“Eugene O'Neill in China” (Publication, 1988)

Eugene O'Neill allgemein.
The Eugene and Carlotta O'Neill Library. Special Collections. C.W. Post Campus / Long Island University, Brookville, New York
www2.liu.edu Phyllis. Ritual bronzes of ancient China [ID D28786]. [Signed Carlotta Monterey O'Neill, 28.12.1945 New York].
Binyon, Laurence. The flight of the dragon [ID D28761]. [Signed Eugene O'Neill].
Bland, John Otway Percy ; Backhouse, E. China under the empress Dowager [ID D2870].
Boerschmann, Ernst. Picturesque China [ID D446].
Brinkley, Frank. Japan and China [ID D28783].
Chuang Tzu : mystic, moralist, and social reformer. Translated from the Chinese by Herbert A. Giles [ID D7731].
Creel, Herrlee Glessner. The birth of China [ID D9969].
Crosby, Oscar Terry. Tibet and Turkestan [ID D2766]. [Signed Carlotta Monerey, 1927].
Fung, Yu-lan [Feng Youlan]. A history of Chinese philosophy [ID D10069]. [Signed by Carlotta Monterey O'Neill, Boston Dec. 2 1952].
Douglas, Robert K. China [ID D2443].
Grantham, A[lexandra] E[thelred]. Hills of blue [ID D28779].
Hill, A.P. Broken China [ID D28792]. [Signed Eugene O'Neill & Carlotta Monterey, Shanghai 1928].
Hobson, Robert Lockhart. Chinese art [ID D28784].
Hsiung, Shih-i [Xiong Shiyi]. Wang Pao-chuan : Lady precious stream [ID D28788].
Lao-tzu. Tao-tê-ching : Lao-tzu's tao and wu wei. Transl. by Dwight Goddard [ID D28778].
Johnson, Reginald Fleming. Twilight in the forbidden city [ID D3330].
Li, Po. The works of Li Po, the Chinese poet, done into English verse by Shigeyoshi Obata [ID D13279].
Lin, Yutang. The importance of living [ID D14759]. [Mr. & Mrs. Eugene O'Neill – compliments & warmest regards from Ling Yutang, Nov. 25, 1937].
Lin, Yutang. My country and my people [ID D13801].
Mowrer, Edgar Ansel. Mowrer in China [ID D8748]. [To Mr. & Mrs. Eugene O'Neill, this slight testimony of a great admiration. Edgar A. Mowrer].
Norton, Henry Kittredge. China and the powers [ID D28455]. [Signed Carlotta Montery, April 27 1927].
Nott, Stanley Charles. Chinese jade throughout the ages [ID D28785]. [[Inscribed : To Carlotta - with all my love ! Gene, Lafayette July 37].
Payne, Pierre Stephen Robert. Forever China [ID D28781]. [Signed Carlotta Monerey O'Neill, New York Febr. 19th].
Reid, John Gilbert. The Manchu abdication and the powers, 1908-1912 [ID D28780].
The sacred books of China : the texts of Taoism. Transl. by James Legge [ID D2559].
Sherap, Paul. . Tibetan on Tibet [ID D28782]. [Signed Carlotta Monterey, 1927].
Smith, Arthur Henderson. Chinese caracteristics [ID D2512]. [Signed Carlotta Monterey, Oct. 1st 1921].
Sze, Mai-mai. Silent children : a novel. (New York, N.Y. : Harcourt, Brace, 1948). [Inscribed by the author : from Mai-mai, New York, March 3, 1948].
Werner, E.T.C. Myths and legend of China [ID D27281].
The wisdom of China and India. Ed. by Lin Yutang [ID D28787].
[Zhao, Ziyong]. Cantonese love-songs. Transl. by Cecil Clamenti [ID D28790]. [Signed Eugene O'Neill].

