Shaw, George Bernard
(Dublin 1856-1950 Ayot Saint Lawrence, Hertford) : Dramatiker, Schriftsteller ; Literatur-Nobelpreisträger 1925
Subjects
Index of Names : Occident
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Literature : Occident : Ireland
Chronology Entries (36)
| # | Year | Text | Linked Data |
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| 1 | 1882-1947 |
Shaw, George Bernard. Works. [Eintragungen über China]. http://www.online-literature.com/george_bernard_shaw/. 1882 Shaw, George Bernard. Cashel Byron's profession. (New York, N.Y. : E.P. Dutton, 1882). (Wayfarer's library.) = (London : The Modern Press, 1886). = [First rev. ed. 1889]. (London : W. Scott ; New York, N.Y. : Brentano's, 1889). Prologue "When he at last began to assist his master in giving lessons the accounts had fallen into arrear, and Mrs. Skene had to resume her former care of them; a circumstance which gratified her husband, who regarded it as a fresh triumph of her superior intelligence. Then a Chinaman was engaged to do the more menial work of the establishment." Chap. II "Near the fireplace was a great bronze bell of Chinese shape, mounted like a mortar on a black wooden carriage for use as a coal-scuttle." 1884 Shaw, George Bernard. An unsocial socialist. In : To-day : Monthly magazine of scientific socialism. (1884). Chap. 2 "Oriental taste was displayed in the colors of her costume, which consisted of a white dress, close-fitting, and printed with an elaborate china blue pattern; a yellow straw hat covered with artificial hawthorn and scarlet berries; and tan-colored gloves reaching beyond the elbow, and decorated with a profusion of gold bangles." 1897 Shaw, George Bernard. The devil's disciple. (London : A. Constable, 1897). (The dramatic works of Bernard Shaw ; 8). [Geschrieben 1897 ; Erstaufführung Harmanus Bleecker Hall, Albany, N.Y., 1897]. "The American Unionist is often a Separatist as to Ireland; the English Unionist often sympathizes with the Polish Home Ruler; and both English and American Unionists are apt to be Disruptionists as regards that Imperial Ancient of Days, the Empire of China." Act I RICHARD [holding up the stuffed birds] Here you are, Christy. CHRISTY [disappointed] I'd rather have the China peacocks. RICHARD You shall have both. [Christy is greatly pleased.] Go on. 1898 Shaw, George Bernard. Mrs. Warren's profession : a play. In : Shaw, George Bernard. Plays : Pleasant and unpleasant. Vol. 1-2. (London : Grant Richards, 1898). (Library of English literature ; LEL 20506). [Geschrieben 1893 ; Erstaufführung London's New Lyric Club, 1902]. The Author's apology "None of our plays rouse the sympathy of the audience by an exhibition of the pains of maternity, as Chinese plays constantly do." 1898 Shaw, George Bernard. The perfect Wagnerite : a commentary on the Ring oft he Niblungs. (London : G. Richards, 1898). Siegfried as protestant. "Anarchism is an inevitable condition of progressive evolution. A nation without Freethinkers - that is, without intellectual Anarchists – will share the fate of China." 1898 Shaw, George Bernard. You never can tell. In : Shaw, George Bernard. Plays : Pleasant and unpleasant. Vol. 1-2. (London : Grant Richards, 1898). (Library of English literature ; LEL 20506). [Erstaufführung Royality Theatre, London 1899] Act II WAITER. Oh, yes, sir. Given by the regatta committee for the benefit of the Life-boat, sir. (To Mrs. Clandon.) We often have them, ma'am : Chinese lanterns in the garden, ma'am : very bright and pleasant, very gay and innocent indeed. 1903 Shaw, George Bernard. Maxims for revolutionists. In : Shaw, George Bernard. Man and superman : a comedy and a philosophy. (London : A. Constable, 1903). "The Chinese tame fowls by clipping their wings, and women by deforming their feet. A petticoat round the ankles serves equally well." 1903 Shaw, George Bernard. The revolutionist's handbook and pocket companion. In : Shaw, George Bernard. Man and superman : a comedy and a philosophy. (London : A. Constable, 1903). "We have demanded the decapitation of the Chinese Boxer princes as any Tartar would have done ; and our military and naval expeditions to kill, burn, and destroy tribes and villages for knocking an Englishman on the head are so common a part of our Imperial routine that the last dozen of them has not called forth as much pity as can be counted on by any lady criminal." 1904 Shaw, George Bernard. John Bull's other island. In : Shaw, George Bernard. John Bull's other island and Major Barbara ; also How he lied to her husband. (London : A. Constable, 1907). [Erstaufführung Royal Court Theatre, London 1904]. Act IV LARRY. Yes, mine if you like. Well, our syndicate has no conscience : it has no more regard for your Haffigans and Doolans and Dorans than it has for a gang of Chinese coolies. 1905 Shaw, George Bernard. The irrational knot : being the second novel of his nonage. (London : Constable ; New York, N.Y. : Brentano's, 1905). [Geschrieben 1880]. Chap. II "She was unable to make her resentment felt, for she no longer cared to break glass and china." 1906 Shaw, George Bernard. The doctor's dilemma. (London : Constable, 1908). [Erstaufführung Royal Court Theatre, London 1906]. Author's preface "The Chinaman who burnt down his house to roast his pig was no doubt honestly unable to conceive any less disastrous way of cooking his dinner; and the roast must have been spoiled after all (a perfect type of the average vivisectionist experiment); but this did not prove that the Chinaman was right: it only proved that the Chinaman was an incapable cook and, fundamentally, a fool." 1907 Shaw, George Bernard. Major Barbara. In : Shaw, George Bernard. John Bull's other island and Major Barbara ; also How he lied to her husband. (London : A. Constable, 1907.) [Erstaufführung Royal Court Theatre, London, Nov. 28, 1905]. Act III "I felt like her when I saw this place - felt that I must have it - that never, never, never could I let it go ; only she thought it was the houses and the kitchen ranges and the linen and china, when it was really all the human souls to be saved…" 1909 Shaw, George Bernard. The shewing-up of Blanco Posnet. (London : Constable, 1909). [Erstaufführung Abbey Theatre, Dublin Castle, 1909]. Author's preface "But there is this simple and tremendous difference between the cases: that whereas no evil can conceivably result from the total suppression of murder and theft, and all communities prosper in direct proportion to such suppression, the total suppression of immorality, especially in matters of religion and sex, would stop enlightenment, and produce what used to be called a Chinese civilization until the Chinese lately took to immoral courses by permitting railway contractors to desecrate the graves of their ancestors, and their soldiers to wear clothes which indecently revealed the fact that they had legs and waists and even posteriors." 1910 Shaw, George Bernard. Misalliance. In : In : Misalliance, The dark lady of the sonnets, and Fanny's first play. (London : Constable, 1910). [Printed for private use in the heatre only. Confidential. Not to be circulated.] [Erstaufführung Charles Frohman's Duke of York's Repertory Theatre, 1910]. Act I "I know only one person alive who could drive me to the point of having either to break china or commit murder ; and that person is my son Bentley." 1910 Shaw, George Bernard. Fanny's first play : an easy play for a little theatre. In : Misalliance, The dark lady of the sonnets, and Fanny's first play. (London : Constable, 1910). [Printed for private se in the theatre only. Confidential. Not to be circulated]. [Erstaufführung Adelphi Theatre, London 1911]. Act III MRS KNOX. This is a strange time. I was never one to talk about the end of the world; but look at the things that have happened! KNOX. Earthquakes! GILBEY. San Francisco! MRS GILBEY. Jamaica! KNOX. Martinique! GILBEY. Messina! MRS GILBEY. The plague in China! 1910 Shaw, George Bernard. Treatise on parents and children. In : Misalliance, The dark lady of the sonnets, and Fanny's first play. (London : Constable, 1910). [Printed for private se in the theatre only. Confidential. Not to be circulated]. The Manufacture of Monsters "This industry is by no means peculiar to China. The Chinese (they say) make physical monsters. We revile them for it and proceed to make moral monsters of our own children." 1911 Shaw, George Bernard. Getting married. (London : A. Constable, 1911). [Erstaufführung Royal Haymarket Theatre, London 1908]. Author's preface "Unless they are prepared to add that the statement that those who take the sacrament with their lips but not with their hearts eat and drink their own damnation is also a mistranslation from the Aramaic, they are most solemnly bound to shield marriage from profanation, not merely by permitting divorce, but by making it compulsory in certain cases as the Chinese do." Act I "Who are you, anyhow, that you should know better than Mahomet or Confucius or any of the other Johnnies who have been on this job since the world existed ?" 1912 Shaw, George Bernard. Androcles and the lion. (London : Constable, 1912). Author's preface and prologue "Many of its advocates have been militant atheists. But for some reason the imagination of white mankind has picked out Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ, and attributed all the Christian doctrines to him; and as it is the doctrine and not the man that matters, and, as, besides, one symbol is as good as another provided everyone attaches the same meaning to it, I raise, for the moment, no question as to how far the gospels are original, and how far they consist of Greek and Chinese interpolations. The record that Jesus said certain things is not invalidated by a demonstration that Confucius said them before him." "When you heard the gospel stories read in church, or learnt them from painters and poets, you came out with an impression of their contents that would have astonished a Chinaman who had read the story without prepossession." "All this shows a great power of seeing through vulgar illusions, and a capacity for a higher morality than has yet been established in any civilized community; but it does not place Jesus above Confucius or Plato, not to mention more modern philosophers and moralists." "Without going further than this, you can become a follower of Jesus just as you can become a follower of Confucius or Lao Tse, and may therefore call yourself a Jesuist, or even a Christian, if you hold, as the strictest Secularist quite legitimately may, that all prophets are inspired, and all men with a mission, Christs." "No English king or French president can possibly govern on the assumption that the theology of Peter and Paul, Luther and Calvin, has any objective validity, or that the Christ is more than the Buddha, or Jehovah more than Krishna, or Jesus more or less human than Mahomet or Zoroaster or Confucius." 1912 Shaw, George Bernard. Pygmalion : a play in five acts. (London : Constable, 1912). [Uraufführung Hofburg Wien, 1913]. "He, being a humorist, explained to them the method of the celebrated Dickensian essay on Chinese Metaphysics by the gentleman who read an article on China and an article on Metaphysics and combined the information." 1917 Shaw, George Bernard. Heartbreak House : a dramatic fantasia. (London : Constable, 1917). [Erstaufführung Garrick Theatre, New York 1920]. Act I "THE CAPTAIN. Dunn! I had a boatswain whose name was Dunn. He was originally a pirate in China. He set up as a ship's chandler with stores which I have every reason to believe he stole from me. No doubt he became rich." "The captain emerges from the pantry with a tray of Chinese lacquer and a very fine tea-set on it." 1921 Shaw, George Bernard. Back to Methuselah : a metabiological pentateuch. (London : Constable, 1921). [Erstaufführung Garrick Theatre, New York 1922]. Three blind mice "How was it that he did not see that he was not experimenting with habits or characteristics at all ? How had he overlooked the glaring fact that his experiment had been tried for many generations in China on the feet of Chinese women without producing the smallest tendency on their part to be born with abnormally small feet ? He must have known about the bound feet even if he knew nothing of the mutilations, the clipped ears and docked tails, practised by dog fanciers and horse breeders on many generations of the unfortunate animals they deal in." Shaw, George Bernard. The intelligent woman's guide to socialism, capitalism, sovietism and fascism. (London : Constable, 1928). http://books.google.ch/books?hl=de&id=ys13gZliXFAC&q=meanwhile#v=snippet&q=china&f=false / Shaw63 "If America were as weak militarily as China was in 1840 they would drive us into a war to force whiskey on America." "When their income outruns their extravagance so far that they must use it as capital or throw it away, there is nothing to prevent them investing it in South America, in South Africa, in Russia, or in China, though we cannot get our own slums cleaned up for want of capital kept in an applied to our own country." "In China, when an eclipse of the sun occurs, all the intelligent and energetic women rush out of doors with pokers and shovels, trays and saucepan lids, and bang them together to frighten away the demon who is devouring the sun ; and the perfect success of this proceeding, which has never been known to fail, proves to them that it is the right thing to do. But you, who know all about eclipses, sit calmly looking at them through bits of smoked glass, because your belief about them is a scientific belief and not a metaphysical one. You probable think that the women who are banging the saucepans in China are fools ; but they are not : you would do the same yourself if you lived in a country where astronomy was still in the metaphysical stage." 1933 Shaw, George Bernard. On the rocks. (London : Privately printed by the author, 1933). http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300561.txt. "I went round the world lately preaching that if Russia were thrust back from Communism into competitive Capitalism, and China developed into a predatory Capitalist State, either independently or as part of a Japanese Asiatic hegemony, all the western States would have to quintuple their armies and lie awake at nights in continual dread of hostile aeroplanes, the obvious moral being that whether we choose Communism for ourselves or not, it is our clear interest, even from the point of view of our crudest and oldest militarist diplomacy, to do everything in our power to sustain Communism in Russia and extend it in China, where at present provinces containing at the least of many conflicting estimates eighteen millions of people, have adopted it." 1938 Shaw, George Bernard. Geneva : a fancied page of history in three acts. (London : Priv. print., 1938). [Erstaufführung Malvern Theatre, London 1938]. http://www.scribd.com/doc/222024/Geneva-by-George-Bernard-Shaw. "In China the Manchus have given up binding the women’s feet and making them cripples for life, but we still go on binding our heads and making fools of ourselves for life." "Because the Chinaman is so industrious, so frugal, so trustworthy, that nobody will employ a white British workman or caretaker if there is a yellow one within reach." 1946-1947 Shaw, George Bernard. Buoyant billions : a comedy of no manners. (Edinburgh : Priv. print by R. & R. Clark, 1947). [Private edition. For use in the theatre only ; geschrieben 1936-1937, 1945-1947 ; Erstaufführung Schauspielhaus Zürich, 1948]. http://wikilivres.info/wiki/Buoyant_Billions/Act_III Act III-IV A drawingroom in Belgrave Square, London, converted into a Chinese temple on a domestic scale, with white walls just enough rose tinted to take the glare off, and a tabernacle in vermilion and gold, on a dais of two broad shallow steps. Divan seats, softly upholstered against the walls, and very comfortable easy chairs of wickerwork, luxuriously cushioned, are also available. There is a sort of bishop's chair at one corner of the tabernacle. The effect is lovely and soothing, as only Chinese art could make it. A most incongruous figure enters: a middle-aged twentieth century London solicitor, carrying a case of papers. He is accompanied and ushered by a robed Chinese priest, who fits perfectly into the surroundings. « The priest. It is Mr Buoyant's wish that you should meet his children in this holy place. Did he not mention it in your instructions? Sir Ferdinand. No. This place is not holy. We are in Belgrave Square, not in Hong Kong.” Shaw, George Bernard. Aesthetic science. In : Design ; 46 (1946). Er schreibt : "When I was in Hong Kong, I was entertained very agreeably indeed by Sir Robert Ho Tung. We were both of the age at which one likes a rest after lunch. He took me upstairs into what in England would have been a drawing room. It was a radiant miniature temple with an altar of Chinese vermilion and gold, and cushioned divan seats round the walls for the worshippers. Everything was in such perfect Chinese taste that to sit there and look was a quiet delight. A robed priest and his acolyte stole in and went through a service. When it was over I told Sir Robert that I had found it extraordinarily soothing and happy though I had not understood a word of it. 'Neither have I', he said, 'but it soothes me too'. It was part of the art of life for Chinaman and Irishman alike, and was purely esthetic. But it was also hygienic : there was an unexplored region of biologic science at the back of it." Brief von George Bernard Shaw an Sir Robert Ho Tung. 13 Nov. (1947). "I have finished a play in which I have introduced a private temple like the one in which I spent with you an hour which I have never forgotten and never shall forget. The scene painter wants to know what your temple is like. Have you by any chance a photograph of it ? Or of the priest in his vestments ?" Kay Li : The setting had originated in Hong Kong 13 Febr. (1933) at the residence Idlewild of Sir Robert Ho Tung. [s. Shaw's visit to China]. According to the stage direction, "The effect is lovely and soothing, as only Chinese art could make it". A ready explanation is that since Shaw was putting forward his religion of Creative Evolution, he had to find a corresponding temple to preach his gospel, and the temple had to be exotic enough to impress upon his audience that it was witnessing a new religion. Thus, the temples from both the East and the West are 'holy places'. |
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| 2 | 1918 |
Song, Chunfang. Jin shi ming xi bai zhong. [One hundred well-known modern plays]. [ID D27913]. Erwähnung von Arms and the man, Mrs. Warren's profession, Man and superman, Major Barbara von George Bernard Shaw. |
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| 3 | 1918-1950 |
George Bernard Shaw in China : Allgemein. Wendi Chen : To many Chinese intellectuals, the public face of George Bernard Shaw corresponded to their elevated image of a socially responsible scholar ; they unconsciously transformed him into a culturally more familiar type of scholar and found in him what modern China needed – a public spokesperson with all the necessary attributes : moral conscience, courage, a sense of justice, and great talent. He was regarded first and foremost as a moralist, whose principal purpose in writing was to serve social causes. Shaw was already widely known in China as an expert in humor by the time of his visit, as is clear from Chinese journalistic and literary writings produced during that time. Shaw's witticisms and jokes were told and retold in print ; essays exploiting the public craze for 'humor' were numerous. Since the majority of Chinese writers and artists of the time still came from bourgeois families, they were continually pressured to remold their thinking, - that is, to change their political outlooks and adopt proletarian attitudes – in order to serve the proletariat. The Party urged that they adopt two principles : 1) to go among the broad mass of the people in order to understand and learn from them, and 2) to conscientiously study Marxism-Leninism. Shaw was seen as a bourgeois intellectual who had already experiences ideological remolding by actively participating in various revolutionary activities and seriously studying Marx's Das Kapital. In this respect, Shaw was an exemplary figure for Chinese bourgeois intellectuals. Armed with Mao's thought, critics first of all assessed Shaw's political outlook. In this respect, Shaw passed the Maoist test. Mao Zedong's theory of the source of literary creation also strongly influenced Chinese critics' discussions of Shaw, whose advocacy of working-class causes was viewed as the determining condition for his dramatic success. Kay Li : When Shaw's works were first introduced in to China, he was regarded as a mentor showing the Chinese how to modernize Chinese drama and social life, how to enable China to join an imaginary world civilization or global culture, an integrative single entity that encompassed the world and included all nations and cultures. While Shaw's texts were regard4ed as authoritative, the Chinese intellectuals introducing Shaw's works had no intention of debasing China and elevating the West. His translators made use of the cultural gap between East and West less to widen the geographical distance between the two poles than to draw analogies and create assumed similarities between Shaw's Western world and China. The young Chinese intellectuals hailed Shaw as a naturalist and a realist who presented 'real life'. Shaw did not present real Chinese life, but the intellectuals felt that he presented real life in a general sense, thus showing their assumption of a global homogeneity. The call for social reforms made Shaw's realism and didacticism especially attractive. The young Chinese intellectuals were attracted to the idea of exposing unpleasant social facts and to the form of the problem play, but the kind of social facts exposed had to be social facts relevant to Chinese rather than to English society. The reception of Shaw's plays in China was in part responsible for a reaction against the importation of Western literature generally. Some intellectuals opposed the importation of Western-style-drama, especially the problem plays, because the problems presented in those plays were not completely relevant to the Chinese situation. Shaw's plays helped to globalize rather than Westernize modern Chinese drama because the underlying concerns surrounding the introduction of Western drama were to centrifugally enable China to join world drama and to centripetally make use of world drama to develop a Chinese theater that could realistically address the country's social problems. The young Chinese intellectuals were attracted to Shavian methods such as the discussion play and the problem play and to certain concepts Shaw advocated such as individual will and freedom from family control that echoed the ideology promoted in the Chinese Intellectual Revolution. However, the Chinese found some Shavian issues irrelevant or unimportant, the most notable of these being Shaw's intense advocacy of the Life Force and Creative Evolution, and the Chinese responded to these ideas with little att4ention or understanding. So the Chinese were faced with the dilemma of giving Shaw the power of interpretation, of interpreting Shaw themselves, or of rewriting Shaw. |
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| 4 | 1920 |
Aufführung 16. und 17. Okt. 1920 von Mrs. Warren's profession = Hualun fu ren zhi zhi ye von George Bernard Shaw im Xin Wu Tai Theatre (New Shanghai Theatre) unter der Regie von Wang Chongxian ; Wang als Vivie, mit den Schauspielern Xia Yueren, Xia Yuesan und Zhou Fengwen in Mandarin Chinese. Advertisements in Shen bao : 14., 16., 17. Okt. 1920. Other advertisements in Xin wen bao, Shi shi xin bao, Xin shen bao, Min guo re bao. "The first Western play on the Chinese stage : is Mrs. Warren's profession ; is the most famous play in the new century ; is the play that must be watched by women worldwide." Unique in the newspaper advertisements for Shaw's play is, that two advertisements for Mrs. Warrens profession were placed on the same page, nearly side by side. Shaw first came to the attention of progressive Chinese intellectuals at a time when the general desire for social and cultural reforms was strong. Drama was recognized as an effective medium for disseminating new ideas and for mobilizing people in their efforts to reform backward traditions. Dramatists like Henrik Ibsen and Shaw were greatly admired for their unconventional views and iconoclastic spirit. Mrs. Warren's profession was to prove an extraordinary event in the world of Chinese drama. Virtually all the participants were important figures in the dramatic profession, and all were enthusiastic advocates of the New Drama. Wang Chongxian was known as a staunch drama reformer who had started experimenting with the civilized New Drama. The opening night for the production was set for a Saturday. When the curtain fell, three-quarters of the audience was gone. The second night was no better. Analyzing the causes of this failure, Wang Chongxian noted that the main factors were the audience, the players, and the media. First, the audience had been ill-prepared for such a play and had difficulty understanding it because the audience had no generic context within which to situate the play. Some members of the audience were unable to understand Shaw's play at all ; others could understand a little, but not enough to sustain their interest ; and the rest could follow the plot but had trouble finding any real meaning in the play. Second, the players, being new to an authentic Western play and not having been trained in a realistic tradition of acting, did a poor job. Third, the media were unsupportive. Most of the papers honored the occasion by ignoring the play altogether, and only a few carried review consisting the superficial flattering comments. "This was our first experiment, but we picked too difficult a play with which to challenge the audience ; and they afterwards complained about their inability to understand it. We have ourselves to blame." In traditional Chinese drama, the audience at least had a visual spectacle to watch and music and singing to. Song Chunfang complained "there are only six people in the play who engage in mundane conversation for four and a half hours. At the beginning of the play, Vivie and Praed talk trivially for nearly 30 minutes. In the third scene, Mrs. Warren and Vivie talk for an hour." Wang Chongxian summarized the lessons he learned from the production of Mrs. Warren's profession : "Our future principle should be : we cannot always cater to the expectations of the general populace, nor can we cater to the needs of the highly-educated few. Instead, we must select simple, new ideas and weave them into an interesting and entertaining plot ; in this way we will produce a play which the audience find so engaging that they will want to see it from the beginning to the end." After his failed production, Wang Chongxian concluded in Yu chuang zao xin ju zhu jun shang que, that borrowing famous Western plays is one of the methods to be used in China's transitional state, it should not represent the true spirit for the creation of plays. To find a place in world literature, Chinese plays needed different scriptwriting talents as well as several genres of drama that would be equal to or of higher value than Western plays. Kay Li : Ideology was a dominant issue in the introduction to China of Mrs. Warren's profession. The obvious reason for the choice of Mrs. Warren's profession is that these later plays of Shaw dealt more with individuals than with society, and Shaw's esoteric creed of the Life Force and Creative Evolution seemed more remote to the Chinese audience. The transmission of Shaw's first translated and published play to China was partial. The Chinese became more and more aware of the need to go beyond linguistic translation to a cultural translation in order to make Shaw's plays comprehensible to Chinese readers and audiences. Some aspects transcend cultural barriers more easily than others. Since content demands more cultural translation than form, genres such as the essay and discussion play were more readily received. These provided the tools for the young Chinese intellectuals to criticize society and propose changes to build a better society, whereas the cultural content of Mrs. Warren's profession remain4ed alien to Chinese sensibilities. The failure of the 1920 production had a far-reaching influence on modern Chinese drama. Wang Chongxian argued, that the performances drew attention to the need for new adaptations in Chinese drama to accommodate China's new sociocultural ideals and the needs of a Chinese audience. Wang Chongxian explained that the first Chinese production of Mrs. Warren's profession was the first encounter between purely realist Western drama and Chinese society and the first meeting between New Culture Drama and Chinese society. |
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| 5 | 1921.2 |
