China and the West

100jähriges Jubiläum zum Geburtstag von George Bernard Shaw in China.
The apple cart (act II), Mrs. Warren's profession (acts II-III) were performed by students from the Beijing Cinema Actors's Troupe and the Central Academy of Dramatic Art.
Wendi Chen : The cultural bureaucracy orchestrated a variety of activities : conferences, performances, special exhibitions and publication of his translated work. It was not so much Shaw the Western dramatist, but Shaw the socialist who was being feted. Shaw was conveniently employed by the Chinese cultural authorities to serve several related purposes : 1) to propagandize the superiority of socialism over capitalism during the Cold War ; 2) to promote the Hundred flower campaign ; 3) to provide an example for Chinese writers with bourgeois backgrounds ; 4) to assist Chinese cultural authorities in creating a favorable international image of China by extending China's literary repertoire beyond Soviet literature.
The major official event took place on the evening of 26 July 1956 in the ballroom at the Beijing Hotel, where more than one thousand people assembled for official speeches and performances. Many distinguished political leaders, as well as writers, artists, and foreign diplomats, were present.
Other activities included a conference sponsored by the Beijing Library and the Beijing Working People's Cultural Palace. The Beijing Library also staged a special exhibition, displaying photos, books, and essays written by and about Shaw and Ibsen. A number of literary magazines, journals and newspapers published essays on Shaw and his works.
In Shanghai, Tianjin and Shenyang similar activities took place.
Guest speakers were Lennox Robinson, director of the Irish National Theatre, Rubeigh James Minney, British author and Gerda Ring, director of the National Theatre Oslo. The group included the Chinese writers Mao Dun, Chen Zhenduo, Tian Han, Xia Yan, Ouyang Yuqian and Mei Lanfang.

After the celebrations, the Chinese People's Association for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries prepared items for sale, as advertised in the Shavian : Selected works of George Bernard Shaw in Chinese translation (Mrs. Warren's profession, The apple cart, Major Barbara) ; Program of the 1956 commemoration of ibsen and Shaw in Chinese, English and Russian, including the speeches by Lennox Robinson and Rubeigh J. Minney ; Postcards commemorating world cultural figures, including Shaw, Mozart, Ibsen, Franklin.

Rubeigh J. Minney : The scene from The apple cart in which the American ambassador tells King Magnus of England, that his country wished to return to the English fold. The thought delighted them. The play had not yet been translated into Chinese, but although they had less than a week for making the translation and for rehearsals, it was adopted and the members of the Peking Cinema Actors Troupe were word perfect on the night of the performance.
The preparation of these scenes involved us in many discussions. As early as eight o'clock in the morning our rooms were invaded by actors, actresses or producers. We were asked innumerable questions about the meaning of words, the sort of action most suited to the characters, the subtlety of Western gestures, and so on. They took infinite pains. They were striving for perfection, and for the most part they attained it.
The Chinese girl who played the Queen was young and pretty and in her Western clothes and make-up could have passed for English. Her role did not demand much of her ; in that scene she had just to sit and listen, but she used her feather fan most expressively, opening it and shutting it to indicate her reactions to what was being said by the King and the Ambassador.
[The Chinese's acquaintance with Shaw's plays] was confined almost entirely to Mrs. Warren's profession. We tried to veer them off this. I said : "There are a great many other plays which you ought to look at – if you have Chinese translations of them. Mrs. Warren's profession is about a woman who owned a number of brothels. You have, we understand, abolished all brothels. That is a closed chapter now in the life of the people of China." But, no matter what arguments we advanced, back they came to Mrs. Warren. We learned at last that their attachments to this play was because of the struggle in it of Mrs. Warren's daughter Vivie to win her freedom from social and domestic domination. This play was being acted by various groups of amateurs and others all over China and it had accordingly the advantage that the artists already knew it.