China and the West

Li, Qinghua. Yao wang : san mu ju. (Chongqing : Tian di chu ban she, 1944). 遥望 : 三幕劇
Adaptation of Beyond the horizon by Eugene O'Neill in Chongqing.
The adaptation was set in a Chinese village, retained much of the original plot and characterization. Two young cousins, one a romantic poet and the other a practical farmer, fall in love with the same girl in the neighborhood. The triangle leads to the mismatch of the poet and the girl and mismanagement of the farm, on the one hand, and the self-imposed exile of the elder cousin, the practical farmer, on the other. The play ends in similar disillusionment in life for all three characters involved. The major alteration mad in the Chinese version lies in what it is that lures mankind beyond the horizon