literary transmission as a process of cultural globalization

BERNARD SHAW'S PASSAGE TO CHINA: LITERARY TRANSMISSION AS A PROCESS

OF CULTURAL GLOBALIZATION

KAY WAN-KAY LI

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in partial fulfilment of the requirements

for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Graduate Programme in English York University Toronto, Ontario

February 2000

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BERNARD SHAW~S PASSAGE TO CHINA: LITERARY TRANSMISSION AS A PROCESS OF CULTURAL GLOBALLZATION

a dissertation subrnitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of York University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

O 2000 Permission has been granted to the LIBRARY OF YORK UNIVERSITY to lend or sel1 copies of this dissertation, to the NATIONAL LIBRARY OF CANADA to microfilm this dissertation and to lend or sel1 copies of the film, and to UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS to publish an abstract of this dissertation. The author reserves other publication rights, and neither the dissertation nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's written permission.

BERNARD SHAW'S PASSAGE TO CEIINA:

LITERARY TRANSMISSION AS A PROCESS OF

CULTURAL GLOBALIZATION

This dissertation is an attempt both to explore history , and to analyze the

generative forces behind the recordable facts. Different kinds of histories are presented:

literal history in the real passage made by Bernard Shaw to China, literary history in the

passage of Shaw's works to China, and theatre history in the production of Shaw's plays

in China. 1 propose that culturai globalization played a signifcant role in shaping these

histories. This study is not only a record of the past, but also has an eye for the future,

since the generative forces of cultural globalization are not oniy relevant for the past, but

may give a clue for future endeavours to study the passage of cultural products across

time and space.

The generative forces behind cultural globalization are complex and often

work together. Whiie there is a centrihgal push towards the global and universai,

simultaneously there is a centripetai pull towards the local and particular. Cultural

identities will not be lost in globalization, but will be enriched and enhanced.

v

In this study, attention is paid to five pairs of conflicting forces of culturaI

globalization. Chapter Two shows cultural homogenization and cultural heterogenization

at work in the appropriation of the image of Confucius in Back to Methuselah, and the

use of the Chinese shrine in Buoyant Billions. The conflicting forces of tradition and

modemisr operating behind the first introduction of "spoken drama" are examined in

Chapter Three. Chapters Four and Five focus on the concerns with globalization and

westernkation in the first introduction of Shaw's ideas and plays to China. The

interesthg media coverage of Shaw's real passage to China can be found in Chapter Six,

which shows the conflict between globalization and nationalism. The review in Chapter

Seven of several performances of Shaw's pIays from the 1950s to the 1990s exhibits

simultaneous tendencies toward globalization and localization.

Examining the generative forces behind cultural globalization illuminates

the working of the selection process behind Iiterary transmission, identifiing the enabling

and inhibithg forces, and gives the clues to the planning of strategies to market cultural

products abroad. Literary transmission may be regarded as a process of cultural

globalization.

1 would like to express thanks to my supervisor, Professor Robert

Fothergill, for his guidance and advice. His constant encouragement, and his

constructive and responsible supervision are deeply appreciated.

1 am most honoured to have the renowned Professor Stanley Weintraub

to be my extemal examiner. Professor and Mrs Weintraub's superb publications on

Shaw have always given me fantastic chances to have access to rare materials that 1

otherwise could not have dreamt to know. To them 1 owe my heartfelt gratitude.

1 must also thank Professor Don Rubin for his advice and encyclopaedic

knowledge, which have greatly increased rny understanding of the subject.

Sincere gratitude is also owed to Professor Hersh Zeifinan, whose

scholarship and erudition are invaluable to my studies.

It is impossible to single out the many professors who had taught me in

the past years. Among them, 1 would like to express my special thanks to the authority

on Virginia Woolf, Professor Melba Cuddy-Keane of the University of Toronto, who

first drew my attention to Chinese literary criticism on foreign Iiterature, and on global

vii

readings .

For the location of the many invaluable and rare materials in Chinese

quoted in this dissertation, 1 would like to thank my uncle, Professor Lau Wai-shing, a

great and most patient Professor of Engineering. Appreciation is also due to the

extremely kind and helpfbi librarians of the York Universisr Library and the University

of Toronto Library in Canada, the Cambridge University Library in the United Kingdom,

the University of Hong Kong Library, and the various libraries in Beijing, China.

And thank you, my parents, for your continued encouragement and support

throughout these years, and for giving me the strength and confidence to complete this

dissertation.

viii

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Prologue ...........................................................

Introduction ....................................................

Cul tura l Hornogenization vs. C u l t u r a l Heterogenization ...............................................

Tradition vs. Modern@- -- The Introduction of Spoken Drama to China ...........

Globalization vs. Westernization ( 1 ) -- Cultural Reproduction of Ideology ........................

Globalization vs. Westernization ( II ) -- Cultural Reproduction of Everyday Life ................

Globalization vs. Nationaiism -- Shaw's Actual Passage to China ...........................

Globalization vs . Localization -- The Performance of Bernard Shaw's Plays in Modern

............................................................. China

The Way Forward -- Literary Transmission as a Process of Cultural Globalization ...................................................

List o f Works Cited .............................................

Source of nlusfrations ......................................... 422

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 8

Figure 9

Figure 10

Figure 11

Figure 12

Figure 13

Figure 14

Figure 15

Figure 16

Figure 17

Figure 18

Figure 19

Figure 20

Figure 21

Figure 22

Puccini's Turandot performed at the Forbidden City, Beijing

The Great Wall in China

The Great Wall of China

Shaw and Sir Robert Ho Tung in Hong Kong

Lady Ho Tung in traditional Chinese costume

The traditional Chinese stage -- the theatre in the palace

The traditional Chinese stage -- the stage in a teahouse

Performance of Burck Siaves Appeal to Keaven in 1907

Mei Lan-fang playing the role of Chang O

Mei Lan-fang in Yi Lu Ma, a problem play

A reconstructed western style theatre in China in the 1920s

Poster of the 1907 performance of Black Slaves Appeal to Heaven

An advertisement distributeci a t the opening of a theatre in Shanghai

A glimpse of Old Shanghai

The iuncheon party at Madame Sun Yat-sen's house

Minney giving a speech at the Shaw Centenary Celebrations in Peking

Mrs Warren's Profession performed in the Shaw Centenaty, Peking

Arms and the Man performed in the Shaw Centenary, Shanghai

Major Barbara performed in Peking, 1991

Pygmalion performed in Hong Kong, 1997

The garden party in Pygmulion produced in Hong Kong' 1997

The transformation of Eliza To Lan-heung in Hong Kong, 1997

A treasure hunt is always alluring. The excitement of the exploration, the

astonishment when one encounters the unexpected, and the exhilaration of discovery are

unwaning attractions. Such are the predorninant feelings when 1 prepare this dissertation.

A few years ago when 1 first did some research and translation work for

the international authority on Shaw, Professor Stanley Weintraub, he generously gave me

an autographed copy of his book, The Unexpected Shaw. Little had 1 expected that diis

titie would be the keynote of this dissertation. My working on Shaw is expected, for 1

have always been interested in the playwnght in my undergraduate and graduate snidies,

and have published papers in Shaw: The Annwl of Beniard Shaw Studies and Shaw and

Other Maners. I am always interested in the relationship between China and foreign

literature, and have had work on Virginia Woolf and China published in The South

Carolina Review. But to put Shaw and China together is unexpected. It is the result of

a series of unexpected discoveries.

When 1 was doing graduate studies at the University of Toronto, Professor

Melba Cuddy-Keane, the Chairman of the Virginia Woolf Society International, told me

2

that there was a Chinese article on Woolf published in a Chinese literary journal, which

was listed in the MLA Bibliography. 1 tried to acquire a copy of this article from the

Universi@ of Hong Kong Library at the other side of the globe, and was astounded when

1 found a room packed with Chinese joumals on foreign literature published in China.

These journais were published after 1980, when China adopted the policy of reform and

opening. The volumes are contradictions: Chinese books on non-Chinese literature;

books published some thne ago but hardly used; books industriously cleaned by the

Chinese arnahs of the University library , but with dust gathering stubbornly at the seams.

These bundles of contradictions were aiso located, most unexpectedly, in the Cambridge

University Library in the United Kingdom. There in Cambridge, are Chinese journals

on drama such as Hsi Chu 1 Shu (Draman'c Art), and on foreign literature such as Wui

Guo Wen Xue Yan Jiu (Foreign Lirerature Research) or Wen Xue Phg Lun (Literary

Review). Curiosity drove me to look further into these journals. 1 sti1l remember vividly

how 1 read the journals with a pounding sense of astonishment and admiration. I had

blundered into a mine nearly unknown to the western world.

My supervisor, Professor Robert Fothergill of the Theatre Department,

directed me particularly to investigate the first reception of Shaw and his plays in China.

This rneant going back in tirne to Chinese publications nearly a century ago.

Instinctively, 1 knew that such things exist somewhere, but how could 1 fmd them in

Toronto, at a time approaching a new miIlenniun? With a sense of groping in an

3

uniaiown, 1 went to the University Library at York. Making use of the latest

technological advances, 1 searched the oniine catalogue, which brought me to a few

shelves of books in Chinese. Here 1 found rare publications published in China by

famous Chinese playwrights such as Tien Han, who presided at the Shaw Centenary in

1956. The book was written before his being criticized in the Cultural Revolution. In

the Revolution, according to Huang Xin-min, Yun Song wrote the article "Tian Han Di

Xie Yao Huan Shi Yi Ke D a Du Cao" ("Tian Han's play Xie Yao Huan is a bunch of big

poisonous grass " ) . David Der-wei Wang writes : " While some works succeeded in making

interesting juxtaposition of past and present, the ghosts of the past, once called back to

life, may in their turn set a suspicious reflection on the present, causing the writers

endless trouble, [like] the case of Tien Han" (296 - 7). 1 have quoted much from Tien

Han's book, and the translations are mine, introduced to the western world probably for

the first time. 1 was then led to other tities and authors. For instance, I located the ten-

volume Chung-krco hsin-wen-hsueh-ta-hsi (A Comprehensive Anrhology of Modern Chinese

Lirerature: 1917-23, edited by Chao Chia-pi, in the East Asian Library of the University

of Toronto, from which 1 found and translated passages on western drama from young

Chinese intellectuals playing a key role in the Chinese Intellectual Revolution at the early

twentieth century. These young intellectuals expressed with touching eloquence their

keen desire to reform society through drarna. After decades of prolonged silence, their

voices will be heard again in this dissertation, newly translated into English by me.

4

From Chao's huge anthology, I found a most valuable trace: a table of

contents of the key joumals introducing western literanire at the Chinese Intellecnial

Revolution, when Shaw was first introduced into China. Here 1 traced the first Chinese

translation of Shaw's play, a translation of Mrs Warren's Profession, appearing in Xin

Chao (Nav Tide) in N19. How c m one get hold of this Chinese journal, remembering

the vicissitudes China has gone through in the last 90 years, such as the battles between

the warlords, the resistance to the Japanese aggression, the formation of the People's

Republic of China in 1949 and so on? In vain was the advanced search on Dragon, the

online catalogue of the University of Hong Kong Library. In vain was the search among

the shelves of the Fung Ping Shan Library of the University of Hong Kong specializing

in Chinese publications. At last, the kind and helpful library staff of the Fung Ping Shan

library was resorted to. This tums out to be another occasion when a nonchalant library

expert located a rare and much wanted book for an eager borrower. A photocopy of the

journal was retrieved from storage, hardly touched by anyone in the past decades. Other

later translations of the same play were also located. A cornparison of these translations

shows that the transmissions of concepts and ideas take tirne. The romanization of

Chinese characters is based on the pinyin system, availabie in Chinese-English

dictionaries,

1 also have to overcome a shortage of material. Many performances of

Shaw's plays were not recorded because they were staged by amateurs in schools and

5

other places by non-professionals. Much written data was destroyed in the Cultural

Revolution, and events in this movement also discouraged the wrïting of books and

memoirs which might recali the performances. After alI, in China, Shaw's plays and

writings belong to foreign literature, which was not a very favourable topic in the

Cultural Revolution,

The lasting impression of the research for this dissertation is the

complexi ties of cultural transmission, cultural appropriation and cultural recep tion. The

research itself is global, with materials located from libraries in North Amerka, Europe

and Asia (Appendix). The discovery of a large volume of original and frst-hand

materials makes it impossible to contain them in a monolithic theoretical frarnework. 1

sincerely hope that the rnany quotes newly translated by me fiom Chinese into English

will contribute to knowledge, presenting an eastern perspective to western readers, and

showhg that the process of globaiization is a real and ongoing process not only in

economics and world trade, but also in literature and the theatre.

Appendix

LIST OF BOOKS AND ARTICLES QUOTED IN THE DISSERTATION

NEWLY TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY =Y LI

Title - -

n.a. "Ji Shi Jie Wen Hua Ming Ren Xiao Bo Na, Yi Bu

Sheng Ji Nian Hui." ("On the Meeting in

Cornmernoration of Great Figures of World Culture:

Bernard Shaw and Ibsen. ") Xi Ju Bao (August 1956).

Chao, Chia-pi, ed. Chmg-kuo hsin-wen-hsueh-ta-hsi (A

Comprehensive Anthology of Modem Chinese Literamre:

191 7-23. 10 vols. Shanghai: Shanghai liang-yu t'u-shu

yin-shua kung-shih, 1935-36.

Zhen, Zhen-duo. "Pi Pan De Xian Shi Zhu Yi Zho Jia

Yhao Bo Na. " ("The Critical Realist Wnter Bernard

Shaw. ") Xi Ju Bao (July 1956).

Located In

University of Hong Kong

Library

University of Toronto

Library

Beijing, China

- - --- - - -

Deng, Xiao-ping. "Zai Zhong Guo Wen Xue Yi Shu Gong

Zuo Zhe Di Si Ci Dai Biao Dai Hui Di Zhu Ci."

("Speeches to the Fourth Meeting of Workers in

Literanire and Arî in China. ") (Selected Wrirings of Deng

Xiao-ping.) Beijing: Ren Min Chu Ban She (People's

Publisher), 1983.

Dong, Jian. "Lun Zhong Guo Xian Dai Xi Ju 'Liang Du

Xi Chao ' Di Tong Yu Yi. " (The Difference between the

'Two Western Influences' on Modem Chinese Drama."

Xi Ju Yi Shu 66 (1994): 8 - 18.

University of Cambridge

Library


Library

Fu, Xiao-hang. "Guo Ju Yun Dong Ji Qi Li Lun Jian

She." ("The National Drama Movement and Its

Theoreticai Construction. ") Hsr' Chu I Shu 56 (199 1): 60

- 7.


Library

Yi Zuo Tan Hui Shang De Jiang Hua' Fa Biao Wu Shi

Zhou Nian. " ("Mao's Taik at Yenan F o m on Literature

md Art Commernorated." Foreign Literary Review 2

c1992): 3 - 12.

Library

- --

Gao, Xu-dong. "Lu Xun Yu Shao Bo Na. " ("Lu Xun

and Bernard Shaw.") Wai Guo Wen Xue Yan Jiu

(Foreign Lirerature Research) 7 (1993): 115 - 120.

Gui, Yang-qing, Hao Zhen-yi and Fu Jun. Ying Kuo Xi

Ju Shi (History of British Drama.) Jiangsu: Jiangsu Jiao

Yu Chu Ban She, 1996- -- . -- - - - - -

He, Feng. "Yi Ge 'Wei Da De Gan Tan Hao' - Shao Bo

Na Xi Ju Chuang Zuo Lun. " ("A 'Great ! ' -- Dramatic

Theory of Bernard Shaw. ") Anqing Teacher's College

Social Science Newspaper 3 (1996): 45 - 9.

Beijing, China

Beijing, China

Beijing, China

Hong, Shen. Hong Shen Xuan Ji. (Selecred Works of

Hong Shen.) Hong Kong: Xin Yi Publishers, 1958.

York Universiq Library

-

Hu, Miao-sheng. "Pi 'Xi Fang Yan Ju Shi Gao'. "("On

'Draft of a Theory on Western Performance History'. ")

Xi Ju Yi Shu (Dramatic Art) 5 1 (1990): 102 - 4.


Library

Hu, Shih. Hu Shih (Selecred Wntings of Hu Shih) .

Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Co., 1987.

York University Library

Hu, Xing-liang. "Zhong Wei Hua Ju Zai Zhan Zheng

Feng Huo Zhong Peng Zhuung Jiao Liu." ("The Clash

and Exchange of Chinese and Western Drama in the

War. ") Xi Ju 2 (1992).


Library

-- ---

Hu, Xing Liang. "Zhong Guo Xi Ju Xian Dai Hua Di Li

Shi Xing Zhuan Zhe. " ("A Historical Transformation of

China Dramatic Modernization.") Wen XUe Ping L m

(Literary Review) 2 (1995): 84 - 96.

Jing, Zhi-gang. "Zhong Guo Zhi Shi Zhe Di Qing Gan

Zi Jue Yu 'Wu Si' Hua Ju," (The emotionai self-

consciousness of the Chinese Intellectuals and spoken

drama in the May Fourth Movement. ") Xi Ju Yi Shu

(Dramatic Art) 55 (1991): 100 - 7. Lee, A. Robert and Vicki C. Ooi. Old Worlds, New

Worlds: Proceedings of the International Symposium on

the Comparative Development of Contemporary Theatre

in Latin America, South Amca, Indonesia and Bn'tain.

Hong Kong: IATC, Hong Kong, 1996. -

Li, Xi-xuo. " Wo Kuo Zui Zao De Hua Ju. " ("The

Earliest Spoken Drama in Our Country. ") Bai Ke Zhi

Shi 7 (1982): 28 - 9.

Liang, Hong-ying . " Shuo Bo Na Ji Qi Xi .Tu Cheng Jiic . "

("Bernard Shaw and his Achivement in Drama. ") Zhong

KUO Xi .TU 7 (199 1) : 62 - 3.

University of Torontc

Library


Library


Library


Library


Library

Lin, Yu-tang. Lin Yu-rang &an Ji (Selected Works of

Lin Yu-fang). Taipei: Du Shu Chu Ban She, 1969.

Lu, Xun. Ln Xirn @un Ji (Cornplete Works of Lu Xun).

15 vols. Beijing: Ren Min Wen Xue Chu Ban She,

1982. . . . .

Ma, Chao-rong. "Tan 'Sh Wei' Yu 'Zhong Guo Hua'

Zhi Zheng. " ("On the Battle between 'Shakespeare' and

'SinotizationY-") Xi Ju Yi Shu (Dramatic Art) 35 (1986):

49 - 54.

Ma, Li. "Zhong Xi Wen Hua Zai Xi Ju Wu Tai Shang

De Yu He. " ("Meeting of Chinese and Western Chuture

on the Stage.") Xi Ju Yï Shu (Dramatic Art) 35 (1986):

36 - 48.

Rong, Guang-yuan. "Xi Fang Xian Dai Hua Xi Ju Di

Zhe Li Hua Qing Xiang Ji Qi Bian Xian XNig Shi. " ( " The

Philosophizing Tendency and its Expression in Modern

Western Drama. ") Xi Ju Yi Shu (Dramatic An) 33

:1986): 14 - 35.

University of Torontc

Library

York University Libraq

University of Cambridgt

Library


Library


Library

Shaw, Bernard. Bu Kuai Yi De Xi Ju (Plays

Unpieasan?). Trans. Jin Ben-ji and Yuan Bi. n. p. : Gong

Xue She, 1923.

-- . Hua Lun Fu Ren Zhi Zhi Ye (Mrs Warren's

Profession). Trans. Pun Jia-sheng . Xin Chao (New

Ede) 2 (1919): 105 - 162.

--- . Hua L m Fu Ren Zhi Zhi Ye (Mrs Warren's

Profession). Trans. Pun Jia-sheng . Hong Kong: Wan Li

Bookstore, 1959.

-- . Mai Hm Nui. (The Flower Girl.) Trans. Yang

Xian-yi. Beijing: Zhong Guo Dui Wai Fan Yi Chu Ban

Gong Si, 1982.

--- . Lou Xiang (Widowers' Houses). Trans. min Jia-

sheng. Xin Chao (Néw Tide). 4 (1919): 767 - 8 17.

Shen, Hui-hui. " 'Ba Ba La Shao Xiao ' Yu Shao Weng

3i Li Xiang. " (Major Barbara and the Ideals of Shaw. ")

Suang Ming Ri Bao June 15, 1991.


Library

Beijing, China

Sun, Jia-Liu. "He Shae Bo Na Xi Ju Shou Ci Shang

Yan. " ("Congratulations on the First Performance of

Bernard Shaw's Play: Watching the Spoken Drama

Major Barbara.") Zhong Kuo Xi Ju 7 (1995): 45 - 7.

Tang, Yi-pei. "Zhong Guo Xian Shi Zhu Yi Xi Ju Feng

Ge Di Duo Yuan Hua Xheng Xian. " ("The Diversity in

the style of Chinese Realist Drama.") Xi Ju Yi Shu

(Dramtic Art). 56 (1991): 135 - 46.

Tian, Ben-xiang. "The Realism and Change of Chinese

Modem Drama. " Wen XUe Ping Lun 2 (1993): 5 - 15.

Tien, Han, Ouyang, Yu-qian, et. al., ed. Zhong Quo

Hua Ju Yun Dong Wu Shi Nian Shi Liao Ji. Beijing:

Zhong Guo Xi Ju Chu Ban She, 1958.

Wang, Zuo-liang. "Shao Di Xiao Sheng." ("Shaw's

Laughter. ") People 's Dai& June 20, 199 1.

Yeh, Shui-fu. "She Hui Zhu Yï Xin Shi Qi Di Wai Guo

Wen Xue Gong Zuo" ("Foreign Literary Research in a

New Socialist Era.") Wai Guo Wen Xue Yan Jiu

(Wuhan). (Foreign Literature Research) (Wuhan) 2

(1987): 3 - 8.


Library


Library


Library - -

York University Library

Beijing , China


Library

Zhang, Yan-hua. "Zhong Si Hua Ju Wu Tai Shang Di

Huang Dan Se Cai" ("The Absurd on the Chinese and

Western Stage.") Xi Ju Yi Shu (Dramatic Art) 4 1 (1988) :

58 - 65.

Zong, Ban. (Something about the Contemporary English

Stage.") Foreign Literature Study (Qumterly) 7 (1980).

Zhu, Dong-lin. "Lm Zhong Guo Hua Ju Yi Shu Dui

Chekov De X u n 2." ("On the Choice of Chekov by

the Art of Chinese Drama. ") Xi Ju Yi Shu Pramatic Art)

41 (1988): 26 - 35.

Il Articles by various authors published in the Shen Bao in

Shanghai. January - February, 1933.


Library


Library


Library

- -


Library

Chao, Chia-pi, ed. Chung-kuo hsin-wen-hsueh-&si (A Comprehensive Anfhology of

Modern Chinese Literamre: 191 7-27). 10 vols. Shanghai: Shanghai liang-yu t 'u-

shu yin-shua kung-shih, 1935 - 36.

Crawford, Fred D., ed. S h : The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies. Vol. 15.

University Park: Pennsylvania S tate UP, 1995.

Cuddy-Keane, Melba and Kay Li. "Passage to China: East and West and Woolf," South

Carolina Review. (Fa11 1996): 132 - 49.

Rusinko, Susan, ed. Shaw and Other Matters: A Festschijt for Stanley Weintraub in the

Occasion of his Forty-Second Anniversary ut the Pennsy lvania State University.

Selinsgrove: Susquenama UP, 19%.

Shaw, Beniard. Hua Lun Fu Ren Zhi Zhi Ye (Mrs Warren 's Profession). Tram. Pun Jia-

sheng. Xin Chao (New Tide) 2 (1919): 105 - 162.

----- . Hua Lun Fu Ren Zhi Zhi Ye (Mrs Warren's Profession). Tram. Pun Jia-sheng.

Hong Kong: Wan Li Bookstore, 1959.

Tien, Han, Ouyang, Yu-qian, et. al., ed. Zhong Quo Hua Ju Yun Dong Wu Shi Nian

Shi Liao Ji. Beijing: Zhong Guo Xi Ju Chu Ban She, 1958.

Wang, David Der-wei. Fictional Realisrn in Twentieth-Cenw China, Mao Dun, Lao

She, Shen Congwen. New York: Columbia UP, 1992.

Wang, Xin-min. Zhong Guo Dang Dai Xi Ju Shi Gang. Beijing: She Hui Ke Xue Wen

Xian Chu Ban She, 1997,

Weintraub , Stanley. The Unexpected Shaw: Biogruphical Approaches îo G. B.S. und His

Work. New York: Fredenck Ungar, 1982.

This study wiii focus on the passage of Shaw and his plays to China since

the early twentieth century, and how this passage may throw llght on Literary

transmission as a process of cultural globalization. Shaw's "passage to China" refers to

two aspects: the literal sense of Shaw himself going to China, and the cultural sense of

Shaw's plays and ideas "going" to China. Rather than merely providiing a descriptive

historical account of Shaw's actual journey to the Orient, and of the ~ublications and

performances of his plays and writings in China, 1 intend to examine tke "passage," in

its double sense, within the perspectives of globalization. 1 would iike to suggest that

Shaw's passage to China exemplifies a process of "cultural globalizatiooi. " This process

involves different confiicting forces: cultural hornogenization / cultural heterogenization,

tradition / modernity, globalization / westemization, globalization / nationalization, and

globalization / localization.

"Globalization" is a concept rnuch used in the social sciences, a term

frequently associated with economics and wor!d trade nowadays. It i s often taken to

mean different parts of the world becoming more and more standardized and similar.

For instance, William Watson begins his book saying: "The idea that ever-deepening

17

economic integration, or 'globalization, ' as it is popularly bown, will cause al1 the

world's countries to become more and more alike in their tax rates, regulation, and

public spending - is as close to an article of faith as can be found in the otherwise

mainly unbelieving 1990s" (ix). In the natural and social sciences, the "sameness"

among countries is quite easily discernible, such as in tangible patterns of material

production and consumption, or in internationally agreed regulations and standards:

The rapid expansion of world trade in goods and services, and the transformation

of capital and money markets onto a global scale prompted by processing, is in

the process of prompting a homogenization of production and consumption, which

in turn is stimulating the emergence of international technical and quality

standards and similar economic regulations and institutions throughout the world.

(Carol Cosgrove-Sacks 348)

In particular, globalization is engendered by modem marketing: "The driving forces of

globalization may be characterized as the emergence of horizontal markets, international

finance, acceleration of innovation and new technologies, and the development of intra-

fm and industry supply chahs across the world " (Cosgrove-Sacks 349). Distances seem

to be diminished, and national borders removed, as Subramanian Rangan and Robert 2.

Lawrence report: "Over the past fifty years, . . . technological innovations in

communications and transportation have shrunk the distances that once separated the

18

world7s nations, and governent politics have removed the barriers to trade and

investrnent that segmented the world economy" (1). Tony Blair, the British Prime

Minister, talking about the increasing economic cooperation in Europe, Asia, North and

South Arnerica, says in the BBC television programme "Question Time" : 'Tt7 s a changing

world. It is getting closer and doser together."

What about globalization in the humanities? Can one talk about cultural

globalization? Will cultural globalization create, like economic globalization,

homogenization, or will it produce or emphasize difference or heterogenization? 1s

cultural globalization also caused by modem marketing, generating simi1a.r products for

simiiar consumers throughout the world? In short, to apply to this study, did the influx

of foreign literatwe in general, and Shaw in pdcular , to China make the Chinese

culture become more and more similar to Western culture? AlternativeIy, did Chinese

culture remain unique and distinctive, only absorbing the foreign elements selectively and

adapting them to China to strengthen itself? Was the interest in joining the global also

a desire to fort@ the local? These are some of the questions 1 would like to answer in

this study .

Particular attention will be paid to the theatre. Like industrial products,

cultural products such as pIays and theatre can be marketed abroad as theatre troupes go

on tour, or when plays are published or sold overseas or on the internet. An example

19

is the US$15,000,000 production of Puccini's Turandot at the Forbidden City in Beijing

in 1998 (Figure 1). The Orchestra and Chorus of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Coro

di Voci Bianche worked with the Beijing Dance Academy, forming a cast of over 1,000

in this production. It was conducted by Zubin Mehta, and directed by Zhang Yimou.

Christopher Innes writes: "Drama in the twentieth century has been highly international,

with English-speaking playwrights and directors responding to innovations from Europe,

and having their experiments picked up in tum" (Michael Levenson 130). 1s the play a

futed, inflexible text, or is it subject to cultural changes? WU the play create an

audience overseas similar to the one at home, or will the play be (re)created by the

audience and readers abroad? Will the host culture lose its hegemony upon contact with

the imported cultural product, the play, or will it assert its hegemony by making use of

the imported cultural product to serve its own purposes? 1 shall attempt to answer these

questions by looking at the passage of Shaw and his plays to China. The great difference

between the western and eastern culture will highlight the process of cultural

globalization and the forces at work.

Globalization is an attractive theory to look at literary transmission. First,

it provides a systematic theoretical framework. But 1 do not mean that the process of

literary transmission can be fitted nicely and snugly into the theoretical tenns. The terms

are just starting points to look at the forces at work in literary transmission. 1 am trying

to reveaI the literary history in Shaw's passage to China, and the rich chance happenings

Cultural Globalization

Like industrial products, plays and theatre can be marketed abroad as theatre troupes go on tour. An example is this court scene fiom Giacomo Puccini's TwaYtdOt performed at the Forbidden City, (the Palace), Beijing. The production cost US$15,000,000, with a cast of over 1,000.

of everyday iife go beyond rigid theorization.

Secondly, globalization highlights the idea of the universai and the

particular, the homogeneous and the heterogeneous. Regarding the passage of literature

from one culture to another in this Iight is interesting. On one hand, attention is drawn

to the particular and the heterogeneous. No matter how unique a piece of literary work

is, it partakes of the culture of the playwright's society, his tirne and place. When it is

transmitted, its difference from the context is highlighted. The particular is emphasized:

the particular society producing the piece of literature, and the particular society the

Literary work is introduced into. Cultural difference is shown. On the other hand, the

universal and the homogeneous are also at work. The fact that a literary work can be

accepted and understood by another culture shows the universal application of certain

ideas and concepts.

Thirdly, globalization also throws light on cultural appropriation. Cultural

appropriation does not mean a blind copy of the product of another culture, but a

manipulation of that product, such as its dramatic forms, to suit the purposes of its own

culture. For instance, the import of foreign literary works c m be made use of to

construct the identity of the nation. Instead of losing the cultural hentage, globaiization

enables a rediscovery and assertion of cultural heritage. At the same tirne, it enhances

the uniqueness of a culture by mapping it inside the global context.

21

Fourthly, in terms of economics, studying the process of cultural

globdization in literary transmission can give the clues to the creation of a global

audience, the enlargement of the market for a literary work. This is especially useful for

the theatre, for theatre troupes can adapt the production to the local needs, and make

their performance meaningfùl to the audience abroad. IdentiQing the factors congenial

to cultural globalization will encourage cultural export and the fiee flow of cultural

products across national borders.

Ukimately, 1 would like to show that globalization encourages an open-

minded reading and interpretation of literary works. The sense of "sarneness" inherent

in globalization may be interpreted as "equality. " Withio the global perspective, instead

of regarding literary transmission as passing from the powerful to the powerless or vice

versa, or from the all-knowing to the ignorant, one may understand why the piece of

work is interpreted in a particular way in a particular tirne and place. Instead of

regarding literary transmission as enlightenment, one c m take it as sharing. Within this

demiiitarized seaing of the global, cultures of the world can share their literary works,

and create greater and more profound treasures of literature peacefully .

1. Forces of GIobalization

22

The term "globalization" has become pervasive by the end of the twentieth

century. It has found a niche in a great number of disciplines, partkularly in the social

sciences in economics, sociology, political science, environmental studies,

communications and the mass media. But the term is mercuriai, ranging from nothing

to everything. For instance, according to Hazel Johnson, in economics, "tme

globalization" means that "there should be roughiy uniform capital flows into al1

developing regions, that is, that regions should attract investrnents in accordance with the

cornpetitive advantages that they hold" (Johnson 1). No doubt Johnson advocates

"regionalkation", for "in a truly global economy, there shouid be no pockets of stagnant

growth where disciplined work forces and/or abundant natural resources are

underutilized" (Johnson 1). Globalization in this sense seems to be a utopian condition,

or as Johnson cails it in the titie of her book, a "myth". At other t h e s , the term

"globalization" is like a charneleon, fitting snugly into any discipline. Roland Robertson

notes: "During the second half of the 1980s, 'globalization' (and its problematic variant,

'internationalization') became a comrnonly used term in intellectual, business, media and

other circles -- in the process acquiring a number of meanings, with varying degrees of

precision" (Featherstone 19). Such a wide usage dissolves the meaning of the term.

Perhaps it is impossible to pinpoint what "globalization" really is, if it

indicates a hypothetical ultimate achieved end of a series of globalizing processes. This

is sirnilar to Shaw's "Superman", the ultimate evolved being of whom nobody has any

A more miitful way to regard globalization is to consider it as generative

processes in which different forces interact. The issue of "globalization' is more than

a semantic dispute. It can have an application, as a means to re-examine literary history

and theatre history and reveal the generative forces behind. Such an approach is

relevant in the cultural field, as Mike Featherstone thinks:"We need to inquire into the

grounds, the various generative processes, involving the formation of cultural images and

traditions as well as the inter-group stmggles and inter-dependencies, which led to these

conceptual oppositions becoming frames of reference for comprehending culture within

the state-society which then become projected onto the globe" (Featherstone 2). To

identiQ the forces behind, one has to look at how these processes actually take place, in

addition to theorizing.

1 would like in the following study to pay attention to Shaw's passage to

China. In the passage to foreign countries, a play becomes something more than a fixed,

inflexible text. Instead, it is a cultural discourse interacting actively with other cultural

discourses inherent in the context of the theatre abroad. In the Preface to the second

edition of his excellent collection of essays on culture, globalization and the world

system, Anthony King makes the following statement:

24

In my original preface 1 made reference to the necessity of thuiking about

globdity through the arts, in contrast to the (mainly) social science perspectives

of the authors here- Although a growing body of the theoretical work on

globalization and the arts is emerging, the real answer to this question is to be

found in the contents and contexts of their actual performance and practice rather

than in theory -- much of it generated through the very historicdly,

geographically, and spatiaily specific sites of world and global cities, increasingly

significant political and cultural formations that, until now, have been

conceptualized and researched more in economic than social and cultural tems.

