordinary Career of Pauline Benton," and talk about how Benton enchanted Depression-era audiences eager for the exotic across North America.

Books available for purchase at the event.