Major Achievements in Theatrical Scholarship, Research, and Development in the People's

Republic of China
Author(s): Hu Dongsheng, Liu Yizhen, Gu Mingzhu, Guo Haiyun, Dai Lin and Ma Hailin
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Asian Theatre Journal, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Autumn, 1984), pp. 223-227
Published by: University of Hawai'i Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1124567 .
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Major
Achievements in
Theatrical
Scholarship,
Research,
and
Development
in the
People's
Republic of China
Hu
Dongsheng,
Liu
Yizhen,
and Gu
Mingzhu
In recent
years
both the
quantity
and the
quality
of theatrical
scholarship, research,
and
developmental programs
in the
People's
Re-
public
of China have been
increasing markedly.
The
year
1983 saw
numerous
important
achievements in these areas.
Among
them were the
publication
of one
major
theatrical reference work and the initiation of
another;
the establishment of a museum dedicated to one of the twentieth
century's greatest performing
artists;
a
symposium
on
spoken
drama
(huajua);
and the
beginning
of a
program designed
to
promote
interest in
and
understanding
of traditional music-drama
(xiqub), perhaps
better
know in the West as Chinese
opera.
Reference Works
In late
1983,
the Chinese Music-Drama and
Storytelling
Volume
of
the
Encyclopedia of
China
(Zhongguo
da baike
quanshu xiqu quyi juanc)
was
pub-
lished. The book was written and
compiled
over the course of three
years
by
numerous noted scholars and theatre
practitioners, including Zhang
Gengd,
Guo
Hanchenge,
Ah
Jiaf, Qian Nanyangg, Wang
Jisih,
Ma Yan-
xiang',
and Zhao
JingshenJ.
It
represents
a
major scholarly
achievement
in the field of Chinese music-drama.
The book contains 1.2 million written characters
comprising
800
entries in several
categories, including:
music-drama
history,
musical
sys-
Hu
Dongsheng
is Chairman of the
Department
of Music-Drama
History
at the
Beijing
Institute of
Chinese Music-Drama Research. Liu Yizhen is Associate
Managing
Editor of the
journal Xiju luncong
(Selected essays
on
theatre).
Gu
Mingzhu
is Editor of
Xiju
bao
(Theatre journal).
All three have
authored numerous
Chinese-language
articles on music-drama.
Asian
TheatreJournal 1,
no. 2
(Fall 1984).
?
by
the
University
of Hawaii Press. All
rights
reserved.
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Hu, Liu,
Gu
tems
(shengqiang xitongk)
and
genres (juzhong),
dramatic
literature,
direct-
ing
and
acting
skills, music,
and
stage design.
It includes
biographical
sketches of
prominent
music-drama
practitioners
and
scholars,
and is
illustrated with a
large
number of
photographs,
both black-and-white and
color. Some of these have never been
published before,
and are therefore
extremely
valuable. Readers
may gain
considerable basic
knowledge
about Chinese
music-drama,
as well as an initial
general understanding
of its
history, development,
and
major components.
More
comprehensive
information
concerning
music-drama
genres
and
history
will be made available in the
forthcoming
Annals
of
Chinese
Music-Drama
(Zhongguo xiqu zhim),
which are now
being compiled by
a
gen-
eral editorial committee headed
by
the well-known scholar
Zhang Geng.
Written
by major
music-drama scholars and
practitioners,
the Annals will
systematically
record and
preserve
valuable documents and materials
concerning
music-drama from all over
China,
including
the results of the-
oretical
research;
it is
hoped
that
they
will
thereby promote
the
develop-
ment of Chinese theatre
today.
The Annals will be
comprised
of 29
volumes,
one for each
province
and autonomous
region
in continental China. Each volume will contain
150,000
to
500,000
written
characters,
and will be
organized
in four main
parts:
a
general overview,
figures
and
tables,
summarized
annals,
and
biographies.