Shaw, George Bernard. Back to Methuselah : a metabiological pentateuch. (London : Constable, 1921). [Geschrieben 1918-1920 ; Erstaufführung Garrick Theatre, New York 1922]. Pt. III : The thing happens : A.D. 2170 (2) THE ARCHBISHOP. You do not comprehend the relation between income and production. BARNABAS. I understand my own department. THE ARCHBISHOP. That is not enough. Your department is part of a synthesis which embraces all the departments. BURGE-LUBIN. Synthesis! This is an intellectual difficulty. This is a job for Confucius. I heard him use that very word the other day; and I wondered what the devil he meant. [_Switching on_] Hallo! Put me through to the Chief Secretary. CONFUCIUS'S VOICE. You are speaking to him. BURGE-LUBIN. An intellectual difficulty, old man. Something we don't understand. Come and help us out. THE ARCHBISHOP. May I ask how the question has arisen? BARNABAS. Ah! You begin to smell a rat, do you? You thought yourself pretty safe. You-- BURGE-LUBIN. Steady, Barnabas. Dont be in a hurry._ Confucius enters._ THE ARCHBISHOP [_rising_] Good morning, Mr Chief Secretary. BURGE-LUBIN [_rising in instinctive imitation of the Archbishop_] Honor us by taking a seat, O sage. CONFUCIUS. Ceremony is needless. [_He bows to the company, and takes the chair at the foot of the table_]. The President and the Archbishop resume their seats._ BURGE-LUBIN. We wish to put a case to you, Confucius. Suppose a man, instead of conforming to the official estimate of his expectation of life, were to live for more than two centuries and a half, would the Accountant General be justified in calling him a thief? CONFUCIUS. No. He would be justified in calling him a liar. THE ARCHBISHOP. I think not, Mr Chief Secretary. What do you suppose my age is? CONFUCIUS. Fifty. BURGE-LUBIN. You don't look it. Forty-five; and young for your age. THE ARCHBISHOP. My age is two hundred and eighty-three. BARNABAS [_morosely triumphant_] Hmp! Mad, am I? BURGE-LUBIN. Youre both mad. Excuse me, Archbishop; but this is getting a bit--well-- THE ARCHBISHOP [_to Confucius_] Mr Chief Secretary: will you, to oblige me, assume that I have lived nearly three centuries? As a hypothesis? BURGE-LUBIN. What is a hypothesis? CONFUCIUS. It does not matter. I understand. [To _the Archbishop_] Am I to assume that you have lived in your ancestors, or by metempsychosis-- BURGE-LUBIN. Met--Emp--Sy--Good Lord! What a brain, Confucius! What a brain! THE ARCHBISHOP. Nothing of that kind. Assume in the ordinary sense that I was born in the year 1887, and that I have worked continuously in one profession or another since the year 1910. Am I a thief? CONFUCIUS. I do not know. Was that one of your professions? THE ARCHBISHOP. No. I have been nothing worse than an Archbishop, a President, and a General. BARNABAS. Has he or has he not robbed the Exchequer by drawing five or six incomes when he was only entitled to one? Answer me that. CONFUCIUS. Certainly not. The hypothesis is that he has worked continuously since 1910. We are now in the year 2170. What is the official lifetime? BARNABAS. Seventy-eight. Of course it's an average; and we don't mind a man here and there going on to ninety, or even, as a curiosity, becoming a centenarian. But I say that a man who goes beyond that is a swindler. CONFUCIUS. Seventy-eight into two hundred and eighty-three goes more than three and a half times. Your department owes the Archbishop two and a half educations and three and a half retiring pensions. BARNABAS. Stuff! How can that be? CONFUCIUS. At what age do your people begin to work for the community? BURGE-LUBIN. Three. They do certain things every day when they are three. Just to break them in, you know. But they become self-supporting, or nearly so, at thirteen. CONFUCIUS. And at what age do they retire? BARNABAS. Forty-three. CONFUCIUS. That is, they do thirty years' work; and they receive maintenance and education, without working, for thirteen years of childhood and thirty-five years of superannuation, forty-eight years in all, for each thirty years' work. The Archbishop has given you 260 years' work, and has received only one education and no superannuation. You therefore owe him over 300 years of leisure and nearly eight educations. You are thus heavily in his debt. In other words, he has effected an enormous national economy by living so long; and you, by living only seventy-eight years, are profiting at his expense. He is the benefactor: you are the thief. [_Half rising_] May I now withdraw and return to my serious business, as my own span is comparatively short? BURGE-LUBIN. Dont be in a hurry, old chap. [_Confucius sits down again_]. This hypothecary, or whatever you call it, is put up seriously. I don't believe it; but if the Archbishop and the Accountant General are going to insist that it's true, we shall have either to lock them up or to see the thing through. BARNABAS. It's no use trying these Chinese subtleties on me. I'm a plain man; and though I don't understand metaphysics, and don't believe in them, I understand figures; and if the Archbishop is only entitled to seventy-eight years, and he takes 283, I say he takes more than he is entitled to. Get over that if you can. THE ARCHBISHOP. I have not taken 283 years: I have taken 23 and given 260. CONFUCIUS. Do your accounts shew a deficiency or a surplus? BARNABAS. A surplus. Thats what I cant make out. Thats the artfulness of these people. BURGE-LUBIN. That settles it. Whats the use of arguing? The Chink says you are wrong; and theres an end of it. BARNABAS. I say nothing against the Chink's arguments. But what about my facts? CONFUCIUS. If your facts include a case of a man living 283 years, I advise you to take a few weeks at the seaside. BARNABAS. Let there be an end of this hinting that I am out of my mind. Come and look at the cinema record. I tell you this man is Archbishop Haslam, Archbishop Stickit, President Dickenson, General Bullyboy and himself into the bargain; all five of them. THE ARCHBISHOP. I do not deny it. I never have denied it. Nobody has ever asked me. BURGE-LUBIN. But damn it, man--I beg your pardon, Archbishop; but really, really-- THE ARCHBISHOP. Dont mention it. What were you going to say? BURGE-LUBIN. Well, you were drowned four times over. You are not a cat, you know. THE ARCHBISHOP. That is very easy to understand. Consider my situation when I first made the amazing discovery that I was destined to live three hundred years! I-- CONFUCIUS [_interrupting him_] Pardon me. Such a discovery was impossible. You have not made it yet. You may live a million years if you have already lived two hundred. There is no question of three hundred years. You have made a slip at the very beginning of your fairy tale, Mr Archbishop. BURGE-LUBIN. Good, Confucius! [_To the Archbishop_] He has you there. I don't see how you can get over that. THE ARCHBISHOP. Yes: it is quite a good point. But if the Accountant General will go to the British Museum library, and search the catalogue, he will find under his own name a curious and now forgotten book, dated 1924, entitled The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas. That gospel was that men must live three hundred years if civilization is to be saved. It shewed that this extension of individual human life was possible, and how it was likely to come about. I married the daughter of one of the brothers. BARNABAS. Do you mean to say you claim to be a connection of mine? THE ARCHBISHOP. I claim nothing. As I have by this time perhaps three or four million cousins of one degree or another, I have ceased to call on the family. BURGE-LUBIN. Gracious heavens! Four million relatives! Is that calculation correct, Confucius? CONFUCIUS. In China it might be forty millions if there were no checks on population. BURGE-LUBIN. This is a staggerer. It brings home to one—but [_recovering_] it isnt true, you know. Let us keep sane. CONFUCIUS [_to the Archbishop_] You wish us to understand that the illustrious ancestors of the Accountant General communicated to you a secret by which you could attain the age of three hundred years. THE ARCHBISHOP. No. Nothing of the kind. They simply believed that mankind could live any length of time it knew to be absolutely necessary to save civilization from extinction. I did not share their belief: at least I was not conscious of sharing it: I thought I was only amused by it. To me my father-in-law and his brother were a pair of clever cranks who had talked one another into a fixed idea which had become a monomania with them. It was not until I got into serious difficulties with the pension authorities after turning seventy that I began to suspect the truth. CONFUCIUS. The truth? THE ARCHBISHOP. Yes, Mr Chief Secretary: the truth. Like all revolutionary truths, it began as a joke. As I shewed no signs of ageing after forty-five, my wife used to make fun of me by saying that I was certainly going to live three hundred years. She was sixty-eight when she died; and the last thing she said to me, as I sat by her bedside holding her hand, was 'Bill: you really don't look fifty. I wonder--' She broke off, and fell asleep wondering, and never awoke. Then I began to wonder too. That is the explanation of the three hundred years, Mr Secretary. CONFUCIUS. It is very ingenious, Mr Archbishop. And very well told. BURGE-LUBIN. Of course you understand that _I_ don't for a moment suggest the very faintest doubt of your absolute veracity, Archbishop. You know that, don't you? THE ARCHBISHOP. Quite, Mr President. Only you don't believe me: that is all. I do not expect you to. In your place I should not believe. You had better have a look at the films. [_Pointing to the Accountant General_] He believes. BURGE-LUBIN. But the drowning? What about the drowning? A man might get drowned once, or even twice if he was exceptionally careless. But he couldn't be drowned four times. He would run away from water like a mad dog. THE ARCHBISHOP. Perhaps Mr Chief Secretary can guess the explanation of that. CONFUCIUS. To keep your secret, you had to die. BURGE-LUBIN. But dash it all, man, he isn't dead. CONFUCIUS. It is socially impossible not to do what everybody else does. One must die at the usual time. BARNABAS. Of course. A simple point of honour. CONFUCIUS. Not at all. A simple necessity. BURGE-LUBIN. Well, I'm hanged if I see it. I should jolly well live for ever if I could. THE ARCHBISHOP. It is not so easy as you think. You, Mr Chief Secretary, have grasped the difficulties of the position. Let me remind you, Mr President, that I was over eighty before the 1969 Act for the Redistribution of Income entitled me to a handsome retiring pension. Owing to my youthful appearance I was prosecuted for attempting to obtain public money on false pretences when I claimed it. I could prove nothing; for the register of my birth had been blown to pieces by a bomb dropped on a village church years before in the first of the big modern wars. I was ordered back to work as a man of forty, and had to work for fifteen years more, the retiring age being then fifty-five. BURGE-LUBIN. As late as fifty-five! How did people stand it? THE ARCHBISHOP. They made difficulties about letting me go even then, I still looked so young. For some years I was in continual trouble. The industrial police rounded me up again and again, refusing to believe that I was over age. They began to call me The Wandering Jew. You see how impossible my position was. I foresaw that in twenty years more my official record would prove me to be seventy-five; my appearance would make it impossible to believe that I was more than forty-five; and my real age would be one hundred and seventeen. What was I to do? Bleach my hair? Hobble about on two sticks? Mimic the voice of a centenarian? Better have killed myself. BARNABAS. You ought to have killed yourself. As an honest man you were entitled to no more than an honest man's expectation of life. THE ARCHBISHOP. I did kill myself. It was quite easy. I left a suit of clothes by the seashore during the bathing season, with documents in the pockets to identify me. I then turned up in a strange place, pretending that I had lost my memory, and did not know my name or my age or anything about myself. Under treatment I recovered my health, but not my memory. I have had several careers since I began this routine of life and death. I have been an archbishop three times. When I persuaded the authorities to knock down all our towns and rebuild them from the foundations, or move them, I went into the artillery, and became a general. I have been President. BURGE-LUBIN. Dickenson? THE ARCHBISHOP. Yes. BURGE-LUBIN. But they found Dickenson's body: its ashes are buried in St Paul's. THE ARCHBISHOP. They almost always found the body. During the bathing season there are plenty of bodies. I have been cremated again and again. At first I used to attend my own funeral in disguise, because I had read about a man doing that in an old romance by an author named Bennett, from whom I remember borrowing five pounds in 1912. But I got tired of that. I would not cross the street now to read my latest epitaph. The Chief Secretary and the President look very glum. Their incredulity is vanquished at last._ BURGE-LUBIN. Look here. Do you chaps realize how awful this is? Here we are sitting calmly in the presence of a man whose death is overdue by two centuries. He may crumble into dust before our eyes at any moment. BARNABAS. Not he. He'll go on drawing his pension until the end of the world. THE ARCHBISHOP. Not quite that. My expectation of life is only three hundred years. BARNABAS. You will last out my time anyhow: that's enough for me. THE ARCHBISHOP [_coolly_] How do you know? BARNABAS [_taken aback_] How do I know! THE ARCHBISHOP. Yes: how do you know? I did not begin even to suspect until I was nearly seventy. I was only vain of my youthful appearance. I was not quite serious about it until I was ninety. Even now I am not sure from one moment to another, though I have given you my reason for thinking that I have quite unintentionally committed myself to a lifetime of three hundred years. BURGE-LUBIN. But how do you do it? Is it lemons? Is it Soya beans? Is it-- THE ARCHBISHOP. I do not do it. It happens. It may happen to anyone. It may happen to you. BURGE-LUBIN [_the full significance of this for himself dawning on him_] Then we three may be in the same boat with you, for all we know? THE ARCHBISHOP. You may. Therefore I advise you to be very careful how you take any step that will make my position uncomfortable. BURGE-LUBIN. Well, I'm dashed! One of my secretaries was remarking only this morning how well and young I am looking. Barnabas: I have an absolute conviction that I am one of the--the--shall I say one of the victims?--of this strange destiny. THE ARCHBISHOP. Your great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather formed the same conviction when he was between sixty and seventy. I knew him. BURGE-LUBIN [_depressed_] Ah! But he died. THE ARCHBISHOP. No. BURGE-LUBIN [_hopefully_] Do you mean to say he is still alive? THE ARCHBISHOP. No. He was shot. Under the influence of his belief that he was going to live three hundred years he became a changed man. He began to tell people the truth; and they disliked it so much that they took advantage of certain clauses of an Act of Parliament he had himself passed during the Four Years War, and had purposely forgotten to repeal afterwards. They took him to the Tower of London and shot him. The apparatus rings._ CONFUCIUS [_answering_] Yes? [_He listens_]. A WOMAN'S VOICE. The Domestic Minister has called. BURGE-LUBIN [_not quite catching the answer_] Who does she say has called? CONFUCIUS. The Domestic Minister. BARNABAS. Oh, dash it! That awful woman! BURGE-LUBIN. She certainly is a bit of a terror. I don't exactly know why; for she is not at all bad-looking. BARNABAS [_out of patience_] For Heaven's sake, don't be frivolous. THE ARCHBISHOP. He cannot help it, Mr Accountant General. Three of his sixteen great-great-great-grandfathers married Lubins. BURGE-LUBIN. Tut tut! I am not frivolling. _I_ did not ask the lady here. Which of you did? CONFUCIUS. It is her official duty to report personally to the President once a quarter. BURGE-LUBIN. Oh, that. Then I suppose it's my official duty to receive her. Theyd better send her in. You don't mind, do you? She will bring us back to real life. I don't know how you fellows feel; but I'm just going dotty. CONFUCIUS [_into the telephone_] The President will receive the Domestic Minister at once. They watch the door in silence for the entrance of the Domestic Minister._ BURGE-LUBIN [_suddenly, to the Archbishop_] I suppose you have been married over and over again. THE ARCHBISHOP. Once. You do not make vows until death when death is three hundred years off. They relapse into uneasy silence. The Domestic Minister enters. She is a handsome woman, apparently in the prime of life, with elegant, tense, well held-up figure, and the walk of a goddess. Her expression and deportment are grave, swift, decisive, awful, unanswerable. She wears a Dianesque tunic instead of a blouse, and a silver coronet instead of a gold fillet. Her dress otherwise is not markedly different from that of the men, who rise as she enters, and incline their heads with instinctive awe. She comes to the vacant chair between Barnabas and Confucius._ BURGE-LUBIN [_resolutely genial and gallant_] Delighted to see you, Mrs Lutestring. CONFUCIUS. We are honored by your celestial presence. BARNABAS. Good day, madam. THE ARCHBISHOP. I have not had the pleasure of meeting you before. I am the Archbishop of York. MRS LUTESTRING. Surely we have met, Mr Archbishop. I remember your face. We--[_she checks herself suddenly_] Ah, no: I remember now: it was someone else. [_She sits down_]. They all sit down. THE ARCHBISHOP [_also puzzled_] Are you sure you are mistaken? I also have some association with your face, Mrs Lutestring. Something like a door opening continually and revealing you. And a smile of welcome when you recognized me. Did you ever open a door for me, I wonder? MRS LUTESTRING. I often opened a door for the person you have just reminded me of. But he has been dead many years. The rest, except the Archbishop, look at one another quickly. CONFUCIUS. May I ask how many years? MRS LUTESTRING [_struck by his tone, looks at him for a moment with some displeasure; then replies_] It does not matter. A long time. BURGE-LUBIN. You mustnt rush to conclusions about the Archbishop, Mrs Lutestring. He is an older bird than you think. Older than you, at all events. MRS LUTESTRING [_with a melancholy smile_] I think not, Mr President. But the subject is a delicate one. I had rather not pursue it. CONFUCIUS. There is a question which has not been asked. MRS LUTESTRING [_very decisively_] If it is a question about my age, Mr Chief Secretary, it had better not be asked. All that concerns you about my personal affairs can be found in the books of the Accountant General. CONFUCIUS. The question I was thinking of will not be addressed to you. But let me say that your sensitiveness on the point is very strange, coming from a woman so superior to all common weaknesses as we know you to be. MRS LUTESTRING. I may have reasons which have nothing to do with common weaknesses, Mr Chief Secretary. I hope you will respect them. CONFUCIUS [_after bowing to her in assent_] I will now put my question. Have you, Mr Archbishop, any ground for assuming, as you seem to do, that what has happened to you has not happened to other people as well? BURGE-LUBIN. Yes, by George! I never thought of that. THE ARCHBISHOP. I have never met any case but my own. CONFUCIUS. How do you know? THE ARCHBISHOP. Well, no one has ever told me that they were in this extraordinary position. CONFUCIUS. That proves nothing. Did you ever tell anybody that you were in it? You never told us. Why did you never tell us? THE ARCHBISHOP. I am surprised at the question, coming from so astute a mind as yours, Mr Secretary. When you reach the age I reached before I discovered what was happening to me, I was old enough to know and fear the ferocious hatred with which human animals, like all other animals, turn upon any unhappy individual who has the misfortune to be unlike themselves in every respect: to be unnatural, as they call it. You will still find, among the tales of that twentieth-century classic, Wells, a story of a race of men who grew twice as big as their fellows, and another story of a man who fell into the hands of a race of blind men. The big people had to fight the little people for their lives; and the man with eyes would have had his eyes put out by the blind had he not fled to the desert, where he perished miserably. Wells's teaching, on that and other matters, was not lost on me. By the way, he lent me five pounds once which I never repaid; and it still troubles my conscience. CONFUCIUS. And were you the only reader of Wells? If there were others like you, had they not the same reason for keeping the secret? THE ARCHBISHOP. That is true. But I should know. You short-lived people are so childish. If I met a man of my own age I should recognize him at once. I have never done so. MRS LUTESTRING. Would you recognize a woman of your age, do you think? THE ARCHBISHOP. I--[_He stops and turns upon her with a searching look, startled by the suggestion and the suspicion it rouses_]. MRS LUTESTRING. What is your age, Mr Archbishop? BURGE-LUBIN. Two hundred and eighty-three, he says. That is his little joke. Do you know, Mrs Lutestring, he had almost talked us into believing him when you came in and cleared the air with your robust common sense. MRS LUTESTRING. Do you really feel that, Mr President? I hear the note of breezy assertion in your voice. I miss the note of conviction. BURGE-LUBIN [_jumping up_] Look here. Let us stop talking damned nonsense. I don't wish to be disagreeable; but it's getting on my nerves. The best joke won't bear being pushed beyond a certain point. That point has been reached. I--I'm rather busy this morning. We all have our hands pretty full. Confucius here will tell you that I have a heavy day before me. BARNABAS. Have you anything more important than this thing, if it's true? BURGE-LUBIN. Oh, if if, if it's true! But it isn't true. BARNABAS. Have you anything at all to do? BURGE-LUBIN. Anything to do! Have you forgotten, Barnabas, that I happen to be President, and that the weight of the entire public business of this country is on my shoulders? BARNABAS. Has he anything to do, Confucius? CONFUCIUS. He has to be President. BARNABAS. That means that he has nothing to do. BURGE-LUBIN [_sulkily_] Very well, Barnabas. Go on making a fool of yourself. [_He sits down_]. Go on. BARNABAS. I am not going to leave this room until we get to the bottom of this swindle. MRS LUTESTRING [_turning with deadly gravity on the Accountant General_] This what, did you say? CONFUCIUS. These expressions cannot be sustained. You obscure the discussion in using them. BARNABAS [_glad to escape from her gaze by addressing Confucius_] Well, this unnatural horror. Will that satisfy you? CONFUCIUS. That is in order. But we do not commit ourselves to the implications of the word horror. THE ARCHBISHOP. By the word horror the Accountant General means only something unusual. CONFUCIUS. I notice that the honorable Domestic Minister, on learning the advanced age of the venerable prelate, shews no sign of surprise or incredulity. BURGE-LUBIN. She doesn't take it seriously. Who would? Eh, Mrs Lutestring? MRS LUTESTRING. I take it very seriously indeed, Mr President. I see now that I was not mistaken at first. I have met the Archbishop before. THE ARCHBISHOP. I felt sure of it. This vision of a door opening to me, and a woman's face welcoming me, must be a reminiscence of something that really happened; though I see it now as an angel opening the gate of heaven. MRS LUTESTRING. Or a parlor maid opening the door of the house of the young woman you were in love with? THE ARCHBISHOP [_making a wry face_] Is that the reality? How these things grow in our imagination! But may I say, Mrs Lutestring, that the transfiguration of a parlor maid to an angel is not more amazing than her transfiguration to the very dignified and able Domestic Minister I am addressing. I recognize the angel in you. Frankly, I do not recognize the parlor maid. BURGE-LUBIN. Whats a parlor maid? MRS LUTESTRING. An extinct species. A woman in a black dress and white apron, who opened the house door when people knocked or rang, and was either your tyrant or your slave. I was a parlor maid in the house of one of the Accountant General's remote ancestors. [_To Confucius_] You asked me my age, Mr Chief Secretary, I am two hundred and seventy-four. BURGE-LUBIN [_gallantly_] You don't look it. You really don't look it. MRS LUTESTRING [_turning her face gravely towards him_] Look again, Mr President. BURGE-LUBIN [_looking at her bravely until the smile fades from his face, and he suddenly covers his eyes with his hands_] Yes: you do look it. I am convinced. It's true. Now call up the Lunatic Asylum, Confucius; and tell them to send an ambulance for me. MRS LUTESTRING [_to the Archbishop_] Why have you given away your secret? our secret? THE ARCHBISHOP. They found it out. The cinema records betrayed me. But I never dreamt that there were others. Did you? MRS LUTESTRING. I knew one other. She was a cook. She grew tired, and killed herself. THE ARCHBISHOP. Dear me! However, her death simplifies the situation, as I have been able to convince these gentlemen that the matter had better go no further. MRS LUTESTRING. What! When the President knows! It will be all over the place before the end of the week. BURGE-LUBIN [_injured_] Really, Mrs Lutestring! You speak as if I were a notoriously indiscreet person. Barnabas: have I such a reputation? BARNABAS [_resignedly_] It cant be helped. It's constitutional. CONFUCIUS. It is utterly unconstitutional. But, as you say, it cannot be helped. BURGE-LUBIN [_solemnly_] I deny that a secret of State has ever passed my lips--except perhaps to the Minister of Health, who is discretion personified. People think, because she is a negress-- MRS LUTESTRING. It does not matter much now. Once, it would have mattered a great deal. But my children are all dead. THE ARCHBISHOP. Yes: the children must have been a terrible difficulty. Fortunately for me, I had none. MRS LUTESTRING. There was one daughter who was the child of my very heart. Some years after my first drowning I learnt that she had lost her sight. I went to her. She was an old woman of ninety-six, blind. She asked me to sit and talk with her because my voice was like the voice of her dead mother. BURGE-LUBIN. The complications must be frightful. Really I hardly know whether I do want to live much longer than other people. MRS LUTESTRING. You can always kill yourself, as cook did; but that was influenza. Long life is complicated, and even terrible; but it is glorious all the same. I would no more change places with an ordinary woman than with a mayfly that lives only an hour. THE ARCHBISHOP. What set you thinking of it first? MRS LUTESTRING. Conrad Barnabas's book. Your wife told me it was more wonderful than Napoleon's Book of Fate and Old Moore's Almanac, which cook and I used to read. I was very ignorant: it did not seem so impossible to me as to an educated woman. Yet I forgot all about it, and married and drudged as a poor man's wife, and brought up children, and looked twenty years older than I really was, until one day, long after my husband died and my children were out in the world working for themselves, I noticed that I looked twenty years younger than I really was. The truth came to me in a flash. BURGE-LUBIN. An amazing moment. Your feelings must have been beyond description. What was your first thought? MRS LUTESTRING. Pure terror. I saw that the little money I had laid up would not last, and that I must go out and: work again. They had things called Old Age Pensions then: miserable pittances for worn-out old laborers to die on. I thought I should be found out if I went on drawing it too long. The horror of facing another lifetime of drudgery, of missing my hard-earned rest and losing my poor little savings, drove everything else out of my mind. You people nowadays can have no conception of the dread of poverty that hung over us then, or of the utter tiredness of forty years' unending overwork and striving to make a shilling do the work of a pound. THE ARCHBISHOP. I wonder you did not kill yourself. I often wonder why the poor in those evil old times did not kill themselves. They did not even kill other people. MRS LUTESTRING. You never kill yourself, because you always may as well wait until tomorrow. And you have not energy or conviction enough to kill the others. Besides, how can you blame them when you would do as they do if you were in their place? BURGE-LUBIN. Devilish poor consolation, that. MRS LUTESTRING. There were other consolations in those days for people like me. We drank preparations of alcohol to relieve the strain of living and give us an artificial happiness. BURGE-LUBIN {[[_all together,_]} Alcohol! CONFUCIUS {[_making_] } Pfff ...! BARNABAS {[_wry faces_]] } Disgusting. MRS LUTESTRING. A little alcohol would improve your temper and manners, and make you much easier to live with, Mr Accountant General. BURGE-LUBIN [_laughing_] By George, I believe you! Try it, Barnabas. CONFUCIUS. No. Try tea. It is the more civilized poison of the two. MRS LUTESTRING. You, Mr President, were born intoxicated with your own well-fed natural exuberance. You cannot imagine what alcohol was to an underfed poor woman. I had carefully arranged my little savings so that I could get drunk, as we called it, once a week; and my only pleasure was looking forward to that poor little debauch. That is what saved me from suicide. I could not bear to miss my next carouse. But when I stopped working, and lived on my pension, the fatigue of my life's drudgery began to wear off, because, you see, I was not really old. I recuperated. I looked younger and younger. And at last I was rested enough to have courage and strength to begin life again. Besides, political changes were making it easier: life was a little better worth living for the nine-tenths of the people who used to be mere drudges. After that, I never turned back or faltered. My only regret now is that I shall die when I am three hundred or thereabouts. There was only one thing that made life hard; and that is gone now. CONFUCIUS. May we ask what that was? MRS LUTESTRING. Perhaps you will be offended if I tell you. BURGE-LUBIN. Offended! My dear lady, do you suppose, after such a stupendous revelation, that anything short of a blow from a sledge-hammer could produce the smallest impression on any of us? MRS LUTESTRING. Well, you see, it has been so hard on me never to meet a grown-up person. You are all such children. And I never was very fond of children, except that one girl who woke up the mother passion in me. I have been very lonely sometimes. BURGE-LUBIN [_again gallant_] But surely, Mrs Lutestring, that has been your own fault. If I may say so, a lady of your attractions need never have been lonely. MRS LUTESTRING. Why? BURGE-LUBIN. Why! Well--. Well, er--. Well, er er--. Well! [_he gives it up_]. THE ARCHBISHOP. He means that you might have married. Curious, how little they understand our position. MRS LUTESTRING. I did marry. I married again on my hundred and first birthday. But of course I had to marry an elderly man: a man over sixty. He was a great painter. On his deathbed he said to me 'It has taken me fifty years to learn my trade, and to paint all the foolish pictures a man must paint and get rid of before he comes through them to the