Sekundärliteratur
1982 / 1992
James A. Robinson : Any treatment of O'Neill's relationship to Oriental mysticism must begin with the catholic faith in which he was raised and confirmed. His indoctrination as a boy in the dominant religion in the Western world inadvertently prepared his for his interest as a man in Oriental mystical faiths. In the sacred texts of Taoism, O'Neill not only found confirmation of his own mystical intuition that a dynamic universal force (Tao by Laozi) united man and the universe but also discovered an encouraging variant of his own dualistic tragic vision as well.
1988 / 1992
Liu Haiping : 1949-1979, O'Neill's works were little read and there were no performances or new translations of any of his plays. O'Neill's name was almost forgotten in China. To Chinese scholars and critics, O'Neill represented an unexplored mystery ; his life and career, as well as his individual plays, all crammed and crowded with drama, seemed inexhaustible subjects for interpretation and reinterpretation. The knowledge that O'Neill attached great interest to Chinese history and culture and that Orientalism, especially Taoism, formed a distinctive aspect of his art further endeared him to Chinese readers and critics. As a result, the 1980s saw no fewer than one hundred-and fifty articles on O'Neill and his plays carried in various kinds of literary and theatre magazines.
1992
Virginia Floyd : The most significant single factor in O'Neill's early life, in that it affected his development personally and dramaturgically, was his rejection at age fifteen of Catholicism. His natural mystical nature was nurtured in later years by his selective reading of and developing understanding of Taoism. In the period when O'Neill sought a replacement for his lost faith, he turned to and found a meaning for existence in Laozi. The Chinese mystic continued to influence the author in the early 1920s, while he was recording notes for plays made prior to the period of his early research in 1925 for the projected work on Shi Huangdi. Recording new information on Taoism, O'Neill became fascinated by the female and male forces, the 'yin' and 'yang' principles, as they related to Taoism and by the way Laozi 'fused mysticism and pragmatism into a philosophy' through 'which he believed all men could discover their lives to be peaceful, useful and happy'. Although O'Neill never completed a scenario for 'Shi Huangdi', he continued his exploration of Taoism, working sporadically on this material from 1925 to 1934.
1992
Long Wenpei : I. The period between the 1920s and 1940s witnessed the first crest of popular interest in O'Neill in China. Among the plays translated and published, some fifty critical essays written about O'Neill appeared in Chinese newspapers and periodicals. Several critics looked upon him as 'a poet, an observer of human nature', who 'inspires man in his striving upward and to seek light even in crimes and insults'. Other critics observed that his plays were different from those written by Ibsen and Shaw, who portrayed their characters in terms of social relationships while O'Neill depicted his as isolated entities. Still others regarded O'Neill as 'an important promoter' in the history of American drama, who 'has smashed many of the set rules of the stage, but never violated the fundamental principles of drama.
II. The second period, the 1950s through the mid-1970s, saw O'Neill's popularity in temporary suspension in China. Because of the international political situation in the 1950s, the channels of cultural exchange between China and the West narrowed, and criticism of Western literature became biased. All contemporary Western writers whose works were not obviously directed against capitalism were largely ignored. O'Neill's plays were laid aside and neglected. None of his later plays were translated, nor were his critical essays published, to say nothing of producing his plays on the Chinese stage.
III. The third period, the late 1970s to the present, constitutes the second crest of O'Neill's popularity in China. During this period great changes took place in our objective and subjective worlds. The policy of openness and reform adopted by the Chinese government since 1979 has put an end to the period of a closed society and ushered in a new stage. Since then, China has been a scene of bustling activity in literary and art circles. With the improvement in Sino-American relations, cultural exchanges between the two countries, after more than twenty years of stagnation, have been revived. O'Neill fans once again have access to most of his plays and to research literature by scholars from various parts of the world. Riding the waves of this Sino-American rapprochement are a great number of Chinese artists and scholars who have either visited America or taken part in O'Neill conferences and symposiums. American experts and scholars also have visited China. O'Neill has been included in the curricula of Chinese universities. Wherever there is a course in American literature, there is a chapter for O'Neill ; and some universities offer 'O'Neill and contemporary American drama' as an elective course.
1994
Lee Sang-kyong : At the beginning of the 20th century a number of intellectuals of the Western world discovered the spiritual world of the East. They started to look for spiritual regeneration in the mysticism of Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism. O'Neill was no exception. Even in his youth he felt quite attracted by this spiritual direction and under the influence of theosophy he turned more and more towards Eastern mysticism. He became increasingly interested in philosophers and poets who had been inspired by the Eastern ideas and literature such as Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Jung, Emerson, Strindberg, Yeats, Maeterlink, and Lafcadio Hearn. To deepen his knowledge in Eastern religions he began in the twenties to read books like 'Buddha and the gospel of buddhism' by Ananda K. Coomaraswany (London 1916), 'Six systems of Indian philosophy' by Max Müller (London 1919), and 'The texts of taoism' by James Legge. His deep interest is reflected in the content and form of his plays of the twenties, such as 'The fountain', 'Marco millions', 'The great god Brown', 'Lazarus laughed', and others. O'Neill's popularity in the Orient was probably due to the fact that structure and content of his dramas were strongly by Taoist spiritualism. The Orientals felt especially moved by the sensitive presentation of feelings, by his mysticism and the tragical conflict situations of his dramas.