The volumes will be
published
in
succession;
all will be
available
by
1991.
The Mei
Lanfang
Commemorative Museum
Preservation of theatrical traditions
necessarily
includes the com-
memoration of
major performers.
In order to commemorate the
genius
and
lasting
creative achievements of Dr. Mei
Lanfangn,
China's most out-
standing
theatrical
master,
the
Ministry
of Culture of the
People's Repub-
lic of China has
recently
established a commemorative museum at his for-
mer residence in
Beijing.
Dr. Mei was the first
major
Chinese artist to
visit the United
States;
fifty-four years ago, during
his American tour in
1930,
the
University
of Southern California and Pomona
College
both
awarded him
honorary
doctorates of literature. The Director of the
newly
established museum is the
prominent
scholar Ma
Yanxiang;
Dr. Mei's
second
son,
Mei
Shaowuo,
is
Deputy
Director.
A
Symposium
on the
Performing
Art of
Spoken
Drama
Symposiums give
artists and scholars the
opportunity
to
exchange
ideas and
opinions concerning
the
performing
arts,
and are a
major
means of
promoting
creative
development
within the arts.
During
the
224
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REPORTS
first half of November
1983,
the editorial
department
of the Theatre
Journal
(Xiju baoP)
convened a
Symposium
on the
Performing
Art of
Spoken
Drama.
Spoken
drama
performers
from
Beijing, Shanghai, Shandong
Province,
Liaoning
Province,
and other
regions throughout
China
parti-
cipated
in the
Symposium,
which was held in
Beijing.
A number of well-
known
performers attended,
including:
Yu
Shizhiq,
who is
currently
enacting
the
leading
role in the
play
Teahouse
(Chaguanr);
Zhu
Lins,
who is
now
portraying
the
wife, Linda,
in Arthur Miller's Death
of
a
Salesman;
Li
Morant,
who
played
the
patriotic
hero in the film Storms
of thejia
Wu Years
(Jia
wu
fengyunu); Qiao Qiv;
Du
Pengw; Wang
Yumeix;
and Zhu
Xijuany.
Professor Xu
Xiaozhongz
of the Central
Academy
of Drama
(Zhongyang
Xiju Xueyuana)
in
Beijing
and Hu Daoab of the
Shanghai Academy
of
Drama
(Shanghai
Xiju
Xueyuanac)
also took
part.
Symposium
sessions were
very
enthusiastic, including
lengthy sys-
tematic
speeches,
brief
interpositions,
and
questions. Speakers
often
gave
short
impromptu performances
to illustrate
specific points.
The entire
symposium
was
exceptionally lively,
and
permeated
with excitement.
Speakers
discussed the fact that
learning through personal experi-
ence constitutes the basic
training
and skill of a
spoken
drama
performer.
They
felt that some
spoken
drama
performers
are at
present
still unable to
act
realistically,
in a relaxed
fashion;
because of
this,
they
tend to overact
and
frequently give
rather artificial
performances.
Some
performers
expressed
the belief that actors and actresses
currently
have
very
limited
expressive skills,
and therefore cannot create distinctive characteriza-
tions
(xingxiangad; literally, "images"). They
called on all
spoken
drama
performers
to
plan
their
conceptions
of character on the basis of their own
personal experience.
Others
pointed
out that
acting
in
spoken
drama is
still
frequently stereotypic
and
generalized-they encouraged
a serious
search for those forms of
expression
which are
frequently
seen in
daily
life,
but
rarely
seen on the
stage.
All
speakers agreed
that the richness or
poverty
of dramatic characterization is decided
by
the abundance or scar-
city
of accumulated life
experiences.
Participants
also discussed how to maximize the
advantages
of
spoken
drama in its
competition
with film and television.
Many
felt that
the
principal advantage
of theatrical arts is the fact that in
stage perfor-
mances
living people
create
living
characters which are viewed
by living
audience members-theatrical artists can
directly
communicate with
their audiences.
