China and the West

Zhou, Yueran. Shashibiya [ID D23523].
Sun Yanna : Zhou Yueran was the first Chinese who introduced Western William Shakespeare criticism. He mentioned Lafcadio Hearn's opinion of Shakespeare. Hearn concluded that there were three major differences between Shakespearean and other dramas. To begin with, Shakespeare's plays are full of life, Shakespearean characters live more dynamically than those of other playwrights. Secondly, every single character in Shakespeare’s drama has his or her individuality. They not only live, but also have a different life from each other. Thirdly, it is impossible to find any two characters alike in his works. Everyone, whoever they are, is a special creation.

Michaux, Henri. Ecuador : journal de voyage. (Paris : Editions de la Nouvelle revue française, 1929).
Er schreibt : « Les écrivains commencent à se dire de l'Univers. Parfois il arrive que l'un d'eux se mette en voyage, pousse jusqu'à Hong-Kong… Puis il revient, on le regarde, on l'invite à parler… Il connaît la Chine. »

Chen Shixiang studiert chinesische und englische Literatur an der Beijing-Universität.

Yian Tsouan Lin studiert an der Cité Saint-Justin in Fribourg und trifft Romain Rolland.

Aufführung von Lun Qun gui = Gengangere von Henrik Ibsen durch die Beijing yi shu xue yuan (National Beijing Academy of Arts) unter der Regie von Xiong Foxi.
According to Xiong's comments, the performance was successful in terms of its stage technique. Even though this was a commercial performance, the cast was composed of student actors, all up to professional standard. Xiong's interpretation of the play, particularly on the point of heredity, is illuminating and it gives the audience a sense of how to approach the play.

Xiong, Foxi. Lun Qun gui [ID D26238].
Xiong schreibt : "Ibsen thinks that all those people opposing Nora are ghosts. The corrupt ideas and false morals are also ghosts. Although Mrs. Alving has fulfilled her duties as a good wife and mother, she ruins her life. For fear that the hypocritical and corrupt power will spread, Ibsen advocates a thorough clearance and thus brings out the problem of heredity in Ghosts. By the heredity of syphilis Ibsen implies that social corruption and hypocrisy can also pass to the next generation.
Ghosts is a great tragedy of world significance, but it is not a Greek tragedy. Nor is it a Shakespearean tragedy. It is a modern tragedy. The classical tr4agedies are not free from the tricks of fighting and killing, just as in the works of the Greeks and Shakespeare. Only in a modern tragedy is this changed. There is no fighting or death. To the modern dramatists, death is not miserable. Real tragedy lies in the state of 'being neither able to die, nor able to live'. Therefore on the modern stage there is seldom 'death'. We find only inner conflicts, psychological wars, and spiritual battles and miseries that make people 'being neither able to laugh nor able to cry'. Psychological depiction is an essential element in modern tragedy. Ghosts is the first one of this kind.
Ibsen likes to criticize and argue, but he talks in a reasonable way and never says anything redundant. Every sentence has a meaning and every word is necessary. There is plenty of dialogue in Ghosts, but none of it is nonsense. Here lies both the weakness and strength of Ibsen. Yet on the modern stage too much dialogue is really boring, discusting and makes people sleep. Especially in China, people do not like plays with too much dialogue. Our audience need to think and need patience when they watch Ghosts.

He Chengzhou : On the occasion of the production of Ghosts Xiong published the essay Lun Qun gui. One central idea in that essay is that Ghosts is one of the greatest tragedies in the world, and a pioneering work of its kind in modern Drama.
Tam Kwok-kan : Xiong Foxi thinks that Ibsen used 'ghosts' as a metaphor for those people opposing Nora, as well as for corrupt ideas and false morals. Althought Mrs. Alving has fulfilled her duties as a good wife and mother, she ruins her life. For fear that the hypocritical and corrupt power will spread, Ibsen proposes a thorough clearance and thus brings ou the problem of heredity in Ghosts.

Xiong, Foxi. She hui gai zao jia de Yibusheng yu xi ju jia de Yibusheng [ID D26239].
He Chengzhou : Xiong's essay begins with a summary of the current conception of China's Ibsen : "We know Ibsen because he advocated women's liberation ; we agree with him because he called for social reforms ; we support him because he fought against all that he thought was false, rotten and insane ; we respect him because he propagated individualism."
In the rest of his essay, Xiong focuses on Ibsen's achievement and mentions specially the following three aspects : the structure of the 'well-made' play, the creative use of suggestion, and the reform of dramatic language.