great things he ought to paint. And now that my foot is at last on the threshold of the temple I find that it is also the threshold of my tomb.' That man would have been the greatest painter of all time if he could have lived as long as I. I saw him die of old age whilst he was still, as he said himself, a gentleman amateur, like all modern painters. BURGE-LUBIN. But why had you to marry an elderly man? Why not marry a young one? or shall I say a middle-aged one? If my own affections were not already engaged; and if, to tell the truth, I were not a little afraid of you--for you are a very superior woman, as we all acknowledge--I should esteem myself happy in--er--er-- MRS LUTESTRING. Mr President: have you ever tried to take advantage of the innocence of a little child for the gratification of your senses? BURGE-LUBIN. Good Heavens, madam, what do you take me for? What right have you to ask me such a question? MRS LUTESTRING. I am at present in my two hundred and seventy-fifth year. You suggest that I should take advantage of the innocence of a child of thirty, and marry it. THE ARCHBISHOP. Can you shortlived people not understand that as the confusion and immaturity and primitive animalism in which we live for the first hundred years of our life is worse in this matter of sex than in any other, you are intolerable to us in that relation? BURGE-LUBIN. Do you mean to say, Mrs Lutestring, that you regard me as a child? MRS LUTESTRING. Do you expect me to regard you as a completed soul? Oh, you may well be afraid of me. There are moments when your levity, your ingratitude, your shallow jollity, make my gorge rise so against you that if I could not remind myself that you are a child I should be tempted to doubt your right to live at all. CONFUCIUS. Do you grudge us the few years we have? you who have three hundred! BURGE-LUBIN. You accuse me of levity! Must I remind you, madam, that I am the President, and that you are only the head of a department? BARNABAS. Ingratitude too! You draw a pension for three hundred years when we owe you only seventy-eight; and you call us ungrateful! MRS LUTESTRING. I do. When I think of the blessings that have been showered on you, and contrast them with the poverty! the humiliations! the anxieties! the heartbreak! the insolence and tyranny that were the daily lot of mankind when I was learning to suffer instead of learning to live! when I see how lightly you take it all! how you quarrel over the crumpled leaves in your beds of roses! how you are so dainty about your work that unless it is made either interesting or delightful to you you leave it to negresses and Chinamen, I ask myself whether even three hundred years of thought and experience can save you from being superseded by the Power that created you and put you on your trial. BURGE-LUBIN. My dear lady: our Chinese and colored friends are perfectly happy. They are twenty times better off here than they would be in China or Liberia. They do their work admirably; and in doing it they set us free for higher employments. THE ARCHBISHOP [_who has caught the infection of her indignation_] What higher employments are you capable of? you that are superannuated at seventy and dead at eighty! MRS LUTESTRING. You are not really doing higher work. You are supposed to make the decisions and give the orders; but the negresses and the Chinese make up your minds for you and tell you what orders to give, just as my brother, who was a sergeant in the Guards, used to prompt his officers in the old days. When I want to get anything done at the Health Ministry I do not come to you: I go to the black lady who has been the real president during your present term of office, or to Confucius, who goes on for ever while presidents come and presidents go. BURGE-LUBIN. This is outrageous. This is treason to the white race. And let me tell you, madam, that I have never in my life met the Minister of Health, and that I protest against the vulgar color prejudice which disparages her great ability and her eminent services to the State. My relations with her are purely telephonic, gramophonic, photophonic, and, may I add, platonic. THE ARCHBISHOP. There is no reason why you should be ashamed of them in any case, Mr President. But let us look at the position impersonally. Can you deny that what is happening is that the English people have become a Joint Stock Company admitting Asiatics and Africans as shareholders? BARNABAS. Nothing like it. I know all about the old joint stock companies. The shareholders did no work. THE ARCHBISHOP. That is true; but we, like them, get our dividends whether we work or not. We work partly because we know there would be no dividends if we did not, and partly because if we refuse we are regarded as mentally deficient and put into a lethal chamber. But what do we work at? Before the few changes we were forced to make by the revolutions that followed the Four Years War, our governing classes had been so rich, as it was called, that they had become the most intellectually lazy and fat-headed people on the face of the earth. There is a good deal of that fat still clinging to us. BURGE-LUBIN. As President, I must not listen to unpatriotic criticisms of our national character, Mr Archbishop. THE ARCHBISHOP. As Archbishop, Mr President, it is my official duty to criticize the national character unsparingly. At the canonization of Saint Henrik Ibsen, you yourself unveiled the monument to him which bears on its pedestal the noble inscription, 'I came not to call sinners, but the righteous, to repentance.' The proof of what I say is that our routine work, and what may be called our ornamental and figure-head work, is being more and more sought after by the English; whilst the thinking, organizing, calculating, directing work is done by yellow brains, brown brains, and black brains, just as it was done in my early days by Jewish brains, Scottish brains, Italian brains, German brains. The only white men who still do serious work are those who, like the Accountant General, have no capacity for enjoyment, and no social gifts to make them welcome outside their offices. BARNABAS. Confound your impudence! I had gifts enough to find you out, anyhow. THE ARCHBISHOP [_disregarding this outburst_] If you were to kill me as I stand here, you would have to appoint an Indian to succeed me. I take precedence today not as an Englishman, but as a man with more than a century and a half of fully adult experience. We are letting all the power slip into the hands of the colored people. In another hundred years we shall be simply their household pets. BURGE-LUBIN [_reacting buoyantly_] Not the least danger of it. I grant you we leave the most troublesome part of the labor of the nation to them. And a good job too: why should we drudge at it? But think of the activities of our leisure! Is there a jollier place on earth to live in than England out of office hours? And to whom do we owe that? To ourselves, not to the niggers. The nigger and the Chink are all right from Tuesday to Friday; but from Friday to Tuesday they are simply nowhere; and the real life of England is from Friday to Tuesday. THE ARCHBISHOP. That is terribly true. In devising brainless amusements; in pursuing them with enormous vigor, and taking them with eager seriousness, our English people are the wonder of the world. They always were. And it is just as well; for otherwise their sensuality would become morbid and destroy them. What appals me is that their amusements should amuse them. They are the amusements of boys and girls. They are pardonable up to the age of fifty or sixty: after that they are ridiculous. I tell you, what is wrong with us is that we are a non-adult race; and the Irish and the Scots, and the niggers and Chinks, as you call them, though their lifetime is as short as ours, or shorter, yet do somehow contrive to grow up a little before they die. We die in boyhood: the maturity that should make us the greatest of all the nations lies beyond the grave for us. Either we shall go under as greybeards with golf clubs in our hands, or we must will to live longer. MRS LUTESTRING. Yes: that is it. I could not have expressed it in words; but you have expressed it for me. I felt, even when I was an ignorant domestic slave, that we had the possibility of becoming a great nation within us; but our faults and follies drove me to cynical hopelessness. We all ended then like that. It is the highest creatures who take the longest to mature, and are the most helpless during their immaturity. I know now that it took me a whole century to grow up. I began my serious life when I was a hundred and twenty. Asiatics cannot control me: I am not a child in their hands, as you are, Mr President. Neither, I am sure, is the Archbishop. They respect me. You are not grown up enough even for that, though you were kind enough to say that I frighten you. BURGE-LUBIN. Honestly, you do. And will you think me very rude if I say that if I must choose between a white woman old enough to be my great-grandmother and a black woman of my own age, I shall probably find the black woman more sympathetic? MRS LUTESTRING. And more attractive in color, perhaps? BURGE-LUBIN. Yes. Since you ask me, more--well, not more attractive: I do not deny that you have an excellent appearance--but I will say, richer. More Venetian. Tropical. 'The shadowed livery of the burnished sun.' MRS LUTESTRING. Our women, and their favorite story writers, begin already to talk about men with golden complexions. CONFUCIUS [_expanding into a smile all across both face and body_] A-a-a-a-a-h! BURGE-LUBIN. Well, what of it, madam? Have you read a very interesting book by the librarian of the Biological Society suggesting that the future of the world lies with the Mulatto? MRS LUTESTRING [_rising_] Mr Archbishop: if the white race is to be saved, our destiny is apparent. THE ARCHBISHOP. Yes: our duty is pretty clear. MRS LUTESTRING. Have you time to come home with me and discuss the matter? THE ARCHBISHOP [_rising_] With pleasure. BARNABAS [_rising also and rushing past Mrs Lutestring to the door, where he turns to bar her way_] No you don't. Burge: you understand, don't you? BURGE-LUBIN. No. What is it? BARNABAS. These two are going to marry. BURGE-LUBIN. Why shouldn't they, if they want to? BARNABAS. They don't want to. They will do it in cold blood because their children will live three hundred years. It mustnt be allowed. CONFUCIUS. You cannot prevent it. There is no law that gives you power to interfere with them. BARNABAS. If they force me to it I will obtain legislation against marriages above the age of seventy-eight. THE ARCHBISHOP. There is not time for that before we are married, Mr Accountant General. Be good enough to get out of the lady's way. BARNABAS. There is time to send the lady to the lethal chamber before anything comes of your marriage. Dont forget that. MRS LUTESTRING. What nonsense, Mr Accountant General! Good afternoon, Mr President. Good afternoon, Mr Chief Secretary. [_They rise and acknowledge her salutation with bows. She walks straight at the Accountant General, who instinctively shrinks out of her way as she leaves the room_]. THE ARCHBISHOP. I am surprised at you, Mr Barnabas. Your tone was like an echo from the Dark Ages. [_He follows the Domestic Minister_]. Confucius, shaking his head and clucking with his tongue in deprecation of this painful episode, moves to the chair just vacated by the Archbishop and stands behind it with folded palms, looking at the President. The Accountant General shakes his fist after the departed visitors, and bursts into savage abuse of them._ BARNABAS. Thieves! Cursed thieves! Vampires! What are you going to do, Burge? BURGE-LUBIN. Do? BARNABAS. Yes, do. There must be dozens of these people in existence. Are you going to let them do what the two who have just left us mean to do, and crowd us off the face of the earth? BURGE-LUBIN [_sitting down_] Oh, come, Barnabas! What harm are they doing? Arnt you interested in them? Dont you like them? BARNABAS. Like them! I hate them. They are monsters, unnatural monsters. They are poison to me. BURGE-LUBIN. What possible objection can there be to their living as long as they can? It does not shorten our lives, does it? BARNABAS. If I have to die when I am seventy-eight, I don't see why another man should be privileged to live to be two hundred and seventy-eight. It does shorten my life, relatively. It makes us ridiculous. If they grew to be twelve feet high they would make us all dwarfs. They talked to us as if we were children. There is no love lost between us: their hatred of us came out soon enough. You heard what the woman said, and how the Archbishop backed her up? BURGE-LUBIN. But what can we do to them? BARNABAS. Kill them. BURGE-LUBIN. Nonsense! BARNABAS. Lock them up. Sterilize them somehow, anyhow. BURGE-LUBIN. But what reason could we give? BARNABAS. What reason can you give for killing a snake? Nature tells you to do it. BURGE-LUBIN. My dear Barnabas, you are out of your mind. BARNABAS. Havnt you said that once too often already this morning? BURGE-LUBIN. I don't believe you will carry a single soul with you. BARNABAS. I understand. I know you. You think you are one of them. CONFUCIUS. Mr Accountant General: you may be one of them. BARNABAS. How dare you accuse me of such a thing? I am an honest man, not a monster. I won my place in public life by demonstrating that the true expectation of human life is seventy-eight point six. And I will resist any attempt to alter or upset it to the last drop of my blood if need be. BURGE-LUBIN. Oh, tut tut! Come, come! Pull yourself together. How can you, a descendant of the great Conrad Barnabas, the man who is still remembered by his masterly Biography of a Black Beetle, be so absurd? BARNABAS. You had better go and write the autobiography of a jackass. I am going to raise the country against this horror, and against you, if you shew the slightest sign of weakness about it. CONFUCIUS [_very impressively_] You will regret it if you do. BARNABAS. What is to make me regret it? CONFUCIUS. Every mortal man and woman in the community will begin to count on living for three centuries. Things will happen which you do not foresee: terrible things. The family will dissolve: parents and children will be no longer the old and the young: brothers and sisters will meet as strangers after a hundred years separation: the ties of blood will lose their innocence. The imaginations of men, let loose over the possibilities of three centuries of life, will drive them mad and wreck human society. This discovery must be kept a dead secret. [_He sits down_]. BARNABAS. And if I refuse to keep the secret? CONFUCIUS. I shall have you safe in a lunatic asylum the day after you blab. BARNABAS. You forget that I can produce the Archbishop to prove my statement. CONFUCIUS. So can I. Which of us do you think he will support when I explain to him that your object in revealing his age is to get him killed? BARNABAS [_desperate_] Burge: are you going to back up this yellow abomination against me? Are we public men and members of the Government? or are we damned blackguards? CONFUCIUS [_unmoved_] Have you ever known a public man who was not what vituperative people called a damned blackguard when some inconsiderate person wanted to tell the public more than was good for it? BARNABAS. Hold your tongue, you insolent heathen. Burge: I spoke to you. BURGE-LUBIN. Well, you know, my dear Barnabas, Confucius is a very long-headed chap. I see his point. BARNABAS. Do you? Then let me tell you that, except officially, I will never speak to you again. Do you hear? BURGE-LUBIN [_cheerfully_] You will. You will. BARNABAS. And don't you ever dare speak to me again. Do you hear? [_He turns to the door_]. BURGE-LUBIN. I will. I will. Goodbye, Barnabas. God bless you. BARNABAS. May you live forever, and be the laughingstock of the whole world! [_he dashes out in a fury_]. BURGE-LUBIN [_laughing indulgently_] He will keep the secret all right. I know Barnabas. You neednt worry. CONFUCIUS [_troubled and grave_] There are no secrets except the secrets that keep themselves. Consider. There are those films at the Record Office. We have no power to prevent the Master of the Records from publishing this discovery made in his department. We cannot silence the American--who can silence an American?--nor the people who were there today to receive him. Fortunately, a film can prove nothing but a resemblance. BURGE-LUBIN. Thats very true. After all, the whole thing is confounded nonsense, isnt it? CONFUCIUS [_raising his head to look at him_] You have decided not to believe it now that you realize its inconveniences. That is the English method. It may not work in this case. BURGE-LUBIN. English be hanged! It's common sense. You know, those two people got us hypnotized: not a doubt of it. They must have been kidding us. They were, werent they? CONFUCIUS. You looked into that woman's face; and you believed. BURGE-LUBIN. Just so. Thats where she had me. I shouldn't have believed her a bit if she'd turned her back to me. CONFUCIUS [_shakes his head slowly and repeatedly_]??? BURGE-LUBIN. You really think--? [_he hesitates_]. CONFUCIUS. The Archbishop has always been a puzzle to me. Ever since I learnt to distinguish between one English face and another I have noticed what the woman pointed out: that the English face is not an adult face, just as the English mind is not an adult mind. BURGE-LUBIN. Stow it, John Chinaman. If ever there was a race divinely appointed to take charge of the non-adult races and guide them and train them and keep them out of mischief until they grow up to be capable of adopting our institutions, that race is the English race. It is the only race in the world that has that characteristic. Now! CONFUCIUS. That is the fancy of a child nursing a doll. But it is ten times more childish of you to dispute the highest compliment ever paid you. BURGE-LUBIN. You call it a compliment to class us as grown-up children. CONFUCIUS. Not grown-up children, children at fifty, sixty, seventy. Your maturity is so late that you never attain to it. You have to be governed by races which are mature at forty. That means that you are potentially the most highly developed race on earth, and would be actually the greatest if you could live long enough to attain to maturity. BURGE-LUBIN [_grasping the idea at last_] By George, Confucius, youre right! I never thought of that. That explains everything. We are just a lot of schoolboys: theres no denying it. Talk to an Englishman about anything serious, and he listens to you curiously for a moment just as he listens to a chap playing classical music. Then he goes back to his marine golf, or motoring, or flying, or women, just like a bit of stretched elastic when you let it go. [_Soaring to the height of his theme_] Oh, youre quite right. We are only in our infancy. I ought to be in a perambulator, with a nurse shoving me along. It's true: it's absolutely true. But some day we'll grow up; and then, by Jingo, we'll shew em. CONFUCIUS. The Archbishop is an adult. When I was a child I was dominated and intimidated by people whom I now know to have been weaker and sillier than I, because there was some mysterious quality in their mere age that overawed me. I confess that, though I have kept up appearances, I have always been afraid of the Archbishop. BURGE-LUBIN. Between ourselves, Confucius, so have I. CONFUCIUS. It is this that convinced me. It was this in the woman's face that convinced you. Their new departure in the history of the race is no fraud. It does not even surprise me. BURGE-LUBIN. Oh, come! Not surprise you! It's your pose never to be surprised at anything; but if you are not surprised at this you are not human. CONFUCIUS. I am staggered, just as a man may be staggered by an explosion for which he has himself laid the charge and lighted the fuse. But I am not surprised, because, as a philosopher and a student of evolutionary biology, I have come to regard some such development as this as inevitable. If I had not thus prepared myself to be credulous, no mere evidence of films and well-told tales would have persuaded me to believe. As it is, I do believe. BURGE-LUBIN. Well, that being settled, what the devil is to happen next? Whats the next move for us? CONFUCIUS. We do not make the next move. The next move will be made by the Archbishop and the woman. BURGE-LUBIN. Their marriage? CONFUCIUS. More than that. They have made the momentous discovery that they are not alone in the world. BURGE-LUBIN. You think there are others? CONFUCIUS. There must be many others. Each of them believes that he or she is the only one to whom the miracle has happened. But the Archbishop knows better now. He will advertise in terms which only the longlived people will understand. He will bring them together and organize them. They will hasten from all parts of the earth. They will become a great Power. BURGE-LUBIN [_a little alarmed_] I say, will they? I suppose they will. I wonder is Barnabas right after all? Ought we to allow it? CONFUCIUS. Nothing that we can do will stop it. We cannot in our souls really want to stop it: the vital force that has produced this change would paralyse our opposition to it, if we were mad enough to oppose. But we will not oppose. You and I may be of the elect, too. BURGE-LUBIN. Yes: thats what gets us every time. What the deuce ought we to do? Something must be done about it, you know. CONFUCIUS. Let us sit still, and meditate in silence on the vistas before us. BURGE-LUBIN. By George, I believe youre right. Let us. They sit meditating, the Chinaman naturally, the President with visible effort and intensity. He is positively glaring into the future when the voice of the Negress is heard._ THE NEGRESS. Mr President. BURGE-LUBIN [_joyfully_] Yes. [_Taking up a peg_] Are you at home? THE NEGRESS. No. Omega, zero, x squared. The President rapidly puts the peg in the switchboard; works the dial; and presses the button. The screen becomes transparent; and the Negress, brilliantly dressed, appears on what looks like the bridge of a steam yacht in glorious sea weather. The installation with which she is communicating is beside the binnacle._ CONFUCIUS [_looking round, and recoiling with a shriek of disgust_] Ach! Avaunt! Avaunt! [_He rushes from the room_]. BURGE-LUBIN. What part of the coast is that? THE NEGRESS. Fishguard Bay. Why not run over and join me for the afternoon? I am disposed to be approachable at last. BURGE-LUBIN. But Fishguard! Two hundred and seventy miles! THE NEGRESS. There is a lightning express on the Irish Air Service at half-past sixteen. They will drop you by a parachute in the bay. The dip will do you good. I will pick you up and dry you and give you a first-rate time. BURGE-LUBIN. Delightful. But a little risky, isnt it? THE NEGRESS. Risky! I thought you were afraid of nothing. BURGE-LUBIN. I am not exactly afraid; but-- THE NEGRESS [_offended_] But you think it is not good enough. Very well [_she raises her hand to take the peg out of her switchboard_]. BURGE-LUBIN [_imploringly_] No: stop: let me explain: hold the line just one moment. Oh, please. THE NEGRESS [_waiting with her hand poised over the peg_] Well? BURGE-LUBIN. The fact is, I have been behaving very recklessly for some time past under the impression that my life would be so short that it was not worth bothering about. But I have just learnt that I may live--well, much longer than I expected. I am sure your good sense will tell you that this alters the case. I-- THE NEGRESS [_with suppressed rage_] Oh, quite. Pray don't risk your precious, life on my account. Sorry for troubling you. Goodbye. [_She snatches out her peg and vanishes_]. BURGE-LUBIN [_urgently_] No: please hold on. I can convince you--[_a loud buzz-uzz-uzz_]. Engaged! Who is she calling up now? [_Represses the button and calls_] The Chief Secretary. Say I want to see him again, just for a moment. CONFUCIUS'S VOICE. Is the woman gone? BURGE-LUBIN. Yes, yes: it's all right. Just a moment, if--[_Confucius returns_] Confucius: I have some important business at Fishguard. The Irish Air Service can drop me in the bay by parachute. I suppose it's quite safe, isnt it? CONFUCIUS. Nothing is quite safe. The air service is as safe as any other travelling service. The parachute is safe. But the water is not safe. BURGE-LUBIN. Why? They will give me an unsinkable tunic, wont they? CONFUCIUS. You will not sink; but the sea is very cold. You may get rheumatism for life. BURGE-LUBIN. For life! That settles it: I wont risk it. CONFUCIUS. Good. You have at last become prudent: you are no longer what you call a sportsman: you are a sensible coward, almost a grown-up man. I congratulate you. BURGE-LUBIN [_resolutely_] Coward or no coward, I will not face an eternity of rheumatism for any woman that ever was born. [_He rises and goes to the rack for his fillet_] I have changed my mind: I am going home. [_He cocks the fillet rakishly_] Good evening. CONFUCIUS. So early? If the Minister of Health rings you up, what shall I tell her? BURGE-LUBIN. Tell her to go to the devil. [_He goes out_]. CONFUCIUS [_shaking his head, shocked at the President's impoliteness_] No. No, no, no, no, no. Oh, these English! these crude young civilizations! Their manners! Hogs. Hogs. Sekundärliteratur Kay Li : Shaw's appropriation of Confucius will be considered as an appropriation of Shaw, of images of Confucius in the West, and of images of Confucius in the East. The dramatic Confucius was a Shavian construct rather than a historical figure. Shaw's Confucius was created on the assumption of its universal application, as if it were an image with the same reference everywhere. The image of Confucius is appropriated in two ways : First, it is assimilated into Shaw's philosophy of creative Evolution without considering cultural differences. Second, the image had already become a tokenized idea in the West at that time, and Shaw's us of the image of Confucius is similar to the way it was used by his contemporaries in the West. The homogenizations of Confucius serve Shaw's ulterior motives. In borrowing, appropriating, and imparting the idea of China and the image of Confucius into his work. Shaw makes them stand for certain ideas and perform a certain function in his intellectual scheme. Shaw 'homogenizes' Confucius to purify the cultural denotations and connotations in the appropriate image and to clothe his gospel of the Life Force and Creative Evolution in exotic garb. Shaw's global reference to Confucius universalizes his gospel of Creative Evolution, and his using a Chinese sage adds validity to his claims. The inverse appropriation of Confucius shows Shaw upsetting the prevalent construction of China as the colonial Other. Confucius comes from China to help rule England constructively. Instead of using appropriation to further cultural imperialism, Shaw inversely appropriates China to condemn Western imperialism. |
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| 6 | 1921.1 |