It is the very specificity and onginality of . . . theatre arts . . . and their equally

distinctive cultural politics and political effects, their personal and community

histories and mernories, that will help refine the next generation of theorizing

about globalization in the political, social, and especially, cultural sphere. (King,

1997 xi)

The theatre is a cultural space in which the cu1turaI discourses interact. The

interpretation of the text changes with variations in the histoncal, geographicai and

spatial contexts. The play graduuy becomes part of the rhetoric of the host country, and

is made use of by the country for its own purposes.

Cultural globalization c m be considered in various ways. Basically, there

are two paradoxical tendencies: one towards the universal with things becoming similar

to one another, and one towards the particular with things remaining unique and

different .

The tendency towards the universal implies that globalization results in a

compression or shrinking of the world, due to a "shortening" of distance both spatially

and temporally. While physical distances cannot be literally shortened, places can be

drawn nearer conceptualïy. Robertson thinks that "globalization as a concept refers to

both the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world

as a whole" (Robertson 8). The world is "compressed" due to the increasing

interrelatedness of the places on earth, under the auspices of political, social, economic,

cultural, technological, environmental, communicational and O ther developments .

Charles Tomlinson explains:

Globalization refers to the rapidly developing process of complex htercomection

between societies, cultures, institutions and individuals world-wide. It is a social

process which involves a compression of time and space, shnnking distances

through a dynamic reduction in the t h e taken, either physically or

26

representationally - to cross them, so making the world seem smaller and in a

certain sense b ~ g i n g human beings 'closer' to one another. (Tucker 22)

Since Marshall McLuhan's use of the term "the global village" in Explorations in

Commnication, the world has been considered increasingly "globalized". Different

parts of the world are interrelated. Everett KIeinjans writes: "A major characteristic of

the emerging unitary world is the interrelatedness of everythmg that takes place in it. . . .

the world itself can be seen to be a unit, namely, a system of interrelated parts" (Bickley

22). Distances seem to be shortened. Jonathan Friedman thinks that "the very notion

of compression refers to diminished distance among parts, to implosion, to the kinds of

phenomena detailed among proponents of the 'global village"' (Featherstone, Lash and

Robertson 70)-

On the contrary, there is also a tendency towards the paaicular. What is

considered "global" is itself a subjective notion. Cultures remain unique. A process

centrai in globalization is the universalization of particularism. Robertson thinks : " The

universalization of national (and other) particularism is an ingredient of the compression

which has corne to be conceptualized as globalization" (Robertson 155). When one

reconsiders this universalization, one may fmd that the process itself is unstable and

constantly changing, since the consciousness of the world as a whole varies with mutable

conceptions of what constitutes the "world" . Especiaily in the cultural field, the " world"

27

is subject to construction. It is a relative notion, and different things are regarded as

central or peripheral at different times and places. Friedman comments on this dynamic

aspect of globalization: "globalization refers to processes that are usually designated as

cuIturaI, that is, concerned with the attribution of meaning in the global arena. . . . The

global arena is a product of a d e f i t e set of dynamic properties, including the formation

of centre/periphery structures, theù expansion, contraction, fragmentation and re-

establishment" (Featherstone 73).

Shaw's passage to China refers to different kinds of history: the real

historical journey made by Shaw, and the Literary history and theatre history made by his

works. "History" c m be regarded as a generative process of globalization. Robertson

proposes an ingenious "minimal phase model of globalization" (Featherstone 26-7). In

this model, Phase 1, the germinal phase, is Europe from early fifteenth to mid-eighteenth

century , when there was the incipient growth of national communities and downplaying

of the medieval 'transnational' system, and an "accentuation of concepts of the individual

and of ideas about humanity. " Phase II, the incipient phase, is Europe in the mid-

eighteenth century until the 1870s, when there was a sharp shift toward the idea of the

homogenous, uaitary state, crystallization of conceptions of forrnalized international

relations, of standardized citizenly individuals and a more concrete conception of

humankiad. Johnson draws attention to Europe from 1815-30, following the fmst

abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1814 and the Congress of Vienna. Regarding

28

European society at this tirne as l1 world society " or "international society in its totality, "

Johnson thinks that an " international order" was established (xviii, xix) . In Robertson's

model, Phase III is the take-off phase, lasting from the 1870s until the mid-1920s, when

there were "increasingly global conceptions as to the 'correct outline' of an 'acceptable'

national society, theorization of ideas concerning national and personal identities,

inclusion of some non-European societies in 'intemational society'; international

formulation and attempted implementatîon of ideas about hurnanity , " and a l1 very sharp

increase in number and speed of global forms of communication". He regards 1880-1925

as the "crucial take-off period of globalization" (19), drawing attention to the "organized

attempts to link localities on an international or ecumenical basis" (Featherstone, Lash

and Robertson 37) in the late nineteenth century. The international exhibitions in the

mid-nineteenth cenairy were " intemally organized displays of particular national 'glories'

and 'achievernents'," but those held in the last two decades of the nineteenth century

"ceiebrated dserence and searched for commonality w i t b the framework of an

emergent culture for 'doing' the relationship between the particular and the, certainly not

uncontested, universd" (Featherstone, Lash and Robertson 37). In Phase IV, the

struggle-for-hegemony phase fiom the early 1920s until the mid- l96Os, there were

"disputes and wars about the fragile tems of the globalization process established by the

end of the take-off periodfl, as weil as "globe wide international confiicts concerning

forms of life". In Phase V, the uncertainty phase, lasting fiom the 1960s to the early

1990s, crisis tendencies were displayed. There was the "inclusion of Third World and

29

heightening of global consciousness in late 1960s," and a great increase in the number

of global institutions and movements. In t h i s phase, "societies increasingly face

problerns of multiculturality and polyethnicity, " and the conceptions of individuals [were]

rendered more complex by gender, e th ic and racËal considerations " (Featherstone 26-7).

Undeniably , Robertson's "minimal phase model " provides a usefuI

background against which Shaw's plays can be vïiewed. Shaw lived in Phase III and N,

the crucial take-off penod of globalization, and his works survive into Phase V, the

uncertainty phase. 1 shall proceed to examine Biow Shaw's works reflect the various

phases of globalization in the subsequent chapters. Yet Robertson's model remains

Eurocenûic, considering globalization emanating from the Western world. In examining

Shaw's passage to China, 1 would like to suggest that globalization has an eastem

counterpart, and what seems central in Europe, rnay perhaps be regarded as peripheral

elsewhere.

In my examination of the forces of globalization at work in Bernard

Shaw's passage to China, particula. attention will be paid to the ways in which different

forces work together for optimal ends. A "force" has two aspects. On one hand, it is

sornething with agency, a power to be reckoned with. On the other hand, it rnay also

be part of a dialectic, in which there is also a couniterforce. The forces of globalization

1 shall focus on are cultural homogenization/cultural heterogenization,

30

tradition/modernity, globalization/westernization, globalization/nationalkation and

globaiization/localization. These reflect the multifarious aspects of cultural

globalization, found in literary transmission. If one just concentrates on the first element

of the dichotomy, one may conclude that they are very much the sarne, indicating a

tendency towards the universal. But if one looks at just the second element, surely those

indicate different thuigs. There is a tendency towards the particular. Globalization is

a large process with many generative forces behind it.

3. Cultural Homo~enization vs. Cultural Hetero~enization

In Chapter Two, 1 shall focus on the cross-cultural transplanting of Iiterary

models, images and ideas in Shaw's plays, and how these are made use of. Different

situations may result fiom this process of (ex)change. First, there is change: the cultural

product will become the same as the other culture. Secondly , t h g s will not be changed:

they will remain different and retain the original cultural characteristics. Thirdly, there

wül be true exchange: the cultural product will become similar to the culture borrowing

it, while the host culture will also change in response to the cultural product. In short,

it will become homogenous or remain heterogeneous.

1 shall begin with a case of false transplanting. Using the cultural

31

appropriation of the figure of Confucius in Back ta Methuselah as an example, I would

like to show the first two situations: change and lack of change. On one hand, the image

of Confucius in Back tu Methuselah is changed, agreeing with the prevalent Western

construction of China as a peace-loving country. It is appropriated to condemn Western

aggression and express hopes for peace and stability. On the other hand, from a wider

perspective, Shaw's Confucius also shows an underlying tension when seen with

reference to contemporary Chinese construction. In China at that time, the sage was

regarded as traditional and feudalistic, an icon severely attacked and criticized in the

Intellectual Revolution. The underlying forces may be explained in terms of cultural

homogenization and cultural heterogeenizaation. Apparently, cultural homogenization and

cultural heterogenization are binary opposites. Cultural homogenization seems to irnply

everything becoming the sarne, with "the decline of cultural diversity and the emergence

of a globally homogenous culture" (Lewis, Fitzgerald and Harvey 142). Cultural

heterogenization seems to suggest everythmg becoming different. According to Johann

P. Amason, "the differentiaùng impact of globalization strengthens or reactivates national

identities, co~ll~~lunities and projections. . . . national differentiations [are] the obverse of

the constitution of a world society " (Featherstone 224 - 5). Paradoxically , globalization

partakes of both cultural homogenization and cultural heterogenization. The image of

Shaw's Confucius shows a case of cultural homogenization, a tendency towards

sameness, while its juxtaposition against the image of the Chinese contemporary

Confucius exhibits cultural heterogenization, a tendency towards difference. There is no

exchange: West remains West, and east remains east.

A third situation is one of exchange. This is suggested in Buoyonr Billions

*en after Shaw's passage to China. This play records Shaw's response to the place,

and rnakes use of eastern spirïtuaIity to express his belief in the Life Force and Creative

Evolution. There is tme exchange. Cons ide~g cultural homogenization, one is inclined

to ask, like Lewis, Fitzgerald and Harvey: "Does the continual and ever accelerating trend

towards increased international economic interdependence herald the decline of cultural

diversity and the emergence of a globaiIy homogenous culture" (141)? In other words,

is it valid to assume that globalization will result in a culturally homogenous utopia?

Perhaps not so. Tomlinson writes:"Globalization does not seem set to usfier in single

'global culturey in the sense of the unification and pacification of hurnankind drearned of

by utopian thinkers " (Tucker 23). Nor does culmal homogenization simply imply the

spread of commodities aiming at global consumers, such as Coca Cola or McDonaldYs.

Undeniably these items of global mass culture travel fast, as Stuart Hall explains: " Global

mass culture is dominated by the modem means of cultural production, dominated by the

image which crosses and re-crosses linguistic frontiers much more rapidly and more

easily, and which speaks across languages in a much more irnrnediate way " m g , 1991

27). Yet, in the passage to overseas markets, these commodities are also undergoing

change. As Stuart Hail notes about global mass culture:

33

It is a homogenizing form of cultural representation, enormously absorptive of

things, but the homogenization is never absolutely complete, and does not work

for completeness. . . . It is now a form of capital which recognizes that it can only

rule through other local capitals, ruie alongside and in partnership with other

econornic and political elites. It does not attempt to obliterate them; it operates

through them. (King, 1991 28)

Hall finds that "at a certain point, globalization cannot proceed without learning to live

and work through difference. . .. The notion of globalization as a non-contradictory,

uncontested space in which everything is fully within the keeping of the institutions, so

that they perfectly know where it is going, 1 simply do not believe" (King, 1991 31 - 2).

Globalization involves a negotiation between differences. It is an equilibrium reached

when two cultures meet. In this negotiation, either side has toWincorporate and partly

reflect the difference it [is] trying to overcome" (King, 1991 32).

The interaction between cultural heterogenization and cultural

homogenization results in a tension, which Arjun Appadurai thinks is "the central

problem of today's global interactions" (5). This tension is productive. Rather than

concentrating on either cultural homogenization or cultural heterogenization, they react

to form something new. Robertson professes: "The leading argument . . . centered on the

claim that the debate about globaI homogenization versus heterogenization should be

34

transcended, It is not a question of either homogenization or heterogenization, but rather

of the ways in which both of these two tendencies have becorne features of life across

much of the late-twentieth century world. . . . In various areas of contemporary life, there

are ongoing, calcutated attempts to combine homogeneity with heterogeneity and

universalism with particularism" (Featherstone, Lash and Robertson 27). In Buoyant

Billions, unlike in Back to Methuselah, Shaw is not ignoring Chinese cultural specificity.

He stili respects the spintuality of the Chinese shrine, and he is only adding his own

interpretation onto the eastern cultural element.

The negotiations between cultural homogenization and cultural

heterogenization may produce different situations. Friedman (Featherstone, Lash and

Robertson 77) identifies three situations in which globalization, in the culhua1 sense,

might apply. The first situation is "a stable £kame of global reference, one that allows

access from different parts of the global system to the same set of expressions or

representations. " In the second situation identified by Friedman, "in order for the

globalization to be homogenizing it is also necessary for the -es of attribution of

meaning to belong to the same frame as the place where the 'thing' was f is t produced."

The third situation is "strong globalization, " in which there is a "homogenization of local

contexts, so that subjects in different positions in the system have a disposition to

attribute the sarne meaning to the same globalized objects , images, representations, etc. "

(Featherstone, Lash and Robertson 78).

35

Does Shaw's passage to China demonstrate strong globalization in

Friedman's sense, with a universalized standard of interpretation? 1s there a master key

to interpretation good for ali places and al1 tirnes? The following study will show that

this may not be the case. Friedman only considers cultural homogenization as

globalization, whiIe cultural heterogenization works against globalization. These are

certainiy important distinctions, but does cultural heterogenization necessarily work

against globalization? 1s there always a stable f o m of global reference? 1 think that

cultural homogenization and cultural heterogenization are complementary aspects of

globalization. The local context, the temporal and spatial dimensions, also have a part

to play. Changes in the context, in tirne and space, may result in different but equdly

valid interpretations .

4. Tradition vs. Modernitv

In Chapter Three, 1 shail focus on the introduction of spoken drama to

China at the turn of the twentieth century. Spoken drama was distinct fi-orn traditional

Chinese dramatic forms, and was used as an indicator of something "new" and

"modern". These categorizations were part of the effort to distinguish the new Chinese

Republic fonned in 191 1, fiom the old imperial Manchu Dynasty. 1 shall pay attention

to three aspects: the use of the traditional theatre, the use of early spoken drama, and the

detenonation of spoken drama.

Does "tradition" oppose "modemity "? Does the West provide a mode1 for

"modemity"? First of all, modemization is not another term for Wesîernization. There

is no single pattern for modemization. Tomlinson thinks:"Although it is correct to

argue, as Cornelius Castoviadis [1991] does, that social modernity cames as a package

and not as a "menu" from which cultures may select, this does not Mply that the

transition from tradition to modernity has to follow, slavishly, the pattern of the West-

The 'routes to and through modemity' (Therborn 1995) and the 'striiltegies for entering

and leaving rnodernity' (Garcia Canclini 1995) are clearly not restricted to those taken

by Western nation-states " (Tucker 26).

The traditional Chinese theatre could have a political and social fûnction

similar to those of the early spoken drama. But spoken drama was regarded as an

emblem of globai modernity . Global modemity is valid as a momentum for change.

"Global modernity, " according to Tomlinson, refers to "the 'disembedding' of practices

and institutions fkom contexts of local to global control" (Tucker 33). He thinks that "the

process of global modernity seems to possess an inbuiit 'acceleration' -- a feature of the

reflexivity of modern institutions - which makes cu~tural transformations much more

rapid in their impact" (Tucker 33). Robertson (1992) makes a useful distinction between

two kinds of modemization. First, in "much of societai rnodernkzation theory and

37

individual rnodernization theory, modernization is referred most frequently to objectively

meamrable attributes, such as education, occupation, Iiteracy, income and wealth. "

(Robertson 1992 11). A second kind of modernization is more subjective, complex and

intangible. Robertson thLnks that this type is "more fluid and 'subjective, ' as well as

cultural, than the 'objective' approach of many mainstream modemization theorists, " and

"there was little attention to subjective interpretative aspects of modernization" (12).

Since the turn of the century, China has been undergoing the first kind of modernization

in education, occupation, titeracy, income and wealth, which have been much covered.

My study of Shaw's passage to China shows the subjective cultufal modeniization at

work.

Modemkation may result in three situations: convergence, divergence or

invariance. Robertson explains: "advocates of the convergence position argued that ail,

or nearly all, societies were, at different speeds, moving toward the same point, namely

as the result of the overriding emergence of 'industrial man' (Kerr et. al, 1960), while

adherents to the divergence stance emphasized the idea of there being different paths and

forms of 'modemity' and that in that sense there was not convergence but divergence.

. . . 'Invariance' refers to societies staying the sarne, such as Baum (1974, 1980) claiming

that societies are converging in some respects (mainly economic and technological),

diverging in others (maMy social relational) and . . . staying in the same in yet others"

(Robertson 11-2). The adaptation of Western theatre techniques to the Chinese stage

shows ail these three processes at work.

The young Chinese intellectuds also assumed that adopting Western

dramatic techniques in spoken drama enabled them to converge with the Western world.

But in the performances of the "new drama, " divergence was shown as traditional

Chinese dramatic techniques permeated. Eventually, it became a case for invariance:

western dramatic techniques with Chinese subject matter.

Arnason identifies three changes in modernity : "globalization, "

" pluralization" and " relativization" (Featherstone 2 19). The conflict between traditional

Chinese drarna and modem spoken drama before the introduction of Shaw's works c m

be explained in tenns of this distinction. Amason thinks that the term "globalization"

can be used to refer both to a historical process and to the conceptual change in which

it is reflected. Globdization in the first and broadest sense is best defmed as "the

crystallization of the entire world as a single place" (Robertson, 1987 38) and as the

emergence of a "global-human conditiont1 (Robertson, 1987 23). This explained the

initial fervour for spoken drama.

"Pluralization" is defmed by Amason as "the growing awareness of several

interdependent but mutuaily irreducible components of modernity, and of the

discrepancies and tensions between them" (Featherson 220). This illuminates the gradua1

39

wish to reintroduce traditional dramatic elements into spoken drama. Globalization

provides a plurality of systems. It elicits a simultaneous conxiousness of both the

modem and the traditional. This is shown in the Chinese response to Shaw's dtings.

On one hand, globalization encourages a departure from tradition. Robertson thinks that

"the response of China . . . to Western intrusion in the mid-nineteenth century presaged

what was to become virtually a world wide phenornenon - the formulation of ideologies

of delayed modemkation which combined, in various patterns, a nostalgie concern with

a real or imagined past with a funiristic or 'progressive' rejection of tradition"

(Robertson 150). On the other hand, globalization also encourages a r e m to tradition.

Robertson writes: "globalization has been a primary root of the nse of wilful nostalgia.

It was the take-off period of rapidly accelerating globalization in the late nineteenth and

early twentieth centuries that witnessed the flowering of the urge to invent traditions.

Wilful nostalgia as a form of cultural politics -- as well as the politics of culture -- has

been a feature of globdization" (Robertson 155).

Pluralization goes hand in hand with "relativization", as Amason

professes: "The perspective of pluralkation converges with that of relativization, in the

sense of recognition of the presence and ongoing reactivation of tradition within

modernity " (Featherson 229). Traditional Chinese drama is reactivated through a detour

to the techniques of spoken drama.

In Chapters Four and Five, 1 shall examine how Shaw's plays were

received in China in the Intellectual Revolution and its aftermath. The plays were first

treated as a sign of westernization, but gradually found to be inadequate in the light of

globalization. Instead of blindly copying the west, the Chinese intellectuals found the

need to construct something uniquely Chinese. Reference to the west gave them

inspirations for this construction.

The Chinese intellectuals began by looking towards the West for solutions

to strengthen China. Shaw and his plays were ùitroduced as part of this attempt. But

this attempt tumed out to be globalization, not westernization. Globalization is ofien

associated with Westernization. Sometimes , it is even identified with Westernization.

Jan Nederveen Pieterse writes:

The most common interpretations of globalization are the ideas that the world is

becoming more uniform and standardized, through a technological, commercial

and cultural synchronization emanating from the West, and that globalization is

tied up with modernity. These perspectives are interrelated, if only in that they

are both variations on an underIying theme of globalization as Westernization.

(Featherstone, Lash and Robertson 45).

41

Pieterse, conceiving globalization as hybridization, t b k s that if globalization is

emanating from Europe and the West, "in effect it is a theory of Westeniization by

another name, which replicates all the problems associated with Eurocentrism, a narrow

window on the world, historically and culturally- With this agenda it should be called

Westernization and not globalization" (Featherstone, Lash and Robertson 47). Besides,

the West itself is not a stable homogenous cultural entity. Talking about the increasing

hybridisation of cultural experiences, Tomlinson says: "The cultural interpenetration that

globalization brings implies a collapse of both the physical and culnual 'distance'

necessary to sustain the myths of western identity (and superiority) established via the

binary opposition and Maginary geographies (Said 1978) of the high-colonial era"

(Tucker 29).

Another argument is to assume a contention between the West and the

indigenous. Globalization, 1 would like to show, does not mean a struggle between

Westernization and the indigenous, but rather an attempt to accommodate both in a

particular context. Robertson thinks that the alrnost exclusive concentration on the global

economy exacerbates the tendency to think that we c m only conceive global culture dong

"the axis of Western hegemony and non-Western cultural resistance" (King 88). On the

contrary, there may be a peacefui coexistence of both sides, redting in a most

productive selective cultural adaptation.

42

This selective cultural adaptation can be seen in the publication and

performance of Shaw's plays in the IntelIectual Revolution around 1920. Nowadays, the

term "Westernization" is surrounded by an aura of meaning. Tomlinson summarizes the

things associated with the term:

When people tak about 'Westernization' , they are referring to a whole range of

things: the consumer culture of Western capitalism with its now all too familiar

icons (McDonald ' s , Coca-cola, Levis Jeans), the spread of European languages

(particularly English), style of dress, eating habits, architecture and music, the

adaptation of an urban lifestyle -- based around industrial production, a pattern

of cultural expenence dominated by the mass media, a range of cultural values

and attitudes regarding personal liberty, gender and sexuality, human rights, the

political process, religion, scientific and technological rationality and so on.

(Tucker 26)

However, these indicators of Westernization are only indicators of the West. Tomlinson

continues:Thile these aspects of 'the West' c m be found in various combinations

throughout the world today, they do not constitute an indivisible package" (Tucker 26).

Globalization does not entai1 a blind copy of the West. The introduction of Shaw and

his plays to China was subject to cultural and ideological construction of the host

country, becoming means employed to rouse the Chinese to build and defme New China.

43

Ultimately, the young Chinese intellectuals were not aiming at Westemization, but at

globalization, fiding a niche for New China in the global arena. Attention will also be

paid to cultural exchange brought about by literary transmission. Cultural exchanges

may be the cultural reproduction of ideas and the cultural reproduction of everyday Me.

I agree with Tomlinson, who says:"I do not deny that the West is in a certain sense

'culturally powerful' but 1 want to suggest that this power which is closely aligned with

technological, industrial and economic power, is not the whole story. It does not amount

to the implicit claim that 'the way of life' of the West is being installed via globalization,

as the unchallengeable cultural model for ai i humanity" (Tucker 29). Globalization

provides an active playground for cultural exchanges to take place. Tomlison makes this

important comment:

Culture simply does not tramfer in this linear unidirectional way. Movement

between cultural/geographical areas alway s involves translation, mutation and

adaptation as the 'receiving culture' brings its own cultural resources to bear, in

dialectical fashion, upon 'cultural imports. . . . The Westemisation thesis severely

underestimates the cultural resiIence and dynamisrn of non-Western cultures, their

capacity to 'indigenise' Western cultural imports, imbue them with different

cultural meanings, and appropriate them actively rather than be passively

swamped. It also draws attention to the counter-flow of cultural influence from

the periphery to the centre- Indeed, the 'core-periphery' model itself tends to

44

influence and it is on this basis that the mode1 has recently been questioned by

critics fiom the 'periphery ' . (Tucker 27)

In cultural exchanges, there is always a two-way trac. 1 would like to draw attention

to the miraculous power of culture. Each culture has its own centripetal and centrifugal

forces, things which it regards as central and marginal. The centripetal puli in one

culture may be the centrifuga1 push in another. These can be shown in the selective

passage of Shaw's plays to China. While Shaw's ideas were readily accepted as

justifications for issues such as independence, individuality, rights of women and so on,

the performance of his plays entailed the cultural reproduction of everyday life elements

not so readily transmissable.

In Chapter Six, 1 shall focus on Shaw's actual passage to China in 1933.

Shaw was constructed into the Chinese patriotic rhetonc, expressing their nationaiism and

their wish to have a niche in the global arena.

The nation may be considered as an "interpretive construct" functioning

both inside and outside the global. Arnason thinks:"Nations, nation-states and

45

nationalisms fict ion, on the one hand, as links to the global contexts and components

of its various levels and, on the other hand, as a reai and irnaginary counterpart to the

globaiïzing process" (Featherstone 230). The national identity is constructed with

reference to the globai. Robertson writes :

The ways in which . . . national societies .. . have at one and the same time

aïîempted to learn fram others and sutain a sense of identiy -- or, alternatively,

isolate rhemselves from the pressures of contact -- also contribute an important

aspect of the creation of global culture. Even more specifically the cultures of

particular societies are, to different degrees, the result of their interaction with

other societies in the global system. In other words, national-societal cultures

have been differentially fonned in interpenetration with significant others. By the

sarne token, global culture itself is partiy created in terms of specific interactions

between and among national societies. (King, 1991 88)

Shaw's real passage to China reveaied two things. Before his arrivai, he

was Sinotized, constnicted into the patriotic rhetoric of China. Yet, his real arrival did

not fit into the patriotic image, and the Chinese started to reject the playwnght. These

c m be explained in terms of nationalization and globalization. Nationaiism has a

substantial part to play in globalization. It functions both ways either as an aid or a

counterforce. Amson puts it vivid1y:"The national form of integration develops and

46

functions in a close comection and a more or less acute conflict with the globai one"

(Featherstone 224). Waiierstein (1974) advocates the concept of the " world-system, "

defmed by him as "a unit with a single division of labor and multiple cultural systems.

It foliows logically that there cm, however, be two varieties of such world systems, one

with a common political system and one without. We designate these respectively as

world empires and world economies" (390). Modem nationalism is less clearly defmed,

as Wailerstein comrnents: "The nationalisms of the modern world are not the triumphant

civilizations of yore. They are the ambiguous expression of the demand both for ...

assimilation into the universal . . . sïmultaneously for . . . adhering to the particular, the

reinvention of differences . Indeed, it is universalism through particularism, and

particularism through universalism" (Wallerstein, 1984 166-7).

Nationalism is a process involving the construction of the image of the

nation. Shaw was used as part of the construction of Chinese nationalism. Arnason

thinks that globalkation provides the context for specific constructions of the nation and

nationalism. He wrïtes:

In the context of the global situation, the nation and the nation state intersect and

conflict with other forms of integration. . . . The nation-state, understood as the

political expression of the nation, is the historical reality behind the more or less

elaborated concept of society. Nation and nation-states do not simply interact

47

with each other, under modem conditions, they form - or tend to form- a world,

ie. a global context with its own processes and mechanisms of integration.

(Featherstone 224)

There is an active and dynRmic relationship between globalism and nationalism- On one

hand, globalization fosters nationalism, awakening the sense of the national. Arnason

writes: "The differentiating impact of globalization strengthens or reactivates national

identities, cornmunites and projections . . . national differentiation as the obverse of the

constitution of a world society" (Featherstone 224). Before Shaw's &val, "Shaw" was

first constructed as a grand old man of peace. As a worid-famous miter, he was a

global figure used to support Chinese nationalism. On the other hand, nationalism also

hinders globalization. Arnason also notes:

The national level of integration complernents, conditions and counteracts the

global one. Within the 'world of nations,' the nations have a more or less

pronounced tendency to become worlds in their own right, and in this capacity,

they also face the task of coming to terms with the other Iines of differentiation

which are built into the global condition. [This means a] sub- or counter-

gIobalization, centeriog on the nation and the nation-state. (Featherstone 224-5)

Once the Chinese discovered that the real Shaw was different from their construction,

they started criticizing the playwright.

The equilibrium between globalism and nationalism in different contexts

will be an interesting subject for study. Shaw's passage to China shows changes in the

equilibrium. The national can benefit fiom the global. Nationalism interacts with the

plurality of systems in globalization, assimilating the global into the national. ]In the early

twentieth century, the Chinese intellectuals tried to foster nationalism through a reference

to the global. This became more acute as the Chinese prepared for Shaw's visit.

Amason thinks: "Tbe nation and the national imagery internaiize the global horizon. The

"image of the nation as a cultural totality, capable of imposing a new unity on the

diverging 'life orders,' is a response to the globalizing process and an attempt to

neutralize the latter on its own ground, and the plurality of such responses is comparable

to the plurality of the orders" (Featherstone 227). In particular, Amason draws attention

to "cultural nationalism" in which nationalism transcends politicd boundaries, in which

"cultural definitions of the nation do not only situate it with regard to other socio-cultural

significations; an important part of the history of nationalism consists in the assimilation

of the nation to other interpretive categories, more clearly defmed or more attuned to

specific pwposes" (Featherstone 228). Cultural nationalism is especially a powerful

force in times of political unrest. Shaw's arrivai showed this at work, with the Chinese

asserting themselves through culture in times of Japanese miIitary aggression.

49

Undeniably, there is a need to maintain an equilibnum beîween nationalism

and globalism. The national cannot be replaced by the global, for the erosion of the

national paradoxically may result in the ultranationalistic. Tallcing about globalization

and ethnicity, Stuart Hall warns: "The erosion of the nation-state, national economies and

national cultural identities is a very complex and dangerous movement. When the era

of nation-states in globalization begins to decline, we c m see a regression to a very

defensive and highly dangerous form of national identity which is driven by a very

aggressive form of racism" (King 1991, 25-6). But the interaction between the national

and the global rnay not result in a loss of the national- Featherstone urges:

It is therefore misleading to conceive a global culture as necessarily entailing a

weakening of the sovereignty of nation-states which ... will necessarily become

absorbed into larger units and eventuaily a world state which produces cultural

homogeneity and integration. The binary logic which seeks to comprehend

culture via the mutually exclusive tems of homogeneity/heterogeneity,

integration/disintegration, uaity/diversity, must be discarded. (Featherstone 2)

In short, instead of weakening the nation, globalization strengthens it, and helps it to

construct the image it wants to present to the world. The Chinese realized this when the

interest in Shaw surged again in the 1956 Shaw Centenary, which showed globalization

and locaiization at work.

7. Globalization and Localization

In Chapter Seven, I shaU focus on several performances of Shaw's plays

from the 1950s to the 1990s, and examine how these peIformances are mixtures of the

global and the local. The need to localue the play for the audience shows that certain

performance codes are not shared globally.

At first sight, globalization and 1ocaIization appear to be paradigrnatic

opposites. Apparently, it is straightforward to separate things into the global and the

local. In Friedman's distinction of strong and weak globalizations, "weak globalization

entails that the local assimilates the global into its own realm of practised meaning.

Strong globalization requires the production of s U a r kinds of subjects on a global

scale" (Featherstone, Lash and Robertson 78).

Alternatively, in classical social theory, in the German distinction between

GemeinschaJS or culture and Gesellschafr or civilization, the good local culture is

juxtaposed against the bad cosmopolitan civilization. Here there is a binary opposition

between the "local" and the "cosmopolitan" . Accordingly , diverse geographical

locations produce diverse results. Giddens writes: "Globalization . . . has to be understood

as a dialectical phenornenon, in which events at one pole of a distanciated relation often

produce divergent or even contrary occurrences at another" (22) -

51

On the other hand, other scholars consider globalization and localization

as complementary processes. Stuart Hall states:"Global and local are the two faces of

the same movement from one epoch of globalization, the one which has been d o d t e d

by the nation-state, the national economies, the national cultural identities, to something

new" (King, 1991 27).

A more recent advocacy of the sirnultaneous processes of globalization and

localization is "glocalization," a word "formed by telescoping global and local to make

a blend" (Oxford Dictionary of New Words) . "Global localization" refers to "a global

outlook adapted to local conditions" (Featherstone, Lash and Robertson 27). According

to Robertson: "The idea of glocalization in its business sense is closely related to what in

some contexts is called . . . micromarketing: the t a i l o ~ g and advertising of goods and

services on a global or near-global basis to increasingly differentiated local and particular

markets" (Featherstone, Lash and Robertson 27).

Under the influence of globalization, the local undergoes changes.

Robertson puts it nicely:

Globalization has involved the reconstruction, in a sense, the production, of

'home', 'community , and 'locality . The local . . . c m be regarded subject to

some qualifications, as an aspect of globalization. . . . The concept of glocalization

52

has involved the s imultaneity and the interpenetration of what are conventionally

caiied the global and the local, or the universa1 and the particular (Featherstone,

Lash and Robertson 30).

The productions of Shaw's plays showed different degrees of glocalization. Unlike the

f i s t production of Mrs Warren's Profession in Shanghai, they were all successfûl

productions because of the efforts at globalizations. To ensure that the local was changed

favourably and desirably according to political and social situations, efforts were made

to contexîualize the performances, interpreting the performance for the audience in

China.

At the same time, the productions could claim to be part of an effort to

join the global. The difference between the "global" and the "local" emphasizes a

significance of space and t h e . Spatially, the local is part of the global. Temporally

they exist at the same t h e . Localization can be regarded as part of globalization, and

Robertson concludes:

The global is not in and of itself counterposed to the local. Rather, what is often

referred to as the iocal is essentially included withh the global. In this respect,

globalization defined in its most general sense as the compression of the world

as a whole, involves the linking of localities. But it also involves the invention

53

of locality, in the same general sense as the idea of the invention of tradition

(Hobsbawm and Ranger, 1983), as well as its 'imagination'. (Featherstone, Lash

and Robertson 35)

Thus there were efforts made in the 1956 Shaw Centenary Celebrations in China to

associate China with the world.

Ultimately, one should pay attention to the agency in glocalization.