Hong, Shen. Yama Chao = Zhao Yanwang. In : Dong fang za zhi ; vol. 20, no 1-2 (1923). = In : Hong Shen xi qu ji. (Shanghai : Xian dai shu ju, 1933). [Geschrieben 1922].
Performance of The Yama Chao = Zhao Yanwang by Hong Shen. Adaptation of The emperor Jones by Eugene O'Neill. Hong Shen played the main role.
In the newspaper 'Ching bao' reported that the performance was a failure because the audience couldn't understand it and even regarded the actor as a maniac.
Hong Shen : "Zhao Yanwang is intended to show that society should be held responsible for the sins of the individual. No one in the world is born morally good or bad. Both the good and the bad are products of their environment. Nor is there anyone who is perfectly good or absolutely bad, for human behavior is rather complicates. But why is Zhao like this ? If we can study his life story and the stories of people like him, we will find they might all have suffered seriously from maltreatment and unhappy experiences, especially when they were too young to resist."
"The first scene is somewhat splendid – the language, in particular, is condensed and the dialogues are full of vitality. From the second scene on, he borrows the background and facts from Eugene O'Neill's The emperor Jones, such as circling in the forest, becoming delirious and seeing hallucinations and being chased with people beating the drums, and so on. Apart from the meaning of its subject matter, nothing else in the play is worthy of mention"
Cheng Fu-tsai : Although Hong Shen is fiercely attacked for his imitation of O'Neill's play, his adaptation is undoubtedly a creation of his own rather than a mere mimicry of the American prototype. He has not just incorporated the expressionistic devices into his own play, but has striven to make the play represent and reflect the social and political situation of China in the 1920s. His attempt at externalizing the psychological fear of an escaped convict in modern Chinese drama is unmatched. Thus, the creation of The Yama Chao has achieved a certain degree of success in early modern Chinese drama.
From one of Hong Shen's admissions it ensues that for eight scenes of the drama he utilized the 'background and the facts' from The emperor Jones by Eugene O'Neill, and only the first scene, according to him, 'is essential, its style is cohesive and selective, the dialogue is impressive', hence, only this part of the drama is really original.
The Yama Chao borrowed from its American prototype the theme of money, the division of scenes, the use of soliloquies and the psychological treatment of hallucinations in a forest setting. Act three is an adaptation of the forest scenes from The emperor Jones. The Yama Chao follows in scene division, motif, and technical devices.
Hong Shen found O'Neill's symbolic treatment of social and individual ills in The emperor Jones congenial to his own purpose of staging social reform : the predominantly male cast in O'Neill's play attracted Hong Shen.
Hong, Shen : "I am extremely disgusted at the male's impersonating female characters. It is perhaps because I have read too much of Freud's works on abnormal sexuality. Every time I see a man putting on the make-up of a woman, I really feel like having goose-pimples all over me. But I still want to stage a play, and consequently the only thing I can do is to write a play which does not require female characters at all. This is one of the reasons why I made up my mind to borrow the form of Eugene O'Neill's The emperor Jones when the subject-matter of The Yama Chao was decided upon". [In : Zhongguo hua ju yun dong wu shi nian shi liao ji. Tian Han [et al.] zhu. (Beijing : Zhongguo xi ju chu ban she, 1958). 中国话剧运动五十年史料集].

Wang, Duqing. Guo qing qian yi ri. In : Chuang zao yue kan ; vol. 2, no 4 (1928). [Before the national day]. 国庆前一日
The play is indebted to Eugene O'Neill's Before breakfast. The main difference between this play and its American model lies, as their titles suggest, in motifs : while O'Neill's play treats a domestic theme of love and hate between a married couple, its Chinese adaptation deals with a social and revolutionary subject. The basic form is exactly the same as that of Before breakfast : a monologue addressed to a non-speaking, unseen character in the next room. It borrows the form but tells a different story, and it lacks the passion, irony and psychological insight we find in O'Neill's play.