Shaw, George Bernard. Back to Methuselah : a metabiological pentateuch. (London : Constable, 1921). [Geschrieben 1918-1920 ; Erstaufführung Garrick Theatre, New York 1922]. Pt. III : The thing happens : A.D. 2170 (1) A WOMAN'S VOICE. Hallo! BURGE-LUBIN [_formally_] The President respectfully solicits the privilege of an interview with the Chief Secretary, and holds himself entirely at his honor's august disposal. A CHINESE VOICE. He is coming. BURGE-LUBIN. Oh! That you, Confucius? So good of you. Come along [_he releases the button_]. A man in a yellow gown, presenting the general appearance of a Chinese sage, enters._ BURGE-LUBIN [_jocularly_] Well, illustrious Sage-&-Onions, how are your poor sore feet? CONFUCIUS [_gravely_] I thank you for your kind inquiries. I am well. BURGE-LUBIN. Thats right. Sit down and make yourself comfortable. Any business for me today? CONFUCIUS [_sitting down on the first chair round the corner of the table to the President's right_] None. BURGE-LUBIN. Have you heard the result of the bye-election? CONFUCIUS. A walk-over. Only one candidate. BURGE-LUBIN. Any good? CONFUCIUS. He was released from the County Lunatic Asylum a fortnight ago. Not mad enough for the lethal chamber: not sane enough for any place but the division lobby. A very popular speaker. BURGE-LUBIN. I wish the people would take a serious interest in politics. CONFUCIUS. I do not agree. The Englishman is not fitted by nature to understand politics. Ever since the public services have been manned by Chinese, the country has been well and honestly governed. What more is needed? BURGE-LUBIN. What I cant make out is that China is one of the worst governed countries on earth. CONFUCIUS. No. It was badly governed twenty years ago; but since we forbade any Chinaman to take part in our public services, and imported natives of Scotland for that purpose, we have done well. Your information here is always twenty years out of date. BURGE-LUBIN. People don't seem to be able to govern themselves. I cant understand it. Why should it be so? CONFUCIUS. Justice is impartiality. Only strangers are impartial. BURGE-LUBIN. It ends in the public services being so good that the Government has nothing to do but think. CONFUCIUS. Were it otherwise, the Government would have too much to do to think. BURGE-LUBIN. Is that any excuse for the English people electing a parliament of lunatics? CONFUCIUS. The English people always did elect parliaments of lunatics. What does it matter if your permanent officials are honest and competent? BURGE-LUBIN. You do not know the history of this country. What would my ancestors have said to the menagerie of degenerates that is still called the House of Commons? Confucius: you will not believe me; and I do not blame you for it; but England once saved the liberties of the world by inventing parliamentary government, which was her peculiar and supreme glory. CONFUCIUS. I know the history of your country perfectly well. It proves the exact contrary. BURGE-LUBIN. How do you make that out? CONFUCIUS. The only power your parliament ever had was the power of withholding supplies from the king. BURGE-LUBIN. Precisely. That great Englishman Simon de Montfort-- CONFUCIUS. He was not an Englishman: he was a Frenchman. He imported parliaments from France. BURGE-LUBIN [_surprised_] You dont say so! CONFUCIUS. The king and his loyal subjects killed Simon for forcing his French parliament on them. The first thing British parliaments always did was to grant supplies to the king for life with enthusiastic expressions of loyalty, lest they should have any real power, and be expected to do something. BURGE-LUBIN. Look here, Confucius: you know more history than I do, of course; but democracy-- CONFUCIUS. An institution peculiar to China. And it was never really a success there. BURGE-LUBIN. But the Habeas Corpus Act! CONFUCIUS. The English always suspended it when it threatened to be of the slightest use. BURGE-LUBIN. Well, trial by jury: you cant deny that we established that? CONFUCIUS. All cases that were dangerous to the governing classes were tried in the Star Chamber or by Court Martial, except when the prisoner was not tried at all, but executed after calling him names enough to make him unpopular. BURGE-LUBIN. Oh, bother! You may be right in these little details; but in the large we have managed to hold our own as a great race. Well, people who could do nothing couldnt have done that, you know. CONFUCIUS. I did not say you could do nothing. You could fight. You could eat. You could drink. Until the twentieth century you could produce children. You could play games. You could work when you were forced to. But you could not govern yourselves. BURGE-LUBIN. Then how did we get our reputation as the pioneers of liberty? CONFUCIUS. By your steadfast refusal to be governed at all. A horse that kicks everyone who tries to harness and guide him may be a pioneer of liberty; but he is not a pioneer of government. In China he would be shot. BURGE-LUBIN. Stuff! Do you imply that the administration of which I am president is no Government? CONFUCIUS. I do. _I_ am the Government. BURGE-LUBIN. You! You!! You fat yellow lump of conceit! CONFUCIUS. Only an Englishman could be so ignorant of the nature of government as to suppose that a capable statesman cannot be fat, yellow, and conceited. Many Englishmen are slim, red-nosed, and modest. Put them in my place, and within a year you will be back in the anarchy and chaos of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. BURGE-LUBIN. Oh, if you go back to the dark ages, I have nothing more to say. But we did not perish. We extricated ourselves from that chaos. We are now the best governed country in the world. How did we manage that if we are such fools as you pretend? CONFUCIUS. You did not do it until the slaughter and ruin produced by your anarchy forced you at last to recognize two inexorable facts. First, that government is absolutely necessary to civilization, and that you could not maintain civilization by merely doing down your neighbor, as you called it, and cutting off the head of your king whenever he happened to be a logical Scot and tried to take his position seriously. Second, that government is an art of which you are congenitally incapable. Accordingly, you imported educated negresses and Chinese to govern you. Since then you have done very well. BURGE-LUBIN. So have you, you old humbug. All the same, I don't know how you stand the work you do. You seem to me positively to like public business. Why wont you let me take you down to the coast some week-end and teach you marine golf? CONFUCIUS. It does not interest me. I am not a barbarian. BURGE-LUBIN. You mean that I am? CONFUCIUS. That is evident. BURGE-LUBIN. How? CONFUCIUS. People like you. They like cheerful goodnatured barbarians. They have elected you President five times in succession. They will elect you five times more. _I_ like you. You are better company than a dog or a horse because you can speak. BURGE-LUBIN. Am I a barbarian because you like me? CONFUCIUS. Surely. Nobody likes me: I am held in awe. Capable persons are never liked. I am not likeable; but I am indispensable. BURGE-LUBIN. Oh, cheer up, old man: theres nothing so disagreeable about you as all that. I don't dislike you; and if you think I'm afraid of you, you jolly well don't know Burge-Lubin: thats all. CONFUCIUS. You are brave: yes. It is a form of stupidity. BURGE-LUBIN. You may not be brave: one doesn't expect it from a Chink. But you have the devil's own cheek. CONFUCIUS. I have the assured certainty of the man who sees and knows. Your genial bluster, your cheery self-confidence, are pleasant, like the open air. But they are blind: they are vain. I seem to see a great dog wag his tail and bark joyously. But if he leaves my heel he is lost. BURGE-LUBIN. Thank you for a handsome compliment. I have a big dog; and he is the best fellow I know. If you knew how much uglier you are than a chow, you wouldn't start those comparisons, though. [_Rising_] Well, if you have nothing for me to do, I am going to leave your heel for the rest of the day and enjoy myself. What would you recommend me to do with myself? CONFUCIUS. Give yourself up to contemplation; and great thoughts will come to you. BURGE-LUBIN. Will they? If you think I am going to sit here on a fine day like this with my legs crossed waiting for great thoughts, you exaggerate my taste for them. I prefer marine golf. [_Stopping short_] Oh, by the way, I forgot something. I have a word or two to say to the Minister of health. [_He goes back to his chair_]. CONFUCIUS. Her number is-- BURGE-LUBIN. I know it. CONFUCIUS [_rising_] I cannot understand her attraction for you. For me a woman who is not yellow does not exist, save as an official. [_He goes out_]… Confucius returns._ CONFUCIUS. I forgot. There is something for you to do this morning. You have to go to the Record Office to receive the American barbarian. BURGE-LUBIN. Confucius: once for all, I object to this Chinese habit of describing white men as barbarians. CONFUCIUS [_standing formally at the end of the table with his hands palm to palm_] I make a mental note that you do not wish the Americans to be described as barbarians. BURGE-LUBIN. Not at all. The Americans are barbarians. But we are not. I suppose the particular barbarian you are speaking of is the American who has invented a means of breathing under water. CONFUCIUS. He says he has invented such a method. For some reason which is not intelligible in China, Englishmen always believe any statement made by an American inventor, especially one who has never invented anything. Therefore you believe this person and have given him a public reception. Today the Record Office is entertaining him with a display of the cinematographic records of all the eminent Englishmen who have lost their lives by drowning since the cinema was invented. Why not go to see it if you are at a loss for something to do? BURGE-LUBIN. What earthly interest is there in looking at a moving picture of a lot of people merely because they were drowned? If they had had any sense, they would not have been drowned, probably. CONFUCIUS. That is not so. It has never been noticed before; but the Record Office has just made two remarkable discoveries about the public men and women who have displayed extraordinary ability during the past century. One is that they retained unusual youthfulness up to an advanced age. The other is that they all met their death by drowning. BURGE-LUBIN. Yes: I know. Can you explain it? CONFUCIUS. It cannot be explained. It is not reasonable. Therefore I do not believe it. The Accountant General rushes in, looking ghastly. He staggers to the middle of the table._ BURGE-LUBIN. Whats the matter? Are you ill? BARNABAS [_choking_] No. I--[_he collapses into the middle chair_]. I must speak to you in private. Confucius calmly withdraws… |
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| 7 | 1921 |
Teng, Ruoqu. Zui jin ju jie de qu shi. [Recent development in theater]. In : Xi ju ; vol. 1, no 1 (May 1921). Er schreibt : "Shaw's social plays make him the number one playwright after Henrik Ibsen. His well-known plays include Widower's houses, Candida, Caesar and Cleopatra, Man and superman, You never can tell, Mrs. Warren's profession and so on. These plays deal with problems of inheritance, marriage, courtship, and employment." |
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| 8 | 1924 |
Xiong, Foxi. Qing chun di bei ai [ID D29967]. Zheng Zhenduo schreibt im Vorwort : "Although we have translated some plays of Bernard Shaw and Chekhov, they are unfortunately hard to perform on the Chinese stage, and when they are performed a majority at least of the audience are unable to understand them. The failure of the attempt at Mrs Warren's profession in Shanghai can be cited as an example. Therefore at this time there is really a need to disseminate comparatively successful popular plays." |
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| 9 | 1925 | Huang Zuolin beginnt in England Dramaturgie unter George Bernard Shaw zu studieren. | |
| 10 | 1931 |
[Lavrin, Janko]. Yibusheng yu Xiao Bona. Zhang Menglin yi [ID D26220]. Lavrin schreibt : "Shaw, being an active 'extrovert', is directed towards external life problems ; the brooding 'introvert' Ibsen, on the other hand, concentrates first of all upon that internal problems of life which can perhaps be solved only upon a supra-logical or religious plane. The whole inner tragedy of Ibsen was due to the fact that, endowed with a profound moral instinct. Devoid of religious consciousness, he was bound to have recourse to purely intellectual solutions, to various philosophical and sociological creed, which led him to scepticism and proved eventually mere illusions, mere 'ghosts' ; for however plausible they be on the plane of logic and reasoning, they were helpless on that plane which is beyond reasoning ; consequently they could not save him from his impasse. Ibsen needed religion as the ultimate justification of his own moral sense, which was strong enough to keep him spell-bound to the end by the uncompromising 'all-or-nothing', and to weigh him down by his continuous feeling of guilt - the feeling of individual responsibility for the evils of all life. It is interesting to compare in this respect the creative methods of Shaw and Ibsen. For apart from the difference which exists between a comedy and a 'serious' drama, there are certain similarities in the inner constitution of Ibsen and Shaw. Both of them are nonconformist in character, which means that they are stimulated by protest and by fighting against the tide ; both are reformers, both are intellectuals, and both write 'plays of ideas' ; that is, they start with some problems or other, which could not be said in plain philosophic terms, and they prefer to solve my means of their art. Kam Kwok-kan : Lavrin gives an illuminating study of Ibsen by constrasting him with Shaw. The latter is often treated as a disciple of the former. But with regard to their temperament, artistic concerns, and psychology, Lavrin shows that there are a number of fundamental differences. Ibsen is a moral idealist and his works are in one sense a representation of the conflicts between his ideals and the reality in which he lived. Lavrin affirms that Ibsen writes from an inner inevitability, which is the chief incentive of his works. His own spiritual fighting and experience, which he tries to embody in his plays, are the real cause. For Lavrin, what makes Ibsen different from his contemporaries, is that he does not have religion as a last resort in his moral struggle. Without such a belief, all evils of life become the responsibility of the individual. Ibsen's uncompromising principle of 'all-or-nothing' is an attempt at seeking the support of religion as 'the ultimate justification of his own moral sense'. Lavrin's remarks were especially useful to Chinese critics and readers alike in the 1930s, who were experiencing a new form of drama different from their own tradition. |
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| 11 | 1933 |
Lu, Xun. Six essays in defense of Bernard Shaw [ID D27925]. Lu, Xun. Song xiao. (Febr. 15 1933). [In praise of Shaw]. In : Lu, Xun. Wei zi you shu. (Shanghai : Qing guang shu ju, 1933). 偽自由書 = He, Jiagin. "In praise of Shaw". In : Shen bao ; Febr. 7th (1933). Before Bernard Shaw's arrival, the Da wan bao [Shanghai Evening News] anticipated that Japanese troops in North China would suspend their aggression in deference to Shaw and called him "Old Man Peace." However, after the publication of the translation of the Reuters dispatch of Shaw's speech to the Hong Kong young people, it condemned Shaw for making "Communist propaganda." According to the Reuters report of 11 February 1933, Shaw had remarked that the Reuters reporter did not look Chinese to him and was surprised that there was not a single Chinese among those present. "Are they so ignorant that they have not heard of me?" he asked. Actually we are not ignorant. We understand quite well the benevolence of the Hong Kong governor, the regulations of the Shanghai Municipal Council, the friends and enemies of certain celebrities, as well as the birth- days and favorite dishes of the wives of public figures. But about Shaw, sorry, we only know the three or four titles of his that have been translated. Thus, we do not know his thoughts before or after the European War, or his thoughts after his Russian trip. But according to a Reuters report of 14 February from Hong Kong, he said to the students of Hong Kong University, "Should you not be a Red revolutionary before the age of twenty, you will end up a hopeless fossil by fifty; should you be a Red revolutionary by twenty, you may be all right by forty," so you know that he is great. What I call greatness lies not in his asking our people to become Red revolutionaries. Our peculiar national condition does not allow one to be Red. Merely declaring oneself a revolutionary could lead to losing one's life the next day. There is no way to see a Red live to forty. I call Shaw great because he thought of our youths' future, when they will have reached forty or fifty, and he did not lose sight of their present either. The wealthy with their future in mind can hide their riches in foreign banks and leave China by airplane. But the poor, in a country where politics are whirlwinds and the people the hunted deer, hardly dare or are able to think about tomorrow. So, how can they think twenty or thirty years ahead ? This is a simple, yet big question. This is why Shaw is Shaw ! Lu, Xun. Xiao Bona jiu jing bu fan. In : Da wan bao (Febr. 17 1933). [Bernard Shaw is truly unusual]. In : Lu, Xun. Wei zi you shu. (Shanghai : Qing guang shu ju, 1933). 偽自由書 There is nothing so bad or so good that you will not find Englishmen doing it ; but you will never find an Englishman in the wrong. He does everything on principle. He fights you on patriotic principles ; he robs you on business principles ; he enslaves you on imperial principles ; he bullies you on manly principles ; he supports his king on loyal principles and cuts off his king's head on republican principles. His watchword is always Duty ; and he never forgets that the nation which lets its duty get on the opposite side to its interest is lost. This is Bernard Shaw's satirical critique of British society in his The Man of Destiny. It is quoted here by way of introducing him and to let our readers know the secret to becoming great. Satire fills his works, embarrassing its victims and delighting its onlookers; the popularity of these smart lines has established Mr. Shaw. Becoming famous by promoting "isms" is the trend among today's scholars. Shaw has a talent for satirizing Englishmen, though not much talent for evaluating himself. He is at the forefront of pacificism and a lifelong supporter of socialism; his plays, novels, and essays are full of exposition of his doctrines. Though he believes in socialism, he is a mean accumulator of material wealth, as well as a strong denouncer of charity. As a consequence, he has already become a millionaire sitting on immense wealth. Shaw sings the tune of equalizing wealth, speaks up for oppressed workers, and makes sarcastic remarks about parasitic capitalists ; for these he wins the sympathy of the public. When a new book of his is out, all rush to buy it. When one of his plays is presented, it usually runs for a hundred or more performances - he never has to worry about box office sales. Shaw promotes Communism by sitting in an easy chair with smiling complacency. Gaining fame by isms is like displaying a sheep's head yet selling dog meat to cheat buyers. What a deception ! Shaw is very successful and now has come to our poor China to enjoy himself. We thank him for his enthusiasm in advising our young people : in Hong King he told students, "Should you not be a Red revolutionary by twenty, you will end up a hopeless fossil by fifty; should you be a Red revolutionary by twenty, you may be all right by forty." In other words, the reason for being a Red revolutionary is out of fear of becoming a fossil or a dropout rather than for the principle itself, which certainly has very little to do with the future of the individual. To become something in society, one merely has to avoid being petrified or falling behind. How can this famous piece of advice on social behavior, so boldly expressed, not make us reverent toward Shaw the modern-day Confucius ? But Mr. Shaw, don't you look down upon our venerable China. Not that we don't have fashionable scholars like you in our country, sitting in easy chairs and casting sarcastic remarks to propagate isms. This is familiar enough to us, and there is no need for your advice. But had you known this, I imagine you would have merely smiled with delight and said, "I am not alone on this path." According to our humble understanding, the important element of a great personality is honesty. Whatever doctrine one may believe in, one must honestly practice it, not just mouth it and make it sound good. If Mr. Shaw or his compatriots really believe in Communism, please let him distribute his wealth first, then talk. But, come to think of it, if Mr. Shaw were actually to distribute his property, clothe himself in ragged proletarian garb, and come as a third-class passenger to China, then who would take the trouble to see him ? When we think about it this way, Mr. Shaw is truly unusual. Lu, Xun. Qian wen de an yu. [A footnote to the foregoing essay by Le Wen]. In : Lu, Xun. Wei zi you shu. (Shanghai : Qing guang shu ju, 1933). 偽自由書 The foregoing essay makes several important points: First, Shaw's sharp sarcasm, effective in "embarrassing its victims and delighting its onlookers," is merely a trick to achieve "greatness." Second, this trick of "becoming famous by promoting isms" is equivalent to displaying a sheep's head, but selling dog meat instead. Third, the Shanghai Evening News seems to say that, in principle, one must either sing praises without restraint or open up one's cannibalistic big mouth to swallow one's fellow men; whether one drops out of the rank and file or becomes a fossil at the age of fifty is of no consequence. Fourth, if Bernard Shaw does not agree with these principles, he ought not to sit in his easy chair nor possess any property. Of course, it would be a different story if he did. Yet, even the rottenness of China has reached such a degree that within the class of petty bourgeoisie, people still love the future and do not care to drop out. They march toward the road of revolution. They utilize every posssible personal ability to assist earnestly in the building of revolution. Though previously supporting capitalist connections, they now consciously are transforming themselves into rebels against the bourgeois class, and rebels are often more troublesome than enemies. Their attitude is that, when you are endowed with a million-dollar estate or world-wide prestige and you still rebel and still feel dissatisfied, you are utterly contemptible. So Shaw is contemptible. Fishing for fame by promoting doctrines, as they say, is loathsome philistinism, typical materialism. So Shaw is contemptible. However, you and I know that Bernard Shaw does not belong to these categories, even though he is despised by these critics. The Shanghai Evening News has also mentioned that China, too, has those who "sit in easy chairs and cast sarcastic remarks to propagate isms, . . . there is no need for your [Shaw's] advice." This similarity be- tween China and the West is so obvious to the editorial writer that it seems to need no elaboration, but none of us were ever aware of the existence of these armchair critics. The pity of it is that although cannibalism has been adopted by our ruling class for quite some time, it still has no supporters with Shaw's status. Alas! As for Shaw, his greatness has not been diminished in the least by the loathing of his embarrassed victims. Hence I say good riddance to the troublesome but obsequious literary men in Chinese history who allowed their property to be confiscated by their rulers. Lu, Xun. Shui de Mao Dun ? (Febr. 19 1933). [Who is being contradictory ?]. In : Lu, Xun. Nan qiang bei diao ji. (Shanghai : Tong wen shu dian, 1934). Bernard Shaw enjoys not so much cruising about the world, but rather observing journalists' faces around the world. Here in China, they set oral trials for him, and he seems to have failed the ordeal. He was unwilling to accept ceremonial welcomes, but they welcomed him and interviewed him anyway. After the interviews, all made cutting remarks about him. He evaded and hid; they spied and tracked him down. They wrote up a storm about him, then accused him of angling for publicity. They pressed him to talk when he was not in a talking mood, and they egged him on to make speeches. When he complied, the papers would not print exactly what he said and blamed him for being verbose. When he was telling the truth, they said that he was joking. They laughed at him and blamed him for not laughing himself. When he was telling the truth, they obstinately called it sarcasm; they laughed at him and blamed him for conceit. He is not a satirist at heart, but they accused him of being one and looked down on him; then they themselves used sardonic remarks to needle him. He is not an encyclopedia, yet they put trivial queries to him. His answers made them cross, as if they certainly knew better than he. He came with the intention to relax, but they forced him to philoso- phize. After listening to a few words, they were displeased and accused him of coming with the intent "to propagate Communism." Some despised him because he is not a Marxist writer. Were he one, they would not have given him a second glance. Some resented him because he has never engaged in manual labor. Were he a laborer, he would not have been able to visit Shanghai, and they would have had no chance to see him. Some looked down on him because he is not a practicing revolutionary. Were he one, he would have been jailed with the Noulens, and they would have avoided mentioning his name. He has money but he favors socialism. He does no labor and he travels. He came to Shanghai, talked about revolution, talked about Soviet Russia, and purposely gave people no peace. Therefore, he is contemptible. He is contemptible because he is tall. He is contemptible because he is old. He is contemptible because his hair and beard are white. He is contemptible because he does not appreciate ceremonial welcomes and avoids interviews. Even his affectionate relationship with his wife be- comes contemptible. But now he has left China, a Shaw who all agree is a contradiction. I think that we must swallow our pride and accept him as a literary giant of world renown, for our mumbling and backbiting are not going to hurt his image one bit. Furthermore, his visit gives us an excuse to grumble. When the contradictory Shaw declines, or the contradictions of Shaw are resolved, that will mark the time when the contradictions of the world are resolved. That will be the day. Lu, Xun. Kan Xiao he kan Xiao de ren men. (Febr. 23 1933). [Watching Shaw and those who watches Shaw]. In : Lu, Xun. Nan qiang bei diao ji. (Shanghai : Tong wen shu dian, 1934). I like Shaw, not because of my reading of his works or his biography, but because I came across some of his epigrams and heard that he often tears the masks off people. That is why I like him. Furthermore, many Chinese who ape Western gentlemen do not like Shaw, and I find that those who are disliked by those whom I dislike are often excellent men. Now Shaw has come to China. I had no special intention to search him out, but on the afternoon of 16 February 1933, Uchiyama Kanzo showed me a telegram from the Tokyo office of Kaizo magazine and asked me to meet Shaw. Since I was needed, I decided to go. On the morning of the seventeenth, Shaw was to have landed in Shanghai, but no one knew where he was hiding himself. Haifa day passed and it appeared that our meeting was not to materialize. However, by that after- noon, a note from Mr. Cai Yuanpei told me that Shaw was having lunch at the home of Madame Sun Yat-sen, and that I was to come forthwith. I got there as soon as I could. Upon entering a small side-room off the living room, I spotted Shaw in the seat of honor at a round table having lunch with five others. Since I had seen photographs of Shaw as a famous man, I knew right away that this was the literary giant. However, there was no special aura of eminence. His snow-white hair and beard, ruddy complexion, and kindly face made me think to myself that he would be an excellent model for a portrait painter. They seemed to be halfway through lunch already. It was vegetarian and very simple. A White Russian newspaper had speculated that there would be a plethora of waiters on such an occasion; in fact, there was only the cook serving. Shaw did not eat much, but he may have started early and therefore had had enough. Midway through the meal, he attempted to use chopsticks, but was not very successful. To his credit, he kept working at it, and soon became rather adept. When he finally got hold of a morsel tightly, he looked from face to face expectantly, but few, unfortunately, observed his success. I did not particularly notice Shaw's satiric traits as we were eating. His conversation topics were the usual things. For example, he mentioned that friends are the best because a lasting relationship can be maintained with them, whereas parents and siblings are not of one's own choosing, so a distance has to be kept. After lunch, three pictures were taken. Standing next to Shaw, I became aware of my shortness. I thought to myself that, were I thirty years younger, I would exercise rigorously to make myself taller. At about two o'clock, the P.E.N. Club was giving a reception. I went along by car. It was held in a large Western-style building called World College. Upstairs, about fifty men of letters, writers of Ethnic Literature, socialites, the king of Peking opera, and so forth had already gathered. They surrounded Shaw and asked him sundry questions as if consulting the Encyclopedia Britannica. He responded with a few words: "You are all men of letters, hence you are familiar with publicity stunts. The actors among you are practitioners, so you understand these things more than a mere writer such as I. What do I have to say to you? This gathering today is like your visiting an animal in a zoo. Now that you've seen it, it should be enough." Everyone laughed, probably considering it to be satire. Shaw also addressed questions to Dr. Mei Lanfang and other celebrities, which I shall omit. There followed a ceremony to present Shaw with gifts. These were presented by Shao Xunmei, a literary man known for his handsome looks. One gift was a box of small, stylish Peking opera masks made of clay. Another, as I was told, was a stage costume; since it was wrapped in paper, I did not see it. Shaw cordially accepted. According to a later report by Mr. Zhang Regu, Shaw asked a few questions about the gifts and Zhang made some snide remarks, but Shaw did not appear to hear them, and neither did I. Someone asked Shaw his reasons for being a vegetarian. By then, many had started taking pictures. Figuring that my cigarette smoke would not be welcome, I went into the outer room. Since there was another scheduled interview with news reporters at Mme Sun's house at three o'clock, we returned there. Forty or fifty people had already gathered, but only half of them were let in. First came Mr. Ki Kimura and four or five writers. Among the reporters were six Chinese, one English, one White Russian, and three or four photographers. On the backyard lawn, they formed a semicircle around Shaw and again barraged him with detailed questions. Shaw seemed in no mood to talk, but if he would not the reporters would not let him go, so he talked. The more he said, the less the reporters wrote down. In my opinion, Shaw is not really a satirist at all. It is just that he is gifted in eloquence. The quiz ended at about four-thirty. Shaw looked very tired, so Mr. Kimura and I returned to Uchiyama Bookstore. The press releases of the next day were far more colorful than Shaw's own words. The reporters, who had all gathered at the same place, at the same time, and heard the same words, managed to report disparate stories. It was as if the English language that Shaw had uttered had transformed itself. For example, on the topic of the Chinese govern- ment, the Shaw of the English language press said that the Chinese must choose their own favorite man as the leader; the Shaw of the Japanese press said that there was more than one Chinese government; and the Shaw of the Chinese press said that the people had never appreciated their government, no matter how good it was. In this case, we see that Shaw is not a satirist, but a reflective mirror. Most of the news reports on Shaw were unfavorable. Reporters came to hear what they wanted, but also heard disagreeable sarcasms. So each threw barbs at Shaw, saying that he was a mere satirist. In the sarcasm competition, Shaw is the winner, in my opinion. I asked Shaw no question, and he asked me none. Nevertheless, Mr. Kimura wanted me to write my impression of Shaw. I have read reports by others who seem to know the very heart of the one interviewed at a glance; I admire their penetrating observations. As for myself, I have never studied any books on physiognomy, so even when I have met a famous man, I cannot relate a great many words about him. However, since the request came all the way to Shanghai from Tokyo, I must at least write this much to fulfill my obligation. Lu, Xun. Xiao Bona zai Shanghai xu. (Febr. 28 1933). [A preface to Bernard Shaw in Shanghai]. In : Lu, Xun. Nan qiang bei diao ji. (Shanghai : Tong wen