Glocalization involves two sirnultaneous strategic moves, made by both the global and

the local. On one hand, on the part of the global cornmodity, "glocalization can be - in

fact, is - used strategically, as in the strategies of glocalization employed by

contemporary TV enterprises seeking global markets (MW, then CNN, and now

others)" (Featherstone, Lash, Robertson 40). On the other hand, the local is adapting

and absorbing selectively . Robertson asserts: " We should recognize that nation-states

have, particularly since the late nineteenth cenniry (Westney , 1987 1 1-12) been engaged

in selective learning from other societies, each nation-state thus incorporating a different

mixture of 'alien' ideas " (Featherstone, Lash, Robertson 41). Sirnultaneous strategic

moves made by the global and local result in peculiar meeting points unforeseen by either

the global or the local, such as the sudden blossoming of realistic plays and "traditional"

Peking opera after the introduction of Western plays to China. The 1997 performance

of Pygmalion in Hong Kong exhibited cultural exchanges, with a free interplay between

54

the global and the local to achieve dramatic and ideological aims. The play is enriched

by crossculturai performances. Cultural globalizations work miraculously on literary

transmissions

Appadurai, Arjun. "Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy."

Public Culture 2 S p ~ g 1990.

Bkkley, Vemer and Puthenparampi1 John Philip. Cultural Relations in the Globul

Comunity : Problems and Prospects. New Delhi: Abhinav, 198 1.

Cosgrove-Sacks, Carol, ed. The European Union and DeveZoping Counmies: The

Challenges of Globalization. London: MacmiIIan, 1999.

Featherstone, Mike, ed. Global Culture: Nationalism, Globalization and Modernity .

London: Sage Publications, 1995.

Featherstone, Mike, Scott Lash, and Roland Robertson, eds. Global Modernities.


Giddens, Anthony . The Consequences of Modemity . S tanford: S tanford UP, 1990

"Glocalization. " Oxford Dictionary of Nav Words. 199 1 ed.

56

Johnson, Hazel J. Dispelling the @th of Globalization: The Case for

Regionalization . New York: Praeger, 1991.

Johnson, Paul. The Birth of the Modern: World Society, 1815-1930. New York: Harper

Collins,l991,

King, Anthony D . , ed. Culture, Globalization and the Worid Sysrem: Contemporary

Conditions for the Representation of Identiîy . Binghamton: Department of Art

and Art History, State U of New York at Binghamton, 1991.

---- . Culture, Globaliza~ion and the World @stem: Contemporary Conditions for the

Representarion of I d e n e . Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1997.

Levenson, Michael, ed. The Cambridge Cornpanion tu Modemism. Cambridge:

Cambridge UP, 1999.

Lewis, Mark, Robert Fitzgerald, and Charles Harvey. The Growth of Nations: Culture,

Comparativeness, and the P h l e m of Globalizatian. Bristol: Bristol Acadernic

P, 1996.

McLuhan, Marshall and Edmund Snow Carpenter . Explorations in Communication.

Boston: Beacon P, 1968.

Rangan, Subramanian and Roberi 2. Lawrence. A Prism on Globalization: Corporate

Responses to the Dollar. Washington: The Brookings Institution, 1999.

Robertson, Roland. Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture. London: Sage

Publications, 1992.

Robertson, Roland, Thomas Rabbins., ed. Church-State Relations: Tensions and

Transitions. New Brunswick, N;, J. : Transaction Books, 1987.

Tucker, Vincent, ed . Cultural Perspedves on Development. London: Frank Cass ,

1997.

Wallerstein, Immanuel. "The Rise and Future Demise of the World Capitalist System:

Concepts for Comparative Analysis. " Comparative Studies in Society and History

16 (1974).

----- . The Politics of the Wodd Economy. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1984.

Watson, William. Globalization and rfie Meaning of Canadian Lre. Toronto: U of

Toronto P, 1998.

In the title of this thesis, "Bernard Shaw's passage to China" basically

refers to a process of (ex)change. It pinpoints the cross-cultural transplanting of literary

models, images and ideas, the use that is made of the transplanted items, and the

distortions and deformations that creep in. The process of (ex)change involves

borrowings, adaptations, (re)interpretations and (re)visions . Ln this process , on one hand,

there is change: the original cultural product may undergo changes which may be quite

drastic. It begins to take on features of the culture in which it has been transplanted.

This change may be most obvious if the cultural product is viewed against its original

place of production. On the other hand, there is real exchange: things pass from one

culture to another and vice versa. The literary model, ideas, and the transplanted items

are enriched and take on new meanings.

The theatre functions as one of the cultural spaces for this (ex)change to

take place. The internationalization of theatre or other art forms is a concomitant of

the globalizing tendency, when the theatre, plays, and so on are translated, transplanted,

toured around the globe. A play is a kind of cultural product. It is produced uniquely

60

by the playwright, but also takes on features of the playwright's culture. When it passes

fkom one culture to another, it acquires features of the host culture. The process of

(ex)change functions both ways. The playwnght may make use of products from foreign

culture for his own purpose, just as a foreign culture may make use of the plays for its

own ends. In both cases, the cultural product undergoes change.

In this process of (ex)change, there are two actions at work on the cultural

product: a tendency to become the same as the other culture, and a tendency to remain

different and retain the onginal cultural characteristics . On one hand, there is a tendency

towards sameness, a reduction of pecularities. No matter how individualistic the

playwright claims himself to be, he is part of his culture. Borrowed items become

sirnilar to the culture borrowing it. On the other hand, there is aiso a tendency towards

difference. The image, idea, and literary models remain culturally specific when viewed

against the culture producing it. Unexpected sparks may be generated in this close

encounter of culture.

How c m one account for these tendencies towards sameness and

difference? Since these involve the cross-cultural or international exchanges of cultural

products, perhaps the processes in globalization (as theorized by the commentators cited

in Chapter One) may offer a due. Globalization implies the formation of a single world

market, a single world audience for movies, television and so on. Things al1 over the

61

world, such as tastes, practices, styles, codes, conventions, social practices or even

language seem to be becoming more and more similar. Globalization pinpoints the

erasure of boudaries, language differences , difference of tastes or traditions, the

eradication of local variations, and the creation of one worldwide culture. In other

words, globalization inherently implies a process of cultural homogenization. It may

account for the tendency towards sameness when cultural products pass from one culture

to another.

The tendency towards difference rnay be illuminated likewise. The process

of homogenization ais0 somehow engenders heterogenization at the same tirne, when the

homogenizing tendency is offset to some extent by a need to adapt to local foms, to take

into account intrinsic cultural codes in the image, idea, literary models, and so on being

exchanged or borrowed. As national identities are reactivated, the tendency towards

standardization may be challenged and undermined by this achowledgement of variety

and locality, in which there is an emphasis on cultural specificiiy of local and traditional

forms, styles and values.

In this chapter, as a means to throw light on the process of (ex)change,

and the tendencies towards sameness and difference, first, 1 s h d focus on a case of false

exchange: Shaw's use of the idea of "Confucius" in Back to Methuselah written before

Shaw's actual passage to China, and how Shaw's appropriation of the idea of China is

62

changed to reflect his concerns and elements of his contemporary culture. In this pIay,

Confucius is a Shavian construct very much different from contemporary Chinese

conception of the sage.

Next, 1 shall look at a case of real exchange: Buoyant Billions written after

Shaw's trip to China, focusing on the use of Sir Robert Ho Tung and the Chinese shrine

in one of his mansions in Hong Kong. This process of cultural appropriation exhibits

a change that accomodates both the ideas with which Shaw endows the image of the

Chinese billionaire and the shrine, as well as the Chinese ongins. Cultural specificities

are maintained, and Shaw's ideas are added onto the cultural product. This also shows

that the use of the foreign and exotic depends on the playw~ight's personal expenence

with them. As the phywright acquires a more international outlook, his perspectives ais0

change. Locality has a role to play.

Z am focusing on Shaw's use of elements of the Chinese first, and the

following chapters will examine the Chinese use of Shaw and his works. Together these

show that cultural manipulations work either way: the playwright makes use of a foreign

culture, just as a foreign culture makes use of his plays. Shaw's passage to China is

used as an example of how these cultural exchanges take place. The tendencies towards

sameness and difference will be explored further in the following chapters in the context

of Shaw's passage to China. Ultirnately, 1 shall try to explore if the processes of global

63

homogenization and heterogenization may help to illiiminate and explain this process of

cultural (ex)change .

1. Culture

Culture used to be considered in ternis of "high culture" and "low

culture." "High culture" refers to the "high art," the "object of aesthetic excellence,"

or "a process of aesthetic, inteilectuai and spiritual development" (John Storey 1). The

reverse is "low culture. " Shaw often refers to "culture" in the sense of high and low

culture. For instance, in the Preface to Heartbreczk House, "culture" refers to the fuie

arts, and the inhabitants of Heartbreak House "took the only part of our society in which

there was leisure for high culture " (5 : 14). In Mun und Supemn, culture refers to the

process of aesthetic, intellectual and spiritual development: "Hector's culture is nothing

but a stote of saturation with our l i t e r q export of thirty years ago" (2: 602). Shaw

dismisses "high culture" as insubstantial and unpractical. In Mrs Warren's Profession:

VIVIE. Did you expect to fmd me an unpractical person?

PRAED. But surely it's practical to consider not only the work these honors cost,

but also the culture they bring.

VIVIE. Culture! My dear Mr Raed: do you know what the mathematicai tripos

64

means? It means grind, grind, grind for six to eight hours a day at mathematics

and nothing but rnathematics. (1: 277)

In Man and Superman, the "worshippers of ... art" are among those regarded by Don

Juan as "opposing . . . the Force of Life" (2: 672). Octavius the artist spends his time in

Hell. In The Admirable Bashville, Lydia says in the opening speech: "Laugh at the mind

fed on fou1 air and books./ Books! Art! And culture! " ( 2 : U O ) .

"Culture" may have a broader and more political reference. Storey

regards "culture" as something more than the high arts. John Fiske thinks that "culture"

is "neither aesthetic nor humanist in emphasis, but political" (Storey 1). Sparks

writes: "in the developing mode1 of cultural studies the operative notion of culture was

one in which culture arose from a whole way of life and was a means by which those

within that pre-given structure gave meaning to their experiences " (Storey 16). Raymond

Williams's Culture and Society and The Long Revolution, and Hoggart's The Uses of

Literacy ail exhibit a response to their contemporary time and space. This t h e and

space factor is emphasized in Williams's analysis of culture in The Long Revolution, in

which he lists three general categones in the definition of culture. The first one is the

"ideal", in which "culture is a state or process of human perfection, in terms of certain

absolute or universal values" (41). This type of cultural analysis is the discovery and

description of high art, which "composes a timeless order, or [hm] permanent reference

65

to the universal human condition" (41). In short, this kind of cultural analysis highlights

the tendency towards sarneness. It pertains to cultural homogeneity, the assumption of

a same culture regardless of changes in time and space. There is an underlying

universalism,

The second type of cultural anaiysis identified by Williams in The Long

Revolution is the "docurnen~ary~ " Here "culture is the body of intellectual and

imaginative work, in which, in a detailed way, human thought and experience are

variously recorded" (41). This pertains to "criticism" (41)- which can range from "a

process very similar to the 'ideal' anaiysis, the discovery of 'the best that has been

thought and Wntten in the world,' through a process which, while interested in tradition,

takes as its primary emphasis the particular work being studied, to a kind of historical

cnticism which, after analysis of particular works, seeks to relate them to the particular

traditions and societies in which they appeared" (41). In other words, this kind of

cultural analysis highlights the tendency to wards difference . It emphasizes cultural

heterogenization, and recognizes the effects of temporal and spatial difference.

Particularism is at work in the analysis.

The third type of cultural analysis is the "social" definition of culture, in

which "culture is a description of a particular way of life, whkh expresses certain

meanings and values not oniy in art and learning but also in institutions and ordinary

66

behaviour" (41). On one hand, it recognizes difference. Cultural heterogenization is at

work, for it provides "the classZication of the meanings and values implicit and explicit

in a paaicular way of life, a particular culture" (41). Particularism is working in two

ways. First, the analysis will include a "historical criticism . . . in which htellectual and

imaginative works are analysed ui relation to particular traditions and societies" (41 - 2).

Secondly, it will also include "anaiysis of elements in the way of life," such as "the

organïzation of production, the structure of the farnily, the structure of institutions which

express or govern social relationships, the characteristic forms through which members

of the society comunicate" (42). On the other hand, this kind of d y s i s also

recognizes sameness. Cultural homogenization also has a part to play, for there is "an

emphasis which, fkom studying particular meanings and values, seeks not so much to

compare these, as a way of establishing a scale, but by studying their modes of change

to discover certain general 'laws7 or 'trends7, by which sociai and cultural development

as a whole can be better understood" (42). Thus, there is a drive towards

standardization, a universaiization of particularism.

Williams ùiinks that al1 three kinds of cultural analysis are useful in their

own way. This is because the airn of cultural analysis is to discover the underlying

pattern, from which "unexpected identities and correspondences in hitherto separately

considered activities, discontinuities of an unexpected kind" (47) can be deduced.

Williams defines the theory of cultures "the study of relationships between elements in

a whole way of life" (46).

Within this broadened perspective, an examination of Shaw's notion of

"culture" will yield something other than the binary distinction between "high culture"

and "low culture". The tendencies towards cultural sameness and cultural differences are

emphasized in different plays. The tendency towards sameness is suggested in The

Simpleton of the Unexpected Ides (1934):

PRA. Our dream of founding a miilennial world culture: the dream which united

Prola and Pra as you first knew them, and then united us all six, has ended in a

single little household with four children, wonderful and beautifbl, but sterile. (6:

807)

This hypothetical "miIIennial world culture1' refers to something more than the "high

arts." While it indicates a utopian ideal situation, it also denotes a hypothetical cultural

homogeneity, a universalism in terms of both time and space. It is inclusive. At other

tirnes, Shaw acknowledges the tendency towards cultural difference. He writes in the

Preface to On the Rocks (1933):"What we are confronted with now is a growing

perception that if we desire a certain type of civilization and culture we must exterminate

the sort of people who do not fit into it" (6: 578). This reference to culture implies

heterogenization and particularism. It is exclusive. Despite the extremism in this case,

it stresses difference.

In perspective, scanaing through Shaw's references to "culture " , there is

a progression from the early emphasis on "high art", to the later implications of "a way

of life " .

2. The Globe

Intrinsic in cultural exchanges is a cross-cultural transplanting of cultural

products, such as ideas, images, literary rnodels, and so on. The tendency towards

sameness assumes that these things are becoming the same as these exchanges go on,

leading to everything becoming the same throughout the globe. On the contrary, the

tendency towards difference assumes that variety and diversis- remain in spite of the

passage abroad.

Shaw does not seem to be much conscious of variety caused by difference

in locality. In Too True ?O be Good (1931), before The Patient Miss Mopply abandons

her life of the "Idle Rich," she was shoved "al1 over the globe to look at what they cal1

new skies, though they know as well as 1 do that it is only the same old se everywhere"

(6: 510). Thus, there is little point in going to foreign places, and unproductive "globe-

69

trotting" is condemned by Shaw in the Preface to Misalliance (1909) as l'the restless

globe-trotting vagabondage of the Idle Rich. " When Shaw soon undertook this globe-

trotting himself, he wrote to Sutro on December 9, 1932: "1 am just off to circumnavigate

the globe. Shant be back until Apnl - if ever" (Pearson 417). But Shaw's opinion on

the "globe" does not seem to be much changed after Mrs Shaw "dragged b] al1 over

the globe," as revealed by this exchange with Hesketh Pearson:

"Tell me: were you deeply impressed by anything you saw in the course

of your travels?" 1 asked him.

"No. One place is very much like another."

"By anybody?"

"No. They 're al1 human beings. " (Pearson 418)

However, the tendency towards difference is clear when one pays closer

attention to Shaw's experience in China. It is difficult to ignore the power of cultural

heterogeneity as Kahn writes :

For students of the global condition it has become aImost an article of faith to

maintain, against those who earlier suggested that the global reach of modemism

would ultimately produce a more homogenous world culture, that the world has

become increasingly interconnected economically, politicaIly, but just as

70

importantly culnitally - and increasingly culturally differentiated. Surely recent

cultural theorists have been correct to point to the shortcomings of earlier theories

of global cultural homogeneity. (126)

Shaw's close encounter with the Great Wali of China (Figure 2) reveals that cultural

diversity is a force to be reckoned with. The playwright made an attempt at reducing

things to paradox when he answered Pearson:

"Did you see the Great Wall in China?"

"1 flew over it in an aeroplane. "

" Interesting? "

"As interesting as a wall can be. " (Pearson 419)

It is interesting to juxtapose his exchange with Pearson against what really happened

when Shaw visited the Great Wali in China in February 1933. According to Piers Gray,

Shaw said that "the main reason he had for visiting China was to see the Great Wall"

(Rodelle Weintraub 236). But as the Shaws flew low over it in an early biplane with

their seats open to the sky, the reality upset Shaw:

Shaw was homfied to see a fierce battle in progress just below them between the

Chinese Army and a horde of armed Japanese. . . . Shaw frenziedly jabbed the

The Great Wall

To Shaw, the Great Wall in China is "as interesthg as a wall can be."

71

shodder of the pilot in front. "Turn back! Turn Back! " he shouted. "1 don?

like wars. I don't want to look at this." (Rodelle Weintraub 236)

Blanche Patch adds this anecdote:

Here in China, while they were flyhg over the Great Wall, they unexpectedly

found themselves hovering above a battle which raged below. Shaw went dumb

until the end of the flight, when "Thank God we're safeiy landed, " he ejaculated.

(Patch 96)

Shaw's reaction to the scene at the Great Wall highlighîs a difference between the

Shavian and the Chinese interpretation of the image. On one hand, Shaw was

interpreting the incident in terms of his distaste for war. His past expenence may have

had a part to play, as Patch writes:"There was the battle over which G.B.S. unwillingly

presided. He was not often scared. Phaw was frightened by war] once, in the latter

days of the 19 14 war, the raids temfied him into heart rending palpitations" (96). On

the other hand, Shaw was actudy witnessing a rare re-enactment of the Great Wall's

essential function: as a defence structure and a symbol of Chinese nationaIisrn (Figure

3). The Great Wall is the fortification dong the northem and northwestern frontier of

China, reaching a length of 2 400 km. "The largest portion of the wall was erected by

Shih Huang Ti, f i s t emperor of the Ch 'in dynasty , as a defense against raids by nomadic

The Great Wall

The Great Wall of China was originally built as a defense against nomadic peoples. It is a symbol of Chinese nationalism.

72

peoples ... in about 221 B.C., after Shih Huang Ti had united China under his rule"

("Great Wall"). It is one of the seven ancient wonders of the world. Therefore, it is not

surprishg that the Chinese found Shaw's treatment of the Great Wall quite unusual, as

Patch recollects: "Solemn M . Hsiung who wrote Lady Precious Stream was rather

depressed when Shaw told him that he went to China to see the 'old Wall' (95)- This

incident shows that there is a tendency towards difference, and people from different

parts of the world may interpret the same image or idea differently.

3. Shaw's construction of China

Cultural construction is an artificial process. Kahn thinks: "The language

of cultural differentiation is artificial. The procedure of drawing discrete circles in

cultural space is quite clearly an arbitrary one, . . . is possible oniy by reference to things

external to that space -- ffom the realms of geography, governance, politics and the like.

Otherwise cultures c m be seen to merge one into another"(l32). Shaw resorts to this

method in his early depictions of China.

Shaw's appropriation of the idea of China ofien refuses to take account of

the cultural particularity of China. Instead, he relies on stereotypes and preconceptions.

In the Notes to The Devil's Disciple (1896)' Shaw writes: "The Arnerican Unionist is

73

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 Disniptionists as

regards the Imperia1 Ancient of Days, the empire of China" (2: 144). The play was

written in 1896, when China was in the Ch'ing dynasty under the nominal reign of the

alien Manchu emperor Kuang-hsü (1875-1908), and actualiy under the control of the

Empress Dowager Tz'u-hsi, who adrninistered state affairs behind the silk screen. So

"the empire of China" was really the "Imperial Ancient of Daysf' in 1896, with the

Chinese Revolution taking place not until 19 1 1.

In regarding China as the "Imperial Ancient of Days, " Shaw regards China

in terms of existing stereotypes. Eight months after Shaw's visit to China, in the Preface

to On the Rocks written on October 22, 1933, he has a more realistic and personai view

of the country:

1 went round the world lately preaching that if Russia were thrust back from

Communism into cornpetitive Capitalism, and China developed into a predatory

Capitalist State, either independently or as part of a Japanese Asiatic hegemony,

al1 the Western States would have to quintruple 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

f'rom the point of view of Our crudest and oldest m i l i t q diplomacy, to do

74

everything in our power to sustain Communisrn in Russia and extend it in China,

where at present provinces containing at the least of many codicting estimates

eighteen millions of people, have adopted it. (6: 607)

Shaw's trip to China has changed his perception of the country. There is agency in the

passage to the orient. Whereas previously Shaw makes use of the idea of "China," afier

his real journey to the country, China is a place with a distinct historical and cultural

particularity .

4. Confucius in Back to Methuselah - a tendency towards sameness

Back to Methuselah was written from 1918 to 1920, well before Shaw's

visit to China in 1933. The appropriation of the idea of China and the image of

Confucius in the play shows two forces at work. First, there is the playwright's

tendency to treat the image of Confucius as if it were universally applicable, as if it were

an image with the same reference everywhere. The image is assimilated into Shaw's

philosophy of Creative Evoiution, and cultural difference is erased. Also, the image is

a tokenized idea in the West, and Shaw's use of the image of Confucius agrees with the

use of it by his contemporaries in the West. There is a tendency towards sameness, and

Shaw is not taking into account of the cultural particularity of China.

75

Secondly, focusing on the image of Confucius itself, 1 shaU draw attention

to cultural difference by looking at the construction of Confucius in the East in China

when the play was wntten. Shaw's appropriation of the idea of China, and the image

of Confucius often refuses to take account of the cultural specificity.

Confucius has a unique position in Shaw's works. The image is a positive

one, as against the more negative depictions of the Chinese in other works, in which

China is depicted as backward, corrupt, immoral and downtrodden. Shaw's long-

standing Friends Sidney and Beatrice Webb visited China in 191 1 during their sabbaticai

fiom the London School of Economics, at a cntical time which saw the fa11 of the

Manchu Empire and the establishment of the republic. Sidney Webb associates China

with a set of abstractions, a set of preconceived values agreeing with the stereotype of

the backward China. He writes: "The officials of whom there seem an abundance in al1

departments of Government are, or course, immeasurably inferior to the Japanese

officials -- a self-indulgent, indolent Iooking lot, who seem to be perpetuaily smoking and

drinking tea and who are only too ready to leave their offices at any excuse" (118). On

the contrary, Shaw's Confucius is the most efficient and high-ranking Chief Secretary in

Back to Methuselah. Sidney Webb also associates China with immorality. He writes: "It

is this rottemess of physical and moral character that makes one despair of China" (140).

But Shaw's Confucius is most moralistic, helping Burge-Lubin to resist the attractions

of Mrs Lutestring. China is the target of Western imperiaiism. John Tanner mentions

76

England sending imperialistic expeditions to China in the Revolutionist's Handbook in

Man and Superman (1901-2): "We have demanded the decapitation of the Chinese Boxer

princes as any Tartar would have done, and our rnilitary and naval expeditions to kill,

bum, and destroy tribes and villages for knocking an Englishman on the head are so

cornmon a part of our Lmperial routine that the last dozen of them has not called forth

as much pity as can be counted on by any lady criminal" (2: 767). The Boxer Uprising

took place in 1900. The Boxer Protocol formed between China and the foreign powers

includes punishment of the guilty , indemty of which Britain got 50,620,545 taels or

11.25 % of total, and other important stipulations such as the stationing of foreign troops

in key points in China (Hsu 490 - 2). Yet in Back tu Methuselah, Confucius comes from

China to help to rule England.

Therefore, Conhcius in Back ta Methuselah is sornething unusual. In this

play, Confucius becomes a Shavian construct, in which other than his exotic appearance,

he is very Iittle different fkom the other Shavian characters. This kind of confiation of

cultural difference c m also be found elsewhere. rn the Preface to Androcles and the

Lion, written in December 1915, Confucius is grouped with philosophers al1 round the

globe. For instance, Shaw wrïtes: "But it does not place Jesus above Confucius or Plato,

not to mention more modem philosophers and moralists " (4: 493). Confucius is grouped

with other religious leaders later: "You can become a follower of Jesus just as you can

become a follower of Confucius or Lao Tse" (4: 570). He is one of the spiritual

77

leaders: "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" (4: 574).

In Back ro Methuselah, Confucius is presented as a sage held in awe. He

is "a man in a yeliow gown, presenting the general appearance of a Chinese sage" (5 :

443). But other than this, Confucius is hardly distinguishable from other Shavian

characters. Presumably, Confucius is there because "the English is not fitted by nature

to understand politics . Ever since the public services have been manned by Chinese, the

country has been well and honesdy governed" (5: 443). But the import of foreigners to

govem is reciprocal. People do not seem to be able to govem themselves. so that whiie

England imported Confucius to be the Chief Secretary and a Negress to be the Minister

of Health, China imported natives of Scotland into the public service, because "justice

is impartiality" (5: 444).

Shaw's Confucius is identified as the realist. He has the "assured

certainty of the man who sees and knows" (5: 447). With his cornmon sense and clear-

sightedness, he serves as an interpreter of the longlivers. Two insignificant characters

in Part II, the Reverend Mr Haslam and the Parlor Maid, reappear as the Archbishop of

York and the Domestic Minister Mrs Lutestring. Having been alive for more than two

78

hundred years, they c m develop their minds to the full, and rise to the top of rheir

profession. Neither the President Burge-Lubin, the descendant of Burge and Lubin in

Part II, nor the Accountant General Barnbas, the descendent of the Brothers Bamabas,

can discem the simcance of longevity. It is only Confucius who responds to the

Archbishop and Mrs Lutestring's narration of their longevity with understanding.

Mathematically, he works out that a longliver contributes more than a person with

ordinary lifespan. Confucius also sees the social necessity for the Archbishop to feign

death to assume that he dies at the usual time, for he looks too young to claim his

pension.

Shaw's Confucius represents the power of the mind, the intellect which

undertakes the "thinking, agonizing, calculating, directing work" (5: 478). But he

supposedly is also a shortliver, though he is more mature than the English politicians.

In the Preface to Misalliance, Shaw makes a distinction between two types of

imagination:

It is necessary to clear up the confusion made by Our use of the word imagination

to denote two very dflerent powers of mind. One is the power to imagine things

as they are not: this 1 cal1 the romantic imagination. The other is the power to

imagine things as they are without actuaily sensing them; and this 1 will caü the

realistic imagination. (4: 138)

79

Confucius "sees and knows," and is free from the romantic imagination for he does not

have any illusions. Yet, he also fails to "imagine things as they are not, " since he falls

short of the longlivers, and "has aiways been afraid of the Archbishop, " who is "an

adult" (5: 486-7) mature enough to govern the country well. Shaw's Confucius is better

than Burge-Lubin and Barnabas, but the future is still in the hands of the longlivers, who

possess that kind of imagination described by the Serpent in Part 1, "In the

Beginning" : "Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire; you

will what you imagine; and at last you create what you will" (5: 348). After knowing

the Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas, the Reverend Haslam and the Parlour Maid will

to live longer, and turn out to be longlivers.

Ultimately, Shaw turns Confucius into an advocate of Creative Evolution.

His Confucius advocates something totally unrelated to what the historical Confucius

taught. In the Preface to the play, Shaw regards "voluntary longevity " as a scientific

possibility which can be realised, sayïng:"It is a deductive biology, if there is such a

science as biology" (5: 269). In order to make the suggestion more entertamg than it

would be to most people in the form of a biology treatise, Shaw wrote the play as "a

contribution to the modern Bible" (5: 269). Creative Evolution is regarded as "a

genuinely scientific religion for which al1 wise men are anxiously looking " (5: 269). At

the end of the play, Confucius learns from the Archbishop and Mrs Lutestring. He

interprets their coming marriage in terms of Creative Evolution: "But 1 am not surprised,

80

because, as a philosopher and a student of evolutionary biology, 1 have corne to regard

some such development as this as inevitable" (5: 487). The Chinese sage fits the

longevity of the Archbishop and Mrs Lutestring into Shaw's religion of the Life Force

and Creative Evolution, saying "As it is, 1 do believe" (5: 487), and turns out to be a

S havian disciple.

Shaw's Confucius possesses the faculties of mind to conceive the two

aspects of Creative Evolution: the scientific and the religious aspects. In 1907, Shaw

declares in a speech entitled "The New Theologyl':"By theology I really do mean the

science of godhead" (Religious Speeches 10). In the Preface to Back tu Merhuselah, he

makes the much-quoted statement: "1 knew that civilization needs a religion as a matter

of life or death; and as the conception of Creative Evolution developed 1 saw that we

were at last within reach of a faith which complied with the first condition of al1 the

religions that have ever taken hold of humanity: namely, that it m u t be, first and

fundamentally , a science of metabiology " (5: 337). Whde Confucius's intellect enables

him to grasp the scientific aspect, his fml declaration of faith shows his equal awareness

of the religious aspect. Confucius has the last word:

CONFUCIUS. [Shaking his head, shocked at the Presiden f s impoliteness] No.

No, no, no, no, no. Oh, these English! these cnide young civilizations! Their

manners! Hogs. Hogs. (5: 490)

81

Back to Methuselah requires intensive doubling. There are forty-four

characters in the five parts. In his letter to Lawrence Langner, dated July 29, 1921,

Shaw suggested this doubling: l'Lubin, Confucius, EIderly Gentleman, Pygmalion"

(Letters 111 727). In the first production by the New York Theatre Guild at the Garrick

Theatre, New York, Claude King doubled as Lubin in Part II, as Confucius in Part III,

as Zozim in Part N, and Martellus in Part V (Raymond Mander and Joe Mitcherson 184

- 5 ) As the notion of reincarnation is important in the play, these unintended

reincarnations inadvertentiy lessen the cultural specificity of Confucius.

Shaw's "Coafucius" does not have rnuch to do with the actual historical

figure, or with his actual moral or philosophical tenets. He is inserted into the play as

the name of "Oriental Sage. " The playwright has borrowed, appropriated, and imparted

the idea of "China" and the image of "Confucius" into his work, to stand for certain

ideas, and to perform a certain function in his intellectual scheme. Cultural

homogenization implies everything becorning the same, with "the d e c h e of cultural

diversity and the emergence of a globally homogenous culture" (Lewis, Fitzgerald and

Harvey 142). While it is obvious that culture carmot be homogenous everywhere,

cultural homogenization nevertheless may work as an assurnption on the conceptual level.

Shaw's construction of Confucius in Back tu Methuselah shows this at work. The

playwright " homogenizes " Confucius.

82

Confucius is unique in Back to Methuselah. While "the thinking,

organizing, calculating, directing work is done by yeliow brains, brown brains, and black

brains, " these other brains do not appear on stage- The only other non-English character

in the play is the Negress, the Minister of Health, who is depicted more as a temptress,

and always appears at a distance on screen. Burge-Lubin's F d rejection of her

invitation to a cruising holiday shows his becoming a responsible person upon knowing

that he may live for three hundred years, and that dip in the sea may end up in three

hundred years of rheurnatism. Compared to this construction of the Negress, Confucius

is a much more positive character. Why is this special treatment given to the Chinese?

I would like to regard the play in context, and show that the play is a

product of its time. Shaw's Confucius is a conventional exponent of the cultural

stereotype of Chinese caim, stability and ethical wisdom, seen as something "the West1'

could l e m a lot fiom. In the very choice of using Confucius, Shaw is sharing

hadvertently a tendency in the West to regard the Chinese culture as a favourable

alternative, o f f e ~ g the clues to a peaceful and stable society. In particular, 1 shail pay

attention to Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson's Lettersfrom John Chinaman, and Bertrand

Russell's The Problem of China.

In Back to Methuselah, Burge-Lubin calls Confucius "John Chinaman" :

83

CONFUCIUS. Ever since 1 learnt to distinguish between one English face and

another 1 have noticed .. . 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. (5: 485)

The use of "John Chinaman" is not coincidental. Shaw met Goldsworthy Lowes

Dickinson in 1912 on the shores of Lake Derwentwater at the Fabian Research

Department meeting. The Fabian playwright was the chairman of this Deparment.

According to Professor Stanley Weintraub's influential book, Journey to Heartbreak,

"There a non-Fabian group headed by a statesman of international diplomacy, Lord

Bryce, and hcluding Lowes Dickinson, joined the Fabians as consulting members to

consider the work that had been done by Leonard Woolf and his subcommittee of the

Research Department on a League of Nations for the prevention of war" (96).

Signifcantly, the topic of this meeting is a key representative of globalization: the

League of Nations. Professor Weintraub wntes about the Woolf report: "As

'International Government,' it was published as an NS supplement on July 10, 1915, and

then, under the same title but with added material, prepared for the book publication the

next year. According to historian Sir Robert Ensor, it was 'seminal' to the League of

Nations and was on President Wilson's desk at the end of the war" (97). Furthermore,

in the Fabian Summer School in late August of 1917, in which "Shaw was accepted there

as a sort of Fabian bishop" (Weintraub, Journey 259), he met Dickinson again, for

84

"Roger Fry, Lowes Dickinson, and Godfiey Blount, have attended the school"

(Weuitraub, Journey 263). Shaw began writing Back to Merhuselah the next year in

1918-

When Shaw met Dickinson in 1912, the latter had just returned from a trip

to China lasting from 19 10-1 1. In a much quoted letter, Dickinson writes: "1 feel so at

home. 1 think 1 must have been a chinaman once" (Dickinson Papers, King's Collection,

May 10, 1913). Letters to John Chinaman was published in 1901 after the Boxer riots

in China, and the European expeditions to suppress them. Goldswoahy Lowes

Dickinson uses the Chinese voice of the fictional "John Chinaman" to comment on his

own country at home in England. Comparing the Western and Eastern civilization, John

Chinaman criticizes England's concern for economic gains. Lnstead, he is in favour of

China's concern for morality: "Not only is our civilization stable, it also embodies, as we

think, a moral order; while in yous we detect ody an economic chaos" (12). In

general, China is constructed as a favourable alternative to Europe because China implies

peace and stability, while Europe with her industrialization, progress and materïalism

means strife and instability. John Chinaman declares: "Our civiiization is the oldest in

the world. ... Such antiquity is a proof that our institutions have guaranteed to us a

stability for which we search in vain arnong the nations of Europe" (12). Western

civilization is regarded as rootless and individualistic:" With you the individual is the unit,

and al1 the units are free. No one is tied, but also no one is rooted. ... To this

85

characteristic of your society is to be attributed its immense activity, and its success in

ail material arts. But to this, also, is due the feature that most strikes a Chinaman - its

unrest, its confusion, its lack (as we think) of morality " (13). John Chinaman thinks that

neither the affluence nor the sciences and arts of Western society c m make up for the

loss of " true society , " in which there are humane and stable relations, reverence for the

past and respect for the present. Western irnperïalism results in War, in its rapacious

search for overseas market. On the contrary, John Chinaman thinks that a society that

is to be politically stable must be economically independent, "and we regard an extensive

foreign trade as necessarily a source of social demoralisation" (15). m e the

Westemers are concerned with "the means of living," the Chinese focus on "the quaiity

of life lived" (16). To John Chinaman, the Western emphasis on rnechanization,

technologicai advances, the laws of supply and demand, the ultimate absorption of

labour, cornpetition, progress, and mobility will not contribute to the well-being of

society. Instead, a dislocation of labour, poverty, s u f f e ~ g , starvation and disorder will

be caused. The Chinese prefers life to wea1th:"Our poets and literary men have taught

their successors, for long generations, to look for good not in wealth, not in power, not

in miscellaneous activity, but in a trained, a choice, an exquisite appreciation of the most

simple and universal relations of life" (27).