Furthermore,
the
language
of
spoken
drama is more
directly
and
immediately expressive
than that of
any
other form of theat-
rical art.
Other matters touched
upon
at the
Symposium
included the estab-
lishment of distinct schools or
styles
of
spoken
drama
training
and
perfor-
mance
(xue paiae),
the
study
and evaluation of
Stanislavsky's performance
225
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Hu, Liu,
Gu
system,
the uses and demands of Brecht's alienation
effect,
and the codifi-
cation of
procedures
for
developing
characterizations.
Recommendation Performances
A new
program
initiated in 1983
by
the editorial
departments
of
two Chinese
periodicals,
Theatre
Journal (Xiju bao)
and Selected
Essays
on
Theatre
(Xiju luncongaf),
is
designed
not
only
to
preserve
but also to
promote
the
appreciation
and
development
of Chinese music-drama. These two
journals
are
sponsoring special performances by outstanding young
and
middle-aged stage performers
in order to recommend them to theatre
audiences;
some
performances
are
being given
to recommend
newly
writ-
ten
plays,
as well. Between
June
and November of
1983,
three such "rec-
ommendation
performances" (tuijianyanchuag)
were held for a total of five
performers:
one for
Zhang Jiqingh,
a danai (female
role)
actress with the
Jiangsu
Province
Kunquai Company;
one for Xiao
Tinga,
a
xiaoshenga
(young
male
role)
actor with the Sichuan Province
Chuanjua Company;
and a
joint
one for Ren Genxina and Cui
Caicaia?,
young
dan actresses
with the Shanxi Province
PujuaP Company,
and Guo
Zeming*q,
a
young
wushengar
(martial male
role)
actor also with the Shanxi Province
Puju
Company.
Zhang Jiqing
is one of the most
outstanding
of those
performers
who reached adulthood in the 1950s. At her recommendation
perfor-
mance she
portrayed
two
leading
female dramatic characters-Du Li-
niangas
in
Peony
Pavilion
(Mudan tinga),
and Mistress Cuiau in Lanke Moun-
tain
(Lanke Shanav)-and
won unanimous admiration not
only
from
audiences but also from the
literary
and art world. The
poet
and drama-
tist Bian Zhilinaw
proclaimed
that
"watching ZhangJiqing perform Peony
Pavilion is
really
an artistic
treat,"
while
literary
and art critic
Feng
Mu"
declared,
"Zhang Jiqing's performance deeply impressed me;
kunqu per-
formance art has indeed reached a new
peak."
Theatre theoretician
Zhang Geng
said:
From
Zhang Jiqing's performance
it can be seen that
inner, personal
experience
is an
important
element in traditional Chinese music-drama.
Zhang Jiqing
has mastered a
very high
level of conventional
technique,
which enables her to
clearly
and
completely express
her
inner,
personal
experience
on the
stage.
Ah
Jia,
a
prominent director,
stated that
"Zhang
has
fully
mastered her
own voice and
body,
and can therefore
freely express
the
deep personal
experiences
of her own
psychological activity.
This is the crucial element
of Chinese music-drama
performance."
He described
Zhang's perfor-
226
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REPORTS
mance in a
couplet: "Jade
and
pearls spring
from her
lips
and
teeth;
poetry
is sewn
by
her movements." The aesthetician
Wang
ChaowenaY
praised
her
performance
as
having
achieved
"legendary perfection."
The
performances
of Xiao
Ting,
Ren
Genxin,
Cui
Caicai,
and
Guo Zemin were also
highly
successful,
eliciting reports
and articles in
numerous
newspapers.
Such recommendation
performances
will con-
tinue to be
given
in the future in order to
promote creativity
and
invigo-
rate the
stage,
and
thereby
to serve the Chinese
people.
TRANSLATED BY GUO
HAIYUN,
DAI
LIN,
AND MA HAILIN
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