shu dian, 1934). Nowadays, so-called humans are covered with some type of wrap, be it silk, brocade, flannel, or coarse fabric. Poor beggars wear at least pants, ragged though they be. Even primitives have a string of leaves to cover themselves. Should this covering be removed in public by the wearer or torn off by others, a man would not be considered proper. Improper though he may be, people still like to look. Some stand to watch; others follow him around. Ladies and gentlemen cover their eyes with their hands, but peek through their fingers. They want to see the nakedness of others, however careful they are about their own wraps. The words of men are also wrapped in silk, brocade, or tree leaves. Should the wraps be torn off, people want to listen and, at the same time, fear to hear. Out of curiosity, they surround the speaker; out of trepida- tion, they try to soften the effect by dubbing him a satirist. I believe this is the reason that Bernard Shaw's arrival in Shanghai caused a far greater stir than that of Tagore, not to mention Boris Pilnyak and Paul Morand, because Shaw's speeches are unwrapped. An- other reason is that tyranny turns men into cynics, but that is the worry of the English, not of the Chinese, a people traditionally trained to be mute. Yet, times are different after all. Chinese people now will listen to a foreign satirist for "humor" and for a few laughs. But one must guard his own wraps, and each has a different wish. The lame wanted Shaw to support the use of canes; the scabby-headed wanted him to support wearing hats; women who wear makeup wanted him to ridicule those who do not; and the writers of Ethnic Literature expected him to crush the Japanese troops. What is the result? From the number of complaints we know of, not very satisfactory, it seems. But the greatness of Shaw also lies here. Although newspapers owned by the English, Japanese, and White Russians fabricated different stories, in the end they attacked him in concert, which only proves that Shaw is not to be used by any of these imperialists. As for some Chinese newspapers, their standpoint is hardly worth mentioning since they are the followers of their overseas lords. This habit has existed for a long time; only when it comes to "nonresistance" or "strategic retreats" do they march in the front. Shaw was in Shanghai for less than a day, yet he gave rise to many stories. This would not happen with any other literary man. As it is not a trivial matter, the compilation of articles on him surely is important. In the first three parts, the different faces of writers, politicians, warlords, and lapdogs are reflected as in a flat mirror. Calling Shaw a concave or convex mirror [both distort reality] is not accurate. In the wake of the stir reaching Peking, British reporters drew the conclusion that Shaw did not like having the Chinese welcome him. A Reuters report of the twentieth said that the amount of Peking papers' coverage of Shaw was "enough to prove the callousness of the Chinese." Dr. Hu Shih, especially detached, said that no welcome was the highest form of welcome. The same reasoning applies to "To beat is not to beat, and not to beat is to beat." These events make me feel that I am looking at reflections in a mirror in which men, whatever their pretensions, are all revealed in their true nature. The articles about Shaw in Shanghai, though the writers are less skilled in writing than the foreign reporters and Chinese scholars of Peking, do present variety. The collection has its limits; some articles may have been left out and others may have appeared too late for inclusion, but by and large most are included. Lu, Xun. Lun yu yi nian. (Aug. 23 1933). [On the anniversary of the "Analects" : another occasion to talk about Bernard Shaw]. In : Lu, Xun. Nan qiang bei diao ji. (Shanghai : Tong wen shu dian, 1934). The journal Analects has reached its first anniversary, and its editor, Mr. Lin Yutang, has asked me to write a piece about it. This is like having to asked me to write a piece about it. This is like having to write an old-fashioned "eight-legged essay" in the vernacular under the assigned title "Xue er." Impossible though this may be, write I must. To tell the truth, I am often against what Lin promotes. In the past, he has promoted "fair play," and now "humor." I believe that humor is a plaything created by those who are in favor of holding international roundtable conferences. The meaning of the word "humor" is impossible to translate into Chinese. In our country, there were Tang Bohu, Xu Wenchang, and the most famous Jin Shengtan. Jin said once, "Beheading is painful, yet I have arrived at it unexpectedly. Is that not marvelous?" Whether this quotation is truth or joke, fact or fiction, at all events it shows that, first, Jin Shengtan was not a rebel and, second, that he converted the cruelty of butchering into a laughing matter. He made a happy ending of a sad fact. This is the kind of thing we have, but it has nothing to do with humor. In the pages of Analects, there is a long list of names, but very few of these people actually contributed any writings to it. This is the custom in China, to lend one's name, but not one's labor, to a cause. Hence actually publishing two issues a month of "humor" is quite humorous. This humor gives me a pessimistic feeling, though I do not care much for it and I have not been enthused about the Analects. But its Special Issue on Shaw is a good thing. In it, articles rejected elsewhere have been printed, thus exposing twisted remarks about Shaw's speeches. This undertaking has made a few well-known figures unhappy, and some bureaucrats angry and disgruntled. The longer they hate it and the more the people hate it, the more the influence of this Special Issue is proven. Shakespeare may be the English bard of drama, but few of us ever mention him. When Ibsen was introduced to China during the May 4th Movement of 1919, he fared quite well. This year, Shaw's arrival has been a disaster. Even today there are people who are still indignant about him. It is probably because Shaw smiled. Who can tell the meaning of his smile ? Did he smile sarcastically or amusedly? No, it was neither. Was his smile filled with barbs which pierced the viewers' vulnerable parts? No, it was not that either. Litvinov explained that Ibsen was a great question mark, while Shaw was a great exclamation point. Needless to say, Ibsen and Shaw's audiences are mostly upper-class ladies and gentlemen, those concerned with maintaining "face." Ibsen, though he puts them on stage and exposes their weaknesses, offers no conclusions. He deliberately says, "Come, think about it. Why is it this way?" The dignity of the audience is shaken, but it is allowed to return home to contemplate, so it saves people "face." Whether people indeed contemplate or what it is they contemplate is not the issue. Therefore, when Ibsen was introduced to China, public tranquility was undisturbed, and those against him were far fewer than those who enjoyed him. This is not the case with Shaw. Shaw also puts upper-class folks on stage, but he tears off their masks and their finery, and then he grabs one by the ear and points him out to the audience saying, "Look, here is a maggot!" He does not give them the chance to evade or cover up. At this moment, those who can still smile are the lower-class members who do not have the shortcomings he points out. Hence, Shaw is closer to the lower and further from the high and mighty. What is to be done ? There is an ancient way to counteract, which is simply to yell as loudly as one can: He is wealthy! He is pretentious! He is famous! He is tricky! or at least the same as, or worse than, they are. If they themselves live in a cramped latrine, they believe that Shaw too lives in such a place, or must have climbed out of a large one, but is a maggot nevertheless. They believe that those who introduced him are stupid and those who praised him are hateful. Yet I think that even if Shaw were a maggot, he would be an extraordinary maggot, just as among many exclamation points, he is a great point. For instance, there is a certain crowd of maggots, whether they call themselves ladies and gentlemen, writers and scholars, politicians or celebrities, who nod to one another, bow to one another, and all is in peace. But then they are all common maggots. Should there be one who suddenly jumps out and shouts, "We are actually mere maggots!" then, though he too is from a latrine, we have to admit that he is an exceptional maggot. Even maggots vary in size and quality. The theory of evolution was proposed by Charles Darwin, who let us know that our distant ancestors were related to the monkeys. The behavior of these ancients was exactly the same as that of humans today, yet today's beings deride Darwin as a monkey. Dr. Lo Guangting's experiment of natural creation of the species at Sun Yatsen University has not been conclusive, so suppose we just accept the theory that man is a relative of the monkey, undignified though it may be. Among the relatives of the monkey, Darwin cannot but be the greatest. Why ? Because though he believed that, he did not make it taboo to point it out. Rela- tives of the monkey also vary in size and quality. Darwin was good at research but not at making cutting remarks; hence he was laughed at by upper-class gentlemen for half a century. The one who defended him was Thomas Henry Huxley, who called himself Dar- win's bulldog. Huxley, with his profound learning and excellent writing, attacked and demolished the last citadel of those who considered them- selves the descendants of Adam and Eve. The denunciation of calling a man a dog is currently in vogue. But even dogs vary : some eat meat, some pull sleds, some work in the military, some help in police work, some race in the Zhang Garden's racecourse, some follow beggars as their masters. How does a lapdog which gives pleasure to the wealthy compare with a Saint Bernard who rescues the distressed in snow? Huxley was a good dog who benefited mankind. Dogs vary in size and quality too. In order to comprehend, one must first distinguish. Lin Yutang said once, "Humor is something in between cleverness and dignity." Without distinguishing between cleverness and dignity, how does one understand the "in between"? Although we have been branded as the disciples of Confucius, in fact we are the followers of Zhuangzi. Zhuangzi said in his work, "That view involves both a right and a wrong, and this view in- volves also a right and a wrong." So why does one bother to distinguish them? Did Zhuangzi dream about being a butterfly, or did the butterfly dream about being Zhuangzi ? Dreaming and waking, too, are indistinguishable. Life must be chaos. Should chaos be made sensible, life would be no more. Zhuangzi said, "At the end of seven days Chaos died." In chaos, is there a place for an exclamation point ? There is no place for a smile either. The headmasters of the old-fashioned schools never allowed students to show a trace of anger, sad- ness, or gladness. Despots did not smile. Slaves were not allowed to smile. Once they were to smile, they might progress to anger and stir up trouble. Today those who live on royalties of writing dare to make only sad or sarcastic remarks. This shows you that there is no humor in China. This also shows that my pessimism regarding Analects is not due to oversensitiveness. If those having royalty income make only pitiful noises, can we expect those who must live with the dangers of bombing and floods to have a sense of humor ? I am afraid that they make no sound of sadness or sarcasm, not to mention that of a prosperous time. In the future, some of us may be present at a conference roundtable, but we will be the guests. In that case, between host and guest, no humor is necessary. Gandhi refused to eat time and again. Newspapers of his host country suggested that he deserved a whipping. This shows that in India there is no "humor" either. The most severe whipping given to a host country was by Bernard Shaw. For that, some of our Chinese ladies and gentlemen dislike him. This to Shaw is like the case of Jin Shengtan, arriving at a treatment totally unexpectedly. But that would make a good source for a new magazine, Filial Piety, since piety agrees with the ways of our bureaucrats, especially toward their foreign lords. The titles of the Confucian classics, The Golden Mean, The Great Learning, and now the Analects, have been adopted as modern magazine titles. Eventually, Filial Piety must also be put out. Should that happen, the next after could be entitled Zuo zhuan [The Leftist Biography]. In the present situation, how can Analects prosper? Twenty-five issues is good enough for us to say, "What a joy!" |
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| 12 | 1933 |
George Bernard Shaw's visit to China. Febr. 2th Yu, Dafu. Xiao Bona yu Gaoersihuasui. In : Shen bao ; 2 Febr. (1933). [Shaw and Galsworthy]. 萧伯纳与高尔斯华绥 Er schreibt : "While we are preparing for the warm welcome of the long-faced prophet Old Mr Shaw, unfortunately we heard about the death of last year's Nobel Prize winner Galsworthy. Shaw is 76, Galsworthy 65. Although comparatively he came from the upper class, we could not help respecting highly his attitude of speaking for humanity and criticizing society, even now when the time is different and the tides are changing rapidly. At first, Shaw seems to be speaking dead words flippantly. But when one closes his eyes and reconsiders, he will find immediately that all his roguish laughter and angry words are cardiac stimulants aiming at social disease." Kay Li : Yu went on to compare Shaw with Galsworthy, Galsworthy was regarded as a 'detail recorder of British upper class society'. The writer was respected in China because of his social criticism. The writer was respected in China because of his social criticism. Shaw was appreciated for humor and social criticism. Shaw also was associated with socialism. His visit to the U.S.S.R. and his meeting with Stalin were mentioned, quoting Shaw's words, "I studies Marx much earlier than Lenin". Notice from the editor : "The world-famous Irish humourist-satirist Mr Bernard Shaw will visit our country in the middle of next week. This section [of Shen bao] intends to have a 'special issue on Bernard Shaw' on the day when Shaw arrives at Shanghai. We welcome any contributions on the criticism, the life and works of Shaw. Please limit your article to 600 words." Febr. 10th Xuan. Xiao Bona fang wen Zhongguo. In : Shen bao ; 10 Febr. (1933). [Bernard Shaw's visit to China]. 萧伯纳访问中国 Er schreibt : "The British literary veteran Bernard Shaw will arrive at Shanghai shortly in his world tour. The Chinese literary field will not forget the war introduction of Shaw ten years ago in the May fourth movement. When Ibsen was mentioned, Shaw would be thought of. One would think about the problem raised in Mrs. Warren's profession – the controversies caused by capitalism, and the warm attention youths paid to this in the May fourth. Old Mr Shaw's works are anti-capitalistic. His style is humourous and satiric. Old Mr Shaw exposes the spokesman of imperialism's flattering whitewashing of modern warfare. Galsworthy's works superficially appear to show the controversy and rottenness of modern capitalist society, but basically he affirms and speaks for the present system. Those advancing toward brightness include Shaw in England. He indicts the atrocities of imperialism. At this time when there are dangerous fast-changing situations in the Pacific, when the imperialist powers are tightening preparations for a world war to divide China and to attack the U.S.S.R, we welcome Shaw's visit to China, and hope that he can take part in the investigating party organized by the International League against Imperialism, which will soon also come to China." Hong Kong Febr. 11th Shaw arrived in Hong Kong from Bombay, via Ceylon and Singapore on the Empress of Britain 11 Febr. (1933). Hong Kong Telegraph ; 11 Febr. (1933). Shaw arrives in Hong Kong. The visit got off to a good start with Shaw's refusing to speak to the Rotarians : he reasoned it to reporters who interviewed him on board the Empress of Britain : "I remember the beginning of Rotary. It was a movement to induce captains of industry to take their business more scientifically and to raise business men to the professional rank. Rotary Clubs are merely luncheon clubs, which as a general rule know as much about the aims and objects of Rotary as a luncheon of Church of England members knows about the 39 Articles." Febr. 13th South China Morning Post ; 13 Febr. (1933). "On Saturday there were only six reporters present when G.B.S. strolled in. We watched him anxiously, but our fears were groundless. G.B.S. was at peace with the world. 'Hello, only six of you ? Where's the rest ?' were his first remarks. Someone explained that all the Hong Kong newspapers were represented. In the afternoon a party on a ramble organized by the Sailors' and Soldiers' Home, in Wanchai, Having visited several old landmarks of the Colony in the Pokfulam neighbourhood, had the pleasure of seeing one of the worlds's landmarks, Mr Shaw, who was returning from a drive round the island under the guidance of Professor R.K. Simpson of Hong Kong University. Shaw about the Japanese invasion of Manchuria : 'Japan is going to take Manchuria. But hasn't she behaved very correctly over it all ? She pledged herself to the League of Nations that she would not declare war on anyone. Consequently she has not declared war on China, but has contented herself with fighting – all so legitimately. What does China expect the League to do ? An economic boycott ? But the League has funked the issues. And now it is gradually ceasing to exist. Japan has smashed the League, or, let me put it this way, Japan has called the League's bluff'. [The great] Powers want to come to some arrangement by which they can fight more cheaply. They hold meetings and say to each other 'if you disarm, we'll disarm', and the result is deadlock. The greatest satisfaction to us is that in the next war we will be knocked by a ten inch shell and not a sixteen inch shell." Febr. 13th Shaw accompanied by Professor R.K. Simpson, took 'tiffin' at the residence Idlewild of Sir Robert Ho Tung [Sir Robert Hotung Bosman (1862-1956) : Businessman, manager of the Chinese Department of Jardine, Matheson and Co.]. [Siehe Shaw 1946]. Febr. 14th South China Morning Post ; 14 Febr. (1933). Brilliant address George Bernard Shaw Breaks resolution Advises University students To be communists Education denounced. In the afternoon the Great Hall of the University of Hong Kong was packed with students and distinguished guests. When Mr Shaw was accompanied to the dais by the Vice-Chancellor, Sir William Hornell, there was a terrific out-burst of cheering. Sir William introduced Mr Shaw collectively and then individually to the visitors. The pair stopped before the Press representatives. "I have met them already", commented G.B.S. 'And this is Mr M.F. Key, formerly of the Press', said Wir William. "Yes", said Mr Key, "But now secretary of the Rotary Club. I want to tell you, Mr Shaw, that you were quite right in all you said about the Rotary Club the other day". Sir William interjected, "But Mr Shaw said that the Hong Kong Rotary Club was probably an exception". "I had to be polite" was the dry comment of the famous man. Shaw set about his audience with enthusiasm : "I am here as a guest of the University. I have a very strong opinion that every University on the face of the earth should be levelled to the ground and its foundations sowed with salt. There are really two dangerous classes in the world – the half-educated, who half-destroyed the world, and the wholly-educated who have very nearly completely destroyed the world. When I was young – an incalculable number of years ago – nobody knew anything about the old, old civilizations. We know a little about Greece and Rome and we knew that Rome somehow or other collapsed and was very ably replaced by ourselves. But we had no idea how many civilizations exactly like our own had existed. They almost all collapsed through education. "What are you going to do ?" "I don't know. You may say 'Shall I leave the University and go on the streets ?' Well, I don't know. There is something to be got from the University. You get a certain training in communal life which is very advantageous. If I had a son I should send him to the University and say 'Be careful not to let them put an artificial mind into you. As regards the books they want you to read, don't read them." (Applause). Professor Brown : "They never do". (Laughter). Shaw : "Well, that's very encouraging". This was the spirit of the assembly : laughter, applause, cheerful backtalk. "We like it" one student shouted out when Shaw asked if he should continue. "If your read, read real books and steep yourself in revolutionary books. Go up to your neck in Communism, because if you are not a red revolutionist at 20, you have some chance of being up-to-date at 40. So I can only say, go ahead in the direction I have indicated." (Prolonged applause). "The thing you have to remember is valuation. Remember all you have to forget or you will go mad. Keep and stick to your valuation. You may be wrong but you must make up your mind. Being human and fallible you may come to wrong opinions. But it is still more disastrous not to have opinions at all. I hope you are properly edified and will not regret having made me break my promise not to make a speech while in Hong Kong." Florence Chien : Shaw's speech to the students at Hong Kong University created a major stir which widened the gulf of antagonism between the Nationalist and the Communist factions, and also marked Shaw's stance against the reigning Nationalists. Since Shaw sided with the Communists, he was automatically regarded as the enemy of the reigning Nationalists. His safety in 133 was guaranteed by his nationality, but his activity was not to be publicized. The Hong Kong Telegraphy ; 14 Febr. (1933). Letter from Robert McWhirter. "Sir - Allow me to congratulate the Vice-Chancellor of the Hong Kong University on his enterprise in securing the attendance of Mr Shaw at a tea-party held there yesterday afternoon. Sir William Hornell's [Vice-Chancellor] distinguished supporters are also to be thanked, many of whom will no doubt treasure the newspaper account of the affair. Mr Shaw's student listeners had the treat of their lives. They, really, quite understood that the famous author was but talking with his tongue in his cheek. The Chinese have such a keen sense of Humour ! Seriously, I trust that all concerned in yesterday's farce now see their mistake. I can appreciate the misgivings of those responsible if a lesser light of theirs had raved half so rantingly in a lecture-room of our University. We can also realise how difficult it will be for those in authority to deal with any mild outbreak of 'Bolshevism' which may occur at our principal seat of learning. After the wise counsel given yesterday, I can, in addition, appreciate the confusion in the minds of students when next they hear that one [of] their countrymen has been gaoled for preaching 'revolution' in our streets." Febr. 15th The Empress of Britain pulled out of Hong Kong harbour. Febr. 16th South China Moring Post ; 16 Febr. (1933). "Reactions to Mr G.B. Shaw's visit are mixed. His ardent admirers stand staunchly by him and dilate upon the brilliance of his utterances, while the mischievous chuckle to see the pained expressions on the faces of the eminently proper. Outrageous ! The average person, perhaps, has been surfeited and, not a few disappointed, having in their dullness expected something far better from the oracle. In fairness, it must be said, however, that no criticism attaches to Mr Shaw. He was on holiday and with no desire to speak or to be interviewed. Having been pestered, he responded naturally and with Shavian malice aforethought, setting himself out to be deliberately outrageous, by way of reprisal and as though to teach us that stringing plants and insects are best left alone. Exception has been taken to his remarks to the University students, and it is being said that no explaining may remove all of the harm that may have done thereby. Nevertheless the position remains that upon his hosts falls the responsibility of justifying Mr Shaw's irresponsibility. Himself would offer no apology : and his disciples deny that his satires can have been misunderstood, or, in any event, that any harm can come from candour. The discussion thus ends in impasse or else is ruled out as unnecessary and the episode to be forgotten. There is only one Shaw, and that he should grace Hong Kong but once in his lifetime is an historical event, to be appreciated in all humility. In comparison, what matters ? If in fact the Shavianism has been overdone, having acquitted Shaw of blame it can only be pleaded that seldom does a fish worth baiting come this way. As we are, Shaw has come and Shaw has gone ; and so back into our narrow beds creep and let no more be said." "Actually Shaw himself is an example of the tragedy of a mind undisciplined by a University education. Nobody can deny his genius ; everybody is made to laugh by his humour ; but on reflection anyone might also weep that such a genius has done so little, if any, constructive work. Few people in Britain take Shaw's social or political views seriously and it is unfortunate that any of the British in Hong Kong should have done so." P.H. Larkin : "You have absolutely spoilt him ! You have credited him with a power greater than the Creator ! You have placed him on a pedestal so high that he fears to fall, lest his fall would be disastrous ;hence his attempt to justify his omnipotence by clinging fast to the top, daring not to look down on the ground from his dizzy height ! And what do we, mere men in the street, get from this man-made god ? Trash ! Absolutely undiluted trash ! Shaw is first and last an egoist, and the way he babbled about the affairs of the world as if he knew all, excaping nothing, plainly shows this self-patting of him. For the love of Mike give us less of Shaw and more of the saner men !" The North China Herold ; 16 Febr. (1933). Mr Shaw greeted the correspondents with the words : "You do not look very much like Chinese" and expressed surprise at the entire lack of Chinese pressmen. "Where are the Chinese", he asked with his usual genial impertinence. "Are they so primitive that they have not heard of me ?" South China Morning Post ; 18 Febr. (1933). "In the welter of correspondence on G.B.S's famous lecture, it appears to me that the most of your correspondents, Shavian and anti-Shavian alike, ignore the main point. I mean the effect that such an open support of Communism will have on the lower social strata of our Colony. I know nothing of the student body of the University, but am willing to take it as read, that they will be able to place such advice in its proper perspective. I take it that representatives of the Chinese press were in attendance at the lecture, and I would like to know how it appeared in their papers, and what the average Chinese would make of it." Shanghai The Empress of Britain left Hong Kong on 15 Febr. (1933) and arrived in Shanghai 17 Febr. (1933). Febr. 17th Song Qingling met the Empress of Britian at 6.45 in the morning and had breakfast with the Shaws. [Einige Leute behaupten, dass er im Hotel Cathay (heute Peace Hotel) Shanghai abgestiegen ist. Er wird auch auf der Gäste-Liste des Astor House Hotel aufgeführt. Er war aber nie in einem Hotel, er war 10 Std. tagsüber in Shanghai und ging abends auf sein Schiff Empress of Britain zurück.] Among the some four hundred people present were Hong Shen, representing the China Film and Culture Society, Ying Yunwei, representing the Xi ju xie she (Joint Drama Society), The Shanghai Students Drama Society and others. The students made a speech welcoming Shaw to China. The banners held by the people at the pier showed their attempt to construct Shaw as a sympathizer of Chinese nationalism. Among the slogans chanted were : "Welcome, Bernard Shaw the revolutionary artist. Welcome, Bernard Shaw the dramatist. Welcome, Bernard Shaw the god of peace. Welcome, Bernard Shaw who is sympathetic to the integrity of the Chinese territory. Welcome, Bernard Shaw who is sympathetic to the independence and liberation of China. Welcome, Shaw the vanguard of anti-imperialism. Welcome, Shaw who wants to overthrow imperialism. Welcome, Shaw who wants to oppose the Japanese invasion of North East China. Welcome, Shaw who is against the Second world war. Welcome, Shaw who does not want to be left behind." The crowd waited. Four hours later, the marine police informed the exhausted fans that Shaw had landed elsewhere. 