In Buck to Methuselah, Confucius is a regulatory force keeping things in

order. He telis Burge-Lubin about the Englishmen: "Put them in rny place, and within

86

a year you wili be back in the anarchy and chaos of the nineteenth and twentieth

centuries " (5: 446). Similarly in Letters from John Chinaman, Confucianism provides

a better alternative. First, it means a disciplinary force:

You profess Chnstianity, but your civilisation has never been Christian; whereas

ours is Confucian through and through. But to Say that it is Confucian, is to Say

that it is moral; or, at least, that moral relations are those which it primarily

contemplates. Whereas, with you (so it seems to us) economic relations corne

fist; and upon these you endeavour aftenvards, to grafi as much morality as they

will admit. (12)

Secondly , Confucianism is considered in Lettersfrorn John Chinaman as " not a religion"

(33). It is an ethical system directing and inspiring right conduct. Thirdly, it is "not

mereIy a teaching, but a life" (33). Fourthly, it is "the exponent of the ideal of work"

(33). Most important, the Chinese "are the most peaceful and Iaw-abiding nation on the

face of the earth" (41), and "Confucianism has made of the Chinese the one nation in ali

the history of the world who genuinely abhor violence and reverence reason and right"

(39) -

In many ways, the motivations for Shaw and Dickinson's resort to China

are similar. Both of them find something from China from which "the West" could leam

87

a lot. John Chinaman says: "The salient characteristic of yow civilization is its

irresponsibility" (17). In the Preface to Heartbreak House, Shaw writes about the

inhabitants :

The same nice people, the same utter futility. The nice people could read; some

of them could mite; and they were the ody repositones of culture who had social

opportunities of contact with our politicians, administrators, and newspaper

propnetors, or any chance of sharing or influencing their activities. But they

shranlc from that contact. They hated politics. They did not wish to realize

Utopia for the common people. (5: 13)

In Back to Methuselah, Shaw addresses this issue again and provides a solution:

voluntary longevity. The politicians are irresponsible children as the Archbishop

says: "We die in boyhood: the maturity that should make us the greatest of al1 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" (5: 479). The Chinese Confucius is introduced

in the play because "the Irish and the Scots, and the niggers and Chinks, as you cal1

hem, though their lifetime is short as ours, or shorter, yet do somehow contrive to grow

up a Little before they die" (5: 479).

Beneath Shaw and Dickinson's use of a Chinese, Confucius and John

88

Chinaman respectively, to comment on their own society is an assurnption of sameness.

Dickinson takes this stance : "It is a cardinal tenet of our faith, that human nature is every

where the same, and that it is circumstances that make it good or bad" (18). The good

points John Chinaman f i d s in the Chinese culture may also be applicable to the Western

culture, if only the latter will adopt it. Shaw makes a similar assumption. In the Preface

to Buck to Merhuselah when he taL! about legends, he writes:

What we should do is to pool our legends and make a delightful stock of religious

folk-lore on an honest basis for dl children. With Our minds fieed from pretence

and falsehood we could enter into the herïtage of al1 faiths. China would share

her sages with Spain, and Spain her saints with China. (5: 330)

China's "sage" Confucius can be used freely under this assumption of sameness.

Lenersfrom John Chinaman was written in 1901, in response to a topical

event: Western impenalism and the curbing of the Boxer Riots in China. Inainsically,

it condemns Western aggression and hopes for peace and stability. These again becarne

relevant issues in the second decade of the twentieth century after the First World War.

The East was again constructed as a peaceful alternative to the bellicose West.

According to Kam Louie:

89

The early twenties witnessed a change in European attitudes. After the

destruction of the First World War a number of Western intellectuals felt that

Western material and scientific progress had reached its limits, and was now

leading toward the decline of Western civilization. Some of them Iooked to the

presumed pacifism of the East as an alternative approach to life, their enthusiasm

in tuni giving rise to a current of thought in Asia which claimed that the salvation

of the world lay in the spinnial teaching of the East. (13)

Back to Methuselah was written as a response to the First World War, as Professor

Weintraub writes in Joumey tu Heartbreak, that the play is "bom of war [and] a rnirror

of the 1914-18 experience" (293).

There are many cornmon concerns between Letters of John Chinaman and

Bertrand Russell's The Problem of China, published soon afîer Back to Methuselah.

Shaw has known Bertrand Russell (1872- 1970) through the Webbs since September 1895

when they had a bicycle collision in Monmouth. Russell has little admiration for Shaw's

creed of Creative Evolution. He recails the latter's exposition of his ideas on Creative

Evolution before Bergson with grim humour, thinking Shaw unusually vain:

In a luncheon in London in honour of Bergson, . . . Shaw set to work to expound

Bergson's philosophy in the style of the Preface to Methuselah. In th is version,

90

the philosophy was hardly one to recomrnend itself to professionals, and Bergson

mildly intejected, "Ah, no-O! It is not qvite zat!" But Shaw was quite

unabashed, and replied, "Oh, my dear fellow, 1 understand your philosophy much

better than you do." (Gibbs 279)

Of course there is a gap between, as Wilson cails it, the "vague humanism of Bertrand

Russell and Shaw's evolutionism" (210). Yet, Shaw and Russell shared an anti-war

sentiment. Russell took the chair for Shaw's lecture "The Illusions of War" in the

King's Hall on October 26, 1915. Shaw wrote to Russell on that day: "Our job is to

make people serious about the war. It is the monstrous triviality of the damned thing,

and the vulgar fnvolity of what we imagine to be patriotism, that gets at rny temper"

(Letters 1 ' 3 15). Russell was later convicted in 1918 with an offence under the Defence

of the Realm Act for "an article he had written in The Tribunal, journal of the NO-

Conscription Fellowship, in which he predicted that Amencan soldiers, upon coming to

England, would be employed as strikebreakers, to which they were accustomed by

practices in their own country" (Leners 111 544).

Russell went to China from October 1920 to July 1921, publishg The

Problem of China in 1922. In this book, similar to Letters from John Chinaman, the

East is a favourable alternative. The West is criticized for her concem with economic

gains which cause aggression: "Progress and efficiency make no appeal to the Chinese,

91

except to those who have corne under Western influence- By vduing progress and

efficiency, we have secured power and wedth; by ignoring them, the Chinese, until we

brought disturbance, secured on the whole a peaceable existence and a life full of

enjoyment" (7). Again, industrialization is regarded as destroying a good way of

Me: "Instinctive happiness, or joy of life, is one of the most important wide-spread

popular goods that we have lost through industriaiism and the high pressure at which

most of us live; its commonness in China is a strong reason for thinkùig well of Chinese

civilization" (6). Efficiency is again regarded as a cause for instability : " Our way of life

demands strife, exploitation, restless change, discontent, and destruction. Effkiency

directed to destruction can only end in annihilation, and it is to this consummation that

Our civilization is tending, if it cannot Iearn some of that wisdom for which it despises

the East" (12)-

China is ultirnately associated with peace, calm and stability. Although

Russell is "unable to appreciate the merits of Conhicius," since the sage bas

overemphasized etiquette, he nevertheless admires the calmness and stability

Confucianism implies: "In China, though wars and revolutions here occurred constantly,

Confucian calm has survived them d l , makùig them less temble for the participants, and

making al1 who were not immediately involved hold aloof" (39). Ultimately, Russell

associates China with pacifism: "Although there have been many wars in China, the

natural outlook of China is very pacifistic" (206). Specifically, Russell associates

92

pacifism and stability with contemplation: "Their pacifism is rooted in their contemplative

outlook, and in fact they do not desire to change whatever they see" (206).

Shaw is also attracted to contemplation, but he associates it with change

for the better. In Man and Superman, according to Don Juan, the "philosophic man" is

"he who seeks in contemplation to discover the inner will of the world, in invention to

discover the means of fulfrlling that wili, and in action to do that will by the so

discovered means" (2: 664). Confucius in Buck tu Methuselah may be regarded as an

enactment of this kind of "philosophic man" contemplating Creative Evolution:

CONFUCIUS. Nothing that we can do will stop [the longlivers from grouping

together and becoming a great Power]. We cannot in our souls really want to

stop it: the vital force that has produced this change would paralyse our

opposition to it. . . .

BURGE-LUBIN. . . . M a t the deuce ought we to do?

CONFUCIUS. Let us sit still, and meditate in silence on the vistas before us.

They sit rneditating. the Chinaman naturally, the President with visible effort and

intensiq. (5: 488)

This scene precedes that when Burge-Lubin rejects the Negress, the Minister of Health's

invitation to an adventurous cruising holiday at Fishguard. Thus, the contemplation on

93

the "vital force", the inner will of the world, enables Burge-Lubin to discover a means

to fulfiI1 îhat will, that is, to be responsible and not to take risks, and to take the action

to reject that Me of adventure and accident.

The tendency towards sameness is again assumed in The Probiem of

China. Like Dickinson, Russell thinks that what applies to China may again apply to the

whoIe world. He writes:"The Chinese have discovered, and have practised for many

centuries, a way of life which, if it could be adopted by al1 the world, would make al1

the world happy" (12).

On the other hand, the tendency towards difference will yield something

quite unexpected. Shaw's Confucius, 1 have tned to show so far, is depicted on the basis

of an assumption of sameness and universal applicability . The assumption of difference

may result in another reading, a variation unintended by the playwright.

In "The Thing Happens", the 283-year-old Archbishop and the 274-yea.r-

old Mrs Lutestring are the longlivers. The play presumably takes place in 2170 A.D.

Yet, if Confucius is the historical sage, it should be he who is the real longliver. Born

in 551 B.C., he will be 2721 years old in 2170 A.D., nearly ten times older than Shaw's

Ionglivers .

94

It may also be very interesthg to note the disagreements between Shaw

and the real Co&cius. For instance, in the Preface to Misalliance, a child is regarded

as:

An experknent. A fresh attempt to produce the just man made perfect: that is,

to make humanity divine. And you will vitiate the experhnent if you make the

slightest attempt to abort it into some fancy figure of your own: for example,

your notion of a good man or a wornanly woman. (4: 20)

On the contrary, Confucius emphasizes Nia1 piety, as he says in The Analecm "while a

man's father lives, mark his tendencies; when his father is dead, mark his conduct. If

for three years he does not change fiom his father's ways, he may be cailed filial" (3).

In The Quintessence of Ibsenism, Shaw thinks that duty denies hope and human

endeavor: "Duty arises at frrst, a gIoomy tyranny, out of man's hopelessness, bis self-

mistrust, in a word, his abstract feu. He personifies al1 that he abstractly fears as God,

and straightaway becomes a slave of his duty to God" (Essays 41). On the other hand,

Confucius stresses the importance of rigid adherence to moral duty in The Analects: "He

upon whom a moral duty devolves should not give way even to his master" (96). Shaw,

on the contrary, denounces duty. He d e s in The Quintessence of rbsenism:

Sociai progress takes effect ehrough the replacement of old institutions by new

95

ones; and since every institution involves the recognition of the duty of

comforming to it, progress must involve the repudiation of an established duty at

every step. (Essays 40)

Confucius emphasizes etiquette and the Confucian man is a controlled and regulated

being. He writes in The Analects: "Let the character be formed by the poets; established

by the laws of right behaviour; and perfected by musict1 (42).

It is also revealing to compare the Western and Eastern constniction of

Confucius. Shaw is not the first to (re)construct Confucius. Throughout the ages in

China, Confucius bas been used to promote political and social movements. According

to Kam Louie, "even among those most critical of the effects of Confucianism, there

were diverse interpretations of the historical Confucius" (1). Confucius has been used

as a political tool. Russell writes: "Since the fa11 of the Mongols (1370), the govemment

has uniformly favoured Confucianism as the teaching of the State. The Manchus

emperors, though also northern conquerors , were ultra-orthodox Confucians . It has been

customary in China, for many centuries, for the literati to be pure Confucians" (40).

The late Ch'ing reformers' interpretations of Confucius "depart from

orthodoxy" (Louie 4). Confucius became a focus of debate. Conservative scholars, such

as Yeh Te-hui and Wang Hsien-ch'ien, regarded themselves as defenders of Confucian

96

moraiity and traditionalism. On the other hand, K'ang Yu-wei interpreted Confucius as

a reformer. To the conservative scho1ars:"Kang's interpretation of Confucius as a

reformer and his casting doubt over the authenticity of the classics were nothing less than

blasphemy and heresy in the eyes of those guardians of Confucian virtues. One of them,

Yeh Te-hui, accused K'ang of using the sage to advance his own interests" (Hsü 466).

In K'ang Yu-wei's second book, A Study of Confucius on Instimional Reform (K'ung tzu

kai-chih k'ao) (1897), he "boldly advanced the thesis that men in the past were mistaken

to Say that Confucius merely edited the six classics; he had in fact, written them and had

intended by them to promote institutional reform" (Hsü 443).

Back to Methuselah was written from Mach 19, 1918 to May 27, 1920.

It may be interesthg to note how Confucius was regarded in China in this period. At

the end of the play, Shaw's Confucius is the most advanced and clear-sighted of the

shortlivers, and he looks forward to Creative Evolution and the creation of the Superman.

Yet, in China in this same period, Confucius was regarded as a source of backwardness

and ~aditionalism. The years 1918-20 are literally the centre of the Intellectual

Revolution in China, which lasts from 1917-23, and the May Fouah Movement in 1919,

which is one of the most turbulent periods in Chinese cultural history. Confucianisrn was

the focus of attack in the New Cultural Movement. Ch'en Tu-hsiu (l879-1940), who

later CO-founded the Chinese Comrnunist Party with Li Ta-chao in 1921, "vehemently

attacked conservatism and traditionalism as the roots of Cbina's evils" (Hsü 601). To

97

Chen, Confucianism was "the product of an agrarian and feudal social order, totally

incompatible with modem Iife in an industrial and capitalistic society " (Hsü 60 1). Hu

Shih (1891-1962), who had just eamed his PhD from Columbia University in 1917,

returned to China and actively promoted scientific thinking, pragmatism and the

veniacular style of writing. To Hu, the unchangeabIe Confucianism was "out of touch

with the realities of the modem world," which is constantly changing. Hu "invented the

pe rjorative phrase 'Confucius and Sons Incorporated' , " and his followers shouted "Down

with Confucianism" (Hsu 602).

In 1918, the year when Shaw started writing Back to Methuselah,

Confucius was attacked in the major publications in China promoting the New Culture.

In the Youth Magazine (Ch 'hg-nien tsa-chih) Iater renamed the Nav Youth (Hsin Ch 'ing-

nieniLa Jeunesse), in an article published in 1916, 1 Pai-sha "criticizes not only the

institutional forms of Confucianism, but also the writings of Confucius himself." He

contends that "Confucianism, in identifjhg monarchs with Heaven, had given them

unlimited authority, thus promoting an autocratic fonn of society" (Louie 6). Other

intellectuals, such as Lu H ü n (Lu Xun), attacked the ConiÙcian practice of "not

departing fkom the ways of one's father for three years after his death". Lu thinks that

"if the ancient protozoa had followed this rule, evolution could not have occured" (Louie

7-8). Chen Tu-hsiu urges his readers to root out Confûcianism because:

98

(1) It advocated "superfluous ceremonies and preached the morality of meek

cornpliance, " making the Chinese people weak and passive, unfit to struggle and

compete in the modem world; (2) it recognized the family and not the individual

as the basic unit of society; (3) it upheld the inequality of the status of

individuals ; (4) it stressed fdial piety which made men subservient and dependent;

and (5) it preached orthodoxy of thought in total disregard of freedom of thinking

and expression. (Hsü 601)

Confucianism was also attacked in other magazines such as the Nav Tide (Hsin-ch 'ao)

nui by students at the Beijing University in 1918, and the Weekly Critic (Mei-choup 'hg-

l m ) , edited by Hu Shih.

In short, synchronically at the same time in history, at opposite sides of

the globe, Confucius was depicted in two drastically different ways. This exhibits the

tendency towards difference. Culture and context have a role to play in the interpretation

of the play. Of course at a tirne when there was comparatively little global traffic, when

the play was intended mainly or even totally for Western audiences, this tendency

towards difference might not be overt and significant. However, wieh the increasing

globalization of the world, cultural difference and variety have to be taken into

consideration. This consideration of cultural difference is shown in Buoyant Billions,

wntten afier Shaw's world tour, a literal enactment of "globalization. "

5. Buovant Billions - a (rekonsideration of cultural difference

Back to Methuselah, written before Shaw's passage to China, shows a

collapse of cultural difference, an assumption of sameness. Next, 1 would like to look

at Buoyanr Billions, written between February 17, 1936 and July 13, 1947 after Shaw's

trip to China. Here, Shaw is consciously taking into account cultural difEerence, and is

trying to negotiate a way to make use of the difference to advance his ideas. Whereas

in Back to Methuselah, China and the Chinese exist purely on the level of ideas and are

subject to construction, in Buoyant Billions, Shaw is consciously wanting to recognize

and honour the difference of cuiture. In Back to Methuselah, the image of Confucius is

changed, and becomes very much dif3erent fkorn contemporary Chinese construction.

In Buoyant Billions, the reconstruction of Sir Robert Ho Tung and the Chinese shrine in

his mansion in Hong Kong, IdZewiZd, exhibit a respect for cultural difference. There is

true exchange: Shaw appropriates these cultural images, and adds his own interpretation

ont0 them without changing the cultural specificities of the images.

The playwright professedly says that the assumption of watertight cultures,

cultures kept in ngid compartments, still stand in Buoyant Billions. He writes the World

Review, London, September, 1949, that in the play, "east is east and West is west

throughout." But cultures are leaking into one another nonetheless. The audience and

100

readers cannot help detecting the simultaneous presence and interpenetration of the east

and West in the play, as Blanche Patch notes:"The idea of a drawing-room in Belgrave

Square being chosen as a Chinese Temple seemed to be rather unreal" (70). The

following conversation takes place inside the domestic Chinese temple in the third act of

the play:

THE PRLEST. 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. (7: 334)

The Chinese temple from Hong Kong that presides over the third and fourth acts could

not be farther removed from Shaw ' s London audience. The playwright deliberately

introduced a place foreign to the England of his own t h e though the play's setting is

"The Present" (7: 305). At the same tirne, the place is in Belgrave Square right in the

heart of London. On one hand, the incongruity between the Chinese and the English

creates something that is exotic in the sense of being foreign, strikingly different, or

unusual. On the other hand, the setting is also familiar. The first audience of Buoyant

Billions certainly felt the strangeness of the exotic setting. As Hesketh Pearson wrote

of the play's world premiere (in Siegfried Trebitsch's translation) at the Schauspielhaus

in Zurich on October 21, 1948, Shaw's "new play . . . was produced at Zurich in October

101

'48 before a respectable if uncomprehending audience" (501). However, according to

the Zürcher Zein«igYs description of the audience's response to the two acts set in the

Chinese temple, the exotic scenes worked: "the applause which after the fxst two acts was

moderate only grew considerably in the rest of the play and was very Ioud at the end"

(Holroyd, 111 488). M a t power in this mix of the exotic and the familiar captures the

imagination of the audience and eams such applause?

The juxtaposition of the east and west is very effective. This interaction

of the east and West is not arbitrary . There is a process of cultural exchange. Unlike

the construction of Confucius in Back ro Methuselah, the construction of the east in

Buoyant Billions involves a negotiation between the east and west. It is based on Shaw's

real life experience of the east, and his response to this expenence. The construction

is both an objective reproduction of the setting, and a subjective record of the response.

The temple setting had captured Shaw's imagination years earlier. The setting had

onginated in Hong Kong, which the Shaws visited during their Empress of Britain world

tour. On Monday , Febmary 13, 1933, at "Idlewild, " the residence of wealthy Hong

Kong industrialist and philanthropist Sir Robert Ho Tung (1862-1956), as Shaw wrote

in "Aesthetic Science" published in Design '46, Sir Robert:

took me upstairs into what in EngIand would have been a drawing room. It was

a radiant miniature temple with an altar of Chinese vermilion and gold, and

IO2

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. (Rodelle

Weintraub 213)

Figure 4 provides a glimpse of the meeting between Shaw and Sir Robert. Figure 5 is

a picture of Lady Ho Tung at the tum of the century. This meeting provided the

blueprint for the temple scene in Buoyant Billions. Shaw wrote to Sir Robert on 13

November 1947,

1 have finished a play in which 1 have introduced a private temple like the one in

which 1 spent with you an hour which 1 have never forgotten and never shall

forget. , . .

The scene painter [the Winstens' daughter Theodora] wants to know what

your temple is Iike. Have you by any chance a photograph of it? Or of the

priest in his vestments? (Letters IV 805)

The setting of Buoyant Billions ' third act is:

A drawingroom in Belgruve Square, London, converted into a Chinese temple on

a domestic scale, with white walls just enough rose tinted to take the glare o z

and a tabernacle in vermilion and gold, on a dais of two broad shallow steps.

Shaw and Sir Robert Ho Tung X w e 4

A glimpse of the meeting between Shaw and Sir Robert Ho Tung at Idlewild, 8 Seymour Road, in 1933. Try to look at this picture f?om a distance. Perspectives produce unexpected effects.

3 - 5 Mernories from Hong Kong

Lady Ho Tung in traditional Chinese costume at the tum of tl. Twentieth Century .

103

Divan seam softly upholstered against the walls, and very cornfortable easy chairs

of wickenuork, l~~~uriously cushioned, are also available. n e r e is a soa of

bishop's chair at one corner of the tabernacle. (7: 334)

The details of the temple in Idlewiid had lurked in Shaw's mind for some fourteen years

after the visit to Idlewild in 1933. He began the composition of Buoyant Billions on

February 17, 1936, abandoned it in August 1937, retumed to it on August 2, 1945, and

finished it on 13 July 1947 (7: 305). His use of the Idlewild temple was not an accident,

nor was it merely an attempt to lure audiences by offering a colorful background. It

serves more fundamental purposes.

Shaw's impression of the Idlewild temple permeates Buoyant Billions. The

Idlewild temple had a lasting soothing effect on the playwright. In 1946, he wrote in

" Aesthetic Science " :

A robed priest and his acolyte stofe in and went through a service. When it was

over 1 told Sir Robert that 1 had found it extraordinarily soothing and happy

though 1 had not understood a word of it. "Neither have 1," he said, "but it

soothes me too . " It was part of the art of life for Chinaman and I r i sban alike,

and was purely esthetic. (Rodelfe Weintraub 2 13-4)

IO4

Shaw wrote to Sir Robert on January 15, 1946: "1 am now very old (90) and still too

busy to think of the past, but when I do, nothing soothes me more than the recollection

of that service in your celestial private temple and the aftemoon we spent together"

(Letters N 764). According to the stage direction, " The effect is lovel'y and soothing, as

on& Chinese an could d e it" (7: 334). Similarly, in the play, the pnest tells the

solicitor Sir Ferdinand that Old Bill Buoyant "cornes here and sits for half an hour while

1 go through my act of worship, of which he does not understand a single word. But he

goes out a new man, soothed and serene" (7: 335). The real and the imaginary Chinese

temples on opposite sides of the globe create a similar soothing impression.

There is reai cultural exchange: Shaw has been faithful to both the real life

mode1 and the shrine. Culture heterogenization interacts creatively with cultural

homogenization. On one hand, Shaw makes use of a real Chinese to construct his

character. On the other hand, Shaw adds his own interpretation onto the appropnated

cultural items. He is also fitting his character into his philosophy of Creative Evolution

involving a world culture. In Buoyant Billions, the temple is a "holy place" (7: 334).

The negotiation between cultures is subtly suggested in Old Bill Buoyant's fust entrance.

He enters not until the final act, and is depicted against the background of the Chinese

temple. The billionaire wears "a gorgeous golden dressing gown and yeilow slippers

[which] give him a hieratic air" (7: 360). In this costume, Bill Buoyant looks like the

"robed Chinese pnést, who fits pefectiy into the surruundings" (7: 334). Bill Buoyant

is fully associated with Sir Robert:

Sir Robert bore his own billions buoyantiy , and it was in Hoag-Kong in 1933 that

Shaw came across the domestic Chinese temple where Sir Robert daiiy refreshed

his spirit. The Shaws' visit was repaid several years later b y Sir Robert at Ayot

Saint Lawrence, and it was on this occasion that he presented Shaw with the

beautifid Chinese robe that suited GBS so weil. (The ShavEan, 8 February 1957

7)

While Chinese dornestic shrines may be used to worship ancestors wr various deities, the

temple in Shaw's play worships something else, making it a " holy place" in a Shavian

sense. Two persons in the play, Old Bill Buoyant and Junius Smith, recognize the

holiness of the temple setting. Old Bill Buoyant is rerniniscent of Su Robert, the owner

of Idlewild. Sir Robert was widely known as the "grand Old Man, " while Bill Buoyant

is known as "old Bill Buoyant the Billionaire" (7: 336). S i r Robert "had risen

drarnatically from poverty to become . . . 'the leading expert and merchant in Hong Kong

in property, insurance, shipping, and [the] irnport and export business. . . . "' (Rodelle

Weintraub 213). Similarly, Bill Buoyant, "Born a proletanan, " is a "famous lucky

financier" (7: 327). After Sir Robert had "resigned his compradoreâhip in 1900, . . . one

Company after another invited him to server on its Board of Directors," and he thus

become "a Director of 18 of the leading companies in Hongkong and Shanghai as well

IO6

as . .. Chairman and largest shareholder of a number of them" (Rodeile Weintraub 213).

Similarly, Sir Ferdinand Flopper tells Old Biil's younger children that their father's

money " has been made, and is still being made, on the money market, by buying stocks

and shares and seiiing them again at a profit" (7: 339). The solicitor advises these

younger cMdren to "live by directorships founded on [their father's] reputation" (7:

368).

WMe Shaw has time and again based characters on real people, the

choice of Sir Robert was particularly apt. Sir Robert was famous for his wealth, but his

spirituality impressed Shaw more than did his money. The beginning of the temple scene

in Act III is very much about the inheritance of Old Bill Buoyant's billions, but he also

has his spiritual power to pass on. The billions are not likely to survive Old Bill:

SIR FERDINAND. . . . 1 had to suggest that [the younger Buoyants] should live

by directorships founded on your reputation.

OLD BILL. . . . No use: that game is up. The new Labor Governent gives such

jobs to superannuated Trade Union Secretaries. (7: 368 - 9)

Old Bill provides money only for his eldest daughter Babzy, and he has tried to leave her

his spiritual power as well, with questionable success. She recal1s:"Daddy made me sit

still and be silent here when 1 was in my restless teens. 1 detested it. The scent of

107

incense sickens me. . . . We must think it over" (7: 358 - 59). Old Bill's spiritual power

is the basis of his ability to make money:

DARKIE. . . . None of us lcnows anything about making money because our father

knows all about it.

SIR F. Has he never taught you ii~lything about it?

THE WIDOWER. He couldnt. He does not understand it himself. He makes

rnoney by instinct, as beavers build d m s . (7: 340)

Old Bill's speculations in the soothing temple have been the source of his strength. As

he telis the priest: "Meditation is not in my line: 1 speculate. And my speculations turn

out well when 1 spead an hour here and just empty my rnind" (7: 360).

Shaw makes use of Sir Robert's spintuality to convey his message. For

Shaw, Old Bill Buoyant represents the instinctive Will. He wrote to Siegfkied Trebitsch

on July 8, 1948: "In English the word buoyant means not only floating in water as a cork

does, but, when applied to a human being, energeticaily highspi[ri]ted, gaily superior to

misfortune" (Letrers IV 825). This recalls Shaw's appreciation of Siegfried in The

Pe@ecr Wagnenfe (1898) as "the type of healthy man raised to perfect confidence in his

own impulses by an intense and joyous vitality which is above fear, sickJiness of

conscience, malice and the makeshifts and moral clutches of law and order which

108

accompany them" (Essays 240). Siegfried stands for the fiee will to live, the unhindered

thrusting of the life energy of the world toward ever higher organization. Similarly, Old

Bill Buoyant stands for the stage at which the Life Force struggles blindly in its fight for

new ground (he has wasted his will on speculations). His heirs must put this will to better

use by providing beîter direction for the Life Force to guide it toward Creative

Evolution. Unlike in the case of the appropriated Confucius, Shaw has not ignored

cultural specificity , He respects that specificity , and adds on to it.

In addition, Shaw relies on his own creation to mention explicitly hÎs

gospel of Creative Evolution. The other person who recognizes and respects the holiness

of the temple setting is Junius Smith, who says when he enters the temple:"This room

is like a temple. Are you engaged in an act of worship?" (7: 353). m u s is identifed

as a "World Betterer" in the subtitle of Act I (7: 305), and he tell the Buoyants in the

temple: "1 am by profession a world betterer" (7: 353). M e n Shaw began writing the

play at sea on February 17, 1936, he called it The WorZd Betrerer, and he altered the title

briefly to A World Beiierer's Cou&@ before finally deciding on Buoyant Billions when

he completed the play. Since Old Bill's legacy wiil pass to Babzy, her engagement to

Junius implies that the unp~cip led WU that she inherits will acquire its direction from

the World Betterer Junius. In his reply to a questionnaire from Stephen Winsten and

Esmè Percy, Shaw described Junius and Babzy as "two people . . . caught in a trap laid

by the Life Force" (Wurid Reviav 17-8). Their engagement will contribute to the

advancement of the Life Force up the spiral of Creative Evolution.

One still has to work out the role of the Chinese temple setting in Buoyant

Billions. A ready explanation is that since Shaw was puahg 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 fkom both the East and West are " holy places. " The

soothing effects of Eastern mysticism enhances Shaw's religious message. As Shaw

wrote in his last will and testament dated June 12, 1950: "my religious convictions and

scientific views cannot at present be more specifically defmed than as those of a believer

in Creative Evolution. . . . " (Holroyd, N 105). From that perspective, the engagement

of Junius and Babzy will help to better the world in the Shavian sense: the Chinese

temple, as a shrine of Creative Evolution, has had its "soothing" effect on the

playwright. It rightly serves as a Shavian "holy place. l'

Thus, in Buoyant Billions, the negotiation between cultural homogenization

and cultural heterogenization serves Shaw's purpose of promoting Creative Evolution.

The particular is used to serve a global universal aim. Confucius is again mentioned in

the play, but this time he is put in a global context when Junius Smith talks about his

chosen profession: "Marx's profession. Lenin's profession. Stalin's profession. Ruskin's

profession. Plato's profession. Confucius, Guatama, Jesus, Mahomet, Luther, William

Morris. The profession of a world betterer " (7 : 3 14).

Globalization is a process recurring in the modem world, and one of its

feanires is a homogenizing tendency, erasing local cultural particularities and blurrïng

them together in an undifferentiated rnass culture. In this chapter, 1 have shown some

of Shaw's appropriation of thùigs Chinese to serve his intellectual scheme ranging from

change to exchange. In the following chapters, 1 shall show the opposite process, how

the Chinese inteLlectuals borrowed, appropriated, irnported Shaw's work in the early

twentieth century as a vehicle for a kind of modernking, westernizing, and liberating

they wanted to pursue. In this process of reciprocal appropriation, each party sometimes

gets the other right, sees it for what it is, in its paaicularity and othemess. At other

times, they get it wrong, distorting it, conflating it with what it is not. Thus, in the

process of cultural globalizations, there are interpenetrations of formerly distinct and

even watertight cultures. The contrasting tendencies towards sameness and difference

show cultural homogenization and cultural heterogenization at work.

Bevan, E. Dean. A Concordance to the Plays a n 8 Prefaces of Bernard Shaw. 10 vols.

Detroit: Gale Research Co., 197 1.

Confucius. me Analects. New York: Dover Publlications, 1995.

"Death of Sir Robert Ho Tung. " The Shavian 8 (1957): 7.

Dickinson, Goldsworthy Lowes. Letters fLom John Chinaman and Other Essuys.

London: George Allen and Unwin, 1946.

Gibbs, A.M., ed. Shaw: Interviews and Recollections. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 1990.

"Great Wall." Funk and Wugnalls New Encyclopedia. 1986 ed.

Hoggart, Richard. The Uses of literacy . New York: Oxford UP, 1970.

Hoiroyd, MichaeI. Bemard Shaw, vol. 3, 19184950: me Lure of Fantasy. London:

Chatto & Windus, 1991.

113

-- - Bernard Shaw, vol. 4, 19504991, The L a t Laugh. London: Chatto & Windus,

1992.

Kahn, Joel S. Culture, Multiculture, Postculture. London: Sage Publications, 1995.

King, Anthony , D . , ed. Culture, Globalizatian and The World System: Contemporary

Conditions for the Representation of Identiv. Binghamton: Department of Art


Lewis, Mark, Robert Fitzgerald, and Charles Harvey. The Growth of Nations: Culture,

Comparativeness, and the Problem of GlobaZizahatron. Bristol: Bristol Acadernic

P, 1996.

Louie, K m . Critiques of Confucius in Contemporary China. New York: St. Maain's

Press, 1980.