Eugene O'Neill in China.
Eugene O'Neill went together with Carlotta Monery, (who later became his third wife, July 22, 1929), first to Europe and then to the Far East, following Marco Polo's route of 1271. They arrive in Hong Kong Nov. 6 and reach Shanghai Nov. 9.
They kept their arrival in Shanghai as a secret, but a few days later, Nov. 22, 1928, Alfred Batson, reporter of the North China daily news wrote : "Arriving in Shanghai with his characteristic aversion to publicity, Eugene O'Neill has been recuperating in a local hotel from a severe indisposition contracted recently in Singapore by underestimating the force of the sun's rays while bating". After discussing Strange interlude as 'daring innovation' in playwriting, Batson talked about a few earlier play, briefly sketches O'Neill's career, and concluded : "The world trip was taken to establish new contacts and see more of life under varied conditions. While in Shanghai he is anxious to live quietly and to regain his health…"
He registered at the Astor House Hotel. One report held that he announced to his fellow drinkers that he was Eugene O'Neill the playwright and didn't care who knew it. He was sick and tired of traveling and was missing for about two weeks. When he was found, he was deathly ill from alcohol and a bad case of bronchitis. O'Neill was taken to a hospital of Shanghai for treatment and placed in the hands of Dr. Alexander Renner, an Austrian psychiatrist. On December 10, news of his illness was flashed around the world. The New York Times reported on Dec. 11 that he was 'improved'. By this time, he was undergoing treatment in his hotel room in the Astor House. A Chinese student visited him in the hospital and brought him a wooden statue of a Chinese goddess as a gift. O'Neill kept this figurine as a talisman for the rest of his life.
O'Neill described the trip to China as 'the dream of his life', and as 'infinitely valuable' to his future work. The China experience had 'done a lot for his soul'. Forty, he said, was the 'right age to begin to learn. I have regained my sanity again'.
He did not find the expected 'peace and quiet' in Shanghai, and the trip, he felt, left in his mind 'a million impressions' that were hard to digest. He was 'deadly ill of being a public personage' and being written about by 'the murderous reporters'.
He left the Astor House on December 12 and was traveling as 'the reverend William O'Brien' on the German steamer 'Koblenz'.

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.

Huang, Ying. "On O’Neill's plays". In : Qing nian jie ; March 20 (1932).
"These plays show that there exist two different worlds within each nation, one being heaven, the other hell, and people living in hell usually deserve more of our respect and love.”

Cao, Yu. Lei yu = Thunderstorm. In : Wen xue ji kan ; vol. 1, no 3 (1934). = (Shanghai : Wen hua sheng huo chu ban she, 1936). (Wen xue cong kan ; 1). [Uraufführung in Nanjing 1936]. 雷雨
Cao Yu writes in the preface to Tunderstorm : "Critics have regarded me as a disciple of Ibsen, or conjectured that certain parts of the play are inspired by Euripides' 'Hippolytus' or Racine's 'Phedre'. I am still myself, be so small as I am. I cannot fathom the profundity of the masters, just as the beetle in the dark wonders about the brightness of the day. Over the past decade I have read several plays and have performed in them. However hard I try, I still wonder which part of the play I have deliberately imitated. Perhaps at the lower stratum of my subconsciousness, I have deluded myself : I am an ungrateful servant. I have stolen thread by thread the golden yarn of my master's house, and woven my ugly garment out of the stolen threads and deny the discolored threads (now in my hands) remain the master's."

Cao, Yu. Ri chu = The sunrise. (Shanghai : Wen hua sheng huo chu ban she, 1936). 日出
Cao Yu writes in the postscript to The sunrise : "It is a novel attempt, which I have seen in O'Neill's plays and I know it has been successful."

Cao, Yu. Yuan ye. = The wilderness. (Shanghai : Wen hua sheng huo chu ban she, 1937). 原野
Cao Yu writes in the postscript to The wilderness : "I had trouble writing the third act. I have adoped two techniques that O'Neill uses in The emperor Jones – the drums and the gunshots in two of my scenes. At first I didn't think he exerted any influence on me, but after I finished writing and read it twice, I felt I was unconsciously influenced by him. The two techniques, to be sure, belong to O'Neill, and if they are aptly used, they are created out of O'Neill's ingenuity, not mine."