12.00 Song Qingling gave a dinner at her home Rue Molière 29 in honour of George Bernard Shaw, with Agnes Smedley, Lu Xun, Cai Yuanpei, Harold Isaacs, Lin Yutang, Yang Xinfo [(1893-1933) ermordet Shanghai) : Wissenschaftler, Aktivist, Dozent Southeast University]. On the afternoon Shaw met a dozen writers and news reporters representing different papers, including Japanese, English, Russian, and Chinese. Xiao Bona guo Hu tan hua ji. In : Lun yu ; vol. 1, no 13 (1933). [Bernard Shaw's conversations during his stopover in Shanghai]. Before he left Hong Kong, Shaw sent a cable to Song Qingling, informing her that he would pay her a visit. Song Qingling considering Shaw's age and the fact that this was his first trip to China, went all the way to meet him, accompanied by two friends. Shaw said he would have had no intention of leaving the ship when it arrived in Shanghai were it not for his wish to meet Madame Song. The trip from ship to Shanghai and back again lasted for four hours - time enough for "Shaw, the outspoken conversationalist, to comment on a wide range of topics wittily." The major concern was politics, specifically the example of Soviet Russia. In the rapporteurs words, "during the four hour conversation, Shaw never stopped discussing this." Alas, there was, moreover, the usual discourse on Stalin : What is freedom ? The British give the Indians a free trial by jury, in which the judge would go back on the verdict if the jury decided that the accused should be released, and send him to jail. This is the so-called free system of the British. And what about the freedom of speech in various countries ? Only a privileged few have the right to say a few words. The freedom of speech or democracy that is truly valuable should give to peasants and workers the freedom to cry aloud when they are hurt, and improve their conditions subsequently. This is the freedom that the Russians have. I paid close attention to Stalin. When we were talking to him, everyone thought that we had only talked for twenty-five minutes, but actually we had been talking for two and a half hours already. He seemed to pay little attention to theory. He is a practical man. He finds solutions to problems by experiments, and calls all successful projects Marxism. . . . He values the objective and not the theory. He may be unscrupulous in trying to reach his goal, but in the end, he manages to reach it. Shaw : The Peace Conference cannot stop the war, and neither can we end a war by starting another war. Only when all nations are determined to have peace can the war be ended. The people themselves do not want war. After the European War, all the nations that took part discovered that they were worse-off than before. Everyone was destroyed. Facts like these can make people weary of war. The League of Nations has a tool called the International Committee of Intellectual Cooperation. If all the Intellectuals in the world can make use of this tool, it may be more effective than forming another conference. Shaw : The Peace Conference cannot stop the war, and neither can we end a war by starting another war. Only when all nations are determined to have peace can the war be ended. The people themselves do not want war. After the European War, all the nations that took part discovered that they were worse-off than before. Everyone was destroyed. Facts like these can make people weary of war. The League of Nations has a tool called the International Committee of Intellectual Cooperation. If all the Intellectuals in the world can make use of this tool, it may be more effective than forming another conference. Madame Sun : . . . The only effective way to eliminate wars is to eliminate the system which gives rise to wars - the capitalist system. Shaw: But aren't we all capitalists? I admit that I am - to a certain degree. Aren't you ? Madame Sun: No. Not entirely. The subjects discussed at the luncheon party included vegetarianism, the Chinese family system, the war, drama taught in the British universities, and Chinese tea. Lin, Yutang. Tan Xiao Bona. In : Lun yu. [On Shaw]. 谈萧伯纳 Lin, Yutang recalls Shaw’s comments on war : "The English never quarreled with the Germans. When they met on the battlefield, they only took their knives and if one did not kill the other, the other would kill him. But the English hated the French, and the French hated the Americans. By the time the European war was over, the bad feeling among the Allies was high. We often talked about the courage of the warriors. But since the European war, bravery was a historical fact. In the war nobody tells about his courage, but just about his fear. Now the modern war was cruelest. I once heard a pro-war person talking about the good the war can do to the human character, for it encourages sacrifice, bravery, and fearlessness. I told them how to eliminate war. I said that we should abolish the military review that took place in autumn, for this did not kill, and will not raise one's character. Instead, those who are pro-war should go to the fields and kill one another. This will satisfy their barbaric cannibalism." Shaw meets Mei Lanfang Mei Shaowu [Son of Mei Lanfang] : Shaw asked my father "Why is Beijing opera so loud with all those gongs and drums ?". My father answered, "Chinese opera began as entertainment for the masses. They had to use gongs and drums to attract the audience". The North China Herald reports : [Shaw] : "Will you please tell me how a Chinese actor can do anything in the midst of such infernal uproar as one hears on your stage ? In our theatre, they put a man out if he sneezes. But you have gongs and symbals [sic] and the competition of half the audience and innumerable vendors. Don't you object ?" Mei Lanfang : "[The noisy drums and gongs were necessary] because the opera was a folk art first performed in the open air and the drums have been kept to this day". 14.00 George Bernard Shaw : "Speech at the Pen Club Shanghai". In : Xiao Bona zai Shanghai. [Shaw in Shanghai]. In : Shen bao ; 28 Febr. (1933). 萧伯纳在上海 "China and the East don't have much culture worth speaking of. Culture, by scientific definition, is all those human activities which enable human beings to control nature. In China, except for the little culture that can still be found in the farms, there isn't any culture to speak of. China is now importing from Western Europe, a lot of so-called 'cultural ideas' which have long ceased to be effective and have in fact had harmful effects on the people. What good will it do to bring this sort of Western culture to China ? When I was in Hong Kong, I urged the students to start revolutions. But please don't misunderstand ; I didn't ask them to go to the streets and fight the police. When the police come to suppress revolutionaries with their clubs, the safest way is to run. You should run as fast as you can to your head won't bleed. And you don't have to get into a confrontation with the police, for policemen are like the gun in a robber's hand ; of course you don't want to fight against the gun when you're robbed, nevertheless those with guns in their hands should still be beaten down. But this takes time and you cannot make it by sheer force. The international conditions of the Soviet Union both spiritually and materially are improving vastly these days. And this systematic improvement is not only to the best interests of the Russians alone. It serves as an example for all the other countries which should learn from her strong points and start imitating her. Socialism will surely be implemented in every country sooner or later. The means and process of the revolution may appear in different forms in each country, but as all roads lead to Rome so all countries will be on the same path and the same level in the end." At the Pen Club Shaw was presented with a box of miniature clay masks, like those used by the Bejing opera, and an embroidered ancient Chinese robe. 15.00 Press Conference at Song Qingling's house. Shen bao reports ; 18 Febr. (1933) : "Shaw criticizes Chinese culture. He said that China and the East did not have culture. This is because, scientifically speaking, culture refers to all human behavior that can increase human happiness, especially the control of nature. In China, apart from finding a little culture in the fields on the countryside, there is no culture. Nowadays, China adopts from the West a lot of 'culture' that is no longer effective, and is harming the people instead. For example, the parliament started when the English did not want a government, and made use of it to upset monarchical rule and church authority. Yet eventually it could not overturn the power of the capitalists, since it was fundamentally controlled by the capitalists. What good can this kind of so-called Western culture do for China ?" Bai, He. Xiao Bona fang wen Zhongguo. In : Shen bao ; 17 Febr. (1933). [Bernard Shaw's visit to China]. 萧伯纳访问中国 Er schreibt : "I remember old Mr Shaw having a very good impression after visiting the USSR. After his visit to India, he advocated that England should give up her sovereignty over India. This time, when he visits China, I think he will not have impressions of 'pigtails' and 'foot binding'. What does he think about Hong Kong under British rule ?" Miao, Shen. You mo yu feng ci. In : Shen bao ; 17 Febr. (1933). [Humorous and satiric writing] 幽默与讽刺 Er schreibt : "In an oppressive serious situation, one cannot frankly scold the pains one is suffering, nor can one be warned kindly. Consequently, one has endless grievances and worries. At this time, if we have the power to make humorous and satiric discussion, one can attack by innuendo, tactfully using humorous words to present reality satirically. This is the so-called 'the art of scolding people'." "At the time of serious national calamity, the people are numb, the government officials are at ease. We can think about the tragedy of a dying nation. Of course we hope that, on one hand, we can have loud, deafening, fervent words of warning. On the other hand, we need many humorous and satiric words in order to wake up and strengthen our hearts. Therefore I hope that all kinds of publications can bear this mission, and publish more literary works on the difficulties of people's livelihoods. Works making the youth's body and mind drunk should be published less. At this time when we are standing together through thick and thin, we should save and arouse in many ways." Juan, Yun. Xiao xian sheng yu Xiao tai tai. In : Shen bao ; 17 Febr. (1933). [Mr and Mrs Shaw]. 萧先生与萧太太 Er schreibt : "Since the Indian poet Tagore's visit to China, the visit of the world-famous personages making the Easterners drunk with respect was not realized until the coming of Bernard Shaw. Shaw became one of the then most famous people in the world." Yu, Dafu. Jie shao Xiao Bona. In : Shen bao ; 17 Febr. (1933). [Introducing Shaw]. 介绍萧伯纳 Er schreibt : "We hope that Shaw will make use of his humor to go to the countries of the world, and tell them about our government's humor toward Japanese imperialistic invasion, and the League of Nation's humor toward this event." Zheng, Baiji. [Shaw is welcome to listen to the sounds of the cannons]. In : Shen bao ; 17 Febr. (1933). Er schreibt : "Bernard Shaw comes to China. This great satirist of the world is coming to China. The large-scale Japanese invasion triggers the world war and is the prelude to the world revolution. If Shaw uses his astute mind and analyses these cannon sounds clearly, just as he analyses the human relationships in his plays, he may give a good report to the masses of the world." 18.00 Shaw returns to the Empress of Britain. Febr. 18th The interview of 17th was reported in different papers, each had its own version. Zi lin xi bao, an English paper, reported Shaw's response to a question about the Chinese government : "They [the oppressed people] should rely on themselves. China should do the same. The Chinese people should organize themselves and choose for their ruler their favourite man, not an actor nor a feudal lord". Da lu bao, a conservative, semi-government Chinese paper in English language reported : "Even a good ruler can hardly ever establish a good reputation among the people, because in nine out of ten cases a leader is not a good actor, and he does not know how to please his people". Mei re xing wen, published in Japanese, reported it with even greater variation : "What is your view on the Chinese government ?" Shaw replied "In China, as I know, there are several governments. Which one are you referring to ?" The Shanghai daily, published in Japanese, reported Shaw as attacking both Communism and the United States, an anti-Communist nation, saying : "The anti-Communist movement waged by various countries going against Communism. It is also an oppressive country with no freedom for its people. While in China, Communism seems to have been misunderstood. Those so-called Communists who raid and suppress people are nothing but bandits". Lu Xun said about the event : "The reporters, who had all gathered at the same place, at the same time, and heard the same words, came up with disparate stories. It seemed that the same English words manifested themselves differently in different ears. In this case, we can see that Shaw is not a satirist, but a reflective mirror". Fei, Ming. Tan Xiao Bona. In : Shen bao ; 18 Febr. (1933). [On Shaw]. 谈萧伯纳 Er schreibt : "Shaw and Galsworthy are most famous among the world's great writers China is familiar with, whose names are translated into Chinese. This great writer [Shaw] is a satirist with a strong Chines flavour. Apart from accent, costume, and eating habits, his speech and actions do not look like a mechanical European, but like a comical Easterner." Xuan. Tan Xiao Bona. In : Shen bao ; 18 Febr. (1933). [On Shaw]. 谈萧伯纳 Er schreibt : "Shaw's major works reveal the fallacies of man's traditional beliefs, which reminds one of how Shaw was used as an iconoclast against tradition in 1919 in the May fourth movement." Yang, Xingzhi. Hallo Shaw. In : Shen bao ; 18 Febr. (1933). Er schreibt : Dear Shaw, why do you come to Shanghai? To visit us slaves of colonialism? To salute the British flag at the Whampao River? To listen to the cannons of the Japanese? To praise our nonresistance philosophy? But I tell you: Shanghai is not London, New York or Paris, Nor is it a red city like Leningrad. The British, American, Japanese, French flags fly proudly in the sky, Clearly saying that China is only a colony. The black smoke of the warships in the Whampao River, The coolies at the Whampao River are panting rapidly for breath, The blood and flesh of the weak are supporting the authority of the strong, Shanghai is this colonial city. Do you feel that this is a tragedy? I tell you also: Your words in Hong Kong are preposterous! Youths listening to it will pull their tongues, Old people hearing will say "fart." Maybe some will even be rude to you, Don't say anything foolish when you arrive at Shanghai, This is because we do not know humor, And you cannot say anything you like, We warn you to keep your mouth shut here, Actually there is no need to tell nonsense. But, when you return, Bring good tidings! You only have to say: China will be saved, The Whampao River will rise one day, And wash the darkness and authority of the land! Febr. 19th Zhang Menglin. Shuo zhen hua. In : Shen bao ; 19 Febr. (1933). [Telling the truth]. 说真话 Er schreibt : "People can only follow their instincts. When you instinctively feel that this action is not right, you will think of ways to change. If you cover reality with words, you cannot change for the rest of your life. You cannot evolve to a higher creature. Then, creatures higher than you (what old Mr Shaw calls the Superman) will appear, and treat you as you would treat a monkey." Febr. 20th [Shaw, George Bernard. Speech at the Beijing Hotel in Beijing]. In : Shen bao ; 20 Febr. (1933). "I came to Beijing for sightseeing and to visit the world-famous old capital. I do not have any responsibility or mission. The newspaper said that the Sino-Japanese problem is serious, and that Jehol was especially tense. In the future, Beijing and Tientsin may be included in the dangerous zones. I have come to tour China at a time when the situation is serious. This seems to be different from Europeans coming to China under normal conditions. Beijing is a rich and grand old capital. If people of the world cannot forget China, they cannot forget Beijing. The Japanese immigrants are preparing to return to their country, as the catastrophe is coming. The rich Chinese also moving south, as if Beijing could be abandoned. The property of the rich cannot be damaged. I do not understand : is the price of the property of the rich higher than Beijing ? The antiques of the Forbidden City are being moved south, and this move adds another new leaf in the cultural history of Beijing, as if the antique were more important than the lives of a few million of Beijing's citizens. If we tour Italy, the antiques from the ancient Roman Empire are still there. These were not moved in spite of the wars in Italy. The Chinese love peace, and the Japanese also claim to be peace-loving. But the peace of the Japanese is the peace that follows war. The peace of the Chinese is the peace of peace. The Japanese told the League of Nations that they have the duty to protect Manchukuo, and claim that they invade Jehol to protect Manchukuo. They invade in the name of protection and claim that their actions are undertaken in self-defense. China has adopted the policy of nonresistance. I feel that the policy of nonresistance no longer applies. It changes to resistance, and China thinks that resistance no longer applies. It changes to resistance, and China thinks that resistance means self-defense. I do not know when the self-defense of China and Japan will end. Some Chinese youths are interested in communism. Although the government has repeated injunctions, the students are still studying. Communism is a political problem. At first it was an economic problem. Communism is still a problem deserving study. The absolute communism first adopted by the USSR has failed, so that the country turned to th4e New Economic Policy and implemented the five-year plans. Now this plan is successful. It is not easy to spread communism in China, and China does not have big capitalists. The labor-capital relations problem is not studied academically in China. Therefore I cannot say whether people to learn the Three People's Principles as good students. Therefore whether a discipline is right or not is determined by time. A am touring China because I believe the historic sites to be unique, and to have great value in cultural history." Beijing Shaw left Shanghai on 20 Febr. at 7.00 and arrived at Beijing via Chinwangtao at 18.40 on 20 Febr. Febr. 21th Press conference by Shaw in the Beijing Hotel, at which he commented on various subjects, from war to cheap labor, from communism to language. The educational institutions and literary circles in Beijing decided not to give Shaw an official reception. Hu Shi announced diplomatically before Shaw's arrival that "the most respectful form of welcome to a special guest like Shaw is to leave him alone ; let him move about freely, meet whomever he wants to meet and see whatever he wants to see". The Great Wall. On her recovery, Shaw insisted that Charlotte Shaw should go with him to see the Great Wall of China. The best way to see it, he decided, would be from an airplane which would reveal the vast expanse of the wall. The plane was one of the early biplanes, their seats were open to the sky. As the plane flew low over the Great Wall, Shaw was horrified to see a fierce battle in progress just below them between the Chinese Army and a horde of armed Japanese. Shaw frenziedly jabbed the shoulder of the pilot in front. "Turn back ! Turn back !" he shouted. "I don't like wars. I don't want to look at this". Apparently they flew back to Beijing in silence. George Bernard Shaw to Hesketh Pearson : "Did you see the Great Wall in China ?" "I flew over it in an aeroplane." "Interesting ?" "As interesting as a wall can be." Febr. 25th Yu, Dafu. [Literary and military lessons]. In : Shen bao ; 25 Febr. (1933). The literary lesson is from the glib Old Mr. Bernard Shaw. He told reporters in Beijing : "The Chinese have a strange character. They are inconceivably polite and friendly toward the foreigners. But among themselves they are so impolite and always fighting one another". He also said that the Great Wall was like a common low wall. Leaving China, Shaw went on to Beppu, Japan, arriving there on Febr. 28 (1933). |
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| 13 | 1933 |
Brief von George Bernard Shaw an Edward Elgar ; 30 May (1933). I recommended Peiping where you must go to the Lama temple and discover how the Chinese people produce harmony. Instead of your labourious expedient of composing a lot of different parts to be sung simultaneously, they sing in unison all the time, mostly without changing the note ; but they produce their voices in some magical way that brings out all the harmonies with extraordinary richness, like big bells. I have never had my ears so satisfied. The basses are stupendous. The conductor keeps them to the pitch by tinkling a tiny bell occasionally. They sit in rows round a golden Buddha fifty feet high, whose beneficent majesty and intimate interest in them is beyond description. In art we do everything the wrong way and the Chinese do it the right way. At Tientsin they had a Chinese band for me. It consisted of a lovely toned gong, a few flageolets (I don't know what to call them) which specialized in pitch without tone, and a magnificent row of straight brass instruments reaching to the ground, with mouthpieces like the one I saw in the Arsenal in Venice many years ago: brass saucers quite flat, with a small hole in the middle. They all played the same note, and played it all the time, like the E flat in the Rheingold prelude; but it was rich in harmonies, like the note of the basses in the temple. At the first pause I demanded that they should play some other notes to display all the possibilities of the instrument. They pleaded that they had never played any other note; their fathers, grandfathers and forbears right back to the Chinese Tubal Cain had played that note and no other note, and that to assert that there was more than one note was to imply that there is more than one god. But the man with the gong rose to the occasion and proved that in China as in Europe the drummer is always the most intelligent person in the band. He snatched one of the trumpets, waved it in the air like a mail coach guard with a post horn, and filled the air with flourishes and fanfares and Nothung motifs. We must make the B.B.C. import a dozen of these trumpets to reinforce our piffling basses. But the Chinese will reveal to you the whole secret of opera, which is, not to set a libretto to music, but to stimulate actors to act and declaim. When there is a speech to be delivered, the first (and only) fiddler fiddles at the speaker as if he were lifting a horse over the Grand National jumps; an ear splitting gong clangs at him; a maddening castanet clacks at him, and finally the audience joins in and incites the fiddler to redouble his efforts. You at once perceive that this is the true function of the orchestra in the theatre and that the Wagnerian score is only gas and gaiters. |
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| 14 | 1933 |
Shaw, George Bernard. A message to the Chinese people [ID D27970]. I am flattered by this request for a message to the Chinese people, for it implies that I am a modern Confucius. I, however, cannot see myself in that magnitude. The Chinese people cannot live on messages, and too many messages are not news for the press, and usually provide the dullest reading. Besides, I am at present trying to find out what message China has for me and for the West. Her history since the year 1911, when it is completed, will be the fullest instruction for students of political science. Then she will have achieved a complete cure for that disease called civilization, either by changing it to her own benefit or rejecting it altogether. In the meantime I can only look on and wonder what is going to happen. It is not for me, belonging as I do to a quarter of the globe which is mismanaging its affairs in a ruinous fashion, to pretend to advise an ancient people desperately striving to set its house in order. Europe can give no counsel to Asia, except at the risk of the old rebuff 'Physician, heal thyself'. I am afraid I have likewise nothing to say in the present emergency except 'China, heal thyself'. With China's people united who could resist her ? |
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| 15 | 1935 |
Shi, Wei. Xiao Bona [ID D27956]. According to Shi, Shaw's greatness lay in four areas : 1) Shaw's struggle against capitalism and bourgeois society. 2) Shaw's struggle against militarism and imperialism. 3) Shaw's unwavering support of socialism, as evidenced in his endorsement of the Soviet Union. 4) Shaw's struggle against the exploitation and oppression of small, weak, colonial countries. What Shi emphasizes are Shaw's moral and social commitment, not Shaw's dramatic achievements. Shaw is admired as a defender of justice, a voice for the weak, and an upright moralist. |
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| 16 | 1935 | Aufführung von Arms and the man von George Bernard Shaw im Star Theatre Nanjing unter der Leitung der Chinese Drama Association. |
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| 17 | 1936 |
Lin, Lüxin. Xiao Bona de yan jiu [ID D27948]. Er schreibt : "George Bernard Shaw has been known for his talent of cracking jokes ; at present his name never fails to evoke three Chinese characters 'xiao hua jia' (laugh talk master). As soon as this laugh talk master opens his mouth, raises his head, or moves his hand or feet, newspaper reporters have acquired the material for news ; the three words – Xiao Bona thus appear in newspapers all over the world. One cannot help but wonder what wind brings him to those newspapers”. Lin Lüxin emphasized Shaw's social commitment and interpreted Shaw's intention in writing as solely altruistic. Lin believed that “Shaw did not write plays in order to achieve immortality ; he wrote them to contribute to the well-being of the contemporary society. In other words, he meant to do his bit for his time and was not interested in pursuing his own fame. The noble character manifests itself in all of his plays." Wendi Chen : The ground on which Lin bases this statement, whether it is his reading of Shaw's plays or his own presumption that all socially responsible scholars write for social causes only, is unclear. Lin had not read all of Shaw's plays, and even if he had, his statement would not have been accurate. It is clear that Lin glorified Shaw purely on the basis of his own understanding of the traditional Chinese concept of a nobel scholar. |
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| 18 | 1937 |
Jing, Donglei. Yingguo wen xue jian shi [ID D27972]. Er schreibt : "George Bernard Shaw challenges conventional morality, challenges society, government, culture ; he challenges the whole existing order, even religion and the arts. He has been a freedom fighter all his life long." Jing exalts Shaw's work, insisting that Shaw wrote for his political belief and was fundamentally a preacher who wrote only “to instruct, not to entertain. |
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| 19 | 1940 |
Lin, Yutang. A talk with Bernard Shaw [ID D27973]. Bernard Shaw once looked in at Shanghai and looked out again. On the morning of his arrival, the papers reported that the local Rotary Club had decided to snub Shaw by letting him "pass unnoticed." The apparent implication was, of course, that Shaw would suffer such terrible disgrace from being passed unnoticed by the local Rotarians that he would never be able to recover his reputation. That was, of course, very intelligent on the part of the Shanghai Rotarians in view of the fact that the Hong Kong Rotarians had been worse than snubbed by Bernard Shaw. But it would have been still more intelligent to decide not to read Shaw alto- gether. Shaw had aroused, besides, such a scare among the Shanghai respectable society by urging the Hong Kong students to study communism that the entire Shanghai foreign press was in hiding that morning for fear of coming into contact with him. The attitude of the Rotary Club was but typical. The only thing, however, that will go down to posterity about the Shanghai Rotary Club is that on the day preceding Shaw's arrival, these Rotarians, or by Shaw's definition, these people who "keep in the rut," called Shaw "Blighter," "Ignoramous," "Fa Tz" and "Baka-yaro." |
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| 20 | 1956 |