Mander, Raymond, Joe Mitcherson. Theatrical Cornpanion to Shaw. A Pictorîal Record

of the First Perfomu~nces of the Plqs of George Bernard Shaw. London:

Folcroft Library , 197 1.

Patch, Blanche. Thiny Years with G. B. S. London: Victor Gollancz, 1951.

Pearson, Hesketh. Bernard Shaw. Landon: Unwin, 1987.

Russell, Bertrand. The Problem of China. New York: The Century Co., 1922.

Shaw, Bernard. Bernard Shaw: Collected Letters. 4 vols. London: Max Reinhardt,

1985.

--- . Collected Plays with Their Prefaces. Ed. Dan H. Laurence. 7 vols. London: Max

Reinhardt, 1970 - 74.

-- . "The Author Explains, " World Review September (1949).

--- . Major Cn'ticul Essqs. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986.

--- . The Religious Speeches of Bernard Shaw. Ed. Warren Sylvester Smith. University

Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 1963.

Storey , John, ed. Wmt is Cultural Studies ? A Reader. London: Arnold, 1996.

Webb, Sidney, and Beaîrice. Die Webbs in Asia: The 1911 - 12 Travel Diary. London:

Macmillan, 1992.

II5

Weintraub, Rodeile, ed. S b Abroad. University Park: The Pennsylvania State UP,

1985.

Weintraub, Stanley. Journey to &artbreak.- The Crucible Years of Bernard Shaw 1914

- 1918. New York: Weybright and Talley, 1971.

Williams, Raymond. Culture and Sociev. New York: Columbia UP, 1983.

--- . me Long Revolution. London: Chatto and Windus, 1961.

Wilson, Colin, Bernard Shaw: A Reassessment. London: Hutchison, 1969.

Shaw's plays were first introduced into China in the early twentieth

century as hua ju or "spoken drama." In addition to being a form of entertainment.

"spoken drama" was distinct fromxi qu or the traditional Chinese dramatic forms which

were not "spoken," but sung in styIized rnanner. This imported dramatic form was an

indicator of something " new " and "modem" in China, against the "old" and " traditional "

xi qu. Before one looks at how Shaw and his plays were fmst made use of in China, it

is essentiai to note the various ways "spoken drama" was used before the introduction

of Shaw to China.

A review of Chinese theatre history at the tum of the twentieth century

shows that "spoken drama" was more a political and social assertion than a mere

dramatic concem. The inceptions of "spoken drama," and the way it influenced

traditionai Chinese theatre show that the traditional and the modem are not watertight

compartments. They may interact, exchanging qualities to enrich one another.

1. Tradition and Modernity

At fxst sight, "tradition" and "modernity " appear to be binary opposites.

"Tradition" refers to what is old or even obsolete, while "modemity " refers to what is

new and innovative. "Global modernity," according to Tomlinson, refers to "the

'disembedding' of practices and institutions from contexts of local to global control"

(Tucker 33). "Tradition" impiies what is local, indigenous and native, while

"modernity" is associated with the global and imported. "Tradition" involves a

perspective looking back to the past, whereas "modernity" looks forward toward the

future. "Tradition" implies inertia, and a Iack of change, and "modemity " is inherently

associated wiîh change, progress and development. Tomlinson mites: "The process of

global modernity seems to possess an inbuilt 'acceleration' - a feature of the reflexivity

of modem institutions -- which makes cultural transformations much more rapid in their

impact" (Tucker 33).

Yet, there may be a meeting point between "tradition" and "modernity . "

They may similarly serve as rneans to achieve something, something to be made use of.

"Tradition" and "modernity" rnay Iikewise be ways to manipulate culture, cultural

techniques intended to bring forth particular kinds of cultural productions. In doing so,

"tradition" and "modeniity" may lead to unexpected plurality and creativity.

IL8

In this chapter, 1 would like to look at the theatre as consumption and use,

at the factors leading to the unexpected early marketing of westem theatre in China.

Once a play is written, it is a product subject to consumption by the audience or the

readers. According to Michel De Certeau,

In reality, a rationalized, expansionist, centralized, spectacular and clamorous,

production is confronted by an entirely dfierent kind of production, called

"consumption" and characterized by its ruses, its fragmentation (the result of the

circumstances) , its poaching , its clandestine nature, its tireless but quiet activity ,

in short by its quasi-invisibility, since it shows itself not in its own products but

in the art of using those hposed on it. (Everyday 31)

The unpredictability of consumption is accentuated in the market abroad. Spoken drama,

once introduced into China, becarne diverted fiom its intended aims by the use made of

it there. The Chinese used them in the service of mies, customs or convictions that

would have been foreign to the authors.

Theatre can be made use of. The unintended cultural export from the West

is also the intended cultural irnport in the east. In the performance of westem plays on

the Chinese stage, the theatre functions as a cultural space for the confrontation of

western and eastern cultures. Both the "new" and "modem" western culture and the

119

"old" and "traditional" Chinese culture are subject to manipulation. To examine fiow the

exchange of cultural elements enriches and strengthens the dramatic forms, I sha3.l

examine the use of traditional Chinese theatre, the use of modem spoken drama, and the

deterioriation of modem spoken drama on the eve of the introduction of Shaw and his

plays to China.

2. The Use of Traditional Theatre

The use of the theatre for political and social ends in China was not

something new. Before the students' use of spoken drama in Japan, traditional Chinese

dramatic forms had been used in China. The Chinese stage was the place fkom which

values were fostered and identities conferred. Figure 6 shows the traditional Chinese

stage in the palace at the Forbidden City, Beijing. According to Colin Mackerras:

To be sure, entertainment was one of the main functions of drama for di elasses

of people. But drama was more than that, it was part of their social and religious

life. It was a means of comrnunicating images of good and evil to the people and

of conveying a sense of historical identity to them. Put more specifically, it was

through cirama that the masses of the people knew and expenenced the history of

their own nation, and made judgements of which personalities had conmibuted

The Traditional Chinese Stage

The theatre in the palace inside the Forbidden City. The royal audience sat in the opposite building across the courtyard.

well or heroicaliy, and which negatively. (Mackerras, 1990 94)

The traditional Chinese theatre could be made use of by those with or

without power, as either a strategy or a tactic. For those with power, the theatre was

a strategy to educate and control the people. For instance, "the Ming and, to an even

greater extent, the Qing emperors regarded the drama of their own and every other class

in society as a weapon to be used for their own Confucian political and social mores"

(Mackerras, 1990 9 1). China has her own proponent for the play of ideas: "The famous

Confician philosopher Wang Shouren (1472-1528) thought drama should be used for

moral propaganda; that meant carefully bowdlerking the content of lewd or subversive

material or words, and emphasizing dramas about loyal subjects and filial sons"

(Mackerras, 1990 91). For those without power, the theatre was a tactic to work against

the reigning powers. For instance, in the Taiping or Boxer Upnsing of 185 1 to 1864,

"it is very likely that those actors who followed the Taipings performed dramas with

content that was rebellious and hostile to the imperial government. ... Despite

prohibitions against "evil" entertainment, the Taiping drama propagated revolutionary

images and thus contributed to and reflected the Taiping movement" (Mackerras, 1990

93 - 4).

At the turn of the tweatieth century, on the eve of the introduction of

spoken drama to the Chinese stage, the traditional theatre was used as a strategy to

121

defend Chinese temtory. There were clamours for using traditional dramatic forms to

voice topical political concerns, especially to use them as "suitable medium for

propaganda to redress national humiliations" (Mackerras, 1990 96 - 7)' such as China's

defeat by Japan in 1895, and the eight-power invasion after the Boxer Uprising. For

example, "an unsigned account of 1903 on seeing a drama recommends that the musical

instruments and style be reformed and the content changed in the direction of tragedy,

heroism and violence to incite patriotism" (Mackerras, 1990 97). In 1904, a clear

proposition was voiced in China's first theatre periodical, Ershi Shiji da Watui (The

Great Stage of the Twentiefh Cenmry). According to Mackerras (1990), in the

introduction to the fîrst issue of this short-lived journal, the young revolutionary Liu Ya-

zi (1887-1958) "calied for revolutionary content in the traditional Chinese drama which

could instill patnotism into the people. Drama should show such events as the French

Revolution and the Arnerican War of independence as positive models and the

colonization of India as a negative one" (97).

The dramatists making use of traditional dramatic forms to urge reforms

include Wang Xiaonong, who made extensive use of Peking opera to "push reforms,"

and Huang Ji'an (1836-1924), who manipulated Sichuan Opera to bring out "saongly

patriotic sentiments or condemn the oppression of women in feudal society" (Mackerras,

1990 97). Although the plays are set in the past, the message is brought out through the

choice of characters and characterizations. Some plays "present on the stage national

122

heroes from China's history who helped their country cope with a period of great

disaster, and thus draw a lesson for the present" (Mackerras, 1990 97).

However, in spite of the attempts to put traditional dramatic foms to

social and political use, they were not very effective vehides by the time spoken drama

was introduced. According to Tien Han (Zhong 3 - 4), in 1894 after the Sino-Japanese

war, patriotic young inteUectuals made use of art fonns such as Kunqu, Peking Opera

and Qu ci to elicit and promote patriotism. They wanted to express their anger toward

the decadent Manchu rule and the imperiaiistic aggressors, as weli as to awaken the

sufferîng masses. Tien Han continues:"*'But a new sharp weapon to express their

political feelings was not found untii the f o m of spoken drama was discovered and

applied in a preliminary way " (Zhong 3).

Besides, the traditional dramatic forms are not equally effective. For

example, Kunqu was less powerful than Peking opera. The audience of K m q u was elitist,

for the style began as gentry theatre. Mackerras (1975) explains:

The K'un-ch'ü found most of its admirers among the gentry, officiais and

scholars. Its music was softer and more melodious than that of the popular drama

1 Translation mine. Subsequent translations by me wiil be indicated by asterisks .

123

and it was accompanied principaily by the ti-au, or Chinese transverse flute.

Educated persons always despised the popuIar theatre, which they considered

vulgar, noisy and lacking in rhythm. (Mackerras, 1975 16)

La the mid-nineteenth century, the Kunqu "had been in decline for quite a long time, for

the very simple reason that the class of people and the social system which supported it

had themselves been waning in power and creativity" (Mackerras, 1990 33). It was

M e r made unpopular by the Taiping

area of the Kunqu, namely Zhejiang

officials who were the patrons of the

dynasty were above ali other people

Uprising (1850-1864), which "affected the core

and Jiangsu, with

Kunqu as well as

particular seventy, and the

the servants of the Manchu

tctrgets of the Taiping revolutionary fe rv~ur '~

(Mackerras, 1990 33). Moreover, since Kunqu dramas usually deal with "romances and

do not often deal with war" (Mackemas, 1990 34), the style was not intended to promote

social and political messages.

Peking opera, on the contrary, was a popular dramatic form much more

well prepared for the occasion. According to Mackerras, "This brilliant and refmed mass

drama form could take root and thrive at precisely the time when imperial China was in

full decline and nearing its downfall. There seems no doubt that it enjoyed the fuli

support of al1 classes of Beijing society, including the masses of the people" (1990 78).

At this the of Western invasion and disintegration of the Manchu dynasty, Peking opera

124

offered something uniquely Chinese, as Mackerras writes: "The trauma of the Western

impact provided a spur which encouraged this quintessentiauy Chinese art form to

flourish. This is suggested by the patriotic content of many of the dramas at the time.

The enthusiasm for a lively Chinese tradition was partly a reaction against the imposition

of new ideas, new educationai and artistic patterns from outside" (1990 77-8). Hence,

it is not surprising to find Peking opera later reacting with spoken drama.

3. The Use of Modern Spoken Drama

With the young Chinese intellectuals actively looking for new means to

promote social and political messages, it was not surprising that they soon found spoken

drama. Spoken drama was an attractive alternative to traditional Chinese ciramatic forrns

primarily because it was regarded as "modern1' and "new." According to Ouyang Yu-

qian: "* At first al1 troupes claimed to perform 'new drama'.. . . New drama refers to a

new type of play, as different from old drama" (Tien, Zhong 49).

Spoken drama was first used as a tactic by Chinese students studying in

Japan to arouse political and social consciousness. These students did not have a power

base in two senses. First, they were literally on foreign grounds. Secondly, China was

losing ground as a sovereign state, and was holding its 9,597,000 sq. km. together with

125

difficulty. The accelerated foreign imperialism from 1861 to 1895 resulted in Ioss of

land, such as the cession of Hong Kong to Britain in 1842 after the Opium War, the

Japanese aggression in Formosa (Taiwan), the Russian occupation of Ili in Sinkiang, the

French seizure of the tributary state of AMam (Vietnam), and the cession of Formosa

to Japan in 1895 under the Treaty of Shimonoseki. At the end of the nineteenth century

after China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894, there was a scrarnble for

concessions in which "foreign imperialists cut the Chinese melon into leased temtones

and spheres of interest, within which they constmcted railways, opened mines,

established factories, operated banks, and r m a11 kinds of exploitative organizations"

(Hsü 420). In this scrarnble for concessions, Germany seized Kiaochow in Shantung in

1897, and Russian leased Port Arthur and Dairen. In the same year, the British leased

Waihaiwei for 25 years and Kowloon (New Temtories) for 99 years, and the French

leased Kwangchow Bay for 99 years.

"Spoken drama" was regarded a s a break from the traditional, a dedication

to the modem. The Chinese students studying in Japan discovered a powerful tactic in

spoken drama. To these young patriotic intellectuals, spoken drama was something

definitely modem. This product from the West is different from traditional Chinese

dramatic forms in a number of ways. First, there is a difference in outlook. Figure 7

shows the traditional Chinese stage found in a teahouse, on which the famous Chinese

Peking Opera singer, Mei Lm-fang, performed in his early years. "The traditional

The Traditional Chinese Stage

The stage and pit at the Guang He Teahouse in which Mei Lan- fang played. There is no scenery. Tables are placed at right angles to the stage showing that the performance is heard rather than seen.

126

Chinese theatre is characterized by the freedorn of the audience and the lack of realism

in the perf'ormance" (Hsü Tao-ching 13). It is symbolic and stylized. Spoken drarna,

on the contrary , is "a copy of the western naturalistic theatre" (Hsii Tao-ching 13). The

bare stage of the Chinese theatre stands in stark contrast with the naturalistic stage with

detailed scenery. While the Chinese stage draws attention to its artificiality with "the

musicians sitting on the stage fully visible to the audience and the stage hands moving

freely among the actors during the performance" (Hsü Tao-ching Il), the westem stage

of spoken drama attempts to &or real Me with the naturalistic acting. In the

traditional Chinese theatre, the dialogue is "partly sung and partly spoken in stylish

dedamations and the acting, conventionalized and accompanied by music, is akin to

dance" (Hsu Tao-ching 1 1). Dialogue in spoken drama, as suggested by the name, is

spoken. Moreover, the traditional Chinese stage "projects into the auditorium and is

surromded by the audience" (Hsü Tao-ching), while the stage of spoken drama has a

front curtain separating the stage from the audience. Instead of merely appreciating the

performance in silence, the audience in the traditional Chinese theatre also "smokes,

drinks, eats, and talks" (Hsü Tao-ching Il), as in N6 and Kabuki in Japan.

Spoken drama, as a cultural product from the West, was not viable on the

Chinese stage untiI the young patriotic intellectuals found it a useful tactic to promote

social and political messages. Earlier performances of westem drama were not very

irnpressive. The earliest western drama brought to the Chinese stage at the turn of the

twentieth century was a mere linguistic exercise, a

earliest dramatic performances in the Western style,

127

practice of foreign language: "The

that is, with naturalistic acting and

delivery, were given by the students of missionary schooIs as part of their study in

foreign languages " (Hsu Tao-chi% 13). As linguistic exercises , these performances did

not have significant effect :

It is difficult to ascertain which performance was the earliest, because owing to

the foreign Ianguage used, few people outside the school were interested, but

according to one account, the performance in St. John's University in November

1902 was the first. The event appears to have had Iittle effect on the public as

the production was a western drama which they could not understand. (Hsü Tao-

ching 13)

The performances began to draw attention when they were manipulated to comment on

the contemporary situation: " several high schools and the Y. M. C. A. soon started

producing plays based on current events with rnoralizing passages for the edification of

the public and these productions proved highly popular, so that some were used to raise

charity funds" (Hsü Tao-ching 13).

New drama with social and poIitical messages began to attract an audience.

According to Ouyang Yu-qian, new drama originated fiom Shanghai. In 1889, the

128

missionary St. John Colege performed The Ugly Histoly of Ojfficialdom. In lgûû, the

Nanyang Public School performed the new drama on curent affairs, The SLx Men of

Noble Character, Admirable Stories on Managing the Comtry , and The Boxers. In 1903,

the Yu Cai School performed plays such as The British Capture of Ye Ming-Shen. Ye

was the governor of Guangdong province in Southem Chinaiaptured by the British

during the Arrow War in December 1857, then shipped to Calcutta where he died a year

Iater- In 1906, the Kai Ming (Enlightened) Drama Society was formed by Zhu Shuang-

yun, Wang You-you, Huang Huan-shen, and Qu Bao-nian, who raised six kinds of

improvements: political improvements, military improvements (to train new soldiers),

improvements to religion (to eradicate superstition), improvements to society (to eradicate

smoking opium and gambling), improvements to the f h l y (to warn people against

arranged marriage), and improvements to education (to laugh at the old style private

school) (Tien, Zhong 49).

4. A Case Studv on the Uses of S~oken Drama: Bhck Slaves Amead to Reaven

performed bv the Spring W i o w Societv, June 1 - 3, 1907

Spoken drama, a modem imported cultural product, works better as a

tactic than a strategy. De Certeau thinks that tactics are employed by the weak who do

not have a power base. They play on foreign territory and makes use of time to create

129

opportunities for itself. Strategy is employed by the strong with their own power base.

In 1907, the Chun Liu or S p ~ g Willow Society formed by Chinese students studying

in Japan consciousIy used spoken drama to serve the cali for nationaiism and democracy.

What is noteworthy is that the earlier performances of spoken drama on locd Chinese

grounds did not have such Iarge repercussions as this first performance on foreign

grounds in Japan. According to Tien Han:

*Missionary universities in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Suzhou introduced some

Shakespeare and Molière. At the same time some folk workers in drama dso

began some precursory activities similar to spoken drama. But these did not have

too much social influence. The Spring Willow Society formed by Chinese

students studying in Japan answered the campaigns for nationalism and democracy

at the beginning of this century, and introduced European drama more

systematically . (Zhong 3 - 4)

The S p ~ g Willow Society was influential as an introducer of spoken

drama because it made full use of the traditional-modern paradigm. Spoken drama was

introduced by the society as an emblem of the modem. According to Li Xi-suo, the

earIiest spoken drama appeared among the Chinese in 1906. It was introduced by

Chinese students studying in Japan. At the end of the nineteenth century, radical

Japanese dramatists introduced spoken drama from Europe, and performed works with

230

patriotic subjects. This attracted Li Shu-tong, a student from Tientsin, China, who was

studying art in the Tokyo Academy of Art. Li was impressed by spoken drama, which

is simple and Lively, which fits reality, and which c m be easily rehearsed and readily

understood by the audience, Li and other Chinese students formed the Spring Willow

Society in Japan in 1906 to leam and rehearse spoken drama. In a pamphlet released in

1907, the Spring Willow Society States: "*It aims at studying varÏous types of Iiterature.

The main purpose is to broaden knowledge and to boost spirit. The major subject of

study is the new and up-to-date style (i.e., spoken drama), while the old style (i.e., the

traditional Chinese dramatic forms) will be a subsidiary subject" (Li Xi-suo 29).

The first performance of spoken drama by the Spring Wiilow Society took

place in early spring, 1907, staging Act III of Alexandre Dumas's La Dame aux

Camélias. The actors included the art students Seng Xiao-gu and Li Xi-shuang. Similar

to some of the earlier performances in China, the performance was part of a charity

funfair of the Chinese Youth Society in Tokyo. The appeal of the performance,

however, was its modernity, its difference from traditional Chinese dramatic forms.

After the performance, a business student cried out in wonder: ""Drama can dso be

something like this!" (Tien, Zhong 4). This student later joined the Spring Willow

Society and became an important member. He was Ouyang Yu-qian, who later became

the Head of the Chinese Central Academy of Drama. Spoken drama was welcome

because of its power to address contemporary social and poLiticaI issues. According to

131

Gossett:"La Dame a m Camélias by Alexandre Dumas . . . was popular because it

reminded the Chinese o f similar bonds of narrow matrimonial conventions in their own

past" (386). The play later became one of the favourites in 1917 when there was "a

nationalist renaissance cof the drama in major cities in the country" (Gossett 386).

The performance of La Dame aux Camélia roused the students' interest

in drama. It was soon followed by a performance of an adaptation of Harriet Beecher

Stowe's Uncle Tom's C a i n . This Chinese production is Black Slmes Appeal to Heaven

shown in Figure 8. In this performance, spoken drama was consciously used as a tactic

to address Chinese poliaical and social problems. The play was performed on June 1 -

3, 1907 in ToIqo by the Spring WiIIow Society. The script was adapted by Zeng Xiao-

gu, based on a translation by Lin Shu (Lin Qin-nan) and Wei Yi. Lin's translation,

entitIed Bluck Slaves Ap,peal ta Heaven, was published in 190 1 in classical Chinese. The

translation itself was intended to serve social and political purposes. According to

Ouyang Yu-chien, who played a part in the performance:

*After the Opium W a , there were the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 and the Allied

advance into Peking in 1900. Due to the corruption of the Qing Dynasw, the

international stahus of China dropped drastically. The country was in danger of

being divided. The Chinese were despised anywhere. At this time,

unprecedented thoughts of national independence were aroused in their hearts.

An Important Performance in Japan

Performance of Black Slaves Appeal to Heaven by the Spring Willow Society in 1907. Note the naturalistic setting.

132

A nurnber of intellectuals with high aspirations participated in the revolutionary

movements at that tirne for the sake of saving the decadent country, and for the

independence, freedom and equality of the nation. Some echoed the call while

others expressed their deep feelings in writing. From the preface of Lin Shu and

Wei Yi's translation of Black Slaves Appeal to Heaven, one can sense their anger

towards the ferocity and cruelty of irnperialism. They wmed the Chinese that

they had to be independent and strengthen thernselves. Lin and Wei even said:

Amencan maltreated Chinese workers more than the Blacks. They revealed the

fallacy of those who admired the West and thought that the Westerners would

treat their vassal States generously. They were deeply grieved by the

maltreatment of Chinese workers by foreigners, by the weakness of China, by the

poverty of the Chinese, and by the timid diplomats who dared not speak out.

Nobody recorded the maltreatment of the Chinese for propaganda. They

translated Black Slaves Appeal to Heaven to warn the Chinese. (Tien Han, Zhong

14)

In Tao Jie's paper entitled "The (Mis) Reading of UizcZe Tom's Cabin,"

she points out astutely that Lin Shu and Wei Yi's translation misses the femLnist message

of the novel:

Lin Shu and Wei Yi did not seem to notice that the novel was written by a

133

woman with strong femiaist sentiments. Neither did they understand that the

work was written as a gothic romance, traditional to women, and was addressed

to a fernate audience. . . . Although Lin Shu and Wei Yi were, like others, moved

by the pathos of the story, they probably had in mind only a male audience. ...

Although Lin Shu s h e d Mrs Stowe's view of making fiction a unique weapon

in the battle against oppression, the changes he made showed that bis were the

viewpoints of a Chinese male scholar. His concem was to rouse those of his

class to patriotic action. (291 - 2)

Moreover, Tao Jie notes Lin and Wei's deviation from the Christian message:

Lin Shu . . . was deliberate in deleting passages about Chnstianity in the original

text. . . . Mrs Stowe . . . accepted the power of Chnstianity and used it as a solution

to the sIavery issue, even though she was well aware "that true Christianity often

play(ed) into the hands of exploiters" (45). . . . To her Chinese tramlators,

however, the plot is more important and the job of appealing to the reader's

emotions should only be done with descriptions about the misery and sufferings

of the slaves. Lin Shu States in his introduction, "There is too much discussion

of Christianity in the novel. Mr Wei has done away with passages and

descriptions that have nothhg to do with the developrnent of the story so as to

make it easier for the reader to foIlow the plot." (292)

134

A similar lack of emphasis on femùiist and Christian issues c m be found in the play

performed in 1907 by the S p ~ g Wiilow Society. The novel was adapted to reflect

conternporary China's political and social concerns. According to Tao Jie:

In 1907 at a time when the anti-Qing movement was at its height, a group of

patnotic Chinese students in Japan was attracted by the novel and its political

implications. Zeng Xiaogu, a playwright, dramatized Lin Shu's rendition and the

Chunliu Drama Club performed the play on 1-3 June 1907 in Tokyo as an

expression of protest against the Qing government. It is interesting to note that

this five-act play focuses mainly on George Harris and his struggle for freedom.

The ending is quite different from the original novel. In Act V, George meets

Eliza and their son in a mountain on a snowy day; fights bravely with their

pursuers and kills his master, winning fnal fkeedom for himself and his family.

What is more, Tom is with them in their flight from the slave owners. Evidentiy,

the playwright and other Chinese students in Japan believed in fightîng for

freedom rather than placing hope in Christianity. (292-3)

1s this adaptation a reading or a rnisreading? Or is it a tactical use of

spoken drama? Puritan forms and sentimentality have certainly played an important role

in Stowe's novel, as Lewis States in her excelient study of these elements and how they

work effectively on the fxst readers: "The presence of Puritan forms and their effective

135

transfer to the audience by means of sentimentality explains how Harriet Beecher Stowe

caused social change " (xi). Discourse strategies such as domesticity , sentimentality ,

religious rhetoric and biblical influences have been much commented on, as in hwance,

Westbrook and De Prospo. But did these strategies work equally well on the Chinese

audience at the early twentieth century as they did on the nineteenth ce11tury American

readers? Perhaps not so. Different tactics have to be employed to make the play work

effectively on the Chinese audience.

Adaptations of Uizcle Tom's Cabin are not unique to China. Thomas

Gossett's excellent study of the novel in relation to American culture has pinpointed a

great number of adaptations. Gossett thinks that "As a play, it so frequently pandered

to popular taste that its antislavery theme was weakened and its black characters became

increasingly stereotyped" (367). The perceived message of the play changes with time:

Uncle Tom's Cabin had often been vulgarized and had carried a message

substantialiy different from that of the novel. After the war the process of

vulgarization was both more widespread and more thorough. Earlier audience

knew that though the black characters in the play were not always to be taken

seriously, the fact of slavery was very reaI indeed. After the war . . . what chiefly

happened was that the theme of the eviis of slavery was drowned out in the

crudely comic characterization of most of the black characters. (Gossett 387)

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Reading changes with the time and culture in which the work of literature is perceived.

Adaptations are not necessarily misreadings.

With this in mind, the 1907 performance of Black Slaves Appeal to Heaven

can be regarded in another light. It reveals a conscious effort to improve the traditional

by the modem, to adapt the story to the Chinese situation. The programme note of the

play reads:

*The affairs of performance were greatly related to civilization. Therefore, since

the beginning of our Society, we set up a speciaI department to examine new and

old drarna. Hopefully this will be a precursor to improve the art of Our country.

In spring, we staged a charity performance at the Youth Society which was

acclaimed. Later, with sponsorships fiom local and overseas, our Society takes

this opportunity to continue to perform. (Tien, Zhong 14 - 5)

Ouyang Yu-qian, who partïcipated in the performance, points out the deviations from the

novel and the reasons behind them. There are both ideological and theatrkal adaptations.

First, the play is an ideological adaptation of the West to the East.

According to Ouyang Yu-qian, Bhck Slaves Appeal to Heaven is the f i s t Chinese

adaptation of a foreign play. He writes: "*Although the play Black Slaves Appeal to

137

Heaven is adapted £iom the novel, 1 think it can be considered the first creative play in

Chinese drama. This is because before this China did not have a play like this with

severai complete acts" (Tien, Zhong 19). Tao Jie has noted the downplaying of Christian

elements and the emphasis on freedom fiom sIavery in the Spring Willow Society

performance. Ouyang Yu-qian, who played a part in the performance, sees these

elements less as a lf(mis)reading" tiian as ways to fit the foreign play into the Chinese

context. It is an adaptation, in the sense that it is a tactical use of Western ideology, in

which elements not immediately applicable to the Chinese society are downplayed, while

those that can be useful and applicable politically and socially to China are emphasized.

Ouyang Yu-qian analyses the performance in this way:

*StoweYs novel emphasizes Christian humanism, and tries hard to depict

Thomas's devotion. In the performance by the Spring Willow Society, religious

thoughts were never touched on. Another point is the original novel ends in the

freeing of the black slaves, while the performance ends in the escape of the

blacks after they have killed several slave traders. The closing scene with the

victory of the battle works on the audience effectively. (Tien, Zhong 17 - 8)

Secondly, the performance is also a theatrical adaptation. It shows a

blatant interplay of modemity and tradition. Ouyang Yu-qiads description of the

performance reveals a conscious cornparison between the modern western theatre and the

138

traditional Chinese dramatic forms: "*The play consisted of five acts. There was no

unrelated performance between the acts. The whole play was vernacuIar dialogue

without recitation or monologue. The form of pure spoken drama was used" (Tien,

Zhong 18).

Unexpected theatrical renditions of the play also created a literal sense of

the global. There were many improvisations despite the conscientious rehearsais.

Ouyang Yu-qian recails:

*There were rnany interpenetrations which seem to be without reason. 1 do not

remember their being in the script of the play. For example, in the anniversary

of the Wilson factory in the second act. . .. At that tirne, many entertainment

programmes were added: singing and dancing. . . . Also among the guests in the

audience were an Indian marquis, Japanese guests, and two or three Japanese

ladies. Since Zeng Xiao-gu and Li Xi-shuang were students from art school,

their fellow students - Indians, Japanese, Koreans -- many wanted to play a role

and appear on stage. Therefore they played whatever they liked. As a result,

there was a gala on stage, with people of different nationalities wearing their

national costume. Actually, not only were these things absent in the novel, such

things were never found in America before the emancipation of the black slaves.

But this scene was very lively, and was especially welcome by the audience. In

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particular, a guest from China sang an excerpt fiom Peking opera, causing much

uproar in the audience. (Tien, Zhong 19)

Literally, there was a global, if quite bizarre, representation on the stage.

The message is more important than being faithful to the text. For

instance, the Spring Wïllow Society's production of BZack Slaves Appeal to Heaven did

not airn at being naturalistic. The costume and sets were designed by the art students

Zeng Xiao-gu and Li Xi-shuang, and prepared by the theatre. The result is amusing, as

Ouyang Yu-qian remembers fondly:

*We did not research into whether the sets, costumes and makeup coincides with

the real life of the Americans before the Civil War. Actually , it was impossible

for us. From the illustrations in Stowe's novel, 1 note that the blacks have short

hair. At the performance, Our Thomas . . . had long hair. The fernale dancers

also had long hair, and had their faces thickly powdered. We thought that with

the male black slaves painted blacker, it did not matter if we had the femaie black

slaves powdered. Maybe at that time we aimed at making the plot and action

moving. Having the sets, costumes and makeup al1 rïght was enough. (Tien,

Z h g 21)

140

In spite of these incongniities, the performance was considered a success. Ouyang Yu-

qian thinks:

*Mat is pleasing is that the performance of the play was successful. No matter

whether it was considered ideologically or aesthetically, at that time it could be

considered successful. People cried for Thomas ... and hated the white slave

traders. These show the effect of the production. Although the two excerpts of

Peking opera at the anniversary of the factory was not so congruous, the warmth

deeply touched the people living overseas. No doubt the audience rejoiced

heartily . (Tien, Zhong 22)

The performance illustrates the success of tactics, since the performance took place at

the right time when the young inteliectuals were searching for a modem alternative to

the traditional Chinese theatre to promote patriotic messages.

A subsequent production was Hot Blood, adapted from the Japanese

translation of Sardou's La Tosca. The play fiom the West was changed to convey a

message suitable for the east. According to John Hu:

From the very beginning, the Western form of drama was used maialy as a

vehicle for ideas. . . . In La Tosca, Baron Cavaradossi muses over the termination

241

of his artistic career before being executed for his revolutionary ideas, but in Hot

Blood, the Baron's last will and testament express his conviction that dictatorship

will soon be overthrown and that a nation built on the principles of liberty and

equality will finally prevail. (15)

Again, the play became political and social.

5. The Deterioriation of Modern S~oken Drama

The interpenetration of the modern and traditional dramatic forms in China

was a two way process: the traditional theatre influenced spoken drama and vice versa.

First, the traditional theatre was enriched by the dramatic techniques from

spoken drama. Spoken drama influenced "old drama", as Tien Han thinks that it

" *affected the writing and expression of traditional Chinese dramatic forms consciously

and unconsciously" (Zhong 4). For instance, Mei La-fang used new ways to perform

some of his Peking operas, such as Deng Xia Gu which reflects modem life. In these

"new drama" or "hsin-hi" : "An actor would ask a scholarly friend to adapt an already

familiar story into a Peking Opera script, which then became more or less the

performer's special property. He would devise its production and costumes and, in

142

general no other player would perform it. In this way an old and traditional story bore

the imprint of a contemporary author and actor" (Mackerras, 1975 65). A conspicuous

cross between spoken drama and the "new drama" or "hsin-hsi" is the employment of

plot development. According to Mackerras (1975):

In a theatrical performance during the nineteenth century, it had been unusual to

see more than three or four short scenes in succession devoted to developing a

single plot, and sometimes a scene might tell a completeIy different story from

the one that preceded or followed it. This scheme was altered in the "new

dramas," which frequently consisted of many scenes devoted to one plot, and

sometimes required a day, or even severai days, for their performance. (65)

Feanires of spoken drama, such as realism, contemporary costume and social relevance

were adopted in the "new drama" of Mei Lan-fang:

For a time Mei Lan-fang had considered embarking on a radical modernization

of his art. In 1914 he had performed in a long drama called Nieh-hai po-[an

(Waves of the Sea of Sin), which dedt with the eviis of prostitution. The

costumes were contemporary, the acting was realistic, and the social message was

direct and clear. (Mackerras, 1975 66)

143

Dramatic techniques such as setting and lighting were added to traditional drama. Figure

9 shows Mei Lan-fang playing the Moon Goddess Chang O amongst clouds produced by

lighting effects. More plays like these radical modernizations were produced between

1914 and 1916 before Mei retumed to the more traditional theatre. Fu Si-nien writes

about these so calied "transitional plays" in "Aspects of the Improvement of Drama".