Cao Yu erhält The complete works of Ibsen vom Direktor des Nankai xin ju tuang (Nankai New Theatre) Tianjin.
He Chengzhou : Cao Yu managed to read all Ibsen's plays in that collection, which opened his eyes to the dramaturgy of modern drama. "Reading all Ibsen's plays in English, played an important role in my dramatic career. From Ibsen's plays I realized that the dramatic art can have a number of ways of expression. Characters can become so real and at the same time so complicated."

I.A. Richards ist Gastprofessor der Qinghua-Universittä, lernt etwas Chinesisch und reist in China.

Lu, Xun. Lu Xun lun mei shu. (Dalian : Da zhong shu dian, 1948). [Lu Xun on arts].
魯迅論美術
Lu Xun published a catalogue of twelve paintings by Aubrey Beardsley (Biyazili hua xuan. (1929). Beardsley's paintings were introduced in an organized and focused manner, not just reproduced separately as illustrations. According to Lu Xun, Beardsley was the most widely known painter in black-and-white painting and greatly influenced Chinese modern art. Unique in the unstable society of 1890s, Beardsley was incomparable in the area of decorative arts and a pioneer of xin de yi shu [new art] during fin-de-siècle. In Beardsley's paintings, the folly and ugliness of the upper class and people indulging in sensual pleasures are often shown. Therefore, he was regarded as an indecent and offensive artist by some of his contemporaries. This painter, seen through the eyes of Lu Xun and others, was a talented and artistic rebel who was the spokesperson for uninhibited beauty and desires.

Aufführung von Shalemei nach Wilde, Oscar. Salomé : drame en un acte. (Paris : Librairie de l'art indépendant, 1893). = Salome : a tragedy in one act. (London : E. Mathews & John Lane ; Boston : Copeland & Day, 1894). [Uraufführung Théâtre de l'oeuvre, Paris, 1896] in der Übersetzung von Tian Han in Nanjing und Shanghai.
Tian Han schreibt : "My translation of Salomé was successful when it was published in 1921. It has been seven or eight years now and it hasn't yet performed. And now we just have found very good actors playing the roles of Iokanaan, Salomé and Herodias. Rebelling against the standard social attitude is most obvious in this play. This is why we have chosen to perform this play."
Tian Han added social significance to the play in order to defend his aim of staging it, which was to him an artistic way to unite different classes together for a noble and national purpose. Even though he thought Salomé was not about individualism, his interpretation was indeed individualistic and questionable. Paradoxically, he was not so much politicizing the play as romanticizing it further. His choice of Salomé betrayed a strong sentiment undercurrent, albeit his claims of social interests. When the play was performed, the power of the socially-minded intellectuals was already quite strong.

Shi Jihan described the first night of the performance : "There are only three hundred seats in the theatre, yet the people who came to see the play numbered more than four hundred.” Salomé was acclaimed by the audience, who were fascinated by the emotional qualities of the female protagonist. The play left such an impression that it was soon imitated by several Chinese playwrights."

Xu, Zhimo. Guan yu nü zi. In : Xin yue yue kan ; vol. 2, no 8 (Oct. 1929).
Salomé incontestably presented a different, daring and outspoken image of woman for many Chinese intellectuals. Xi Zhimo expressed the tension between personal, artistic expression and social boundary as he recalled his impression on Yu Shan, the lady who played Salomé.
One night, during the performance, when Yu Shan was about to say, 'I will kiss thy mouth, Iokanaan', she caught a glimpse of her mother sitting in the front row and staring angrily at her. Instead of saying the line with might and passion, she was lowering her voice and slurring over the line. Xu commented that though in reality there were many objective obstacles preventing a 'new' or 'modern' woman to realize herself, the psychological barrier was less visible yet more destructive. The talented actress could have played her role more powerfully and dramatically but for the angry gaze of her mother, which represented a tacit censorship. That was the moment when the actress yielded to traditions at the expense of artistic expression. Salomé was then not so much a theatrical challenge as a psychological one since she embodied anti-traditional feminine qualities. To be a 'new' women, in the view of Xu, she needed to behave with psychological abandonment and be thoroughly courageous and persistent.

