“Cry to heaven : a play to celebrate one hundred years of Chinese spoken drama” (Publication, 2009)
Year
2009
Text
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. (Stowe4)
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. (Stowe4)
Type
Publication
Contributors (2)
Yu, Nick Rongjun
(um 2009) : Dramatiker, Director of programming and marketing, Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center
Yu, Shiao-ling
(um 2009) : Associate Professor of Chinese, Oregon State University
Mentioned People (1)
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
(Lichfield, Conn. 1811-1896 Hartford, Conn.) : Schriftstellerin
Subjects
Literature : Occident : United States of America
/
References / Sources
Chronology Entries (3)
| # | Year | Text | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1907 |
Aufführung von Hei nu yu tian lu = "Black slave's cry to heaven" von Zeng Xiaogu nach Hei nu yu tian lu in der Übersetzung von Lin Shu und Wei Yi [ID D10429], unter der Regie von Li Shutong [Li Xishuang] und Ouyang Yuqian, durch chinesische Studenten der Chun liu she (Spring Willow Society) im Hongô Theater in Tokyo, June 1-2, 1907. Adaptation von Uncle Tom's cabin von Harriet Beecher Stowe. Li Shutong played Amelia Shelby, her husband was played by Huang Nannan and George Harris was played by Xie Kangbai. Ouyang Yuqian played a slave girl. Song and dance were improperly intruded. A visitor from China sang an aria from a Beijing opera. The play was divided into five acts. This, for a Chinese audience accustomed to an unbroken action upon the stage, was an innovation which the new drama companies of the early period found hard to sustain. The whole play, in preparation at least, was in spoken dialogue from a completely written text, a feature which became impossible to maintain in the circumstances in which the Spring Willow Society was forced to play in Shanghai. This first version of the story was used to reflect the abjection of China in her anticolonial struggle at the beginning of the twentieth century. The play was the beginning of the Chinese spoken drama hua ju. The most striking differences between Stowe's novel and the adaption are the absence of Christian religion in the Chinese play and the ending. Whereas the novel ends with the emancipation of the slaves by the character George Shelby, in Zeng's play the slaves liberate themselves. This play was unlike previous Chinese xi qu in excluding dance and song and disallowing recitation, soliloquies, or asides. The theme of oppression and liberation had an obvious appeal for the young Chinese students in Tokyo. Their dramatized version completely removed the Christian emphasis of Stowe's book and made the theme a struggle between the negro slaves and their oppressors, the slave-dealers, with final victory for the slaves in their slaughter of the slave-dealers. In the programme of the play is declared : The Aims of the Spring Willow Society's 1907 Grand Performance. "The greatest task of artistic performance is in enlightenment. Therefore this society's creative work begins with this. It has established a special section to study old and new drama. It hopes to be the leader of the reform of our country's world of the arts." Ouyang Yuqian, who participated in the performance recalled : "The play was divided into five acts and consisted totally of dialogue, with no recitation, no chorus, no soliloquy or asides. It was rendered in the typical form of the drama. Although the play was adapted from a novel, it should be considered the first created script of Chinese drama because there had never existed before in China a play in the form of divided acts." Zhang Geng (1954) described the performance "as a most memorable performance in the history of Chinese drama. It was the first performance presented by the Chun liu she and was fairly successful in content, form, and technique. It made a deep impression on the audience and had a great effect on the development of drama". Cao Xiaoqiao (1987) : "Although only male actors performed in the play, the use of stage settings and the division of acts were breakthroughs as compared with traditional operas." |
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| 2 | 1958 |
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. |
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| 3 | 2007 |
Aufführung von Yu tian = "Cry to heaven" von Nick Rongjun Yu zum 100. Geburtstag des chinesischen Sprechtheaters 'hua ju'. Adaptation von Uncle Tom's cabin von Harriet Beecher Stowe, in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, finale of the Fifth Beijing International Theater Festival, May 3 (2007). Unter der Regie von Chen Xinyi, mit den Schauspielern Pu Cunxin, Lei Kesheng, Xi Maijuan und Qin Yi. The drama juxtaposes one hundred years of dramatic history, making the American slaves' struggle to gain freedom a metaphor for Chinese dramatists' efforts to achieve their own. The play is divided into six acts, each covering a period of the history of 'hua ju' from 1907 to 2007. Parallel to the 'hua ju' development are the scenes of the black struggle for freedom. In Act 1 Li Shutong tells the narrator that he and his fellow students staged the play Hei nu yu tian lu 1907 in order to awaken the Chinese people. Act 2 represents the early period of the development of 'hua ju' in China from 1907 to 1918. Act 3 represents the period 1919-1936 and it witnesses considerable achievement in 'hua ju' against the background of a looming national crisis, which resulted in the Japanese invasion of Northeastern China. Act 4 deals with the years 1937-1948 and Act 5 with the Maoist years 1949-1976. During the war, theatrical performances became a powerful medium in rallying the Chinese people to fight against the Japanese invaders. While the Cultural Revolution ravages the Chinese dramatists of the scene, the fortunes of the American slaves also reach a nadir. Tom is burned at the stake, and the woman slave Lucy commits suicide by drowning. Act 6 covers the period 1977-2007. The entire act is devoted to describing Eliza and other slaves crossing the icy river to reach the land of freedom. This ending reminds the audience of how difficult the journey to freedom has been for the American slaves and of the ongoing struggle of Chinese dramatists. |
Sources (2)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1962 |
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 |
Publication / Stowe23 | |
| 2 | 2007 |
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 |
Publication / Stowe24 |
Cited by (1)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2000- | Asien-Orient-Institut Universität Zürich | Organisation / AOI |
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