He thinks that Yi Lu Ma is like a problem play, asking questions on marriages manged

by parents who think only for themselves instead of for their children. Figure 10 shows

a glimpse of this play, which questions engagements which are kept for the sake of

saving face, custom, in spite of the dangers involved. Eventuaily, the play questions

what should the wife do if her nominal husband dies after some complicated events.

Within the present social customs, Fu thinks that fatal pressures are felt everywhere.

Another play, Shi Hou Ji, was performed by Mei La-fang in traditional costumes. Yet,

in the scene showing the husband browbeaten by his wife, the play is suddenly performed

in modem dress, making it more immediate to the audience.

Performance of traditional drama went beyond the classical theatre.

Zucker attended a performance of Mei Lan-fang in the "so-called First Theatre, a large

playhouse built in European style" (142). According to Ouyang Yu-qian, since the

introduction of new cirama, traditional Chinese drama were also performed on

proscenium stages in Shanghai. The scenes were separated by curtains (Tien, Zhong

5 1).

Mhhg the Traditional and the Modern

Mei Lan-fang playing the role of Chang 0, the mythical moon goddess, in a Peking Opera making use of western lighting technique.

An East-West Cultural Exchange

Mei Lan-fang in Yi Lu Ma, a problem play, asking questions on marriages arranged by parents who think only for themselves. The play Yi Lu Ma was adapted fiom a novel published in Xiao Shuo Shi Bao, a new publication dedicated to the introduction of new novels. Note the use of contemporary costume and painted scenery borrowed fiom western drama.

144

Secondly, traditional drama infiuenced spoken drama rather unexpectedly.

Spoken drama was impovenshed in an attempt to join the main Stream commercial

theatre. When spoken drama was brought back to the Chinese mainland, it began to

show sians of degeneration as it was increasingly commercialized, and the patriotic and

social messages waned. Instead of being a vehicle to counter the traditional and promote

the modem, it became a commodity for entertainment. Significantly, to draw a bigger

audience, and to make the play popular and comprehensible to more, elements of the

traditional theatre began to creep in.

The detenoration of spoken drama c m ako be illustrated with Black Slaves

Appeal to Heaven. Spoken drama was introduced to mainland China with good will.

Black Slaves Appeal to Heaven was performed in Shanghai on the eve of the Chinese

Revolution in 1911. Again there was a clear social and political message. According

to Tien Han:

*[The Chinese adaptation of Uncle Tom's Cabin] was filled with righteous

feelings against the oppression of the nation. In 1911 on the eve of the Chinese

Revolution, the Spring Willow Society member Ren Tian-zhi retunied to China

and performed this play. Not only did the play arouse strong social effects, the

form of the play was also welcomed by the masses and prornoted. At once new

theatrical companies propagandizing revolution and promoting progress sprang

up. (Tien, Zhong 4)

In this 1911 performance, spoken drama was again used as a tactic by the powerless, the

masses, against those with a power base, the Manchu Dynasty. The young intellectuals

were making use of time, the occasion of the impending Chinese RevoIution to voice

their message.

However, the modem was tempered by the traditional, as spoken drama

reached the commercial theatre. Black Slaves Appeal ru Heaven was performed in

Shanghai in 1907 by Wang Zhong-sheng's Spring Sunlight (Chun Yang) Society. The

traditiondrnodern paradigm was obvious, as Mackerras writes: "This was the first t h e

that a spoken play was acted which had been divided properly into acts, that scenery was

used or that a full-scale performance was given in a theatre" (Mackerras, 1975 118) in

China. But there were deviations from spoken drama.

First, attention was drawn to the actor rather than to the play. A

participant in the performance, Hsu Banmei, remembers :

*Although the title is Black Slaves Appeal to Heaven, al1 the slaves on stage, be

they old or young, male or female, were white-faced. This was because these

actors were rnainly fops who wanted to attract public attention. None of them

146

wanted to blacken their faces. Even Wang Zhong-sheng [who organized the

Spring Sunlight Society with Ren Tien-zhi] also played a white-skinned black

slave. This was because this was his first meeting with the audience, and he

wanted to show himself to them. If his face was blackened, who could recognize

him? (Li Xi-su0 29)

Secondly, the play was localized and Sinotized. It was transfonned from

a modem foreign product to a traditional local one. This is because the play was

performed "with pihuang music, not as a spoken drama" (Mackerras, 1990 106).

P i h m g consists of xipi or "western skin" which probably "was originally a form of

clapper opera spread to northern Hibei from Shaanxi" (Mackerras, 1990 60), and the

erhuang "developed dong the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in the provinces of

Jiangxi, Anhui and Hubei" (Mackerras, 1990 60). The main regional styles belonging

to the pihuang system include "Hubei Opera (Hanju) , Guangdong Opera (Yueju) , Jiangxi

Opera (Ganjr), and Hunan Opera (Xiangiu)", as well as "one major branch of Anhui

Opera (Hum) and of Sichuan Opera (Chuanju)" (Mackerras, 1990 62).

Thirdly, the subsequent development of spoken drama shows a desire to

accomodate to the audience unaccustomed to the modem genre. In order to give it a

power of knowledge enabling it to transform uncertainties into readable spaces, spoken

drama soon developed into the new category of wen ming xin xi or "new culture drama. "

147

This new category stood in contrast to the jiu xi or "old drama, " meaning the traditional

Chinese dramatic forms.

An accommodation to help the audience to follow the plot was the use of

between-the-acts plays (mu wai xz]. According to Ouyang Yu-qian, though new culture

drama accepts the European act divisions, at that time apart from the Spring Willow

Society, nearly all ottier troupes had action played outside the curtain between the acts.

Between-the-acts plays were ways devised to cater to the Chinese audience. During the

changing of scenes, the audience was impatient. Therefore, after the curtains, a

between-the-acts play was performed outside the curtain, elucidating the plot between the

scenes. This way was effective in promoting the new drama for it linked the plot

separated by scenes. (Tien, Zhong 51) But it was also distracthg and loosened the

structure of the play.

Ironicaiiy , the new category of wen ming xin xi or "new culture drama"

became a deterïorated form of spoken drama. According to Ouyang Yu-qian, the two

words "*'wen rning' means progressive or advanced. The correct explanation of 'wen

ming xin xi' ('new culture drarna') is advanced, new drama. At fxst, the term appeared

in the advertisements, and later became a popular term" (Tien, Z h g 49). However,

in the years between the formation of the Republic in 1911 and the May Fourth

Movement in 1919, spoken drama degenerated and became trivial. As a commercial

148

product aimed at attracting consumers, "spoken drama temporarily lost its social

relevance and became rather commercialized, more a kind of vaudeville tban a serious

fonn of literature or art. Inteliectuals tended to look down on these commercialized

productions" (Mackerras, 1990 106). It is not difficult to understand why these wen

ming xin xi were not welcome by inteliectuals. Spoken play was once weii received

immediately after the Chinese Revolution when it was often used as a propaganda

weapon against Yüan Shih-k'ai, the former Qing official who replaced Dr Sun Yat-sen

as the provisional president, and who later betrayed the Republic and sought to be

emperor of China once he was made president. Uniike those earlier performances

intended to teach the audience and arouse its social and political consciousness, the new

culture drama were intended for the momentary entertainment of the audience.

According to Hsü Tao-ching:

The dialogue is entirely improvised and adjusted to the momentary appreciation

of the audience. . . . By 1914 several professional companies were competing with

each other in Shanghai and in order to attract audiences with new plays some of

these, notably the Min-Ming Society and the Min-Hsing Society partially

improvised their stage dialogue to cover inadequate rehearsal. Within a year the

production became M e r simplified so that no script was necessary: the plot

was explained to the actors who, following the table of exits and entrances posted

in the green room, improvised the entire dialogue and stage business. The

149

dialogue soon became rude and bard, fit only for the lowest of tastes and stock

situations were repeated in every play. (14)

The reliance on improvisations means the use of mu biao xi or programme

note play, a performance basing on a programme note instead of a script. According to

Ouyang Yu-qian:

*Mu biao xi means performing a play basing on a programme note without any

scripts. The playwright did not produce a complete text. Instead, basing on

certain legends, notes or novels, he arranged the story into certain scenes, and

distributed certain roles in each scene according to the story. Sometimes, the

order of the scenes were given, and sometimes not. Sometimes essential lines

advancing the plot were written, and sometimes even these were not given. In

the rehearsals, the roles were distributed among the actors. When the actors were

gathered, the playwright and the director taked about the plot and the order of

scenes, and their duties were over. (Tien, Zhong 89)

Mu biao xi worked in Peking opera, but failed in new drama. In Peking opera, some

scripts were kept secret. The scripts for a particular role were given to the actor in the

rehearsal, and were returned after the performance. This system worked in Peking opera

because most actors were illiterate, and relied on others to read the scripts to hem, so

150

that they could learn by rote. Yet, in the new drama, programme note play made the

performance disorganized. Ouyang Yu-qian thinks that programme note play cannot be

applied to new drama, because "*cirama needs organization -- it needs a central theme,

continuous action and appropriate dialogue" (Tien, Zhong 92). In programme note play,

the dialogue consisted of the actors' own words made according to their own

assumptions. Moreover, " *improvised dialogue could easily distort the central theme of

the play, destroy the unity of the play, and cause incongniities in the characters" (Tien,

Zhong 93). Although the actor's lines were prepared, incongruities were caused by not

howing what other actors wouId Say. Sometimes the play got out of control because of

sudden changes in an actor's lines. Actors became stereotyped when they got used to

a particular type of role. More important, individual actors could not replace the

playwright and have an overview of the intentions of the play. The actors competed with

each other to attract attention. Eventually, the play became disorganized without a

central idea.

Another complication was caused by the lack of actors knowing how to

perform spoken drama. According to Ouyang Yu-qian, apart fiom the S p ~ g Willow

Society, in Shanghai, at first:

*Other troupes were unfamiliar with and unused to the style of spoken drama.

They followed their experience in staging school drama, hung a c m i n before the

151

stage, and perforrned. At that time they could only watch Peking opera and

Kunqu; the scripts read by them were mostly those meant to be sung, sold in the

streets. In performance, they could not help absorbing traditional acting skills

from the old stage, or at least being influenced by it. (Tien Zhong 51)

To take a more concrete example, Zucker attended one of the

performances of new culture drama in Peking in one of the "new " theatres. The "new"

theatres are different from the traditional Chinese theatres. There were two large

theatres built in Occidental style with receding stages. These theatres were different

from the traditionai Chinese theatre, in which the spectators sat either "at a table or on

a bench which had before it a board to hold the teapot and the watemelon seeds that

arrive the minute you have taken your seat" (Zucker 130)- In the classical Chinese

theatre, the spectators could drink tea and smoke pewter water pipes, while the waiters

walked around selling tobzcco, candy, fiuits, bringing teapots, steaming dishes of food,

and throwing bundles of towels for people to wipe their hands and faces. The audience

paid as much attention to the play as the westerners do "to the music in a restaurant"

(Zucker 13 1). For example, in an old-style Chinese theatre in southem Peking , the Tung

Lo Yuan, "the seats run at right angle to the stage, dong tables showing that people

come to hear the music rather than to observe the action on the stage" (Zucker 140).

The two large Occidental-sqle theatres charged "eighty cents for a fnst class seat, and

nine dollars for a box seating eight persons," whereas the average traditional theatre

152

asked only for "forty cents for a seat at a cornfortable table, or a doila. and a half for

a box," and the "poorer classes can enjoy theatrical performances for five coppers by

going to the mat-shed theatre" (Zucker 139).

Despite these differences between the classical Chinese theatre and the

"new" playhouse, the performance attended by Zucker at the "New World, " a four-storey

concrete amusement palace, was "western" and "modem" only relatively. Zucker

recalls :

[The play] was being performed by actors dressed in European style, or perhaps

better, the style of the mail-order-house type of clothing. The play was in spoken

Chinese, and no music accompanied the action. O d y in the intemissions

between the rather short scenes the band from the Boys' hdustrial School, sitting

in a corner, in the rear of the hall, played "John Brown's Body" and other

appropriate dirges. (144)

This performance of "new" drarna displayed things which "seemed very Western to the

audience" (144). It featured a seductive woman l u ~ g men into her house to have them

robbed by her accomplices. The woman "wore a corset" and the men kissed her hand

and "even put their arms about her" (144). Yet, this "woman" was actuaily played by

a man who spoke in a high falsetto. According to Zucker:

153

Actresses were forbidden on Chinese stages during the days of the Manchu

Dynasty, but since 1912 their number has increased rapidly so that they are

appearing now on eleven stages in Peking. Only in the foreign concessions of

such treaty ports as Tientsin and Shanghai do men and women appear together on

the stage, however, in Peking, Chinese prudery still forbids this. (137)

To Zucker, these were blatant introductions of Western elements: "By way of giving a

good imitation of the manners of Europeans the actors, when speaking to the lady,

consistently took off their coats, held them in their arms, and displayed brand new

suspenders! " (145). Rememberïng that the Chinese stage lacks scenery alrnost altogether,

the scenery of this performance "was changed with every act and showed crude

imitations of our painted interiors or Street scene with lamp posts" (145). It has to be

borne in mind that the notions of the modern and the traditional are relative. To a

westerner Iike Zucker, the performance is a "heart-breaking imitation of our worst

melodramas" (145). To the Chinese, however, this is a show making use of modem

Western elements comrnerciaiiy to attract audience. Spoken drama was employed as a

commercial strategy .

Therefore, spoken drama, as a foreign product introduced into China,

became simcant and effective oniy when it was used by the dispossessed: the students

studying in Japan, or the revolutionaries on the eve of the Chinese Revolution. The

154

performances aroused sociai and political consciousness~ Yet, once spoken drama was

brought back to China, it degenerated into the commercialized new culture drama aimed

at attracting audience. The interplay between the modern and the traditionai is dynamic

and ever-changing. On one hand, the modem can be an eye-widening alternative to the

traditional, or work with the traditional to improve the traditionai. On the other hand,

the tempering of the modem by the traditional elements airning at producing a good box

office may produce adverse results .

The next chapter will e x d e the process of cultural exchange more

closely , showing how the second introduction of foreign play s into China, including those

by Shaw, revitalized the dramatic scene, and brought about new uses of spoken drama.

This re-introduction of foreign plays aiso went beyond drama, for the interest in these

plays was ultimately part of an attempt to revamp and strengthen China's culture, and

to work out the identity of New China.

Chao, Chia-pi , ed. Chung-kuo hsin-wen-hsueh-ta-hri. (A Comprehemive Anrhology of

Modem Chinese Literumre: 191 7-2 73. 10 vols. Shanghai: Shanghai Liang-yu t 'u-


De Certeau, Michel. The Practices of Everyday Life. Trans. Steven F. Rendall.

Berkeley: U of California P, 1984.

Gossett, Thomas F . Uncle Tom's Cabin und American Culture. Dailas: Southern

Methodist UP, 1985.

Hsii, Immanuel C. Y. The Rise of Modern China. Hong Kong: Oxford UP, 1975.

Hsü, Tao-ching. The Chinese Conception of the Theatre. Seattie: University of

Washington P, 1985.

Hu, John Y.H. Ts'ao Yü. New York: Twayne, 1972.

Lewis, Gladys Sherman. Message, Messenger, and Response . Lanham: University Press

Li, Xi-xuo. "Wu Kuo Zui Zao De Hua Ju." ("The Earliest Spoken Drama in Our

Country. ") Bai Ke Zhi Shi 7 (1982): 28 - 9.

Lowance, Ir., Mason L., Ellen E. Westbrook and R. C. De Prospo, eds. The Stowe

Debate: Rhetorical Strategies in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Amherst: U of

Massachusetts P, 1994.

Mackerras, Colin. The Chinese 2;heatre in Modem Times: Front I840 to the Present

Day. London: Thames and Hudson, 1975.

-- . Chinese Drama: A Historical Survey. Beijing: New World P, 1990.

Tao, Jie. "The (Mis) Reading of Uncle Tom 's Cabin. " Broadway: Wild Peony Pty Ltd,

1997. 290 - 6 .

Tien, Han, Ouyang Yu-qian, et. al., ed. Zhong Quo Hua Ju Yun Dong Wu Shi Nian Shi

Liao Ji . Beijing: Zhong Guo Xi Ju Chu Ban She, 1958.

Tucker , Vincent, ed. Cultural Perspectives on Datelopment. London: Frank Cass ,

1997.

Zucker, A.E. The Chinese Theaîre. Boston: Littie, Brown and Company, 1925,

In this chapter and the next one, 1 shall look at the interesting phenornenon

of how a play, while it may be well received by the readers in publications, may not be

welcome when performed in the theatre. The theatre has agency, for it is a cultural

space in which different cultures meet. Culture goes beyond the tangible ideas which can

be conceived in the published version of the play, and reaches the intangible everyday

life which cornes out in the dramatizations of the ideas, and these dramatizations are the

foci of interest in the theatre. The success of the performance of the play depends more

on how these dramatizations are received by the audience, on the rendition of the ideas,

rather than on the ideas thernselves.

Central to Chapters Four and Five is the distinction between

Westernization as an end in itself in a process of copying and imitation, and

Westemization as a means towards the strengthening of the host culture under a wish for

globalization. 1 would Iike to propose that while Shaw's plays were introduced amidst

clamours for Westernkation, in perspective, the plays tumed out to be means working

towards the creation of the identity of an independent New China in the global arena.

1. Globalization and Westernization

Globalization is dserent fiom Westernization though it is often associated

with Westernization. Globaiization implies the world is becoming more uniforin and

standardized. It becomes so because of technological, commercial, cultural or other

interchanges between different parts of the world, instead of blindly copying the west.

Globalization allows difference and variety. Jan Nederveen Pieterse thinks that if

globalization is emanating from Europe and the west, "in effect it is a theory of

Westernization by another name, which replicates ail the problems associated with

Eurocentrism, a narrow window on the world, histoncally and culturally- With this

agenda it should be called Westernization and not globalization" (Featherstone, Lash and

Robertson 47).

1 would like to look at Westernization as cultural reproduction, and show

that Shaw's passage to China started as an attempt at Westernization and ended up in

gIobalization.

2. Cultural Re~roduction and Westernization

"Cultural reproduction" is an idea "first developed by Bourdien (1973)

260

who sees the function of the education system as being to reproduce the culture of the

dominant classes, thus helping to ensure their continued dominance" (Jenks Preface).

As Chris Jenks points out, the term itself is ambivalent, for the metaphor "reproduction"

may refer either to "copy or imitation," indicating stasis, or to "regeneration or

synthesis, " indicating change and social development.

Westernization can be considered in the Iight of cultural reproduction in

two complementary ways. First, as a process to imitate the west, Westernization is

cultural reproduction taking place between different cultures. This process produces

sameness. Secondly, Westernization can also be an interim process leading toward

globalization . This is cultural reproduction in the sense that something is developedfrom

what cornes from the west. This produces variety. The passage of Shaw to China shows

that Westernization is a means toward globalization. It shows both kinds of cultural

reproduction: imitation and development.

3. Cultural Re~roduction and Drama

Drama is a kind of cultural reproduction. T. S. Dorsch writes: "the word

'drama' means literally 'a thing done' and is derived from the verb 6pâv (drdn 'to

do') "(34). In The Poetics, Aristotle regards the dramatic as "imitation" "representing

161

men in action" (Dorsch 34). Drama involves a process of reproduction. What is being

reproduced in the actions in drama? Jenks thinks that "action inevitably relates back to

the original, but perhaps unspoken, social structure for its coherence and intelligibility"

(3). No matter how iconocIastic a playwright claims to be, he is part of his culture, and

his iconoclasm is created by a manipulation of cultural cues. These cues are meaningful

to the audience only if the latter shares or knows the culture, as "the concept of culture

implies a relationship with the accumulated shared symbols representative of and

significant within a particular cornmunity - a context-dependent semiotic system.

Culture is the way of life and the manner of living of a people " (Jenks 5) .

Hence, to what extent a play is effective to an audience depends on how

far the latter c m recognize the "likenessl' and decipher the play to get its message. This

recognition of " likeness" is culture-specifk, and accounts for why some parts of the play

c m make the passage abroad but not other. Taking about the reception of foreign plays

in China in the early twentieth century , Hu Xing-Liang wntes : " ' *Even though translations

and adaptations had been chosen carefully, they never proved completely congenial to

Chinese audiences. . . . Generally speaking, the social and cultural gaps between China

and other countries at that tirne were so great that foreign plays had little chance of

becomiog popular" (18 - 9).

Translation mine. Subsequent translations by me wiU be indicated by asterisks.

162

The objects of cultural reproduction may range from the stmctured

ideological to the amorphous everyday life. According to Walsh, who thinks that

ideology is only one source of cultural reproduction:

Marxism has assigned a central role to ideas and foms of consciousness in the

formation, iegitimation and preservation of the institutions of society. . . . Within

society a dominant ideology emerges as a hegemonic culture which incorporates

and institutionalizes the interests of the dominant classes and serves as a social

cernent which binds the whole social order into a particular and prevalent pattern.

(Jerks 228)

At the other end is the amorphous everyday life, as Jenks expresses: "The idea of culaual

reproduction makes reference to the emergent quality of experience of everyday life" (1).

In this chapter, using the Chinese reception of Shaw's plays in the early

twentieth century as an example, 1 would like to show that cuitural reproduction of ideas

takes place quite readily. From a concem with Westeniization in the first sense of

cultural reproduction, that is, copy and imitation, the young intellectuals proceeded to

globaiization, which is more akin to the second sense of cultural reproduction, that is,

development .

163

In the next chapter, 1 shall concentrate on the cultural reproduction of

amorphous everyday Iife in the theatre, and show that these aspects may not be so easily

reproduced. Thus the performance of the play may not be so readily accepted by a

foreign audience, for they may not be able to decode the cultural signs. There is a need

to adapt the play to the foreign culture, and these adaptations result in a transformation

of the Chinese dramatic scene with new style of plays being wntten and performed.

4. The Introduction of Shaw into China

Shaw and his plays were introduced at an inauspicious time. In the

theatrical scene, there was an ebb in spoken drama. At the same time, there was a desire

among young Chinese intellectuals to fmd a way to build and defme New China.

There was a reaction against the first wave of spoken drama, which had

degenerated into the new culture drama by 1918. The introduction of Shaw and his plays

into China was the second Ume western plays were brought onto the modem Chinese

stage, the fkst time being the introduction of spoken drama already covered in Chapter

Three. This second introduction of spoken drama is in part a reaction against the first

introduction. According to Ouyang Yu-qian, drama was stagnant and decadent in 1918.

The Spring Willow Society was dissolved in 1915. Ouyang writes:

164

*Mer the Chinese Revolution of 1911, there was an ebb in politics, and the

situation was very confising. There was neither direction for further

development of spoken drama, nor any correct and strong leadership. The quality

of the actors varied. The theatres were in the hands of rogues and profit-making

businessmen. The performances became crude and slipshod, even decadent and

low. Therefore even those with aspirations could fmd no way out. (Tien, Zhong

95 - 6)

The second wave of western drama invigorated the ciramatic scene enervated by new

culture drama.

W e the first introduction of spoken drama at the tum of the century

focusseci mainly on European romanticism indirectly learned fiom Japan, such as plays

by Victor Marie Hugo (1 802-1 885), Victorien Sardou (183 1-1908) and Eugène Scribe

(1791-1861) (Tien, Zhong lm), the second introduction of Western drama during the

Inteiiectual Revolution (1917-1923) was more comprehensive, covering a range of

playwrights from Ibsen and Shaw to Wilde, Turgenev and Maeterlinck.

At the time when Shaw was introduced into China, the young Chinese

inteilectuals were keen to fmd a way to defme the identity of New C h i ~ in the global

context. The Inteilectuai Revolution of China took place between 1917 and 1923, nsing

165

to a high point in the gigantic student demonstration in Beijing on May 4, 1919, against

the verdict of the Versailles Peace Conference, which among other things recognized

Japan's nghts in Shantung, the birthplace of Confucius and Mencius. In this Revolution,

there was both admiration and disappointment towards the west. On one hand, there was

a desire to leam from the west. On the other hand, the verdict of the Versailles Peace

Conference on Shantung caused "a deep disappointment in the West" (Hsü 605). The

Chinese delegation to the Versailles Conference was seeking the recovery of Shantung

and the complete abolition of unequal treaties, but found the Allies bound by secret

treaties to support the Japanese position. President Wilson "was persuaded by the Allied

representatives as weli by his own advisers that it was important to fust establish the

League of Nations with Japan in it, and to secure justice for China later" (Hsü 607).

At fïirst sight, drama in the Intellectual Revolution seemed to undergo a

cal1 for total Westernization. For instance, "ChYien Hsüan-t'mg advocated that 'if China

were to have 'real' drama, it must naturally be Westernized drama, not the drama of the

school of painted faces." (Luk 2). Gilbert Fong writes: "As the key concepts of reality

and social concem were found to be lacking in classical drama, the logical choice for

the foreign-educated writers was to look for guidance and inspiration from the West"

(Luk 2). He continues:"The assimilation of literature with ideology and the super-

imposition of the Western worldview onto the Chinese scene were typical of the May

Fourth mentality " (Luk 4).

166

But in perspective, the situation is more complicated. Westernization is

a means toward globalization. The Intellectual Revolution was headed by young

inteilectuals either trained in the west, or innuenced by the west. "They caiied for a

critical re-evaluation of China's cultural heritage in the light of modem Western

standards, a willingness to part with those elements that had made China weak, and a

determination to accept Western science, democracy and culture as the foundation of a

new order" (Hsü 595). This is not a mere drive at westernization and modernization,

or a mere rejection of the traditional. Instead, it is an attempt to work out the identity

of New China through reference to the west. The Chinese intellectuals were driving less

at total Westernization, than at achieving globalization through Westernization. They

were mapping China within the global context, and attempting to strengthen China's

position in that context. The introduction of Shaw and his works was one of the ways

used by the young Chinese intellectuals to achieve these ends. 1 would like to suggest

that iastead of defining China through the west, these inteiïectuals were in effect trying

to put China and the West in a global context. They were constructing the West in their

attempt to construct a vision of New China. This c m be seen in their treatment of Shaw

and his works, which were transfonned and Sinotized.

5. Shaw htroduced Throueh Publications

167

Whiie westem drama was introduced mainly through performances at the

turn of the twentieth century, it was primarily introduced through publications in the

Intellectual Revolution. These publications were jounials such as Xin Chao or New Ede,

Qing Nian Za W i or Yuuth Magazine founded by Chyen Tu-hsiu in 1915 in Shanghai and

later renamed Xin Qing Nien, N i Yuuth or La Jeunesse; and Mei Zhou Ping Lun or

Weekby Critic.

The &st re-introduction of westem drama in the Intellectual Revolution

took place in Volume 1, Issue 2 of the Qing Nian Za Zhi (Ybuth Magazine) in Au-

1915. Under the title "Love Comedy, " an English-Chhese version of Oscar Wilde's

The Meal Husband was published. On November 15, 1915, Chen Tu-hsiu in his article

" Modern European Literature " regarded Wilde, Ibsen, Turgenev and Maeterlinck as "the

four modem representative writers. " Ibsen was introduced after June, 191 8.

Shaw was htroduced into China as a disciple of Ibsen. According to

Hsiao Ch'ien, "of all the alleged 'disciples' of Ibsen, Bernard Shaw is the best known

in China" (19). A translation of Mrs Warren 's Profession b y Pun Jia-sheng appeared in

October 1919 in Volume 2 Issue 2 of Xin Chao or New Tide. Widowers' Houses, also

translated by Pun Jia-sheng, was published in Volume 2 Issue 4 of the same journal in

May 1920. Two excerpts of The Quintessence of Ibsenism were aanslated by Fu Dong-

hua. The f is t one, entitled "Wen Xue Di Xin Jing Shen" ("The New Spirit of

168

Literatureff , cornes fiom " What is the New Element in the Norwegian School?" . It was

published in Volume 4, Issue 17 of Wen Xue Zhou Bao (Literature Weekly) . The second

article, entitled "Li Xiang Zhu Yi De Gen Yuan" ("The Source of Idealism") was

published in Volume 4, Issue 24 of the same journal, and is an excerpt fiom "Ideals and

Idealists" of The Quintessence of Ibsenism, Al1 these translations were unauthorized.

Drama was ody one of the emphases of these joumds. For example, in

the Nav Tide in which the Chinese translation of Shaw's plays were f i s t published, the

articles published include philosophical ones such as "On the Relations between

Philosophy and Science and Religion" (1.1.19 19) , literary criticisms such as "The Novel

in China Today" (1.1.1919), politicai essays such as "On Chinese Nationalism"

(1.2.1919) or "On the Spirit of Modem Democracy" (3. IWO), social criticisms such as

"On the Traditional Family " (1 -2.19 19) or "The Character of Women" (1.2.19 19) , essays

on psychology such as "The latest trends of Psychology" (9. 1920), articles on religion,

essays promoting the vernacular such as "How to wnte in the Vernacular" (1 -2- lglg),

short stories written in the vemacular, book and article reviews, new style poems (as

opposed to those in classical style), and translations of foreign novels, short stones,

literary criticism and plays. For instance, published after the two excerpts of The

Quintessence of lbsenim respectively are the new style poem "Chiu Feng Ge" ("Song

to the Aunimn Wind") by Wang Jing-zhi, and a transIation on "The Legend of

Langobaro," coming from "Heldenbuch" or "Book of Heroes" edited by Kaspar von der

169

Rhon in the faeenth cenniry. The first Chinese translation of Mrs Warren's Profession

is followed by Yu Ping-bo's "Various Social Views on New Poetry." The fxst

translation of Widowers ' Houses was preceded by the translation of a Russian short story.

The fust trtranslator of Mrs Warren's Profession and Widowers' Houses also translated

other works, such as the short story "In the Firelight" written by a female student from

the University of Wisconsin, or Ibsen's Ghosts.

These journais were introducing new style literature, including drama,

novels, poems, literary cnticism, and cnticizing classical Chinese literature. If there

were cornparisons between Chinese and Western fiction, they were using these as means

to promote new style Iiterature and undermine traditional Chinese works. These new

publications were not neutral literary-oriented journals, but were manipulating culture for

social and political ends. The young Chinese inteliectuals were driving at thought

reform. The journals were intended to be enguies for the cultural reproduction of ideas,

means through which the Chinese intellectuals strove to work out and construct the

identity of modem China and her place in the 'newly discovered' world. According to

Gilbert Fong, as early as in 1904, Chen Tu-hsiu has aiready "equated the reform of

society with the reform of drama" (Luk 1). The h s of the XNi Qing Nian or New

Youth magazine was professed by Chen Tu-hsiu on December 1, 1919. Among the aims

is a desire to create a new era and a new society:

170

*We want society to evolve. On one hand, we decide to abolish traditional old

ideals. On the other hand, based on a comprehensive idea of the previous and

the contemporary wise philosophers and our own ideas, we shall create political,

moral and economic new ideals, establish the spint of the new age, and

accomodate the needs of the new society. (Xin Qing Man (December 1919))

Besides the desire to define the modem and to abolish the traditional, the magazine also

strove to establish a global consciousness. Chen States: W e believe that human morality

should advance beyond instinctive aggression and possessiveness. Therefore, there is a

need to express friendship and helpfulness toward al1 nations of the world. " There is an

earnest dedication to the modem as against the traditional. Chen Tu-hsiu wrote on

January 15, 1919 in the New Youth:

*The Nau Youth supports Mr Democracy and Mr Science. . . . To support Mr

Democracy, we have to oppose Confucianisrn, etiquette, chastity, old moraiity

and politics. In order to support Mr Science, we have to oppose old arts and

religion. In order to support both Mr Democracy and Mr Science, we have to

oppose Our nation's cultural hentage and traditional literature. (Xin Qing Nian

(Jmuary 1919))

The Chinese translations of both Mrs Warren 's Profession and Widowers '

L 71

Houses were published in Xin Chao or Nav Tide. This was a journal consciously aimed

at globalization. Organized by the students of the Beijing UniversiS. in 1918, it was

governed by three critena: "a cntical spint, scientific thinking, and a reformed rhetoric"

@sü 604). In a statement made at the inaugural issue of the magazine, the editorial

board explains the meaning of the title, which shows a clear wish for globalization:

*The mode of Our university cannot be different from that in the general society.

Those educated in the university suit today's society. Today, Iuckily we are

slowly joining the Stream of the world, and hopefully this will lead the future

Chinese society. Based on this spirit, according to this way, in ten years' tirne,

today's university will be the source of tomorrow's new academic studies. The

university's trends of thoughts may prevail in China and have unlirmted effects.

(Xing Qing N'an 1)

More importantly, the primary airn of the magazine is to make use of

western culture to enable China to take part in globalization. The editorial board

continues in the inaugural proclamation:

*The business of publication nowadays is to arouse our countrymen's

consciousness of Our nation's academic research. What is the trend of

contemporary thought? What is the position of China in this trend of thought?

172

Our countrymen do not know, for they have overestirnated their own abilities to

a ridiculous extent. They even Say that China's academic research can be

independent from the world's trend. Academic research is without national

distinctions, and does not change its nature according to geography , To position

China outside the world's trend of thought is nearly like shutting oneself away

from the human wor1d. They are not dissatisfied with the present, and therefore

they will not strive for the future. . . . The reason is that they do not know the

beauty and grandeur of western culture, and the poverty of China's present

academic research. (Xin Qing Nian 1)

The editorial board of the Nao Tide proposes four ideas which clearly expresses a

concem with globalkation:

*We think that our countryrnen have to

categories of the present world culture?

know four things.

Secondly, what is

First, what are

the direction of

the

the

modern trends of thought? Thirdly, what is the distance between China's present

condition and the modem trends of thought? Fourthly, which kind of arts c m be

assimilated into the Chinese Stream of thought? Bearing these four things in mind

will enable us to pay attention to Chha's position of academic research, so that

the "unique " China c m pIay a part in the world's trend of culture. This is the

primary responsibility of Our journal.

173

Secondly, the New Tide also aims at arousing a sense of individuality. The

editorial board writes:"*Certain bad traditions, certain patterns of life which are not

sagacious, conditioned behaviours, destroy the heart and mind. " They want to elicit self-

consciousness to counter these.

