Abstract: This essay deals with the critical reception of a 14th-century Chinese play, The Orphan of Zhao, translated in 1731 by the Jesuit Henri Joseph de Prémare and studied by writers (Voltaire, Fréron) or academics (Abel Rémusat). This violent and pathetic drama brings into question its efficiency outside China and the possibility of rousing emotions in spectators from other countries: are intercultural affects thinkable in 18th-century France?