Linda Pui-ling Wang : In the interest of reading Salomé in the Chinese context, the Chinese writers were looking for a psychological outlet and model which spoke to their personal needs but not the genuine moral and humanitarian aspects. The Chinese writers who were more romantic and sentimental even saw Salomé as an essential resolution to the class problems in society. Salomé undeniably excited and inspired the young Chinese people who had personal and emotional dreams, albeit a small and 'selected' group. The play provided a romantic appeal to bourgeois intellectuals such as Tian Han, Xu Zhimo and Ye Lingfeng, who could afford to see the play and greatly praised the play, but mainly its aesthetic aspects. The Chinese writers were generally fascinated with Salomé who certainly looked radical, nonconformist, modern and exemplified a new mode of thinking and behavior. As such, there was more revision than imitation in terms of meaning and goal. The femme fatale was then turned into a super heroine.
The Chinese writers did not only discuss the play's literariness but also its social redefinitions affirms its significance to be a special product of that age. Salomé was a medium through which the Chinese writers voiced their romantic outcry and accumulated for themselves discourses in accordance to their desires and causes. Tian Han presented a more social and political defence for it.
In the discursive labyrinth of Salomé, there were decadence, entertainment and fascination for an exotic femme fatale and a modern city as a surrogate oryal court in which the Chinese intellectuals indulged in their own pursuit of romantic dreams.

Xu, Diaofu. Jin dai ming zhu bai zhong shu lue. In : Xiao shuo ye bao ; vol. 18, no 10 (Oct. 1929). [Synopses of one hundred masterpieces].
Xu Diafu gave not only a detailed synopsis of Salomé by Oscar Wilde, but also translated a few parts of the play. He thought Salomé's dance and her final kiss were the most passionate, provocative and iconoclastic feats, and the overriding sensuality and horror captivated the hearts of many Chinese writers.

Zhang, Jiazhu. Aoni'er [ID D28772].
Editor's introduction : "O'Neill, the greatest modern American playwright, came to Shanghai on a tour recently. He was interviewed several times at his residence in a hotel by Zhang Jiazhu, who was kind enough to write for us the following article. It is basically a translation from B[arret] H. Clark, from which we can get some basic ideas and facts about the American playwright. It is our intention to include another article on O'Neill in the next issue of this magazine." [This article never appeared].
Zhang related how he had taken advantage of Eugene O'Neill's visit to China and interviewed him at his hotel in Shanghai for several times. Basing his article on B.H. Clark's essay, he gave a thorough introduction of the playwright, dealing with his life, his character, his artistic creation and his plays. In Particular, Zhang mentioned the role that O'Neill played in the Provincetown Players as well as the staging of some of his early plays, such as Bound East for Cardiff and Thirst. He also made mention of O'Neill's reputation in Europe and the production of his plays in Japan. Zhang asserts that Hong Shen's The Yama Chao is an adaptation of O'Neill's The emperor Jones.
Zhang Jiazhu a rencontré Eugene O'Neill vraisemblablement à plusieurs reprises, au cours du séjour à Shanghai en 1928. C'est à la suite de ces rencontres qu'il rédige son article. L'influence d'O'Neill s'est alors déjà largement répandue parmi les hommes de théâtre chinois. Après une description d'O'Neill, dépeint comme un personnage très observateur mais peu enclin à se livrer, Zhang se consacre à l'artiste et à sa biographie. L'artiste est présenté comme un poète, un observateur de la nature humaine qui conçoit la vie tout à la fois comme une tragédie et une aventure extraordinaire. O'Neill est aussi un auteur qui place ses exigences en matière de création au plus haut niveau. Son expérience de la vie et ses recherches constantes dans le domaine de l'expression théâtrale sont les deux points sur lesquels Zhang insiste plus particulièrement. Zhang ne place O'Neill dans aucun mouvement littéraire, considérant qu'il est en constante évolution. En cela, il suit l'opinion d'O'Neill lui-même qui dit à l'époque avoir encore beaucoup à apprendre. Pour preuve de l'inventivité du dramaturge, Zhang cite sa comédie Marco millions, qui vient d'être jouée en Chine pour la première fois avec succès, alors que la plupart des critiques dramatiques américains considéraient à cette époque O'Neill comme incapable d'écrire une comédie. Après une brève introduction admirative de Zhang pour l'homme et ses talents de dramaturge, l'article retrace de façon circonstanciée l'existence d'O'Neill (naissance, environnement familial, formation), mettant l'accent sur son parcours dans le monde dramatique et sa formation, de ses premiers essais en tant qu'acteur au prix Pulitzer accordé à Beyond the horizon, en passant par son travail avec les Players de Greenwich Village. Zhang s'attache surtout à montrer la recherché constant d'O'Neill ou les thèmes dont il traite. Ce qui l'intéresse, c'est O'Neill en tant qu'individu et surtout en tant que dramaturge, la façon dont il s'insère dans la société, son rapport aux hommes et au monde.