A third aim is to arouse interest in academic research. The editorial board

stresses the importance of independent thinking. Drawing examples from the independent

scholars in the Chinese Sung and Ming Dynasties, and the Western Renaissance and

Reformation, the editors show the scholars' struggle against the traditionai social and

political forces around them. In the issue published on September 5, 1919, one of the

founders of the journal, Fu Sze-nien, reveals that they intend the English title of the

joumal to be The Renaissance.

The fourth a h is to enable young students to develop "*a personality that

will mumph over society," a "personality that wili not be destroyed by the masses."

Mrs Warren 's Profession and Widowers ' Houses were introduced in the

light of these four aims of Xin Chao or New Tide.

6. China's Shaw

1 74

The cultural reproduction of ideas is much easier than the cultural

reproduction of everyday life. The Chinese were more attracted to Shaw's ideas than to

his art. Professor Wen 1-to writes: "Modem drarna came to China by accident. The fust

playwright happened to be Ibsen, and Ibsen happened to use drama as a medium for

preaching his social ideas. We have imagined ever since that the idea is the foremost

element of drama. When Wilde, Shaw, Hoffmann and Galsworthy were introduced to

us their ideas always came before their art" (Hsiao 19).

Elisabeth Eide, in her excellent study of the reception of Ibsen in China,

wr-ites: "For both Shaw and Ibsen it was 'the world recreated by the reader' that was of

interest in China" (147). Writing on the Chinese reception of Ibsen, Eide discovers:

The reception of Ibsen conformed to traditionaI Chinese views of literature

serving as guides for social behavior. It is evident that in the dialectic between

the Chinese critics' own background and the new literawe introduced, the

assumptions prevalent were emphasized in the new literature. The Chinese did

not read Ibsenism in order to fmd aesthetic elements that could be linked to their

own aesthetic concepts. Their interpretation of Ibsen was determined by having

met bim through ideological ideas of Ibsenism. (147)

Social concerns remain paramount in the Chinese reception of both Ibsen and Shaw.

Hsiao Ch'ien m e s :

To be fair, the primary motive of the entire literary movement was social reform.

... In the beginning of the Republican era, the young Chinese generation, of

whom the writers were the most articulate, was like an adolescent. The sudden

realization of the vastness of the outside world dazzled him, but the senseIess civil

wars and wretched conditions at home made him despair. He was torrnented by

both past and present. (20)

Both Shaw and Ibsen were incorporated into the second element of the

paradigms ChineseIWestern, traditionalhodern, oldhew, used as a tactic to get rid of

the old traditional China and build a new modem country. More specifically, Shaw was

used in general as part of the debate to get rid of old drama in favour of new drama.

The Chinese found Shaw congenial to the spirit of the age, and he was fitted into this

debate between old and new drama in severai ways.

Shaw was part of the young Chinese intellectuals' rhetoric to advocate

westernization and foreign influence. Dr Hu Shih writes in "The Evolution of Literature

and the Improvement of Drarna" (1918):

*British drama in the Elizabethan period was very weil-developed with works by

176

Shakespeare and Ben Jonson. Later, the English worshipped Shakespeare too

much. Bis works overshadowed everything. Thus, in spite of the developments

in English poetry and novels, actually there were no brilliant ciramatic works. It

was not until the recent thirty years, under the influence of new drarna in the

European continent that there were famous works by playwrights such as Bernard

Shaw and John Galsworthy. (Chao, 1 407)

Hu thinks that just as Shaw was infiuenced by the Norwegian Ibsen and invigorated

British Drama, the Chinese should l e m from the West and initiate reform. S i ~ i c a n t l y ,

just as Mrs Warren's Profession was translated and published in Volume 2 Issue 1 of the

Nëw Tide in October 1919, at about the same t h e , there was a special issue on the

refonn of Chinese d r m a in the New Youth. Hu Shih writes in this issue: "*Sometimes

when a kind of literature evolves to a certain position, it wili become staùc, until it

cornes into contact with another kind of literature. With comparison, the fnst kind of

literature wiil be inadvertently influenced, or consciously absorbs the advantages of the

other, before it makes further progress" (Chao, 1 407). Ouyang Yu-qian writes in the

sarne issue of the N' Youth in "My view of Improving Drama": "*Dramatic literature

is never found in China. Therefore it has to be created fundamentally. To achieve this,

more foreign plays have to be translated, so as to be irnitated. The plays can be easily

understood and become effective" (Chao, 1 413).

177

Hu Shih stresses the importance of acquiring a global perspective in

drama: " *Only research into the dramatic literature of the world c m enable us to cultivate

a sense of economy in literature" (Chao 1, 41 1).

Shaw also has the merits advocated by the young Chinese intellectuals to

reform old drama. In the debate in the special issue of the New Y& between advocates

of the old drama and new drarna, Zhang Hou-zai supports old drama. Writing in "My

views on the Old Drama in China", published in Volume 5 Issue 4 of the Nav Youth in

1918, Zhang defends old drama and praises its reliance on false impressions and

abstractions, its style, and its ability to convey emotions through music and sirgag. He

concludes that the persistence of old drama is culturally justified, saying: "*The Chinese

old drama is a product of China's history and society, and a crystaliization of Chinese

literature and art. It can be preserved completely. The radicals in society wanting to

improve it may not be successful, unless pure new drama is advocated wholeheartedly

to counter old drama. But purely new drama is not developed now. The present social

conditions may not be able to damage or destroy the spirit of old drarna" (Chao, II 418).

Shaw was an apt exarnple used to counter Zhang's advocacy of old drama.

For instance, the playwright was used to justify the social use of the theatre. The

People's Drarnatic Troupe begins its declaration by drawing on Shaw's authority:

1 78

*Shaw says that the stage is a place to disseminate doctrine, Aithough this saying

is not absolutely true, at least we can Say that the time for watching plays as

pastime is now over. The theatre has an important place in modem society. it

is a wheel driving social advancement, and an X-ray camera searching for the

roots of society's disease. In addition, it is a righteous and unselfish rnirror.

(Chao, X 136)

Likewise, Fu Si-nien in "Aspects of the Improvement of Drama, " published in the New

Youth in 1918, writes:"*The irnprovement of drama should be regarded as a social

problem. . . . There should be drama creating new society, and the drama created by old

society should not be kept" (Chao, 1 392). Fu's views are important for he is a key

member of the editorïal board of New Tide publishing Shaw's plays. He was "a historian

who later became the director of the Academia Sinica's Historïcal and PhiIological

Research Institute " (Eide 41).

The social use of the theatre was something manipulated by the young

Chinese intellectuais to attack the traditional Chinese drama, which they thought did not

have a social element. Zhou Zuo-ren writes in "On the Abolition of the Chulese Old

Drama," published in Volume 5, Issue 5 of the Nav Youth in 1918: "*The Chinese old

drama does not deserve to exist, " because it is "barbaric" and affects the people

adversely with elernents of pornography, murder, monarchy and superstition. Chen

179

Zhen-duo begins his article "The Beginning of the Brightness Campaign", published in

July 1921 in Xi Ju (Drama) Volume 1, Issue 3, saying : " *The Chinese drama does not

deserve to exist in modem drama ideologically and aesthetically" (Chao, II 422).

Ideologicaily, Chinese drama advocates ideas such as monarchism, romanticism,

feudalism, which are far away from modem thinking, and "*against the spirit of the age"

(Chao, 11 423).

Modem drama was equated to modern life. Fu Si-nien, one of the

founders of the Nav Tide in which the translations of Shaw's plays were published,

writes in "Aspects of the Improvement of Drama," published in Nav Y w h in

1918: " T h e Chinese sense of drarna is fundamentally contradictory to modern life. The

Chinese society liable to influence by the Chinese drama is also contradictory to modem

life" (Chao, 1389).

Shaw made an impression in China because of his advocacy of the drama

of thought. Old drama was attacked as unable to provoke thoughts. Hu Shih writes in

"The Evolution of Literature and the Improvement of Drama" : " *Chinese literature Iacks

a sense of the tragic," for the plays either provide a happy ending, or other playwrights

replace tragic endings with happy reunions. On the contrary, Hu draws attention to the

tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. Tragic literature wiil provoke the

readers to deep thinking: "*With this sense of the tragic, literature that stimulates deep

180

thoughts and has deep meaning will be produced, moving the readers strongly and

provoking thoughts. This sense of the tragic will be a good cure for China's lying and

shallow literature" (Chao, I 409).

Shaw was welcome also as an iconoclast. Hu Shih's infiuential

essay, "Ibsenism," was inspired by Shaw's The Quintessence ~Jlbsenism. Eide thinks:

He called his essay "Ibsenism" presumably taking the title from G. B. Shaw's

book The Quintessence of Ibsenism. Since Ibsen's ideas becarne part of Hu Shi's

liberal philosophy, the term 'Ibsenism' came to symbolize a cluster of iconoclastic

political ideas comprising female emancipation, liberation of the individual and

a cnticat attitude towards the existing order. (1 1)

Hu himself is a Chinese iconoclast. He invented the farnous t e m s "Confucius and Som

Incorporated. " Believing in agnosticism and pragmatism, H u advocates liberalism,

individualism, science and democracy. Hu denounces Confucjanism as a rigid concept

which rules out change. He launched a dedicated campaign against the classical style of

writing, ca lhg it a dead language, and proposed to write in the vernacular or plain

language (Pai-hua) .

Shaw was also hailed as a naturalist and a reaiist, Hu Shih writes in "The

181

Evolution of Literature and the Irnprovement of Drarna" attacking Chinese drama as

excessive. In terms of tirne, a full Chinese play may require forty to fi@ hours to

perform. Thus, often only excerpts were performed, losing the sense of the whole play.

Next are the extreme stylizations in props and actions. Hu writes:

*On the Chinese stage, jumping over a table means jumping over a wall; standing

on a table means ascending a Ml; four soldiers stand for a thousand; waiking

around the stage twice means waking several tens of miles; a few somersaults

and gestures mean a huge battle. These rough, foolish, false and deceptive ways

make one sick! If the stage cannot act these realities out, why should these be

put in the play? (Chao, 1410)

These statements seem overstated, for Hu was advocating naturalism and realism at the

expense of symbolism. It will be intriguing to regard the cultural exchanges between the

east and West in perspective. The exchanges were reciprocal and e ~ c h i n g on both

sides. While the Chinese writers wanted realism as a corrective to traditional stylization,

western writers will soon be wanting stylization as a corrective to stultifjhg realism.

Western drarnatists and theatre practitioners were attracted by the forma1 stylization of

Chinese drama as an escape from literal realism, welcorning these stylized abstractions

as being more purely theatrical. For instance, Bertolt Brecht writes in "A Short

Organurn for the Theatre" (1948) about choreography which is strongly reminiscent of

Peking opera:

If art reflects life it does so with special mirrors. Art does not become unrealistic

by chqing the proportions but by changing them in such a way that if the

audience took its representations as a practical guide to insights and impulses it

would go astray in real life. It is of course essential that stylization should not

remove the naturd element but should heighten it. ... Elegant movement and

graceful grouping, for a start promote detachrnent, and inventive rniming greatly

helps the story. (Cole 103)

The distancing stylization found in traditional Chinese drama is manipulated to create the

Alienation Effect, as Brecht writes: "A technique of creating detachrnent, known as the

Alienation Effect. A representation that creates detachment is one which allows us to

recognize its subject, but at the same time makes it seem unfarniliar" (Cole 88).

Another advocate of realism and naturalism is Fu Si-nien. Writing in

"Aspects of the hprovement of Drama" published in the Nav Youth in 1918, he

criticizes old drama's inability to represent human action and spirit. It does not represent

"*the ordinary action and speech in human life" (Chao, 1 387). To Fu, western drama

is an " *interpretation of human spirit" (Chao, 1 388), whiie Chinese drama is not. The

rigid lines in Peking opera also corne under attack as something " *lacking the naturalness

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of speech" (Chao, 1 388). Western drama is regarded as spiritual, while old drama is

regarded as materialistic and physical. Fu States: "*Drama is originally about the naîural

actions in human life, and is not confiied by rigid forms" (Chao, 1 390). Fu

continues : " *The scripts have to be objective, not subjective. It should reflect reality , and

not something for writers to show off their literary skills" (Chao, 1 391). Ch'ien Hsüan-

t'mg asks: "If we do not totally reject the actors who do not act like human beings, and

the dialogues which do not sound like dialogues, how c m we promote 'real' drama?"

2).

Fu Si-nien proposes another kind of "new drama," distinct from the first

wave of spoken drama prevalent at the turn of the century up to the Intellectual

Revolution. The fxst wave of spoken drama was domuiated by romanticism and the

well-made plays of Scribe and Sardou. The new drama proposed by Fu and other

intellectuals cherïshes realism and naturalism. This process is similar to the late

nineteenth century Europe when proponents of reaiïsm aimed at ridding the theatre of

"histrionics in acting and the too evident artifke of the sub-Sardou well-made play,

replacing them with a more natural-seeming acting style and with plays which, while still

carefully consûucted, depended less on contrived coups de théûtre and a mechanical

snapping of pieces into place" (Taylor 261). The young Chinese intellectuals also

supported naturalism, the "late nineteenth century movement in the theatre aimed at

banishing artifice and making the theatre mirror life with the utmost directness and even

crudity " (Taylor 223).

Hu Shih and Fu Si-nien's advocacy follow Ibsen's social realism, who

mites in "The Task of the Poet" (1874): "For a student has essentially the same task as

the poet: to make clear to -self, and thereby to others, the temporal and eternal

questions which are astir in the age and in the community to which he belongs" (Cole

4). Hu and Fu are nearly paraphrashg Zola's famous declaration in "Naturalism on the

Stage" (1881):

1 am waiting for someone to put a man of fiesh and bones on the stage, taken

fiom reality , scientifically analyzed, and described without one lie. 1 am waiting

for someone to rid us of fictitious characters, of these symbols of virtue and vice

which have no worth as human data. . . - I am waiting for the time when no one

wiU tell us any more unbelievable slories, when no one spoil the effects of m e

observations by irnposing romantic incidents. . .. 1 am waiting, finally, until the

development of naturalism already achieved in the novel takes over the stage.

until the playwrights return to the source of science and modem arts, to the study

of nature, to the anatomy of man, to the painting of life in an exact reproduction

more original and powerful than anyone else has so far dared to risk on the

boards. (Cole 5)

185

Ultimately, the young Chinese intellectuals reached for Shavian realism and didacticism.

Fu Si-nien urges for a Shavian playwrïght and a Shavian audience. On the pa~X of the

playwright:

*New drama has to have new spirit. . . . The material should be obtained from

contemporary society. Moreover, there should be thorough observation and

penetrative insights, so that the materials can be used and the play will not be

"without realizations." 1 hope that the drama of the future will be plays

criticizing society, instead of solely describing society. The meaning wïiI be

subjective, while the writing will be objective. Thus the plays will not be purely

objective. (Chao, II 399)

On the part of the audience, Fu highlights the need to have an audience trained to

appreciate western problem plays: "*I feel that when Chinese watch western problem

plays, they could not solve these problems critically, and do not even know what is the

problem presented in the play" (Chao, II 399). There is a need for an audience to

understand how drama addresses social problems, how general issues are specifically

represented in conflicts of character and attitude. The Chinese audience needed this

training, for traditional Chinese drama bas set plots, and excerpts were often performed

instead of the whole play, which rnight be too long for a single performance. The

attention of the Chinese audience of traditional drama performed in the noisy teahouse

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couId not be on the play. Thus the Chinese audience of problem plays needed exercises

in interpreting the drarna of ideas.

7. The Chinese Publication of Mrs Warren 's Proofession

Mrs Warren 's Profession was published in Volume II, Issue 1 of Nav Tide,

in October 1919. It was translated by Pm Jia-sheng. Why was this play chosen to be

introduced into China, remembering that by 1919, there were a large number of famous

plays to choose from the Shavian canon, such as Pygmalion, Man and Supermafi and so

on? The obvious reason is that these later plays are deaiing more with man than with

society, and with Shaw's esoteric creed of the Life Force and Creative Evolution which

somehow do not Find an audience in China and do not fit the Chinese situation.

Although al1 of Shaw's plays are finally "about" society , Mrs Warren 's Profession was

chenshed in China for its overt social message on individuality, liberation of women,

freedom of the younger generation from family and tradition, issues which were strongly

promoted by the young Chinese intellectuals in the Intellectual Revolution.

The context of the publication is important. Mrs Warren's Profession was

not published alone as a book, but in a magazine at the vanguard of the Intellectual

Revolution. It was not untii 1923 that al1 three plays in Plays Unpleusanb, trmlated by

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Jin Ben-ji and Yuan Bi, appeared in a separate volume. Another translation of the play

by Pun lia-sheng does not appear independently until April 1959. Magazines like the

N m Tide, according to Hsü, "ridiculed oEd patterns of thought, old customs, personal

Ioyalties of officiais, filiai piety, superstition, the double standard of chastity for men and

women, the big famiiy system, and above d l , monarchism and warlordism" (604). At

the same time, these magazines aim at creating a new culture: "Science, democracy,

technology, agnosticism, pragmatism, liberalism, parliamentarianism and individualism

found new favour with them" (604). M m Warren's Profession was chosen because it

resonates with the spirit of the Inteilectual Revolution in many ways.

A juxtaposition of Mrs Warren 's Profession against Chen Tu-hsiu' s

"Declaration of the Nav Youth" published in the Nav Youth on December 1, 1919, just

two months after the publication of Shaw's play, yields some interesting insights. In the

"Declaration", Chen wrïtes: "*The new youth in our new society of course respect work.

But work should agree with the abilities and interests of the individual. Work is sacred,

and should be freedom, joy, art and embellishment for the individual, instead of being

a condition for bread-winning" (Chao, X 59). Towards the end of Mrs Warren's

Profession, Vivie makes the famous declaration to Mrs Warren: "1 am like you. 1 m u t

have work, and must make more money than I spend. But my work is not your work,

and my way not your way" (I 353). Lilkewise, Mrs Warren "must have work and

excitement, or [she] should go melancholy mad" (1 353), though her work is managing

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a chah of brothels in Brussels, Ostend, Vienna and Budapest. When Vivie spent six

weeks working at actuarial calculations at Honona's chambers in Chancery Lane, she

"never enjoyed merlself more in [her] life" (1 : 278).

Individuality is an important issue in tbe Lntellectual Revolution, especially

the freedom fkom family and obedience to one's parents. In Mrs Warren's Profession,

Vivie Warren exemplifies the sort of free, independent individual favoured by the young

Chinese intellectuals. She is set against parental arrangements, telling Praed at the

beginning of the play: "1 shali take my mother very much by surprise one of these days,

if she makes arrangements that concern me without consulting me beforehand" (1: 274).

She refuses Mrs Warren's attempt "to dictate her way of life, and to force on Cher] the

acquaintance of a brute [Sir George Crofts] whom anyone c m see to be the most vicious

sort of London man about town" (1: 307). At the end of the play, Vivie parts with her

mother to pursue her own independent way of life. She rejects Mrs Warren's daim on

her "duty as a daughter" (1: 354). To Vivie, filial piety cannot hinder her freedom.

Chen Tu-hsiu also writes in the "Declaration" in Nav Youth about the

liberation of women. He says:"*We believe respecting the character and rights of

women has already become a practical need in the advancement of modem social life.

It is also hoped that the women themselves will have thorough understanding of their

social responsibility " (Chao, X 59). Mrs Warren 's Profession shows the women making

their We's choices. Shaw writes:

Mrs Warren is not a whit a worse wornan than the reputable daughter who cannot

endure her. Her indifference to the ultimate social consequences of her means

of making money, and her discovery of that means by the ordinary method of

taking the line of least resistance to geaing it are too comrnon in any English

society to cal1 for any special remark. Her vitality, her thnft, her energy, her

outspokemess, her wise care of her daughter, and the managing capacity which

has enabled her to climb fiom the fried fish shop down by the Mint to the

establishments which she boasts, are al1 high English social virtues. (1: 254-5)

Mrs Warren has character, saying: "If theres a thing 1 hate in a woman, ifs want of

character" (1: 3 13). She was forced by circumstances to become a prostitute, but that

choice is immoral in the eyes of society, as Shaw writes in the Preface:"It is none the

Iess infamous of society to offer such alternatives. For the alternatives offered are not

morality and immorality, but two sorts of immorality " (1: 255). Mrs Warren tells her

daughter: "It c a n t be right, Vivie, that there shouldnt be better opportunities for

women" (1: 314).

Realism and pragrnatism are the catchwords of the young Chinese

intellectuals. These are also Vivie's viaues. At the end of the play, Vivie rejects Frank

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Gardner's offer of "love's young dream," and Praed's offer of "romance and beauty of

Iife" (1: 341). She declares: "There is no beauty and no romance in Me for me. Life

is what it is; and 1 am prepared to take it as it is" (1 : 340). Her rejection of Praed and

Frank is valid, and Shaw explains in the 1902 Preface: "Praed, the sentimental artist,

expects a i l through the piece that the feelings of the others will be 1ogicaIly deducible

from their family relationships and from his 'conventionally unconventional' social code"

(1: 252). The playwright thinks that Frank, "in spite of much capacity and charm, is a

cynically worthiess member of society." The character is used to "set up a mordant

contrast between [the clergyman Samuel Gardner] and the woman of infamous

profession, with her well brought-up, straightforward, hardworking daughter" (1: 257).

Ideologically, therefore, Mrs Warren 's Profession made the passage to

China quite readily, for it helped to voice many concem of the young Chinese

intellectuals at the time when it was introduced into the counay. Westernization in

drarna was supposed to help building the new country of China.

8. Beyond Westernization

The passage of Mrs Warren's Profession is an example of the cultural

reproduction of ideology, "reproduction" in the sense of both imitation and development.

191

The imitative aspects c m be seen in the cal1 for Westernization and the various ideas

associated with the West, such as individuality, pragmatism, realism, and so on. The

passage of the play to China aIso shows the developmental aspect of "reproduction", for

in this cultural reproduction of ideology, the ideas did not go unchalienged, and the

challenging of these ideas shows that what the young intellectuals want ultimately is

globalization, not mere Westernization.

Shaw attracted the young Chinese intellectuals because of his advocacy of

the problem play and the play of ideas. But the problem play itself is culture-specific.

Shaw himself acknowledges the cultural factor in the 1902 Preface to Mrs Warren's

Profession: "None of our plays rouse sympathy of the audience by an exhibition of the

paim of maternity as Chinese plays constantiy do. Each nation has its particular set of

tapus [sic] in addition to the common human stock, and though each of these tapus limits

the scope of the dramatist, it does not make drama impossible" (1: 240). A dramatist

composes within the scope of his culture. Mrs Warren's Profession attracts the Chinese

intellectuals because of its being a problem play, but the particular problems discussed

in the play may not have made a full passage to China.

In the Preface to Mrs Warren's Profession, Shaw overtly identifies the play

as a "problem play. " He writes: "It is only in the problem play is there any real drama,

because drama is no more setting up of the camera to nature: it is the presentation in

192

parable of the conflict between Man's will and his environment: in a word, of problem"

(1: 250). Drama is an arena to instigate moral and social reform. Shaw writes in the

Preface:

1 am convinced that fine art is the subtiest, the most seductive, the most effective

instrument of moral propaganda in the world, excepting only the example of

personal conduct; and 1 waive even this exception in favor of the art of the stage,

because it works by exhibithg examples of personal conduct made intelligible and

moving to crowds of unobservant unreflecting people to whom real life means

nothing. (1: 236)

In making "painhl exposures" in the play, the dramatist "rnakes people so extremely

uncomfortable about them that they f d y stop blaming 'human nature' for them, and

begin to support measures for their reforms" (1 : 259).

The idea of exposing unpleasant social facts through drama attracted the

young Chinese inteliectuals. In the Preface to the volume PZqs Unpleasant, in which

Mrs Warren's Profession and Widowers ' Houses -- the two Shavian plays introduced in

the New Tide -- are published, Shaw writes: "A word as to why 1 have labelled the three

plays in this volume Unpleasant. The reason is pretty obvious: their dramatic power is

used to force the spectator to face unpleasant facts" (1: 32). But Shaw also admits that

193

the "unpleasant facts" he is exposing are relevant to his own country and society . They

are specific. Shaw writes: "No doubt al i plays which deal sincerely with humanity must

wound the monstrous conceit which is the business of romance to flatter. But here we

are confronted, not only with the comedy and tragedy of individud character and destiny,

but with those social horrors which arise from the fact that the average home bred

Englishman, however honourable and good natured he may be in his private capacity,

is, as a citizen, a wretched creature who, whilst clamoring for a gratuitous millennium,

wili shut his eyes to the most villainous abuses if the remedy threatens to add another

penny in the pound to the rates and taxes which he has to be half cheated, half coerced

into paying" (1: 32 - 4).

The "social horror" shown in Shaw's play, capitalist exploitation, is more

relevant to industrialized England than to agrarian China in 19 19. These "social horrors"

Shaw exposes in Mrs Warren's Profession are, according to him,"the truth that

prostihition is caused not by female depravity and male licentiousness, but simply by

underpaying, undervaluing, and overworking women so shamefully that the poorest of

them are forced to resort to prostitution to keep body and sou1 together" (1 : 23 1). In the

1902 Preface to Mrs Warren's Profession, Shaw explains: "1 desire to expose the fact that

prostitution is not only carried on with organization by individual enterprise in the

lodgings of solitary women ... but organized and exploited as a big international

commerce for the profits of capitalists like any other commerce, and very lucrative to

194

great city estates, including Church estates, through the r e m of the houses in which it

is practised" (1: 231). In the play, Sir George Crofts and Mis Warren have organized

and exploited the brothel business. Crofts reveals that members of the aristocracy such

as the Duke of Belgravia, the church represented by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and

the politican, Croft's brother, a Member of Parliament, are ail earning tainted money.

However, the Chinese intellectuals were attacking the plutocrats and warlords rather than

the capitalists. In Chen Tu-hsiu's "Declaration" in the Mm Youth, plutocracy is

attacked: " *We cannot help being antagonistic towards the aggressive and possessive

warlords and plutocrats" (Chao, X 59).

The western social problem may not be identical to the eastem one. It is

impossibIe to have total Westernization, to copy the West to the east, but it is possible

to have globalization, to adopt similar approaches in drama, ta use drama to be critical

of society to change and achieve a better society. The y o m g Chinese intellectuals are

attracted to the western problem play which offers realism and a social use of the theatre.

According to Dong Jian,"In the first Western influence,' social problem pIays are

promoted. It stirred up a 'craze for Ibsen.' The major point ovf learning is of course the

realism in Western drama. The New Drama Troupe of the Nankai University showed

this trend early. Zhou En-lai says in "Views of New Drama ira Our University", written

for the Nankai University: 'The new drama of our school . . . shows the realism in realist

drama"' (11). The problem play is just a means to an end. It shows that social

195

problems can be discussed in the theatre, arousing public attention, forcing the audience

to think about these problems.

Other intellectuals soon opposed to the importation of western-style drama,

thinking that the problem play itself offers no solution to the problem. This becomes

more obvious when the problems in western society are presented on Chinese stage. The

problems presented in the play are not completely relevant to the Chinese situation.

Thus, western style problem plays began to be criticized. According to Hu Xing-liang:

*Chinese dramatists respected Ibsen's brave challenge of tradition. They

especially appreciated the realism in his depiction of the rottenness of society and

asking people to look at that carefully. This was in fact an aesthetic choice

placing more importance on thought and connotation (subject matter and theme),

and had a strong tendency towards utility. This tendency made Chinese

drarnatists mm away from Ibsen's 'diagnosis without prescription. ' In their

drama, the problems were raised, and the way out is also shown. This formed

the charactenstic of the Chinese "problem play". (92)

Thus' from an initial effort to introduce western plays to modemize China's drama, there

emerges an attempt to adopt the western method to the Chinese arena, and work out

sornething uniquely Chinese. Tien Han writes in Yi Shu Yi She Hui (Art and Soc@),

196

published in Chuang Zao Zhou Buo (Creution Weekly), Issue 23, 1923, about the writing

of Qing Nian Di Fan Men (Unhappy Youttr), saying there is a need "*not only to show,

but to point out the bright way to the unhappy, so that new faitb and new ideals again

stir in their hearts." Yet, an attempt to provide a solution to the problem raised in the

play is essentiaily a deviation fkom realism, makhg the play subjective and confimed to

time. It makes the play a social or quasi-social document, instead of a piece of art. Hu

mg-liang puts this weil:

*There is a contradiction between "raising problems and solving problems" in the

aesthetic expression of realism. Strictly speaking, what realism must do is to

correctly "raise the problems," which is not a direct depiction of the social

problem. Realism must aesthetically raise and visualize it. Many social probIem

plays in the May Fourth period nearly became a "vehicle" to convey thoughts and

propagandize ideas. They often gave "prescriptions " to the problems subjectively

and wrongly. These are inherent obstacles to the development of such plays. Its

realism is certainly inadequate. (95)

The extreme form of the Chinese reaction to "problem play" is the

National Drama Movement" advocated by returned students such as Yu Shang-wun and

Chao Tai-mou. Yu Shang-wun wrote:

197

*Upon the dawn of the new cultural movement, Ibsen was introduced into China

in high profile. . . . but China lost her way again. .. . Social problems, family

problems, professional problems, problems on smoking and dnnking, various

khds of problems, became the aims of drama. People went on stage to give a

speech to debate, to preach, to read their lectures and tallc about their mords. (Fu

65)

Wen 1-to declares:"*The thing we shouId object to is not the presence of whatever

problem on stage. Drarna is too cheap if the play is written with a mere problem" (Fu

65). The "national drama" advocated by Yu Shang-wun and Chao Tai-mou signified a

need to retuni to the nation after the sojourn of westernization. Yu's notion of "national

drama" means "*Chinese plays prepared by Chinese using Cbinese materials and

performed for Chinese audience." Xiong Fo-xi also thinks: "*The national drama of

China is not old drama. The national drarna of China means plays written by Chinese.

As it is written by Chinese, of course its ideas and setting are Chinese. Whatever

Chinese historical drama and all plays representing the lives of the Chinese c m be

regarded as the national drama of China" (Fu 66).

Shaw is associated with the rationai and inteliectual. Yu Shang-wun writes

in the final issue of Ju Kan @rama Magazine): "Shaw emphasizes the rational" (Chao,

X 131). However, the advocates of national drarna promoted art for art's sake, and

198

stressed the aesthetic aspects of the play at the expense of the social and political aspects.

Yu Shang-wun and Chao Tai-mou campaigned for "pure art. " Wen 1-to cdied for "pure

form" in May 1926. According to Hsu Kai-yu:

this doctrine of "pure form,"] Wen held that the merit of a iiterary work

should not be judged by its political message. In "Drarna at the Crossroads"

published in June 1926, he c h e d his theory further by maintaining that "the

highest goal of art is to attain pure form. +' In its development toward the highest

goal of art, drama was hampered by the prevailing "Iiterary thought," with its

exclusive emphasis on "moral, philosophical, and social problems . " " One c m

hardly blame the writers, " he said. " Literature, particularly dramatic literanire,

is so easîly tinted with philosophical and didactic ideas. " But over-preoccupation

with social messages ruined the art of drama, and he criticized the Chinese

imitators of Ibsen and Shaw for merely describing "problems" without writhg

" plays . " (97)

The national drama campaign fails to materialize into more concrete

dramatic forms. Fu Xiao-hang writes: " * m a t are 'Chinese plays prepared by Chinese

using Chinese materials and performed for Chinese audience?' Since there was no stage

irnplementation, it only became a regrettable concept to be mused over" (Fu 66).

Nevertheless, the advocacy of national drama as a reaction to the western problem plays

shows a need to go beyond Westernization.

9. Globallzation throu~h Westernization

The young Chinese intellectuals certaidy clarnoured for Westernization

loudly during the Intellechml Revolution. Their loud clamours might have covered their

caü for globalization, which nonetheless was there. It wiil be fruithl to return to these

young Chinese intellectuals. They supported Westernization for they wanted to use this

process to revamp and regenerate Chinese drama, so that it could have a niche in the

modem drama of the world. In short, Westernization is a tactic employed to achieve

globalization. The editorial board of Wen Xice Yan Jiu (Literature Studies) writes: "*We

want to introduce the Iiterature of the world to create China's new iiterature, so as to

achieve the highest spiritual and emotional interflow between us and mankind" (Chao,

x 79).

The Chinese will choose from the West what suits the Chinese situation.

Zhou Zho-ren made the following famous declaration on November 1, 1918, published

in Volume 5, Issue 5 of the Nav Youth:

*On the constructive side, there is only adopting European style new drama.

200

Now there are people who make a fuss over the European style, and are afraid

to t a . about "Westernization." Actuaily, to transport the literature, art and

academic studies to our country does not mean to be conquered by other country.

It is only that civilized things evolving fkom the barbaric stage are first discovered

in Europe. Therefore we make a leap, and bring these things here, to Save much

of Our own efforts. These things brought to our country becorne ours, and there

is no question of Westernization or not. (Chao, II 420).

Qian Xuan-tong responded on November 6, 1918, published in the same issue of NaY

Youth:"*In our treatment of al l knowledge and scholarship, of course one should not

rigidly 'preserve our nation's cultural heritage,' and there is no question of 'Unporthg

Westernization.' It is right to leam and do what is near the tmth" (Chao, II 420).

The manipulation of Westernization is shown in Fu Si-nien's urge for the

creation of new drama. Talking about the lack of independent new literature in China

at that tirne, Fu writes:

*[At Fïst, 1 thought that] Western plays could be translated and used on the stage.

This will be efficient, for the words and thoughts were ready-made. Yet, 1

changed my mind later. Western plays are based on materials from western

society. There is a lack of muhiai understanding between the Chinese and

201

westem societies. Perfonning strict translations of westem drama on the Chinese

stage rnay baffle the audience. This means that we have to write the scripts

ourselves. But we c m use western plays as our materials, make use of their

spirit, and adapt it to the Chinese situation. Thus, westem plays can be applied.

In other words, plays that are translated straightforwardly cannot be suitable. An

adaptation which changes the form but maintains the spirit is excellent. (Chao,

1 398 - 99)

A farnous example of Chinese works which "change the form but maintain

the spirit" is Lu Xun's "The True Story of Ah Q," first published as a serial in the

Intellectual RevoIution. Lu Xun has been regarded as the Chinese Bernard Shaw because

of his use of satire and humour. His relationship to Shaw wilI be covered in greater

detail in Chapter Six. But it will be useful to have a look at Lu Xun's short story here.

