莎士比亞戲劇一向具有普世性的改編價值。在當代「莎戲曲」（筆者定義為從莎劇改編的中國戲曲）的演繹光譜中，也很值得討論。當代莎士比亞研究學者 Dennis Kennedy認為，跨文化改編與演繹的重點，可能並不在於是否貼近原著，而在於改編與演繹後的作品，究竟在立足自身文化傳統中時，展現了什麼樣的構思和創意。基於此一理念，本文正視「莎戲曲」在中國傳統表演文化中的主體意識與價值，以改編自莎士比亞《威尼斯商人》(The Merchant of Venice) 的「豫莎劇」《約／束》作為聚焦論述的個案，申論原著無法約束改編之作。

The “universality" of Shakespeare´s plays lends them to adaptation. The wide range of contemporary “Shake-xiqu" (i. e., Chinese opera adapted from Shakespeare´s play) offers fertile ground for study. According to Dennis Kennedy, the key issue in a cross-cultural adaptation is not whether or how it sticks by the original but rather, when positioned in its own cultural tradition, what ideas and creativity it shows. This paper explores the subjectivity consciousness and value of traditional Chinese theater as displayed in Bond (2009), a Yuju adaptation of The Merchant of Venice.