Tian, Han. Xiang xian shi zu yi xi ju da shi men zai xue xi. In : Guang ming ri bao ; July 27 (1956). = Bernard Shaw : master of realist drama. [ID D27921]. [Ansprache zum 100jährigen Geburtstag von George Bernard Shaw]. Shaw is one of the great realist writers since Shakespeare. The mantle of Ibsen has fallen upon him, and he has continued the Ibsen tradition and developed it better than anyone else. He has been called the present-day Shakespeare. And after he exposed the real aspect of capitalism in his 'unpleasant' plays, his enemies held him up for castigation as 'that hateful Ibsenite'. Shaw himself was a writer blessed with longevity like his own 'Methuselah'. His natural life covered almost a century while his creative life was spread over seventy years. Thus he was an eye-witness of the many developments in Europe since the turn of the last century. Owing to his having read Marx's Kapital in early life, he cast a penetrating gaze upon these developments and the social reasons behind them. Shaw possessed a many-sided talent, especially keen on the satirical side, and in addition, he accepted the vivid and lively form of the drama as developed by the English people, with the result that his satirical plays are inimitable. When he died in 1950 people deeply regretted the immense loss of the 'most courageous thinker in Europe' – to use Gorki's phrase. He left with us over fifty plays, several novels, and at least a hundred articles on political and artistic subjects. It cannot be said, in this enormous body of work covering a whole lifetime, that every item shines like a jewel, but without any doubt whatever, the jewels form the main part. As far as his political thought is concerned, he has trod the tortuous path of reform which has resulted in certain shortcomings in the political ideas expressed in his work. But just as Lenin has pointed out, Shaw was 'a good man fallen among Fabians'. His intensive feeling for justice, and his correct creative method often straightened out his political prejudices in the course of creation. Alick West's contention that often the most penetrating passages of Shaw are directly contrary to Fabianism is a perfectly correct one. Students of Ibsen have admired the dogged persistence of this old dramatist in North Europe in his study of human character. Shaw also was this kind of person. Although he has been called a 'laughing artist' and a 'great humorist', his attitude towards humanity is serious from beginning to end. He never gave an easy assent before he had thought through a problem. But once he grasped hold of the truth, he upheld it with great determination, with the ferocious courage of a lion or a tiger throwing an intense light upon it. Taking his attitude toward war as an instance, Shaw was always a hater of war and a lover of peace. In 1914, when the First Imperialist War broke out, he disapproved so much of the insanity of the bourgeois instigators of the war, that he placed his name with Henri Barbusse, Romain Rolland, and other progressive intellectuals of Europe to a protest against the war. In his pamphlet 'Common sense about the war' he called upon the soldiers of both sides to shoot their officers and go home to farm the land, while those who returned to the cities should start a revolution. This naturally earned him the suspicion and hatred of the warmongers, so that he remained neglected for a comparatively long period, causing people even to make the joke that 'Bernard Shaw was growing old'. It was not until the appearance of Heartbreak House, followed by a whole series of new plays, that these rumors ceased. Now let us refer to Shaw's view of social reform. Although he admitted that Marx had 'opened his eyes', nevertheless he preferred reform and the Fabian Society. This is the reason why, in many of his works, after giving a profound exposure of the evils of society, he fails to indicate an active way out. In the early days of his creative life, when strikes followed one after another in England, and class antagonisms were becoming intense, he wrote a whole series of 'unpleasant' plays. When class antagonisms slackened for the time being, his barbs also were less stinging, and he produced 'pleasant' plays. However, such a perspicacious and truly responsible writer could not ignore the fact that events were not developing in a 'pleasant' fashion but becoming daily more serious ; and he could hardly fail to discover that the Fabian movement was wasting its efforts. But as he still did not believe in the great strength of the revolutionary class, and did not see clearly yet the proper path of revolution, he landed up in denying Fabianism on the one hand and the revolutionary trade union movement on the other, considering that both were fundamentally useless. (Shaw's Revolutionist's handbook 1816). It was not until after the success of the Russian October Revolution, and the appearance of the success of the Soviet Socialist Republic, that the depression of the old playwright became dispersed. So he ended up by saying, “We are socialists. Russia's viewpoint is also ours”. Afterwards he kept firmly to this viewpoint and never wavered when the Soviet Union was attacked by the Nazi power of Germany in 1941 and her fate was in the balance. In 1933, at the time of Shaw's visit to China, the liberation struggle of the Chinese people was in the midst of an extremely difficult period. Japanese imperialism, after the invasion of the Northeast lasting from Sept. 18, 1931, was again intensifying its aggression against North China, while the reactionary government of the Guomindang was compromising with and surrendering to the invader on the one hand, and persecuting and suppressing revolutionaries on the other, and England and the United States were waiting for Japan to attack China. At such a time it was difficult for Shaw in his visit to China to give satisfaction to all parties, and in fact, he did not do so. In one of his articles, Lu Xun pointed out the different reactions to Ibsen and Bernard Shaw of the so-called 'upper classes' and 'lower classes'. He said : “It goes without saying the people who go to their plays are mostly ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and gentleman belong to a species that is full of 'amour propre'. Although Ibsen puts them on the stage and lays some of their secrets bare, he doesn't pass judgment on them, but says to them calmly 'Think it over. What is it all about ? Although the dignity of the ladies and gentlemen is somewhat shaken, they are still able to swagger home ; and although they are not very happy in their musings when they go home, they are still able to preserva a bold exterior… Shaw, however, is not like this. When he puts them on the stage, he tears the masks off their faces and the expensive clothes from their bodies, and ends by dragging them by the ears, pointing at them before everyone and saying, 'look, these are parasites !' He doesn't give them time to answer back, or a loophole of escape. Then the only people left laughing are the lower classes who are not guilty of the vices he holds up for castigation. In this Shaw approaches the lower classes, and in consequence, there is a distance between him and the upper classes.” Shaw said in a speech to the students of Hong Kong University : “If at twenty you don't join the Reds in their revolution, you'll become fossils at fifty ; if you become red revolutionists at twenty, the chances are you won't get left behind at forty”. This is the sort of thing that is thoroughly disliked by reactionary rulers, and so it was picked upon by the bourgeois press of Shanghai for attack. During the few hours he was in Shanghai, Shaw saw the people he wanted to see, such as Madame Sun, and Lu Xun. Nevertheless, Lu Xun said : “I didn't ask a single question of Shaw ; and Shaw didn't ask a single question of me. We lapsed into silence”. Shaw, however, said a few words to the newspaper reporters that besieged him, and what he said was distorted in both the Chinese and foreign papers the next day. For instance, on the subject of the Chinese government, the Shaw of the English papers said : “The Chinese should choose those they respect most to be their rulers” ; the Shaw of the Japanese papers said : “There are several governments in China” ; the Shaw of the Chinese papers said : “A good government is never popular with the people”. This led Lu Xun to say : “Shaw, in this instance, was not being satirical but a mirror”. He reflected the real facial expressions of the imperialists and their jackals. An article produced during Shaw's visit to China that is worth paying attention to is his message to China and the Chinese people given through the Shi shi xin bao. [Siehe 1933 : Shaw, George Bernard. A message to the Chinese people]. These words of Shaw have the ring of absolute sincerity. Under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and Chairman Mao [Zedong], the Chinese people are uniting together, and after escaping from national crisis and having driven away the Guomindang reactionary clique, we are actually in the process of adopting the beneficial aspects of modern 'civilization' and rejecting and weeding out the harmful aspects according to our own benefit, and building a socialist, industrialized New China. In regard to many questions, Shaw is not only a satirist, but also a prophet. Regarding the Soviet Union, regarding, China, regarding others that have suffered or are suffering oppression, a great deal of what he said has proved perfectly correct. The first introduction of Shaw to China was probably through Pan Jiaxun's Lou xiang (Mean alleys) which was Shaw's virgin effort, Widowers' Houses. It was easy for this play that exposed the cruelty of capitalist exploitation and took up the cudgels for the poor, to draw forth a sympathetic response from the Chinese people of that time, who were also in distressful circumstances. Pan Jiaxun followed up his first translation with Mrs. Warren's profession, and the following plays appeared translated by other people : The philanderer, Arms and the man, The devil's disciple, Candida, St. Joan, Back to Methuselah and Pygmalion. Of these plays, Mrs. Warren's profession, Arms and the man, and Pygmalion have been produced on the stage at different times in various places in China. If Widowers' houses was influenced by Ibsen, Mrs. Warren's profession is an answer to Ibsen's Doll's house. Ibsen himself threw light on Nora's leaving through Madame Helseth's husband saying to her in The lady from the sea : “I admit you are absolutely free. You can choose for yourself, and you are responsible for yourself”. The result was that Madame Helseth did not leave her husband. But the economic rights of the wife were not yet settled, so Shaw suggests a different solution for Vivie, the new woman, in her determined and uncompromising struggle to leave her brothel-keeper mother and that rotten parasite who lived on the income derived from capital invested in houses of prostitution, Sir George Crofts ; and that was an independent existence working at a profession. This is a development on A doll's house and The lady from the sea, even though in capitalist society, the problem of the professional woman is not an easy one to solve. Ibsen and Bernard Shaw have many similarities both in their persons and in their art. Their artistic creation swept away a great deal of the prevailing decadence in the European theatre and made dramatic literature a weapon for criticizing society and revealing human life, and turned the theatre into what Bernard Shaw called 'a factory of ideas'. They were heirs to the notable tradition of their own countries and the whole of Europe, and in their turn, have developed it and exercised a strong influence on those who followed them. They both have a serious, severe, unflinching attitude towards artistic creation. Ibsen, for instance, wrote six plays in the period from A doll's house to The lady from the sea on the same central problem, probing it to its depths and bringing it into relief. And Shaw also, in the long period of his creative life, never stopped searching for the truth, for the real qualities of society. He has said that each of his plays marked a development of his thought. Both of them were deeply patriotic, with a warm love for humanity, and very much concerned for the fate of the human species. Both gave their support to all movements with justice on their side, and were staunch, unbending guardians of democracy and pace, in their hatred of war and all its horrors. Where th truth was, there they were to be found, supporting it without fear or favour. Their works are not only loved by the Chinese people but have had an actual influence on society. Their attitude in pursuit of truth and in upholding it will be forever an example to us. The more we study their works, the more we realize that we have not learnt enough from them, and that their plays should be more frequently staged. In order to establish Chinese realism on a firm basis, we should study their works, act them, and attend performances of their plays more industriously than ever. On this day, when we are holding a festival in memory of these two great writers, we are full of boundless optimism in regard to the development of the progressive dramatic culture of the whole world. In the past, progressive drama has brought wisdom and courage to the whole of humanity, and educated it in its struggle for liberation. Treading in the footsteps of Ibsen and Shaw, it will in the future bring more wisdom, more courage, and more noble feelings to aid the people of the present day and the future to build an even better life in an even better world. |
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| 21 | 1956 |
100jähriges Jubiläum zum Geburtstag von George Bernard Shaw in China. The apple cart (act II), Mrs. Warren's profession (acts II-III) were performed by students from the Beijing Cinema Actors's Troupe and the Central Academy of Dramatic Art. Wendi Chen : The cultural bureaucracy orchestrated a variety of activities : conferences, performances, special exhibitions and publication of his translated work. It was not so much Shaw the Western dramatist, but Shaw the socialist who was being feted. Shaw was conveniently employed by the Chinese cultural authorities to serve several related purposes : 1) to propagandize the superiority of socialism over capitalism during the Cold War ; 2) to promote the Hundred flower campaign ; 3) to provide an example for Chinese writers with bourgeois backgrounds ; 4) to assist Chinese cultural authorities in creating a favorable international image of China by extending China's literary repertoire beyond Soviet literature. The major official event took place on the evening of 26 July 1956 in the ballroom at the Beijing Hotel, where more than one thousand people assembled for official speeches and performances. Many distinguished political leaders, as well as writers, artists, and foreign diplomats, were present. Other activities included a conference sponsored by the Beijing Library and the Beijing Working People's Cultural Palace. The Beijing Library also staged a special exhibition, displaying photos, books, and essays written by and about Shaw and Ibsen. A number of literary magazines, journals and newspapers published essays on Shaw and his works. In Shanghai, Tianjin and Shenyang similar activities took place. Guest speakers were Lennox Robinson, director of the Irish National Theatre, Rubeigh James Minney, British author and Gerda Ring, director of the National Theatre Oslo. The group included the Chinese writers Mao Dun, Chen Zhenduo, Tian Han, Xia Yan, Ouyang Yuqian and Mei Lanfang. After the celebrations, the Chinese People's Association for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries prepared items for sale, as advertised in the Shavian : Selected works of George Bernard Shaw in Chinese translation (Mrs. Warren's profession, The apple cart, Major Barbara) ; Program of the 1956 commemoration of ibsen and Shaw in Chinese, English and Russian, including the speeches by Lennox Robinson and Rubeigh J. Minney ; Postcards commemorating world cultural figures, including Shaw, Mozart, Ibsen, Franklin. Rubeigh J. Minney : The scene from The apple cart in which the American ambassador tells King Magnus of England, that his country wished to return to the English fold. The thought delighted them. The play had not yet been translated into Chinese, but although they had less than a week for making the translation and for rehearsals, it was adopted and the members of the Peking Cinema Actors Troupe were word perfect on the night of the performance. The preparation of these scenes involved us in many discussions. As early as eight o'clock in the morning our rooms were invaded by actors, actresses or producers. We were asked innumerable questions about the meaning of words, the sort of action most suited to the characters, the subtlety of Western gestures, and so on. They took infinite pains. They were striving for perfection, and for the most part they attained it. The Chinese girl who played the Queen was young and pretty and in her Western clothes and make-up could have passed for English. Her role did not demand much of her ; in that scene she had just to sit and listen, but she used her feather fan most expressively, opening it and shutting it to indicate her reactions to what was being said by the King and the Ambassador. [The Chinese's acquaintance with Shaw's plays] was confined almost entirely to Mrs. Warren's profession. We tried to veer them off this. I said : "There are a great many other plays which you ought to look at – if you have Chinese translations of them. Mrs. Warren's profession is about a woman who owned a number of brothels. You have, we understand, abolished all brothels. That is a closed chapter now in the life of the people of China." But, no matter what arguments we advanced, back they came to Mrs. Warren. We learned at last that their attachments to this play was because of the struggle in it of Mrs. Warren's daughter Vivie to win her freedom from social and domestic domination. This play was being acted by various groups of amateurs and others all over China and it had accordingly the advantage that the artists already knew it. |
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| 22 | 1956 |
Mao, Dun. "Opening speech". In : Xin hua she xin wen gao ; no 2243 (July 1956). [Zum 100jähriges Jubiläum zum Geburtstag von George Bernard Shaw in China]. Mao Dun delivered the opening address. He praised Shaw's plays and emphasized Shaw's personal contacts with China. "Shaw expressed his sympathy toward socialist countries many times. All his life he supported peace and democracy most vehemently. In His satirical comedies, he employs satire to expose and ridicule warmongers and arms manufacturers. He attacks the aggressive policies of the imperialists against oppressed people. In his plays, he repeatedly protests against the aggression of the colonialists, and shows great sympathy toward the people in their fight for freedom and independence." "The Chinese people deeply love Shaw's comedies, so full of intelligent political discussion and bitter satire. During his lifetime this playwright also had some personal contact with the Chinese people". |
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| 23 | 1956 |
Yang, Xianyi. Xiao Bona : zhi can jie ji de jie pu jia. In : Ren min ri bao (26 July 1956). [Shaw – dissector of boureois society]. Wendi Chen : Yang hailed Shaw as a "dissector of bourgeois society" who "relentlessly tore off the masks of bourgeois gentlemen and ridiculed bourgeois society". Yang admiringly commented on Shaw's superb performance : "As composed and unmoved as a surgeon, Shaw performed an autopsy on the corpse of bourgeois society". Yang then proceeded to catalogue Shaw's individual surgical cases. Widowers' houses, according to Yang, "ruthlessly exposes the rotten corruption of a capitalist Society" ; Mrs. Warren's profession "even more boldly exposes the shameless degradation caused by the oppression of the capitalist system" ; Major Barbara reveals how "capitalism reduces human relationships to mere monetary ones" ; "Heartbreak House symbolizes the whole of bourgeois society", which finally "gets blown up" ; "On the rocks depicts the unemployed workers' struggle to overthrow the government". |
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| 24 | 1956 |
Zheng, Zhenduo. Ji nian Yiao Bona dan shen yi bai zhou nian. In : Guang ming ri bao (27 July 1956). [In commemoration of Shaw's one hundredth anniversary of birth]. "His first play Widowers' houses takes as its subject matter the sharp class struggle during the 1880s in England. Though no working class people appear in the play, their miserable living conditions as well as the capitalist's ruthless exploitation of the workers' few pennies of hard-earned money are presented in the figure of the rent collector. In 1894 he wrote Mrs. Warren's profession, a social problem play, which exposes the basest and dirtiest deed of the capitalist class. It tears off the decent mask of 'civilization' and exposes the rotten, stinking inner reality of the capitalist society". |
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| 25 | 1956 |
Gu, Shouchang. Wei da de xi ju jia Xiao Bona : ji nian Xiao Bona dan shen yi bai zhou nian. In : Zuo pin ; vol. 18 (Sept. 1956). [Great dramatist Bernard Shaw]. Wendi Chen : Gu analysis of Mrs. Warren's profession pointed out that Shaw made a serious mistake in depicting Mrs. Warren as both a working-class woman and a capitalist, thus confusing the antagonistic relationship between workers and capitalists, and denying the legitimacy of class struggle. Vivie's relationship with her mother was also viewed by Gu in terms of class. Her ambivalent attitude toward her mother was understood in terms of Mrs. Warren's dual class identity – the exploited and the exploiter. According to Gu, Vivie sympathizes with the mother, who comes from a poor family background but hates the mother who is an exploiter of other women. Unable to resolve the conflict, she withdraws helplessly into her own world, pitting herself against society. Like other Maoist critics, Gu found the ending of the play unsatisfactory because it did not offer a solution. |
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| 26 | 1956 | Aufführung von Arms and the man von George Bernard Shaw unter der Regie von Wang Zuoling mit Wang Denni als Raina und Shi Hui als Bluntschli in Shanghai. Aufführung in westlichen Kleidern und Verhalten. | |
| 27 | 1957 |
[Shaw, Bernard]. Yibusheng xi ju de xin ji qiao. Pan Jiaxun yi. [ID D30757]. In his essay, Shaw illustrates the technique of 'discussion' by using Nora as an example. Shaw's criticism of Ibsen was of the most important references in Chinese Ibsen research. Shaw schreibt : "Up to a certain point in the last act, A doll's house is a play that might be turned into a very ordinary French drama by the excision of a few lines, and the substitution of a sentimental happy ending for the famous last scene... But at just that point in the last act, the heroine very unexpectedly (by the wiseacres) stops her emotional acting and says : We must sit down and discuss all this that has been happening between us'. And it was by this new technical feature : this addition of a new movement, as musicians would say, to the dramatic form, that A doll's house conquered Europe and founded a new school of dramatic art." |
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| 28 | 1979 | Aufführung von Saint Joan von George Bernard Shaw im Hong Kong Repertory Theatre unter der Regie von James Mark. | |
| 29 | 1980 |
Wang, Zuoliang. Lun Xiao Bona de xi ju yi shu. In : Wang, Zuoliang. Yingguo wen xue lun wen ji [ID D27920]. [On Shaw's dramatic art]. Wendi Chen : Wang distinguished Shaw from many other bourgeois writers who had not participated in actual working-class activities by stressing Shaw's active social participation. "The difference is to be found here", he wrote. "Other playwrights usually make their first literary attempts in theaters or in their studies, whereas Shaw experienced the evils of capitalist society first-hand during those years when he was unemployed, and he developed his argumentative skills while speaking in the streets and debating at various social meetings". |
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| 30 | 1988 | Film : The greatest lover = Gong zi duo qing in Hong Kong. Adaptation von Pygmalion von George Bernard Shaw unter der Regie von Clarence Ford, mit Chow Yun Fat und Anita Mui Yim Fong. |
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| 31 | 1991 |
Aufführung von Major Barbara von George Bernard Shaw im Beijing People's Art Theater in der Übersetzung und unter der Regie von Ying Ruocheng ; mit Zhu Lin als Lady Britomart, Song Dandan als Major Barbara, Zhu Xu als Andrew Undershaft und Ren Baoxian als Cusins. Wang Zuoliang schreibt eine Review in der Ren min ri bao ; June 20 (1991) : "What Shaw is saying in the play is in Western society, the capitalist rule everything. In order to show this through characterization and setting, he makes use of all his linguistic powers. The Beijing People's Art Theatre Troupe has this ability. They are nurtured by the spoken scenes in traditional Chinese opera, and trained by the Beijing People's Art Theatre Troupe's habit of paying attention to tone. Even the Chinese old poems also nurtured them. The attempt to perform various kinds of foreign plays in these years has expanded their experience. Therefore when the play began, the refined and yet authoritative expressions of Lady Britomart, played by Zhu Lin, aroused our expectations. When Undershaft, played by Zhu Xu, enters, faced by his wife who is difficult to deal with and his children, he courteously and vigilantly wards off their criticism and refuses their demands." Shen Huihui schreibt eine Review in der Guang ming ri bao ; June 15 (1991) : "Major Barbara was first performed in 1906. Bernard Shaw stepped out bravely, crying out to stop the imperialist war. He was not afraid of being misunderstood or ciricized. Using his deep thinking, he foresaw that imperialism and capitalism would make use of war to lead mankind into a darker abyss. In Major Barbara, he satirically reveals the real purposes of the conspiracy between politics and religion, and criticizes sharply the church and political authority at that time." Sun, Jiaxiu. He Xiao Bona xi ju she ci shang yan : kan hua ju Babala shao xiao. In : Xi ju ; no 8 (1991). Er schreibt über die Aufführung von Major Barbara : "Act two is an important act for Bernard Shaw. It thoroughly exposes the evils of poverty and ist irreparable effects on society under the capitalist system. Capitalism deprives people of their dignity. Capitalism turns people into rude, cruel, and inhuman creatures as in the case of Walker. Capitalism produces an extreme polarity between rich and poor, as well as the moral degradation seen in alcoholism and dishonesty. Shaw wrote this act to expose the capitalist system, but the production did not effectively accomplish that exposure, especially with the excision of some of the discussion in this act." Wendi Chen : The production was peculiar because the political, social and cultural climate of the time was not in favor of staging such a play, and it was significant because the production was charched with a serious social and professional mission. The following day the Da wan bao (Beijing evening news) reported that "many people in the drama profession as well as a large general audience attended the first night's performance. The play was received with great enthusiasm". Ke Wenhui, one of the literary critics wrote : "The first night's performance ended with laughter and extended applause. The dramatic effect was extraordinary. It was an event unlike any other during the last few years". Major Barbara was a major dramatic event for the following reasons : the great reputation of Shaw in China, the reputation of Ying Ruocheng and his cast, the prominence of the location where the performance took place and possibly, the striking contrast between the production of this foreign play and local productions. Ying confessed that his interest in Shaw dated back to his college days in the 1940s ; it was his 'long cherished wish' to be able to put Shaw on the Chinese stage : "If we don't include Bernard Shaw, we are not presenting a full picture of twentieth century drama. Shaw occupies a crucial position in the development of modern drama". Ying was fully aware of the scope of technical challenges in producing the play. He repeatedly cautioned his cast with respect to Shaw's language and characterization. He warned : "Shaw's plays are seldom staged in China mainly because of his language. His verbal skills consist of many tit-for-tat witty exchanges". |
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| 32 | 1994 | Aufführung von Major Barbara von George Bernard Shaw im Hong Kong Repertory Theatre in der Übersetzung und unter der Regie von Ying Ruocheng, mit Lo Koon-lan als Lady Britomart. | |
| 33 | 1995 |
Sun, Jiaxiu. He Xiao Bona xi ju shou ci shang yan. In : Zhongguo xi ju ; 7 (1995). [On the forst performance of Bernard Shaw's play : watching the spoken Drama Major Barbara].kl "The ideas of Bernard Shaw expressed in the play were considered advanced at the time when it was written. We should also note his limitation. It is greatly contradictory. The play was written in 1905 before the socialist revolution. Bernard Shaw notes and reveals deeply the innate contradiction in his society. Yet, the view raised in the play were those when he joined the Fabian Society, that is, a slow progressive revolution and the practice of amerliorism. They advocate using production to work for social progress, and improving employer-employee relationship. One has to be fed before one can talk about morality. But Shaw is not critical toward what is produced. Even cannons can be produced. Shaw affirms capitalist production, which means that he also affirms the capitalist system. Undershaft is the incarnation of Shaw, and a mouthpiece of some of his social ideas. The innermost being of Cusins is very bad, and he hides that by reciting the poems of Euripides. Shaw fails at the depiction of Major Barbara. The play has not given her more lines and action. She is not a very devoted Christian. She is an upper-class lady. China has published many translations of Shaw's works and recommends him as a world-famous cultural personage. But this is only half the work. It should be followed by performances. If Shaw's works were brought here without any change, the performance would be too long for China's audience. If the translation has foreign flavor, the Chinese audience will have difficulty accepting it. Ying Rucheng has translated the play into an intelligent natural language understandable by the Chinese audience. I think that the Chinese audience likes plays with a strong plot and rich human emotions. Therefore, the performance of Shaw's play in China has a certain degree of difficulty. Before the liberation of China, people had tried but failed. Shaw's play became a hard nut to crack, and nobody dared to bite in many years." |
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| 34 | 1997 | Aufführung von Yao tiao shu nu, Musical, Adaptation von Pygmalion von George Bernard Shaw unter der Regie von Clifton Ko in Hong Kong. | |
| 35 | 2003 |
Keating, Geoffrey. Remarks by the Consul General of Ireland at the Commemoration of the 17th anniversary of the visit of George Bernard Shaw to Shanghai. http://www.ceibs.edu/ase/Documents/arts/SunYatSen-Shaw/GK-E.htm. In 1933 George Bernard Shaw came to Shanghai for one day. The famous Irish writer and Nobel prize laureate came to this house to have lunch as a guest of Mme Song Qingling. This visit received great publicity in Shanghai at the time because of the international celebrity of the writer. It is also an event which has been immortalised through the record of the visit by one of China’s literary giants, Lu Xun. Today we will have the opportunity to listen to that penetrating account. To read Lu Xun’s account I am particularly pleased to welcome Professor Nicholas Grene, head of the English Department in Trinity College Dublin, who is an expert on Shaw and who has come to Shanghai for this commemoration. At that lunch Shaw met Lu Xun, Cai Yuanpei and Lin Yutang. That brief meeting was the most significant contact in the 20th century between an Irish writer and thinker with Chinese writers and thinkers. I have no doubt that this century will see the development of many more intellectual and cultural exchanges and much closer contact. In the modern Shanghai of today, it is hard to believe that a mere seventy years ago, Shanghai still had its international concessions and the city was under threat from both foreign and internal forces. The visit of Shaw had a symbolic value as a gesture of solidarity with the people of Shanghai at a time of difficulty and danger. Today in a Shanghai that is at peace, open to the world and growing in prosperity, we can celebrate the visit as a unique intellectual encounter between east and west. I am delighted for this reason to be joined today by Professor Alfredo Pastor, Dean of the China Europe International Business School and the Chairman of the Academia Sinica Europaea, a body which seeks to promote better understanding between China and Europe. Please welcome him. |