Bei xin ; vol. 3, no 8 (Shanghai : Bei xin shu ju, 1929).
Bei xin carried an account of Eugene O'Neill's life and creative career which had a brief editor's note connecting it with his recent visit to China. From then on, O'Neill's name bagan to appear in Chinese newspapers and magazines with increasing frequency. His plays were translated and published both in magazines and in book form, and were performed by both professional and amateur theatrical groups.

Lin, Yutang. Xin di wen ping xu yan. In : You si ; vol. 30 (Oct. 7, 1929). [Preface to a new literary criticism].
Irving Babbitt's influence upon the Chinese literary world is a thing we all know : there are for example Mei Guangdi, Wu Mi, Liang Shiqiu and so on, some of whom are personal friends of mine. But the belief of a conscience is a matter of freedom of the individual. Babbitt (feels) that, exalted as religion is, it is not within the reach of ordinary humanity, and so he advocates a man-only-ism. (Mr. Babbitt uses the word humanism in a different sense than the humanism that informed the new culture movement of the Renaissance). In its opposition to religion on the one hand and naturalism on the other, his humanism bears close resemblance to the nature-principle philosophy (i.e. Neo-Confucianism) of the Song dynasty. This is why Babbitt esteems our not-know-life-how-know-death Master Confucius, and the Confucian disciples also esteem Mr. Babbitt.

Zeng, Xubai. Yingguo wen xue ABC [ID D29489].
Liu Haiming : The book mention the accessibility to the common reader of Twain's writings ; it also pointed out their social significance and exceptional artistic merit. The book stressed that The adventures of Huckleberry Finn was not just another children's book but was 'an honest description of human existence as seen through eyes innocent and unsullied by the ways of the world'.

Zeng, Xubai. Meiguo wen xue ABC [ID D29706].
Zeng devoted a whole chapter to Henry David Thoreau and noticed the author's protest against American politics of his day and his act of resistance to civil authority but he did not call him 'an absolute anarchist'. According to Zeng, Thoreau is essentially as self-restrained man of individualism. What he practiced in life are no less than exercises in a political art of self-formation in which we can observe fully Thoreau's pursuit of self-culture and aims of life.

Ai Qing studiert in Paris. Er befasst sich mit Renoir, Van Gogh, Kant, Hegel und den Dichtern Mayakovsky, Verhaeren.

Zeng, Xubai. Meiguo wen xue ABC [ID D29706].
Zeng regarded the birth of Walt Whitman as 'one of the glorious pages in the history of American literature' and believed the poet 'wove his whole life into an excellent poem'.
Zeng devoted a whole chapter to Henry David Thoreau and noticed the author's protest against American politics of his day and his act of resistance to civil authority but he did not call him 'an absolute anarchist'. According to Zeng, Thoreau is essentially as self-restrained man of individualism. What he practiced in life are no less than exercises in a political art of self-formation in which we can observe fully Thoreau's pursuit of self-culture and aims of life.
"American critics usually hold that Hawthorne represents Puritanism in his works. Personally, I do not agree with this idea because Puritanism cannot produce but destroy arts. The reason that arts came into being in New England is nothing but the fact that Puritanism began to decline there. We can find after a thorough examination of Nathaniel Hawthorne's works that he has completely broken away from Puritanism. His works are purely artistic, immune from social problems such as Abolition and reform movements at the time. His purpose is not to elucidate morality, but artistically represent souls."

[Mansfield, Katherine]. Tie shen nü pu. Xi Ying [Chen Xiying] yi. [ID D30048].
Chen Xiying : "The merits of this story do not lie simply in its unique form. They also consist in the fact that the whole life of a pitiable woman is told in just three or four thousand words. And what would be hard for an average writer to achieve is the way in which the heroine- herself the storyteller – is not aware of the pathos of her life, whereas we, the readers, see so clearly the wretchedness she has had to endure."