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Chronology Entry

Year

1958

Text

Aufführung von Hei nu hen = "Sorrows of the black slaves" = Uncle Tom's cabin von Harriet Beecher Stowe = 黑奴恨, in einer Adaptation von Ouyang Yuqian, durch das Zhong yang xi yu xue yuan shi yan ju chang (Experimental Theater of Central Academy of Drama) in Beijing, zur Feier des 50. Geburtstages des 'hua ju'.
Ouyang Yuqiao schreibt im Nachwort : "Because of differences in viewpoints, changes have to be made in the plot, especially in characterization. It is impossible for my characters to think or act in the way Mrs. Stowe prescribe in the original text. I have mad George Harris into a man tempered in suffering, full of revolutionary ideas, endowed with organizational capabilities and therefore unafraid of taking action. The Tom of my creation is sincere, honest, noble, willing to sacrifice himself for the welfare of others. He has, at the beginning, some illusions that, with his kindness, he may effect changes in his greedy master. After he is put on sale twice and cruelly treated, he begins to think of rebellion. His class consciousness is being raised. At the time of his death, he has come to realize that all bosses are Legrees, as cruel as Legree, and that blood has to be paid by blood, accounts have to be settled with the oppressors."

The portrayal of the cruel slave owners and traders follows Stowe's novel closely, but Stowe's more sympathetic characters, such as the Shelbys, George Harris and the factory owner Wilson, are also exposed as hypocrites. Tom is portrayed as loyal, kind, and self-sacrificing. Unlike Tom in the novel, who is a devout Christian unto death and forgives his tormentors, Ounyang's Tom comes to a gradual awakening as a result of his bitter experiences. When he is first sold by Shelby to pay a debt, Tom is still grateful to this old master. After Tom is beaten by his new master Simon Legree, Tom is no longer sure of his old beliefs. He says "I used to believe that all the people could be changed with kindness. Today I realize that you big slave owners cannot be changed with kindness." In contrast to Tom's generally meek submission to oppression, George Harris is full of fighting spirit. Harris's dream of being free is finally realized when he arrives in Canada with his family. Ouyang's portrayal of Harris as a freedom fighter is an affirmation of resistance as the effective means against oppression. The emphasis on resistance and class struggle in the play was in keeping with the communist ideology and China's stated foreign policy in the 1950s : to support the anti-imperialist struggles of the oppressed peoples in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Chinese critics commented that the play succeeded in 'making the past to serve the present, and the foreign to serve the Chinese' and commended Ouyang for transforming himself from a patriotic youth of his student days into a proletarian warrior in his old age.

Mentioned People (2)

Ouyang, Yuqian  (Liuyang, Hunan 1889-1962) : Dramatiker, Film-Regisseur, Schauspieler

Stowe, Harriet Beecher  (Lichfield, Conn. 1811-1896 Hartford, Conn.) : Schriftstellerin

Subjects

Literature : China : Drama and Theatre / Literature : Occident : United States of America

Documents (3)

# Year Bibliographical Data Type / Abbreviation Linked Data
1 2006 Zhu, Xuefeng ; Liu, Haiping. Staging Eugene O'Neill in China in the 1980s.
http://homepage.ntu.edu.tw/~bcla/e_book/65/65_08.pdf.
Publication / One43
2 2009 Yu, Nick Rongjun. Cry to heaven : a play to celebrate one hundred years of Chinese spoken drama. Introd. and transl. by Shiao-ling Yu. In :
Asian theatre journal ; vol. 26, no 1 (2009). [Yutian, the third Chinese stage adaptation of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's cabin between 1907 and 2007].
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/asian_theatre_journal/v026/26.1.yu.html.
Publication / Stowe4
  • Source: Ouyang, Yuqian. Hei nu hen : jiu chang hua ju. (Beijing : Zhongguo xi ju chu ban she, 1962). Adapation von Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom's cabin ; or, Life among the lowly. Vol. 1-2. (Boston : John P. Jewett ; Cleveland, Ohio : Jewett, 1852). [Geschrieben 1958 zu Feier des 50. Geburtstages des 'hua ju'].
    黑奴恨 : 九場話剧 (Stowe23, Publication)
  • Source: Yu, Nick Rongjun. Yu tian. In : Xin ju ben ; vol. 3 (2007). Adapation von Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom's cabin ; or, Life among the lowly. Vol. 1-2. (Boston : John P. Jewett ; Cleveland, Ohio : Jewett, 1852). [Geschrieben zum 100. Geburtstag des chinesischen Sprechtheaters 'hua ju'].
    籲天 (Stowe24, Publication)
  • Cited by: Asien-Orient-Institut Universität Zürich (AOI, Organisation)
  • Person: Stowe, Harriet Beecher
  • Person: Yu, Nick Rongjun
  • Person: Yu, Shiao-ling
3 2009 Tao, Jie. Uncle Tom's cabin : the first American novel translated into Chinese. In : Prospects ; vol. 18 (Oct. 2009).
http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2F8498_
093BD0FA883AB7737A31F745CC4DD820_journals__
PTS_PTS18_S0361233300005007a.pdf&cover=
Y&code=bef66ec07ab3984fa239898b8d35813a
Publication / Stowe35
  • Source: Zheng, Zhenduo. Zhongguo wen xue lun ji. (Shanghai : Kai ming shu dian, 1934). [Enthält eine Liste von Lin Shus Übersetzungen].
    中國文學論集 (ZheZ2, Publication)
  • Cited by: Asien-Orient-Institut Universität Zürich (AOI, Organisation)
  • Person: Stowe, Harriet Beecher
  • Person: Tao, Jie