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| 36 | 2003 |
Liang, Qin. Remarks at the Commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the visit of George Bernard Shaw to Shanghai, 23 April 2003. http://www.ceibs.edu/ase/Documents/arts/SunYatSen-Shaw/QL-E.htm. Today we are here to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the visit to Shanghai of George Bernard Shaw. First, I would like to, on behalf of the Chinese side, welcome you all to today’s commemoration and express our greatest pleasure of having the presence of Shanghai municipal leaders, Consul General of Ireland and representatives from other Consulates General in Shanghai. I would also like to extend our congratulations to the cultural representatives from Ireland and China for the historical meeting today. Great Irish writer, playwright and winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, George Bernard Shaw is famous for his great contribution to the world literature. He visited Shanghai on February 17th, 1933 to sympathize with the Chinese nation fighting for democracy and national independence. Madam Song Qingling, widow of Sun Yat-Sen received Bernard Shaw at 29 Rue Moliere, currently Sun Yat-Sen’s Former Residence. Both of them were honorary chairpersons of the World Committee against Imperialist War at that time. Shaw had called Madam Song in advance to say he had no desire to go ashore in Shanghai unless he could meet her in person. Therefore, their meeting becomes the core activity of the historical visit. On the cruise ship and at Madam Song’s house, they talked as close friends on such topics as the Chinese people’s resistance against Japanese invasion, the Nanjing Government, the United Front, Lloyd George, Stalin, women’s issues, literature, the press and so on. They also took photos in the garden, thus leaving a historical record of this friendly exchange between China and Ireland. Present at the lunch hosted by Madam Song were also main leaders from the China Civil Rights League and cultural representatives like Cai Yuanpei, Yang Xingfo, Lu Xun and Lin Yutan. Shaw sat in the seat of honour at a round table learning how to use the chopsticks and remarking affectionately that friends are best because you can always keep in touch with them. For both China and Ireland, today’s commemoration is another way of keeping in touch with each other. We wish that cultural exchanges between our two countries will promote the friendly association of our two peoples in a broader range of areas. Last but not least, I wish the commemoration every success. |
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Bibliography (41)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1919 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Hualun fu ren zhi zhi ye. Xiao Bona ; Pan Jiaxun yi. In : Xin chao ; vol. 2, no 2 (1919). = (Shanghai : Shang wu yin shu guan, 1923). (Wen xue yan jiu cong shu). Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. Mrs. Warren's profession : a play. In : Shaw, George Bernard. Plays : Pleasant and unpleasant. Vol. 1-2. (London : Grant Richards, 1898). (Library of English literature ; LEL 20506). [Geschrieben 1893 ; Erstaufführung London's New Lyric Club, 1902]. 華倫夫人之職業 |
Publication / Shaw17 |
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| 2 | 1920 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. [Guan fu de fang chan]. Pan Jiaxun yi. In : Xin chao ; vol. 2, no 4 (May 1920). Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. Widower's houses. In : Shaw, George Bernard. Plays : pleasant and unpleasant. Vol. 1-2. (London : Grant Richards ; Constable,1898). (Library of English literature ; LEL 20506). [Geschrieben 1892 ; Erstaufführung Royality Theatre, London 1892]. 鰥夫的房產 |
Publication / Shaw20 | |
| 3 | 1922 | Shaw, George Bernard. Back to Methuselah : a metabiological pentateuch. (London : Constable, 1921). [Geschrieben 1918-1920 ; Erstaufführung Garrick Theatre, New York 1922]. | Publication / Shaw64 |
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| 4 | 1923 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Bu kuai yi di xi ju. Xiaoe zhu ; Jin Benji, Yuan Bi yi. Vol. 1-3. (Shanghai : Shang wu yin shu guan, 1923). (Wen xue cong shu). 不快意的戲劇 [Enthält] : Wulan fu ren de zhi ye. Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. Mrs. Warren's profession : a play. In : Shaw, George Bernard. Plays : Pleasant and unpleasant. Vol. 1-2. (London : Grant Richards, 1898). (Library of English literature ; LEL 20506). [Geschrieben 1893 ; Erstaufführung London's New Lyric Club, 1902]. 烏蘭夫人的職業 Hao qiu zhe. Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. The philanderer. In : Shaw, George Bernard. Plays : Pleasant and unpleasant. Vol. 1-2. (London : Grant Richards, 1898). (Library of English literature ; LEL 20506). [Geschrieben 1893 ; Erstaufführung 1902]. 好逑者 Guan fu zhi shi. Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. Widower's houses. In : Shaw, George Bernard. Plays : Pleasant and unpleasant. Vol. 1-2. (London : Grant Richards, 1898). (Library of English literature ; LEL 20506). [Geschrieben 1892 ; Erstaufführung Royality Theatre, London 1892]. 鰥夫之室 |
Publication / Shaw12 | |
| 5 | 1923 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Hualun fu ren zhi zhi ye. Xiao Bona ; Pan Jiaxun yi. (Shanghai : Shang wu yin shu guan, 1923). (Wen xue yan jiu cong shu). Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. Mrs. Warren's profession : a play. In : Shaw, George Bernard. Plays : Pleasant and unpleasant. Vol. 1-2. (London : Grant Richards, 1898). (Library of English literature ; LEL 20506). [Geschrieben 1893 ; Erstaufführung London's New Lyric Club, 1902]. 華倫夫人之職業 |
Publication / Shaw18 | |
| 6 | 1930 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Ying xiong yu mei ren = Yi ge tao bing. Xiao Bona zhu ; Zhong Xia yi. (Shanghai : Shang wu yin shu guan, 1930). (Wen xue yan jiu hui cong shu). Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. Arms and the man. In : Shaw, George Bernard. Plays : pleasant and unpleasant. Vol. 2. (London : G. Richards, 1898). [Erstaufführung 1894]. 英雄與美人 |
Publication / ShaG1 |
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| 7 | 1930 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. She hui zhu yi yu zi ben zhu yi wie zhi shi jie ji fu nü zuo. Zhou Rong yi. (Shanghai : Kai ming shu dian, 1930). (Fu nü wen ti yan jiu hui cong shu). Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. The intelligent woman's guide to socialism, capitalism, sovietism and fascism. (London : Constable, 1928). 社會主義與資本主義為智識階級婦女作 |
Publication / Shaw50 | |
| 8 | 1933 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Hei nü xun shen ji. Xiao Bona zhu ; Wang Tiran yi. (Shanghai : Du shu jie shu dian, 1933). (Shi jie wen xue ming zhu). Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. The adventures of the black girl in her search for god. (London : Constable, 1932). 黑女尋神記 |
Publication / Shaw3 |
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| 9 | 1933 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Xiao Bone [Bona] tan hua ji qi ta. (Guangzhou : Foshan Han Ying nü xue chu ban she, 1933). 蕭伯訥談話及其他 |
Publication / Shaw34 |
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| 10 | 1933 | Shaw, George Bernard. A message to the Chinese people. Ed. By Lin Yutang ; transl. into Chinese by Song Chunfang. In : Lun yu ; no 12 (march 1, 1933). [Text in Englisch und Chinesisch]. | Publication / Shaw59 |
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| 11 | 1933 |
Shaw, George Bernard. On the rocks. (London : Privately printed by the author, 1933). [Enthält eine Eintragung über China]. http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300561.txt. |
Publication / Shaw60 |
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| 12 | 1935 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Ren yu chao ren. Xiao Bona zhu ; Luo Mu yi. (Shanghai : Shang wu yin shu guan, 1935). Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. Men and superman : a comedy and a philosophy. (Westminster : A. Constable, 1903). [Uraufführung Royal Court Theatre, London, 1905]. 人與超人 |
Publication / Shaw4 |
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| 13 | 1935 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Xiang cun qiu ai. Xiao Bona [Xiao'e] zhu ; Huang Jiade yi. (Shanghai : Shang wu yin shu guan, 1935). (Shij jie wen xue ming zhu). Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. Too true to be good : Village wooing & On the rocks : three plays. (London : Constable, 1931). [Village wooing]. [Uraufführung New York und London 1932]. 鄉村求愛 |
Publication / ShawG1 |
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| 14 | 1936 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Qian sui ren. Xiao Bona zhu ; Hu Renyuan yi. (Shanghai : Shang wu yin shu guan, 1936). Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. Back to Methuselah : a metabiological pentateuch. (London : Constable, 1921). [Enthält fünf Dramen geschrieben 1918-1920. Erstaufführung Garrick Theatre, New York 1922]. 千歲人 |
Publication / Shaw5 |
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| 15 | 1936 |
Lin, Lüxin. Xiao Bona de yan jiu. (Shanghai : Shang wu yin shu guan f axing, 1936). [Abhandlung über George Bernard Shaw. Die Einführung enthält : Shaw, George Bernard. A message of the Chinese people. [Englisch und Chinesisch]. 蕭伯納的硏究 |
Publication / Shaw39 | |
| 16 | 1939 |
Huang, Jiade. Xiao Bona qing shu. (Shanghai : Xi feng she, 1939). (Xi feng cong shu ; 1). [Abhandlung über George Bernard Shaw]. 萧伯纳情书 |
Publication / Shaw38 | |
| 17 | 1940 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Rineiwa. Xiaoe [Xiao Bona] zhu ; Luo Yinpu yi. (Chongqing : Da shi dai shu ju, 1940). Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. Geneva : a fancied page of history. (London : Privately printed, 1938). [Erstaufführung Malvern Theatre, London 1938]. 日內瓦 |
Publication / Shaw66 | |
| 18 | 1947 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Mai hua nü. Xiao Bona zhuan ; Lin Yutang yi. (Tainan : Kai ming, 1947). (Kai ming Ying Han yi zhu cong shu). Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. Pygmalion : a play in five acts. (London : Constable, 1912). [Uraufführung Hofburg Wien, 1913]. 賣花女 |
Publication / Shaw22 | |
| 19 | 1950 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Mo gui di men tu : san nu ju. Xiao Bona zhu ; Yao Ke yi. (Shanghai : Wen hua sheng huo chu ban she, 1950). (Yi wen cong shu). Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. The devil's disciple. (London : A. Constable, 1897). (The dramatic works of Bernard Shaw ; 8). [Geschrieben 1897 ; Erstaufführung Harmanus Bleecker Hall, Albany, N.Y., 1897]. 魔鬼的門徒 : 三幕劇 |
Publication / Shaw13 | |
| 20 | 1951 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Ying wen ming zhu san shi pian. Xiao Bona zhuan ; Zhao Lilian bian. (Taibei : Wen xing, 1951). [Übersetzung von 30 englischen Klassikern von Shaw]. 英文名著三十篇 |
Publication / Shaw35 | |
| 21 | 1955 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. E mo de men to. Xiao Bona zhuan ; Yuan Xin yi. (Taibei : Xin xing, 1955). Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. The devil's disciple. (London : A. Constable, 1908). [Erstaufführung Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York, 1897]. 惡魔的門徒 |
Publication / Shaw53 | |
| 22 | 1956 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Huang di he xiao nü hai. Xiao Bona ; Feng Yidai, Zhang Leping. (Shanghai : Shao nian er tong chu ban she, 1956). Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. The emperor and the little girl. In : New York tribune magazine ; October 22 (1916). 皇帝和小女孩 |
Publication / Shaw21 | |
| 23 | 1956 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Xiao Bona xi ju ji. Xiao Bona ; Ren min wen xue chu ban she bian ji bu. Vol. 1-3. (Beijing : Ren min wen xue chu ban she, 1956). 萧伯纳戏剧集 [Enthält] : [Shaw, George Bernard]. Guan fu de fang chan. Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. Widower's houses. In : Shaw, George Bernard. Plays : pleasant and unpleasant. Vol. 1-2. (London : Grant Richards ; Constable, 1898). (Library of English literature ; LEL 20506). [Geschrieben 1892 ; Erstaufführung Royality Theatre, London 1892]. 鰥夫的房產 [Shaw, George Bernard]. Hua lun fu ren de zhi ye. Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. Mrs. Warren's profession : a play. In : Shaw, George Bernard. Plays : pleasant and unpleasant. Vol. 1-2. (London : Grant Richards ; Constable, 1898). (Library of English literature ; LEL 20506). [Geschrieben 1893 ; Erstaufführung London's New Lyric Club, 1902]. 華倫夫人的職業 [Shaw, George Bernard]. Kangdida. Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. Candida. Bernard. Plays : pleasant and unpleasant. Vol. 1-2. (London : Grant Richards ; Constable, 1898). (Library of English literature ; LEL 20506). [Geschrieben 1894 ; Erstaufführung Royal Court Theatre, London 1904]. 康蒂妲 [Shaw, George Bernard]. Caisa he Keli'aopeigula. Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. Caesar and Cleopatra. In : Shaw, George Bernard. Three plays for puritans. (London : Grant Richards, 1901). 凱撒和克莉奧佩屈拉 |
Publication / Shaw30 | |
| 24 | 1956 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Xiao Bona xi ju xuan. Xiao Bona ; Pan Jiaxun yi. (Beijing : Ren min wen xue chu ban she, 1956). [Übersetzung ausgewählter Dramen von Shaw]. 蕭伯納戏剧选 |
Publication / Shaw31 | |
| 25 | 1958 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Ren yu chao ren. Xiao Bone [Bona] zhuan ; Taiwan qi ming shu ju bian yi suo yi. (Taibei : Taiwan qi ming, 1958). Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. Men and superman : a comedy and a philosophy. (Westminster : A. Constable, 1903). [Uraufführung Royal Court Theatre, London 1905]. 人與超人 |
Publication / Shaw51 |
|
| 26 | 1959 |
[Terry, Ellen ; Shaw, George Bernard]. Xiao Bona qing shu. Xiao Bona, Daili Ailan tong zhuan ; Zhu Luming yi. (Taibei : Du zhe, 1959). Übersetzung von Terry, Ellen ; Shaw, George Bernard. Ellen Terry and Bernard Shaw : a correspondence. Ed. By Christopher St John. (New York, N.Y. : G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1931). 蕭伯納情書 |
Publication / Shaw56 | |
| 27 | 1960 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Mo gui di men tu. Xiao Bona ; Xu Yanmou yi. (Beijing : Shang wu yin shu guan, 1960). Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. The devil's disciple. (London : A. Constable, 1897). (The dramatic works of Bernard Shaw ; 8). [Geschrieben 1897 ; Erstaufführung Harmanus Bleecker Hall, Albany, N.Y., 1897]. 魔鬼的门徒 |
Publication / Shaw14 | |
| 28 | 1961 |
Xian dai Ying Mei xiao shuo jing du. Xiao Bona [George Bernard Shaw] zhuan ; Gu Gongzheng yi zhu. (Taibei : Dan jiang, 1961).[Modern selected essays : first by Shaw ; enthält "Wit of wisdom"]. 現代英美小說精讀 |
Publication / Shaw55 | |
| 29 | 1963 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Xi ju san zhong. Pan Jiaxun, Zhu Guangqian, Lin Haozhuang yi ; Wang Zuoliang xu. (Beijing : Ren min wen xue chu ban she, 1963). (Wai guo gu dian wen xue ming zhu cong kan). Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. 戏剧三种 [Enthält] : [Shaw, George Bernard]. Hualun fu ren de zhi ye. Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. Mrs. Warren's profession : a play. In : Shaw, George Bernard. Plays : pleasant and unpleasant. Vol. 1-2. (London : Grant Richards ; Constable, 1898). (Library of English literature ; LEL 20506). [Geschrieben 1893 ; Erstaufführung London's New Lyric Club, 1902]. [Shaw, George Bernard]. Yingguo lao de ling yi ge dao. Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. John Bull's other island. In : Shaw, George Bernard. John Bull's other island and Major Barbara ; also How he lied to her husband. (London : A. Constable, 1907.) [Erstaufführung Royal Court Theatre, London 1904]. [Shaw, George Bernard]. Babana shao xiao. Übersetzung von Shaw, Bernard. Major Barbara. In : Shaw, George Bernard. John Bull's other island and Major Barbara ; also How he lied to her husband. (London : A. Constable, 1907.) [Erstaufführung Royal Court Theatre, London, Nov. 28, 1905]. |
Publication / Shaw27 | |
| 30 | 1968 |
[Terry, Ellen ; Shaw, George Bernard]. Xiao Bona shu xin. Xiaoweng zhu ; Yu Shuqing yi. (Taibei : Zheng wen, 1968). (Du zhe wen ku zhi ; 45). Übersetzung von Terry, Ellen ; Shaw, George Bernard. Ellen Terry and Bernard Shaw : a correspondence. Ed. By Christopher St John. (New York, N.Y. : G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1931). 蕭伯納書信 |
Publication / Shaw54 | |
| 31 | 1979 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Sheng nü zhen de. Shi zheng ju Xianggang hua ju tuan. (Xianggang : Shi zheng ju, 1979). [Hong Kong Repertory Theatre]. Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. Saint Joan : a chronicle play in 6 scenes and an epilogue. (London : Constable, 1924). [Erstaufführung Garrick Theatre, New York 1923]. 圣女贞德 |
Publication / Shaw26 |
|
| 32 | 1979 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Xiao Bona qu tan hun yin. Xiao Bona zhuan ; Chen Cangduo yi. (Tainan : De hua chu ban she, 1977). Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. Getting married : with preface. (London : A. Constable, 1911). [Erstaufführung Royal Haymarket Theatre, London 1908]. 蕭伯納趣談婚姻 |
Publication / Shaw49 | |
| 33 | 1982 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Mai hua nü : wu mu chuan qi ju. Xiao Bona zhu ; Yang Xianyi yi. (Beijing : Zhongguo dui wai fan yi chu ban gong si, 1982). (Ying Han dui zhao fan yi cong shu). Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. Pygmalion : a play in five acts. (London : Constable, 1912). [Uraufführung Hofburg Wien, 1913]. 賣花女 : 五幕傳奇劇 |
Publication / Yan88 |
|
| 34 | 1982 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Ren yu chao ren : yi chu xi ju yu yi bu zhe xue. Qiaozhi Xiao Bona zhu ; Chen Huihua yi. (Taibei : Yuan jing chu ban shi ye gong si, 1982). (Nuobei'er wen xue jiang quan ji ; 15). Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. Man and superman. (London : A. Constable, 1903). [Erstaufführung The Royal Court Theatre, London 1905]. 人與超人 : 齣喜劇與一部哲學 |
Publication / Shaw24 | |
| 35 | 1984 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Xiao Bona xi ju xian ji. Cai Jinsong yi. (Taibei : Jing sheng wen wu gong ying gong si, 1984). (Dan jiang xi yang xian dai xi ju yi cong. Jing sheng bian yi wen ku). 圣女贞德 [Enthält] : [Shaw, George Bernard]. Sheng nü zhen de. Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. Saint Joan : a chronicle play in 6 scenes and an epilogue. (London : Constable, 1924). [Erstaufführung Garrick Theatre, New York 1923]. 圣女贞德 [Shaw, George Bernard]. Anzhuokelisi yu shi zi. Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. Androcles and the lion. (London : Constable, 1912). [A notable stage production was first presented at the Mermaid Theatre, London 1961]. 安卓克利斯 |
Publication / Shaw32 | |
| 36 | 1987 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Sheng nü zhen de. Xiao Bona ; Liu Bingshan yi. (Shanghai : Shanghai yi wen chu ban she, 1987). Übersetzung von Shaw, George Bernard. Saint Joan : a chronicle play in 6 scenes and an epilogue. (London : Constable, 1924). [Erstaufführung Garrick Theatre, New York 1923]. 圣女贞德 |
Publication / Shaw25 | |
| 37 | 1989 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Xiao Bona qing shu 100 li. Huang Jiade yi. (Beijing : Hua yi chu ban she, 1989). [Übersetzung der Liebesbriefe von Shaw]. 萧伯纳情书100例 |
Publication / Shaw29 | |
| 38 | 1991 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Xiao Bona miao yu lu. Xiao Bona zhu ; Wen Qi bian. (Lanzhou : Gansu ren min chu ban she, 1991). (Shi jie wen hao miao yu lu cong shu). [Übersetzung von Zitaten von Shaw]. 萧伯纳妙语录 |
Publication / Shaw28 | |
| 39 | 1993 |
[Shaw, George Bernard]. Babala shao xiao. Xiao Bona yuan zhu ; Ying Ruocheng bian ju, dao yan. (Xianggang : Xianggang hua ju tuan, 1993). (Xianggang hua ju tuan ju ben ; 115. Xianggang hua ju tuan ju mu, 1993). Übersetzung von Shaw, Bernard. Major Barbara. In : Shaw, George Bernard. John Bull's other island and Major Barbara ; also How he lied to her husband. (London : A. Constable, 1907.) [Erstaufführung Royal Court Theatre, London, Nov. 28, 1905]. 芭芭拉少校 |
Publication / Shaw16 | |
| 40 | 1997 |
[Shaw, George Bernard ; Terry, Ellen]. Xiao Bona yu Ailun Tairui qing shu. Xiao Bona, Ailun Tairui zhu ; Yang Yang, Guo Shuyun yi. (Nanjing : Jiangsu ren min chu ban she, 1997). (Ming ren qing shu xi lie). Übersetzung von Terry, Ellen ; Shaw, George Bernard. Ellen Terry and Bernard Shaw : a correspondence. Ed. By Christopher St John. (New York, N.Y. : G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1931). 肖伯纳与爱伦泰瑞情书 |
Publication / Shaw33 | |
| 41 | 2001 |
[Shakespeare, William]. Ying Ruocheng yi ming ju wu zhong. Shashibiya deng zhu ; Ying Ruocheng yi. (Shenyang : Liaoning jiao yu chu ban she, 2001). 英若诚译名剧五种 [Enthält] : Shakespeare, William. Qing jun ru weng. Übersetzung von Shakespeare, William. Measure for measure. In : Shakespeare, William. Comedies, histories, & tragedies. Published according to the true originall copies. (London : Printed by Isaac Jaggard, and Ed. Blount, 1623). [Geschrieben um 1604]. 请 君入瓮 Shaw, Bernard. Babala shao xiao. Übersetzung von Shaw, Bernard. Major Barbara. In : Shaw, George Bernard. John Bull's other island and Major Barbara ; also How he lied to her husband. (London : A. Constable, 1907). [Erstaufführung Royal Court Theatre, London, Nov. 28, 1905]. 芭芭拉少校 Miller, Arthur. Tui xiao yuan zhi si. Übersetzung von Miller, Arthur. Death of a salesman. (New York, N.Y. : Viking Press, 1949). [Erstaufführung Morosco Theatre, Broadway, Febr. 10, 1949]. 推銷員之死 Wouk, Herman. Hua bian. Übersetzung von Wouk, Herman. The Caine mutiny and court-martial : a play by Herman Wouk based on his novel The Caine mutiny. (Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, 1954). [Erstaufführung Plymouth Theatre, New York, Jan. 20, 1954]. 芭芭拉少校 Shaffer, Peter. Mochate zhi si. Übersetzung von Shaffer, Peter. Amadeus : a play. (London : Deutsch, 1980). [Erstaufführung National Theatre London, 1979]. 莫差特 |
Publication / Shak209 |
Secondary Literature (36)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1923 |
Luo, Dixian. Xiao Baina [Xiao Bona] de zuo pin guan. In : Xin wen yi ping lun (1923). [Artikel über George Bernard Shaw]. 蕭伯訥的作品觀 |
Publication / Shaw42 | |
| 2 | 1931 |
[Lavrin, Janko]. Yibusheng yu Xiao Bona. Zhang Menglin yi. In : Xian dai xue sheng ; vol. 1, no 8-9 (1931). Übersetzung von Lavrin, Janko. Ibsen and Shaw. In : Lavrin, Janko. Studies in European literature. (London : Constable, 1929). 易卜生與蕭伯納 |
Publication / Ibs62 | |
| 3 | 1932 |
[Miyajima, Shinzaburô]. Xiao Bai [Xiao Bona] nei fang wen ji. Gao Ming yi. In : Wen tan yin xiang ji, 1932). [Artikel über George Bernard Shaw]. 蕭百訥訪問記 |
Publication / Shaw43 | |
| 4 | 1933 |
Qu, Qiubai ; Lu, Xun. Xiao Bona zai Shanghai. (Shanghai : Ye cao shu wu, 1933). [Abhandlung über George Bernard Shaw]. 萧伯纳在上海 |
Publication / Shaw44 | |
| 5 | 1934 |
Lin, Lüxin. Xiao Bona lüe zhuan. (Xiamen : Guang fu gong si, 1934). (Xi zhuang xiao cong shu ; 1). [Biographie von George Bernard Shaw]. 蕭伯納略傳 |
Publication / Shaw40 | |
| 6 | 1935 |
Bi, Yao. Weiwei yu Nuola. In : Fu nü sheng huo ; vol. 1, no 2 (1935). [Betr. Vivie in Mrs. Warrens profession von George Bernard Shaw und Nora von Henrik Ibsen] 薇薇與娜拉 |
Publication / Ibs46 | |
| 7 | 1935 |
[Harris, Frank]. Xiao Bona zhuan. Helisi ; Huang Jiade yi. (Shanghai : Shang wu yin shu guan, 1935). (Han yi shi jie ming zhu). Übersetzung von Harris, Frank. Bernard Shaw. (New York, N.Y. : Simon and Schuster, 1931). 萧伯讷传 |
Publication / Shaw37 | |
| 8 | 1935 |
Shi, Wei. Xiao Bona. (Shanghai : Guang ming shu ju, 1935). [Abhandlung über George Bernard Shaw]. 蕭伯訥 |
Publication / Shaw46 | |
| 9 | 1935 |
[Balashov, Stepanovich Petr]. Xiao Bona ping zhuan. Balaxiaofu zhu ; Yang Yanqu yi. (Beijing : Zuo jia chu ban she, 1956). [Abhandlung über George Bernard Shaw]. 萧伯纳评传 |
Publication / Shaw47 | |
| 10 | 1936 |
Lin, Lüxin. Xiao Bona de yan jiu. (Shanghai : Shang wu yin shu guan f axing, 1936). [Abhandlung über George Bernard Shaw. Die Einführung enthält : Shaw, George Bernard. A message of the Chinese people. [Englisch und Chinesisch]. 蕭伯納的硏究 |
Publication / Shaw39 | |
| 11 | 1940 |
Lin, Yutang. A talk with Bernard Shaw. In : Lin, Yutang. With love and irony. (New York, N.Y. : J. Day, 1940). = Ai qing yu feng chi. 爱情与讽刺 |
Publication / Shaw61 | |
| 12 | 1941 |
Ling, Zhijian. Xiao Bona zhuan. (Jinhua : Zheng zhong shu ju, 1941). (Dang dai ming ren chuan ji). [Biographie von George Bernard Shaw]. 萧伯纳传 |
Publication / Shaw41 | |
| 13 | 1956 |
1956 nian ji nian de shi jie wen hua ming ren Xiao Bona. Zhongguo ren min dui wai wen hua xie hui. Dui wai wen hua lian luo ju. (Beijing : Zhongguo ren min dui wai wen hua xie hui, 1956). [Betr. George Bernard Shaw]. 1956年纪念的世界文化名人肖伯纳 |
Publication / Shaw36 |
|
| 14 | 1957 |
Tien, Han [Tian, Han]. Bernard Shaw : master of realist drama. In : Bulletin / Shaw Society of America ; vol. 2, no 3 (Sept. 1957). http://www.jstor.org/stable/40681499. |
Publication / Shaw11 | |
| 15 | 1957 |
[Harris, Frank]. Xiao Bona chuan. Helisi zhuan ; Yang Ming yi. (Taibei : Bei xing, 1957). (Xin yi shi jie wen xue ming zhu). Übersetzung von Harris, Frank. Bernard Shaw. (New York, N.Y. : Simon and Schuster, 1931). 蕭伯納傳 |
Publication / HarF3 | |
| 16 | 1981 |
Zhang, Hua. Lu Xun he wai guo zuo ji. (Xian : Shanxi ren min chu ban she, 1981). (Lu Xun yan jiu cong shu. Lu Xun yan jiu cong shu). 鲁迅和外国作家/张华著 [Enthält] : Lu Xun he Nicai [Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche]. Lu Xun he Yi Busheng [Henrik Ibsen]. Lu Xun he Xiao Bona [George Bernard Shaw]. Lu Xun he Ailuo Xianke [Vasili Yakovlevich Eroshenko]. Lu Xun he Youdao Wufu. Lu Xun he Duo'ersitai [Leo Tolstoy]. Lu Xun he Chuchuan Baicun [Kuriyagawa Hakuson]. Lu Xun he Qihefu. [Anton Pavlovich Chekhov]. |
Publication / Chek190 | |
| 17 | 1984 |
[Harris, Frank]. Xiao Bona chuan. Helisi zhu ; Wang Jiade yi. (Taibei : Guo ji wen hua, 1984). (Shi jie ming ren zhuan ji ; 5). Übersetzung von Harris, Frank. Bernard Shaw. (New York, N.Y. : Simon and Schuster, 1931). 蕭伯納傳 |
Publication / HarF4 | |
| 18 | 1985 | Gray, Piers. Hong Kong, Shanghai, the Great wall : Bernard Shaw in China. In : Shaw ; vol. 5 (1985). | Publication / Shaw15 | |
| 19 | 1985 |
Lu, Xiaoyang. Jie chu de Yingguo xi ju jia Xiao Bona. (Beijing : Shang wu yin shu guan, 1985). (Wai guo li shi xiao cong shu). [Abhandlung über George Bernard Shaw]. 杰出的英国戏剧家萧伯纳 |
Publication / Shaw52 | |
| 20 | 1992 |
Lu, Xun. Six essays in defense of Bernard Shaw. In : Shaw ; vol. 12 (1992). http://www.jstor.org/stable/40681349. |
Publication / LuXun1 | |
| 21 | 1992 |
Chien, Florence. Lu Xun's six essays in defense of Bernard Shaw. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40681348. |
Publication / Shaw58 |
|
| 22 | 1995 | Li, Kay. Hong Kong in "Buoyant billions" : the exotic in Bernard Shaw. In : Shaw ; vol. 15 (1995). | Publication / Shaw57 |
|
| 23 | 1996 |
[Schwartz, Horowitz Grace]. Qiaozhi Xiao Bona de mai hua nü. Tian Qingxuan yi. (Beijing : Wai yu jiao xue yu yan jiu, 1996). (Shi jie jing dian wen xue zuo pin shang xi). Übersetzung von Schwartz, Horowitz Grace. George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion. (New York, N.Y. : Monarch Press, 1965). 喬治蕭伯納的賣花女 |
Publication / Shaw45 | |
| 24 | 1996 |
Yang, Yanling. Xiao Bona. (Beijing : Zhongguo guo ji guang bo chu ban she, 1996). (Wai guo li shi ren wu cong shu). [Abhandlung über George Bernard Shaw]. 萧伯纳 |
Publication / Shaw48 | |
| 25 | 1997 |
[Caudwell, Christopher]. Kao de wei er wen xue lun wen ji. Kaodeweimi zhu ; Lu Jiande deng yi. (Nanchang : Bai hua zhou wen yi chu ban she, 1997). (Er shi shi ji ou mei wen lun cong shu). Übersetzung von Caudwell, Christopher. Studies in a dying culture. (London : John Lane, 1938). [Betr. George Bernard Shaw, D.H. Lawrence, H.G. Wells, Sigmund Freud]. 考德威尔文学论文集 |
Publication / Caud1 | |
| 26 | 1998 | Chen, Wendi. G.B. Shaw's plays on the Chinese stage : the 1991 production of "Major Barbara". In : Comparative literature studies ; vol. 35, no 1 (1998). | Publication / Shaw6 |
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| 27 | 1999 |
Chen, Wendi. The first Shaw play on the Chinese stage : the production of "Mrs Warren's profession" in 1921. In : Shaw ; Vol. 19 (1999). http://www.jstor.org/stable/40681595. |
Publication / Shaw1 |
|
| 28 | 1999 |
Shen, Qian. Lin Yutang yu Xiao Bona : kan wen ren de miao yu sheng hua. (Beijing : Zhongguo you yi chu ban gong si, 1999).(Xue zhe. Yi shu jia san wen sui bi cong shu ; 3). [Lin Yutang und George Bernard Shaw. Anekdoten]. 林語堂與蕭伯納看文人的妙語生花 |
Publication / Shaw62 | |
| 29 | 2001 | Li, Kay. Globalization versus nationalism : Shaw's trip to Shanghai. In : Shaw ; vol. 22 (2001). | Publication / Shaw19 |
|
| 30 | 2002 | Chen, Wendi. The reception of George Bernard Shaw in China 1918-1996. (Lewiston : The Edwin Mellen Press, 2002). (Chinese studies ; vol. 21). | Publication / Shaw7 |
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| 31 | 2003 | Chen, Wendi. A Fabian socialist in socialist China. In : Shaw : the annual of Bernard Shaw studies ; vol. 23 (2003). [Betr. George Bernard Shaw]. | Publication / Shaw8 |
|
| 32 | 2005 | Li, Kay. "Mrs. Warren's profession" in China : factors in cross-cultural adapations 1. In : Shaw ; vol. 25 (2005). | Publication / Shaw2 |
|
| 33 | 2007 | Li, Kay. Bernard Shaw and China : cross-cultural encounters. (Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 2007). (The Florida Bernard Shaw series). | Publication / Shaw63 | |
| 34 | 2009 | Li, Kay. Saint Joan from a Chinese angle : Shaw and the last emperor Henry Pu-yi Aisin-Gioro. In : Shaw : the annual of Bernard Shaw studies ; vol. 29 (2009). | Publication / Shaw65 |
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| 35 | 2012 | Li, Kay. Mrs. Warren's profession and the development of transnational Chinese feminism. In : Hadfield, D.A. ; Reynolds, Jean ; Weintraub, Rodelle. Shaw and feminism : on stage and off. (Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 2012). | Publication / LiK1 | |
| 36 | 2013 | Li, Kay. A country Bumpkin in cosmopolitan Shanghai : John Woo's 'My fair gentleman' and the evolution of Pygmalion in contemporary China. In : Shaw : the annual of Bernard Shaw studies ; vol. 33 (2013). [Yao tiao shen shi]. | Publication / LiK2 |