Sekundärliteratur
Cheng Fu-tsai : Cao Yu is fascinated with Greek drama, Aeschylus and Euripides. Several of Shakespeare's plays have influenced him considerably while in college and he was influenced by Eugene O'Neill. Cao Yu's plays, especially The wilderness and Thunderstorm bear a striking resemblance to O'Neill's plays in many aspects. Both of them, for example, employ the expressionistic technical devices to enhance the dramatic effect on the stage. There are also similarities in characterization, the connection between the individual and the race or society and the use of symbols. One remarkable similarity is the treatment of the conflicts of the inner world. In The wilderness Cao Yu adapts O'Neill's The emperor Jones to a Chinese background. Cao Yu does not merely borrow the structure, theme and expressionistic devices from The emperor Jones. He has successfully blended the expressionism of O'Neill with his own realistic portrayal of Chou Hu's regression into a delirious state.
Liu Haiping : All these plays are indebted in different degrees to O'Neill in terms of characterization and stagecraft. We find striking parallels between Abbie in Desire under the elms and Fan Yi, the heroine in Thunderstorm, who is also a stepmother with an incestuous longing for her stepson. Robert in Beyond the horizon parallels Zhou Chong in Thunderstorm, also a younger brother with a touch of the poet and a longing for beauty beyond the horizon. Anna in Anna Christie and Chen Bailu, the heroine in Sunrise are both prostitutes hurled into intense suffering by the evil forces of life. Like O'Neill, Cao Yu uses the hallucinatory scenes not only to externalize the haunting memories of the character and explain the source of his tragedy, but also to present a brief, panoramic review of the nation's past.
Joseph S.M. Lau : The wilderness resembles the American prototype in 'its bold and inventive use of grotesque images, disconnected plots, contrived symbolism, and deliberate pauses between the already sparse dialogues to create tension'.
Chen David Y. : Wilderness adopts the form and technique from its prototypes with so much flexibility that it works out a pattern of its own. Wilderness seems to follow The emperor Jones in the artistic pursuit, lending itself to the expressionistic treatment of emotion through advanced stagecraft and extensive use of symbolism.
Horst Frenz : The main character Zhou Fanyi in Thunderstorm is modeled upon Abbie Putnam in Desire under the elms. Like Abbie, Fanyi longs for her stepson. Their incestuous passion becomes a most eloquent and powerful expression of their defiance of traditional morals.

Xie dai ; vol. 5, no 6 ; Oct. (Shanghai 1934).
"Of all the present-day literatures in the world, the American is the only one, besides that of the Soviet Union, which can be called 'modern' in the true sense of the word. Today's United States is an example of the possibility of establishing an independent national literature in the 20th century. What a great encouragement it is to our Movement [New culture movement] which has cut off all its ties with the past tradition and is struggling to form a new and independent literature." In addition to Hong Shen's criticism of Mourning becomes Electra, O'Neill's Rope was considered 'flat' by its translator Yuan Changyin for employing 'surprise' rather than 'dramatic irony' as its main device.

[O'Neill, Eugene]. Qi yi de cha qu. Wang Shiwei yi [ID D28718].
Zhang Menglin writes in the preface that one of the constant themes in Eugene O'Neill's plays is the conflict between a man's inner and outer selves, and that tragedy occurs when the protagonist becomes aware of the conflict, acts to resolve it, and realizes in the end his inability to do so.

Xiao, Qian. Aoni'er. [O'Neill]. [ID D28774].
"Never caring what theme or style is in vogue, O'Neill moves on persistently to create an art of his own. Everything he wrote smells of nothing but O'Neill. Though nearly every one of his plays is realistic in appearance, the basic tone is always romantic. In his plays an inexplicable feeling of poetry is mingled with serious contemplation of life."
Xiao Qian, while praising O'Neill for the grit, seriousness and originality displayed in his dramas, stated explicitly that he did not consider the playwright's view of life acceptable and that those with different social and cultural backgrounds should have their own view of life.

Yuan, Changying. Shan ju san mo. (Shanghai : Shang wu yin shu guan, 1937). (Zhongguo xian dai xiao pin jing dian). 山居散墨
The resemblance between The emperor Jones by Eugene O'Neill and Zhao Yanwang by Hong Shen was first discovered, studied and made public by Yuan Changying. There followed a hot debate between Yuan and Ma Yanxing, a student and friend of Hong Shen, who tried to deny the kinship between the two plays.

Wai guo wen xue can kao zi liao [ID D28810].
Includes mostly essays translated from critics in the Soviet Union. Eugene O'Neill was labeled 'a corrupted element in the American literary circle' and his plays were said to be 'full of totally decadent ideas of life, inhuman and one hundred percent fascist'.