Expressionism and Its Deformation in Contemporary Chinese Theatre

157 Pages·2013·5.928 MB·English

by  Yuwen Hsiung

Expressionism and
Its Deformation
in Contemporary
Chinese Theatre
ASIAN

THOU GHT
AN D

CULTURE

Sandra A. Wawrytko
General Editor

Vol. 63

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Yuwen Hsiung

Expressionism and
Its Deformation
in Contemporary
Chinese Theatre

PETER LANG
New York  Washington, D.C./Baltimore  Bern
Frankfurt  Berlin  Brussels  Vienna  Oxford
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hsiung, Yuwen.
Expressionism and its deformation in contemporary Chinese theatre / Yuwen Hsiung.
pages cm. — (Asian thought and culture; v. 63)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Chinese drama—20th century—History and criticism. 2. Chinese drama—
21st century—History and criticism. 3. Expressionism in literature.
4. Experimental theater—China—History—20th century. 5. Experimental theater—
China—History—21st century. I. Title.
PL2393.H745 895.1’2509115—dc23 2013031485
ISBN 978-1-4331-0535-7 (hardcover)
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ISSN 0893-6870

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Acknowledgements

Earlier version of Chapter 6 was published in Asian Theatre Journal 26.2 (Fall
1999): page 250-259. I remain grateful to the editor Kathy Foley who first in-
cluded my work in the publication. The chapter has been modified and extended
for this book.

Table of Contents

Introduction: After Cao Yu ................................................................................ 1
Chapter One: Epressionism Then and Now ........................................................ 3
Expressionism during the 1920s and 30s in China ...................................... 4
The Re-Introduction of Expressionism in Post-Maoist Theatre ................ 12
Six Dramatists in the Theatre of Expressionism ....................................... 15
Chapter Two: The Influx of Expressionism in the Post-Maoist Theatre –
Gao Xingjian’s Trilogy .................................................................................... 21
The Chronotope of Expressionist Time in Absolute Signal ....................... 23
Infusing The Bus Stop with Multivocality ................................................ 27
Singing along with Wild Man’s Polyphony .............................................. 33
Chapter Three: Under the Web of Realism –
Lin Zhaohua’s Uncle Doggie’s Nirvana ........................................................... 39
A Ghost is on the Stage! ........................................................................... 42
Pingtan, to Comment and Pluck Simultaneously ...................................... 47
Chapter Four: “Scream” from the Soul –
Huang Zuolin’s China Dream .......................................................................... 55
Realizing Xieyi Theatre in China Dream .................................................. 56
Xieyi as Chinese Expressionism ............................................................... 68
Chapter Five: Trans-Expressionism –
Xu Xiaozhong’s Sangshuping Chronicles ........................................................ 75
The Chorus Who Moves us Away ............................................................ 82
The Chronotope of Montage in the Chronicles ......................................... 87
Chapter Six: Emotion, Visuality, Subjectivity –
Meng Jinghui’s Rhinoceros in Love ................................................................. 93
“Love Me Tender, Love Me True” ........................................................... 96
Visuality as Eyesight .............................................................................. 102
Chapter Seven: A White Camellia beyond Signs Confusion –
Stan Lai’s Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land .............................................. 109
Crossing the Boundaries ......................................................................... 116
Smirking at Semiotic Representation ..................................................... 118
Postscript: Writing about Yourself ................................................................. 125
Notes .............................................................................................................. 129
Index of Names and Titles .............................................................................. 143
INTRODUCTION:
After Cao Yu

Cao Yu曹禺 (1910-1996) is the exemplary figure of modern Chinese drama.
He acts, he writes, and he devotes his whole life to drama. Cao Yu’s signifi-
cance is not only acknowledged by his long-term position as the president of the
most prestigious theatre in China, Beijing People’s Art Theatre (Beijing renmin
yishu juyuan北京人民藝術劇院), but was immediately recognized in 1934 with
the publication of his first play Leiyu雷雨 (Thunderstorm). Written by Cao Yu
at the young age of 24, Thunderstorm dazzled audience with its complicated plot,
richness of dramatic techniques, and sophistication of ideas in portraying a
tragicallyfated family. As one of the most frequently performed plays on the
Chinese stage, Thunderstorm is hailed alongside the other two plays in his trilo-
gy, Richu日出 (Sunrise, 1936) and Yuanye原野 (The Wilderness, 1937).1
The warm reception of Cao Yu’s initial dramatic works, nevertheless, did
not extend to his third play, The Wilderness, this privilege of being embraced by
the Chinese theatre critics at that time. The attack was blatantly straightforward,
with The Wilderness marked as “incomprehensible” because of its adoption of
expressionist techniques.2 Cao Yu’s personal bewilderment toward the attack
upon The Wilderness was not erased until the early 1980s when the play re-
ceived a resurgence of enthusiastic attention, aided by the flourishing of dra-
matic experiments following the Cultural Revolution (1967-1977). This brief
account of Cao Yu’s The Wilderness is to show that this alternating rebuke and
embrace that has followed this particular dramatic work is an example best illus-
trating the power struggle over Expressionism vs. Realism in modern Chinese
theatre. In other words, the revenge story of The Wilderness became Cao Yu’s
own story – that of a frustrated expressionist.
Expressionism, a term and movement almost too elusive to be well defined
in the Western dramatic tradition, was open to massive re-introduction and
flourishes in Chinese theatre until well into the 1980s. This book seeks to exam-
ine how Expressionism as a discursive locus was incorporated and even trans-
formed during a critical phase in the modernization of Chinese drama. While
various Western dramatic techniques made rapid appearance on the Chinese
stage, Expressionism had been intentionally overlooked ever since Hong Shen’s
Yama Zhao and Cao Yu’s The Wilderness were produced in the 1920s and