"The True Story of Ah Q" was written in December 1921. The story was later adapted

for drarna by Tien Han. The problem discussed is topical and relevant to China.

According to Gladys Yang:

Lu Xun was deeply disillusioned by the failure of the 19 1 1 Revolution. . . . The

191 1 Revolution had toppled the Qing Dynasty, but because it did not mobilize

the people it failed to overcome the foreign and feudal domination of China. The

old reactionary forces retained power, as Lu Xun describes in "The True Story

of Ah Q" (ix) *

The shoa story is set in post-revolution China. Ah Q is an analogy of the Chinese at

that t h e . He "had a very high opinion of himself" (Yang 18). Ah Q assumes that he

has spiritual, psychological victory whenever he is defeated. For instance:

The idlers . .. continued to pester him, they . .. in the end come to blows. Then

only after Ah Q had to al1 appearances been defeated, had his brownish queue

pulled and his head bumped against the wall four or five times, would the idlers

walk away, satisfied at having won. And Ah Q would stand there for a second

thinking to hirnself,"It's as if 1 were beaten by my son. What is the world

coming to nowadays. . . . " Thereupon he too would walk away, satisfied at having

won. (Yang 2)

Ah Q Ioses his life because of this imaginary heroism and lack of self-consciousness.

Instead of benefiting from the Revolution, he is inadvertently destroyed by it. When the

revolutionaries enter the town, the successfil county candidate from the Zhao family,

symbolic of the feudal landlords, and the Fake Foreign Devil, symbolic of the foreign

powers, side with them. Although Ah Q wants to join the revolutionary, thinking that

it will be heroic, he never manages to. Instead, he is caught and shot for something he

has not done: robbing the Zhao family, the feudal landlord. China remains in the hands

of the feudalists and imperialists, and the people continue to suffer.

There is a cultural reproduction of the ideology of Shaw and his plays

from the West to China, and this reproduction goes from imitation to development. In

spite of some reactions, this passage is quite smooth. The next chapter will show that

the cultural reproduction of everyday life is somethhg much more difficult to achieve.

The aesthetic aspects of the plays prove a challenge to the Chinese audience.

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Hsiao, ChYien. The Dragon Beardr Versus the Blueprnts. London: Pilot Press, 2944.

Hsü, Lmmanuel C. Y. The Rise of Modem China. Hong Kong: Oxford UP, 1975.

Hsu, Kai-yu. Wen 1-to. Boston: Twayne, 1980.

Hu, Xing Liang. "Zhong Guo Xi Ju Xian Dai HuQ Di Li Shi Xing Zhuan Zhe. " ("A

Histoncal Transformation of China Dramatic Modernization. ") Wen Xue Ping

Lun (Literary Review) 2 (1995): 84 - 96.

Jenks, Chris. Cultural Reproduction. London: Routledge, 1993.

Luk, Yun-tong, ed. Studies in Chinese-Western comparative Drum. Hong Kong:

Chinese University Press, 1990.

Shaw, Bernard. Collected Plays With Their Prefaces. Ed. Dan H . Laurence. 7 vols.

London: Max Reinhardt, 1970 - 74.

Taylor, John Russell. Dictiorurry of the Theatre. London: Penguin, 1993.

Tien, Han, Ouyang, Yu-qian, et. al., ed. Zhong Quo Hua Ju Yun Dong Wu Shi Nian

Shi Liao Ji . Beijing: Zhong Guo Xi Ju Chu Ban She, 1958.

Yang, Gladys, ed., trs. Silent China: Selected Wntings of Lu Xun. London: OUP,

1973.

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CHAPTER FLVE: GLOBALIZATION vs. WESTERNIZATION ( II ) -- CULTURAL REPRODUCTION OF EVERYDAY L m

In this chapter, 1 shall pay special attention to the Chinese production of

Mrs Warren's Profession in Spring 1921. So Car, Shaw and his plays were popular

arnong the young Chinese intellectuals. The 1921 production was a unique attempt to

bring Shaw to the commercial stage in China, and to extend Shaw's infiuence to the

popular theatre. An examination of this production will throw light on how far the

cultural reproduction of everyday life takes place in the theatre, how far this reproduction

contributes to the success of the performance of a play, and how far the marketing of a

play hinges on the success of this reproduction. It will be shown that the cultural

reproduction of everyday life in a foreign cultural space is much more difficult than the

cultural reproduction of ideology . While there may be an attempt at Westemization in

ideology and thoughts, this Westernization may not be so readily extended to other

aspects of life. In the performance of a play on the foreign stage, the theatre becomes

a cultural space in which cultures actively interact and challenge one another.

1. Cultural Re~roduction as Marketing

Cultural reproduction can be a type of marketing. As Don Slater

writes: "Over the modem penod the processes of cultural reproduction have become

increasingly tied to the buying and selling of industrial products, of commodities" (Jenks

206). Instead of being fully dominated and modied by the commodity, the consumers

rnay modi@ the product to suit themselves. Slater thinks:

So long as one does not attempt to argue, as do massifcation theorists, that this

process of cultural reproduction has corne to be dominated in its entirety by the

logic of those industrial products and their producers -- by their logic of the

commodity - then one can see a market culture still in operation, one which 1

have characterised as a culture of the crowd, a culture poised on a dialectical

Me-edge between desires of the consumer and rationalisation of the

(commodified) spectacles on which those desires are focused. The two sides are

irreducible and each side is, moreover, a condition of the existence of the other.

(Jenks 207)

These notions can be applied to the theatre. The play is a type of

consumer product bought and sold in the theatre. The commercial theatre may be

regarded as a market place consisting of 1) the theatre, analogous to the physical

209

structure of the marketplace; 2) the audience, similar to the amorphous crowd shopping

at the market; and 3) the play, comparable to the commodity being bought and sold.

The theatre shows two criteria of the market culture. On one hand, it is

a place encouraging consensus. As Slater puts it, a market which "focuses on the

empincal market stresses agency and emergence -- a market must be culturaily

reproduced as a meaningful event" (Jenks 188). The theatre's ability to create consensus

has been manipulated by Shaw, who uses the place as a platform for propaganda. The

audience is lured to be a mass, who will be uniformly persuaded to accept the ideas of

the play.

On the other hand, like a market, the theatre is a place for dissension.

Slater writes of "the image of a thriving civil society, the boisterous, dynamic and

autonomous pursuit of pnvate interests by a large number of individuals -- market or

enterprise culture" (Jenks 189). The audience in this sense is a crowd. Slater thinks that

the crowd demonstrates two characterïstics. First, they are "people moving about

according to their own self-detennined logic, . . . a probabilistic event, expected perhaps

but not predictable in a causal sense. ... We can ody 'account for' a crowd by

specifj4ng the unique interest which each individual f i d s in the current object or

spectacle, as well as the steps taken by each individual to have arrived at it" (Jenks 190 -

1). To apply this to the audience, each member of the audience in a commercial theatre

210

may be looking for something different from the play. Their interests are diverse.

The second characteristic of a crowd is that it is formed when "a number

of individuals coincide - accidentally in a causal sense - in tuming their gaze towards

a particular focus" (Jenks 190). Slater thinkç that the focus may be planned or

unplanned: "a focus - a spectacle, an event, an object of interest or desire. This focus

may be unplanned - as with 'conflagration' - or planned: the regular and expected

display of large number of goods, the presence of showmanship, entertainment,

advertising, the hawker's cal1 - the atternpts to 'attract a crowd" (Jenks 190). In the

theatre, the play fonns the focus of attention with a "planned focus".

The existence of the crowd in the theatre shows two processes at work.

First, there is a reguiarized and rationalized focusing of autonomous individuals -

individual spectators, upon commodities - the play. Secondly, there is a deregularized

focus, for each spectator may be looking for something dfierent fkom the theatrical

experience. Thus, the crowd, and by analogy the audience, has agency . Slater considers

the crowd "a contingent, unstable and emergent entity, one of whose terms is always

agency, however comprornised that agency may be" (Jenks 190).

2. The Chinese Audience

211

An audience never appreciates a play in a vacuum, but tries to mediate

through its cultural background. There wili be an encounter of cultures if the play cornes

from a culture different from the audience's own. For instance, in 1905, the Qing

official Dai Hong-ci watched historical drama in Germany, and was impressed by the

scenery and realism of the western stage. Dai writes in his diary: "*'The advantage of

Western drama is in the painted scenery. Buildings and terraces are formed

instantaneously. Fair and bad weathers are shown in great detail. It is as if the

spectators are expenencing the scenes and not staying in the human world" (Tian Ben-

xiang 9). Another Qing official, Zhang De-yen, also writes about the French theatre in

his diary, saying that it is "*spoken and not sung" (Tian Ben-xiang 9). In effect, both

Dai and Zhang were appreciating western drama from the eastern perspective, since

Chinese drama does not have scenery, and is sung by the actors instead of spoken.

3. The Cultural Re~roduction of Evervdav Life

The Intellectual Revolution was an aspect of the Chinese Renaissance,

which encompassed nearly al1 facets of everyday life at that tirne. According to Ph. De

Vargas :

Translation mine. Subsequent translations by me will be indicated by an astef sk.

212

This throwing down of the last barriers which limited the Chinese mind, this

complete liberation of Chinese modes of thinking and feeling, had a powerful

awakening effect on all phases of the nation's life. It would be a fascinating

study to trace the results of this revival in the changing aspects of politics,

particularly in the development of a public opinion with which the goverment

had to reckon; in the growth of commerce and industry leading to the rise of a

commercial and banking class conscious of its influence on the national life, and

to the beginnings of industrial problems; in the changes in the daily habits and

social customs, sometimes glaring, sometimes elusive, especially the unexpectedly

easy progress of feminism; in the efflorescence of philosophic thought, centering

largely around the theme of humanism; in the stirrings of the religious Iife and

thought: Confucian sociefy , Buddhistic revival, aestheticism, or a truly indigenous

Christianity . (234 - 5 )

The development of spoken drama in the May Fouah Movement was both part of and

a response to this more pemasive change in China, a change affecting everyday M e

rather than a mere intellectual exercise concerned with ideologies.

In Chapter Four, 1 have shown that cultural reproduction of ideology has

taken place quite readily in Shaw's passage to China. From a concem with

Westernkation, an attempt to copy and imitate, the Chinese intellectuals tried to develop

213

what they have Iearned, in order to envision new China- For instance, Elisabeth Eide

has given excellent examples of how imitations of Ibsen's A Doll's House developed into

numerous Chinese plays on Chinese Noras.

But there was a need to go beyond imitation. According to Jing Zhi-gang,

*The intellectuals in the May Fourth Movement reasonably adapted the "theory

of bringing it here," using "western styIe àrama" -- spoken drama, to express

their self-conscious emotional state. Therefore, what was produced in the spoken

drama of the May Fourth Movement was not only a "transplanting" of dramatic

style. It included the interna1 desires of the May Fourth intelIectua1s7 wish to

express their personal self-conscious emotions (1 0 1).

According to Jing Zhi-gang, Chinese drama in the May Fourth Movement is reactions

against traditional drama. These new plays broadly feature two types of characters: 1)

intellectuals who deny a life of officialdom, and who rebel against feudai mords and

etiquettes to seek for freedom and independence instead; 2) real ordinary people, whose

character is no longer bound by feudalistic ethics, and their life is not cornedic. An

example of the first type of characters is Dr Hu Shih' s Zhong Shen Dai Shi (The Greatest

Event In Life). The female protagonist Tien Ya-mei is one of the Chinese Noras

mentioned by Eide. Like Nora, Tien Ya-mei walks out of her home. But there are

214

variations from Ibsen's play. Tien leaves her parents' home because, based on

superstitions, they oppose her wish to marry the man she loves, and so she goes away

with her beloved in defiance of feudal Iaws and etiquette. The play is in line with the

May Fouah's advocacy of individuality, independence, liberty, and rejection of the

restrictions of feudal laws and Confician ethics. Tien Ya-mei made her decision after

reading her beloved Mr Chen's note: "*This event only concerns us two, and is unretated

to others. You should make your own decision" (Hu Shih 51). An example of the

second type of characters, the real ordinary people, is Chao Dai in Hong Shen's Chao

Yan Huang. This play is written after Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones, but the

message is uniquely Chinese. Chao Dai is neither good nor evil. He is a kind peasant

and a villainous bandit who comrnits crimes and suffers moral compunctions.

Eventually, Chao Dai did not reform to have a good end, nor is there a representative

of goodness to punish him. At the end of the play, Lao Li (Old Lee) larnents his death

saying: " *Your heart is too bad to be a good man, and too good to be a bad person. You

can neither be a good nor bad guy" (Hong 54). Chao Dai was shot to death by soldiers,

rejecting any moralistic, feudalistic interpretations. Both playwrights, Dr Hu Shih and

Hong Shen, were returned students from the USA, but they were adapting what they had

learnt abroad to the Chinese situation.

A common feature of the Chinese plays is their using Chinese background,

using Chinese characters, and adapting their message to the Chinese situation. Why were

215

such adaptations used? Why didn't the young Chinese inteliectuais merely translate

foreign plays and put them on the Chinese stage? This, 1 think, is because plays are

presented through cultural reproduction of everyday life, the success of which depends

on whether the audience can understand and accept these reproductions. Westernization

can be a copy and development of the everyday aspects of culture which are more

amorphous and unstructured, such as manners, conventions, concepts or beliefs .

Illustrating with the production of Shaw's plays in China, 1 would like to propose that

the dramatization of the ideas in a play depend on a manipulation of this cultural

reproduction of everyday life.

Everyday lîfe cannot be easily reproduced on the stage abroad, for the

foreign audience may not have the cultural tools to decipher the reproduction. I shall try

to examine the elernents in the cultural reproduction of everyday life on stage which

resist the passage abroad. To look at the amorphous cultural reproduction of everyday

life in the theatre in a more organized manner, I would like to rely on some of the

methods suggested by Marco De Marinis in The Semiotics of Per;formance. As De

Marinis proposes, a play text is not "a f ~ t e statement (or product), complete in itself

and separate fiom the receptive-productive context" (3). An audience may not be able

to accept the performance of a play when it fails to understand its CO-textual and/or the

contextual aspects. According to De Marinis :

216

Co-textual anaiysis is concerned with the "internai" regularities of the

performance text, with its matenal and formal properties. . . . Contextual analysis

deals with the "external" aspects of the performance text, which cm, in tum, be

broken down into (a) the cultural context or the relations that c m be discerned

between the text in question and other texts, whether performances or not,

belonging of [sic] the same cultural synchrony; (b) the context of the

performance, by which is meant all the practicai situations in which the

performance text occurs, as well as the circumstançes of its enunciation and

reception, including the various phases of its coming into being, and al1 other

theatrical activities which encompass and produce the moment of performance.

(4)

The CO-textual analysis of Mrs Warren's Profession should not baffle the

Chinese audience in 1921, since Shaw and his plays had been introduced in joumals such

as the New Tide since 1919. People had been tallcing about Shaw's plays, discussing

their ideas and their innovative drarnatic forms. Shaw had been hailed as Ibsen's

disciple.

217

But the production of Mrs Warren S Profession c m hardly be regarded as

a success: "*A quarter of the audience left before the production was over" (Hu 19); "the

most prosperous day of this 'problem play' was oniy 60 per cent of the leanest day of

an ordinary variety" (Hsiao 19); "the dismal box office forced the play to be cancelled

after oniy three performances" (Luk 19). There is a great disparity between the hearty

reception of Shaw and his plays by the young Chinese intellectuals in the journals in the

Intellectual Revolution, and the lukewarm reception of the production of Shaw's play by

the ordinary audience of a popular commercial theatre. In fact, the producer, Wang

Chung-hsien recalls: "Some of them quite failed to understand the play, . . . and others

disliked the repetition of such frequentiy abused terms as 'freedom of women' and

'economic equality " (Hsiao 19).

1 would like to suggest that the disparity between the reception of Shaw

and his plays by the young Chinese intellectuals and by the audience is due to the varying

readiness to accept the cultural reproduction of ideology and the cultural reproduction of

everyday life. The context affects the reception of the production.

5. Contextual Analvsis - Performance code. general and ~articular theatrical

conventions

218

A contextuai anaiysis of the performance of Mrs Warren's Profession may

show the difficulty in the cultural reproduction of everyday life in a theatre abroad.

Contextual analysis consists of an examination of the cultural context and the context of

the performance. De Marinis thuiks: "the spectator's reception of the performance text

is an interpretative activity . . . [which] requires cornpetencies of a contextual, intertextual,

and encyclopedic order" (99). The performance text is subject to the interpretation of the

audience, for the text "consists not only of code [sic] material but also of material to be

freely interpreted and matenal for the inferential process. ... It demands of the

addressees an active textuai cooperation" (99).

The cultural context includes a look at the performance code, generai

theatrical conventions and particular theatrical conventions.

In general, "performance code" according to De Marinis is "the convention

in performance which permits the association of particular contents in one or more

systems of expression" (98). The "codes of the sender (rneaning the codes of textual

production)" on the part of the playwright rnay not necessarily be equal to "the codes of

the addressees (meaning the codes of textuai reception and interpretation)" of the

audience.

The cultural reproduction of everyday life, though amorphous, may be

219

seen in the light of De Marinis's notion of the "performance codes": the "codes that are

not specific to theatre, .. . found in other artistic practices and in daily life, and which

are used in theatre according to more or less particular, characteristic modalities (or

without appreciable modifications)" (104). The recognition of these performance codes

is dependent o n the culture of the audience, since these codes are "created over a long

period of unconscious absorption and deep assimilation with a given culture to the point

that they sometimes seem innate, not leamed" (De Marinis 105).

To work out whether the performance codes make the passage to China,

it will be useful to refer to what probably is the performance text in 1921, the Chinese

translation of Mrs Warren 's Profession by Pun lia-sheng appearing in October 19 19 in

Volume 2 Issue 2 of Xin Chao or Nav Tide. Cornparhg this translation to another one

published in 1923 in Pkys Unpleasanr, translated by Jin Ben-ji and Yuan Bi, and to

another translation of the play by Pun lia-sheng appearing independently in April 1959,

the changing recognition of the performance codes can be discerned.

The theatrical experience depends on what one sees and what one hears.

Visual images are powerful means to convey the message of the play. The most

prominent visual images are gestures, the body language which needs deciphering.

Gesnires in naturalistic drama are supposed to be derived directly from the everyday life

of the playwright's society and culture. An "actor's gesture [is] produced by the almost

220

exact imitation of an ordinary, everyday gesture and the use of the same, appropriate

form of expression" (De Mannis 105). Gestures on stage are often tropes, which help

to dramatize ideas through visualizations. Shaw &es use of tropes from the everyday

life of western society to convey his ideas by modming them. These modifications are

very powerful visual Mages, drawing the audience's attention when its expectations are

upset. The discrepancies between the expected norm and the modified trope produce

laughter - the sugar-coating - while stimulating thoughts - the pill.

Gestures are culture-specific. However, in the 1921 production of Mrs

Warren's Profession, the producer Wang Chung-hsien makes use of "foreign devices and

modes of expression" (Luk 19). This creates a problem, for the Chinese audience was

not Shaw's intended audience which shared the playwright's system of expression of

body language. An example is Vivie's powerful handshake at the beginrring of the play.

Shaw writes:

VIVIE. [srriding ru the gate and opening it for him] Corne in, Mr Praed. [He

cornes in]. Glad to see you! [She pruflers her hand and takes his with Q resolute

and heam grip.] (1 : 273)

Shaw's modification of the trope of the handshake here shows the vitality and

unconventionality of Vivie. It identifies her as the strong-minded and wilfül Shavian

221

heroine. The difficulty of appropriating this trope c m be seen in the 1919 Chinese

, translation. Instead of the " resolute and hearty grip, " the text reads : "She proffers her

hand and shakes his hand tigh*. " It was not until the 1923 translation when Vivie'

"resolute and hearty gr@" was mentioned. The revised 1959 version, also translated by

min Jia-sheng, includes this description.

The handshake is a trope signming greeting. Shaw's text reads: "[Praed]

passes in to the middle of the garden, aercising his fingers, which are slightly numbed

by her greeting" ( 1 : 273). The 1919 translation mentions "handshake" (106) instead of

"greeting", which is mentioned in the 1923 text, translated as the "ceremony of

welcome " (3).

A guiding p ~ c i p l e of interpreting what one sees and hears in the theatre

is "theatrical convention". De Marinis defmes these as "technical, specialized codes that

found and regulate the theatrical use of the [performance] code" (106). TheatrïcaI

conventions may not necessariiy require special learning and a conscious act of decodhg,

and an audience member may be abIe to deal with conventions foreign to his culture.

They may have passive competence, being able to work out the implications of the

action, without having an active cornpetence, or being aware of the convention and

lcnowing its usage.

222

De Marinis thinks that there are three types of theatrical conventions:

general, particular and distinctive. Under general theatrical conventions, "the stage

represents but is not the world, the actor acts but is not the character" (108) and so on.

Cultural difference again has a role to play. A performance is a signification. The

traditional Chinese theatre is different fiom western naturalistic theatre, for it is

symbolic, while western naturalistic theatre is based on the "realist-illusionist modalities. "

The audience needs to be educated to acquire knowledge of the theatrical convention in

order to appreciate the performance fully.

" Particular conventions " are "conventions, rules, and styles proper to an

artist (playwright, director, actor), a genre, a school, a movement, a historical period,

or a cultural-geographical region" (De Marinis 110). This is important, for "an

audience's degree of awareness of particular conventions greatly conditions the level of

their comprehension and fruition [sic] of a performance . . . if [it] possesses adequate

particular competence (or genre competence), precise intertextual information on the

performance text in question, facilitate comprehension, and create certain expectations,

which c m of course also be fnistrated" (De Marinis 11 1).

What one sees on stage c m be decoded according to "particular

conventions. " These c m be found in the context of the theatre in concepts, literary

conventions, allusions, and myths, and the playwright' s style. "Particular conventions "

223

may also be found in the theatre itself as theatrical conventions, stage stereowes,

theatrical roles, ciramatic forms or a mixture of these,

A concept is an intangible cultural code. Concepts are inherent in culture

and are often economically crystallized in certain linguistic or visual representations-

These representations become powerful theatrical devices to dramatize ideas. An

example is a religious concept such as "purgation." Praed teils Vivie at the beginning

of the play that the behaviours of conventional young men and women are "simple

purgatory for shy and sincere souls." "Purgatory" is a well established and defined

concept in western society. Especially in Roman Catholic Church doctrine, it refers to

the "condition after death in which the sou1 requires to be purified by temporary

suffering, place where souls are so purified" (OED). n e Purgatorio of Dante in the

Divina Commedia gives a dramatic description of purgatory, presenting it as "a mountain

rising in circular ledges, on which are the various groups of repentant sinners" (Eagle).

It becomes quite difficult to bring this concept to the Chinese stage, since China is

polytheistic, ranging fiom the Buddhist religion, to the more philosophic Coafucianism,

to the everyday ancestor worship. Western religion, in 1919, was a comparatively new

introduction administered by the missionaries. No wonder in the 1919 translation, the

translator replaces the western concept with a Chinese philosophy: "It is a place for shy

and honest people to thoroughly refonn oneself in the sense of Xi Xin or washing the

heart" (107). The 1923 translation shows an interesthg variation: "It is to atone for the

crimes of the shameful and honest soul" (6).

Each culture has its unique treasure of literature, and its own pool of

literary conventions, another kind of "particular convention." This rnay be another

obstacle for the audience abroad, who may not have been exposed to foreign literary

conventions. For instance, Praed is "sentimental" when he refuses to tell Vivie anything

about Mrs Warren's past:

PRAED. 1 really cannot. 1 appeal to your good feeling. [She smiles a b his

sentimentaliiy . ] (1 : 280)

Here, besides meaning "the quality of being weakly or foolishly sentimental or full of

tender feelings " (OED), Praed's "sentimentality" also reminds one of the sentimental

comedy, written in reaction against the immorality of the Restoration d rma showing the

just reward of virtues and vices. Significantly, there is no mention of "sentirnentality"

in the translation. The 1919 version reads:

PRAED. 1 cannot tell. 1 beg you. [Vivie look ar his expression and smiles-]

(1 10)

The 1923 version also does not convey a sense of "sentimentaiity":

225

PRAED. 1 really cannot. I beg your tender care. [She looks al his condition

and laughs scomjùlly.] (12)

In the 1959 version, Pun Jia-sheng atternpts again:

PRAED. I really cannot tell. I beg your kindness. [She looks at his passionate

but often unrequited love and miles.] (14)

The difficulty in translating the term seems to pinpoint a lack of any appropriate Chinese

equivalence, and the difficulty for literary conventions to make a full passage to another

culture.

Allusion is another literary convention that has agency in the theatre.

Vivie and Frank play the babes in the wood:

FRANK. The babes in the wood: Vivie and little Frank. [He nestles against her

like a weary child.] Lets go and get covered up with leaves . (1 : 324)

The children in the wood is:

The subject of an old ballad, included in Percy's and Ritson's collections. A

226

gentleman of Norfolk on his death-bed leaves his propeay to his infant son and

daughter, and gives the charge of them to his brother, who hires two ruffians to

slay them in a wood. One of these repents and kills his fellow, and then

abandons the children in the wood. The children perish and the robin-redbreast

covers them with leaves. (Eagle 96)

Vivie's rejection of babes in the wood shows her rejection of "love's young drearn in any

shape or form" (1 : Ml). How can îhis allusion reach China? The 19 19 translation gives

a Iiteral interpretation:

FRANK. [He stealrhiiy puts his a m round Vivie's waist, and ieam against her

like a weary bird.] Let us fmd some leaves and get covered up. (140).

Without the allusion, the scene wiii merely show Frank and Vivie indulging in a childish

game.

An allusion used in WEdowersJ Houses can be inferred from its title.

" Widowers' Houses" c m be traced back to Mark, Chapter 12, Verses 38-40:

Because of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in

the market places, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost

227

rooms at feasts which devour Widow's Houses and for a pretense make long

prayers; those shail receive greater damnation.

S imüarl y, Sartorius manipulates the syrnbols , forms and institutions signalling the upper

class in order to advance himself and hide his mean origins. The social convention of

class distinction, like the "long clothing", is only skin deep and temporary. The

adjective " sartoriai" certainly refers to clothing, usually in phrases such as l' sartorial

splendeur. "

But the Chinese translators do not convey the biblical or the literary

reference. Pun Jia-sheng translates the title as Lou Xiang or A Mean Ailey, giving a

sense of what the lodgings were like. Jin Ben-ji and Yuan Bi translate the titie as Guan

Fu Zhi Shi or Widowers' Rooms. Sartorius's name appears as a romanization in the

translations.

Apart from the conventions surroundhg the theatre, the theatre itself has

its own set of conventions. Another kind of "particular convention" is theatrical

convention. But again theatrical conventions are culture specific. Mrs Warren

consciously plays the theatrical mother when Crofis reveals his intentions to rnarry Vivie:

Mrs Warren flushes a little at her failure to impose on him in the churacter of a

theatricully devoted mother. ( 1 : 3 02)

The 1918 and 1959 translations read:

Mrs W w e n originally wants to use the face of a mother to impose on him. (125)

"The face of a mother" is subject to the theatrical convention of the host culture, which

may be different from the western convention. The 1923 translation is more specific:

Mrs Warren cannot put on the manners of an earnest loving mother to impose on

him. (40)

Again, the appearance of the action is given in lieu of the theatrical convention.

Stage stereotype is a theatrical device prompting the audience to interpret

a character in a particular way. But stereotypes Vary according to different cultures. For

example, in Mrs Warren's Profession, Praed is conventionally unconventional. He is

described in the stage direction as "hardly past middle age, with something of the artist

about him, unconventionally but carefully dressed" (1 : 272). In the 19 19 translation,

Praed is described as dressed "unfashionably " (1 05) instead of " unconventionally ". The

idea of unconventionality is mentioned in the subsequent 1923 and 1959 translations.

Later, Vivie asks Praed:

VIVE. Oh! have I been behaving unconventionally?

PRAED- Oh no: oh dear no. At Ieast not conventionally unconventionaily you

understand- (1: 275).

Praed proceeds to explain conventionality as "Only gallantiy copied out of novels, and

as vulgar and affected as it could be . Maidenly reserve! gentlemady chivalry " (1 : 275).

It is not so easy to bring this western mannerism to the East. The 1919 text translates

"conventional" with the connotations of "overcautious" and "reserved" :

V I V E Oh! 1s there anything unconventional and unreserved in my behaviour?

(107)

In the 1923 translation, "unconventional" is taken to mean "audacious, unbridled and

wanton.

The theatre from different cultures have different theatrical roles, which

may be difficult for the director trying to fmd a counterpoint in the theatre abroad.

Another theatrical role is the "prig" . Just before Mrs Warren's confession, Vivie finds

herself giving way to her mother:

230

for her replies, which have sounded sensible and strong to her so far, now begin

to ring rather woodenly and even pnggishly against the new tone of her mother.

(1: 309)

The "prig" is "one who affects great superïority in principles, views, or standards,

especially in a self-righteous way; a puritanical person, one who is precise to an extreme

in attention to p ~ c i p l e or d m " (Webster). The sententious female png has been well

established and made fun of in western Iiterature, such as Miss Prism in The Importance

of Being Earnesl. But it seems to be hard to find a Chinese equivalence. The 1919

translation reads:

for her replies were very fornidable. Now it becornes grQdually not that vivid and

dramatic, ( 1 30)

The 1923 translation attempts to interpret the lines:

cold, resolute, not trusting. She triés to argue against this new tone of her

morher roughly and proudly. This type of argument is felt to be too strong and

iwitQting even by herse& (50)

Pun Jia-sheng tries again in the 1959 translation. Likewise, he attempts to explain:

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for she felt that her retorts were very reasonable. Now, upon heuring this new

argumentfrom her mother, she feels that she is sornewhat awkward and arrogant.

(59)

The theatrical appearance is described, instead of reIying on the audience to interpret for

itself, since the audience may not possess the cultural tools, the prior knowledge, to

decipher the role.

Dramatic forms are powerful "particular conventions". However, for this

to work, the audience has to possess a knowledge of the guiding dramatic form, which

may not be a problem if a e playwright and the audience belong to the same culture.

Yet, if the play is transferred abroad and faces an audience from another culture, this

rnay cause a problem. To illustrate, 1 shall refer to the Chinese version of Widowers '

Houses.

The Chinese translation of Widowers ' Houses appears in 1919 in Volume

II Issue 4 of Xin Chao or Nav Tide, published in May 1920 shortly after the publication

of Mrs Warren's Professian which appears in Volume II Issue 2 of the same joumal.

Again it was translated by min Jia-sheng. Another translation appears in 1923 in Jin

Ben-ji and Yuan Bi's translation of Plays Unplearant.

232

The interpretation of Widowers ' Homes relies on the audience's knowledge

of the ciramatic form, Romantic Comedy. The play originated as a coliaborative effort

between William Archer and Shaw. Archer, who was responsible for supplying the plot,

intended the play to be a Romantic Comedy. Writing in a notice in The World, 14

December, 1892, 963, 14, pp. x, xi, Archer says:

1 drew out, scene by scene, the scheme of a twaddling cup and saucer comedy,

vaguely suggested by Augier's Ceinture Dorée. The details I forgot, but 1 h o w

it was to be called Rhinegold was to open, as Widowers' Houses actually does,

in a hotel garden on the Rhine, and was to have two heroines, according to the

accepted Robertson-Byron-Carton formula. 1 fancy the hero was to propose to

the sentimental heroine, believing her to be the poor niece instead of the rich

daughter of the sweater, or slum-landlord, or whatever he may have been; and

1 b o w he was to carry on in the most heroic fashion, and was ultirnately to

succeed in throwing the tainted treasure of his father-in-law, metaphorically

speaking, into the Rhine. . . . Far from having used up my plot, he had not even

touched it. (Evans 49)

In Widowers' Houses, the play is a Romantic Comedy until Dr Harry Trench heroically

breaks off the engagement when Blanche Sartorius refuses to give up her father's money

in future. Shaw's play deviates from the Romantic Comedy when Trench fmds out from

233

Sartonus that he has no cause for complacency, for his own money is drawn from the

same source as Sartorius's. Trench later becomes a partner in the slum-landlord's

fuiancial plans, renews the engagement, and becomes Sartorius's son-in-law.

The Chinese audience's response to Mrs Warren's Profession, to be

discussed further in the next section, shows that they were unaware of the underlying

cornparisons to plays such as Pinero's The Second Mrs Tanqueray, else they would have

known the deviations from the conventional revelation scene. The Chinese translations

of Widowers' Houses also do not show any trace of the Romantic Comedy. In fact, the

word "romance" is translated quite loosely. When Cokane talks about feeling "the charm

of Our own tongue under a foreign sky, " Sartorius answers:

THE GENTLEMAN [a ZittLe puzzZedJ Hm! From a romantic point of view,

possibly. (1: 52)

The 1920 translation reads : "Hm. From an emotional point of view . . . . " (770). The

1923 translation reads: "Hm. Ideally . . . " (7). Later, Lickcheese persuades Trench to

reconcile with Blanche, saying: "Why not have a bit of romance in business when it costs

nothing? We al1 have Our feelins" (1: 117). The 1920 version reads: "As it does not cost

anything, why don't we add a bit of personal relationship between boy and girl into the

business?" (8 14). The 1923 translation oflers another interesting variation: "If it does not

234

cost anything' why don't we use something fantastic on business?" (92). The notions of

romance and the romantic takes tirne to go abroad. In fact, nowadays the Chinese has

a romanization of the tenn, "Lang man. "

Mytiis are nanatives describing and portraying in syrnbolic language the

ongin of the basic elements and assumptions of a culture. Myths often refer to an

extraordinary time and place, to gods and other supernatural beings and processes. But

myths can also be readily borrowed and dramatized in plays. Myths can provide the

plot, character, structure or theme of the play. The meamient of the myth and the

deviations from it serve to highlight the intentions of the playwright.

A subtle mythic parallel used in Widowers' Hauses is with the myth of the

Ring of the Nibelungs. AIthough Shaw says that his play shows "realism" (Dukore 7),

the play resonates with the myth, which is the foundation of Archer's version of the play.

Archer wanted to cd1 the play The Rhinegold after Wagner's Ring.

The use of the myth in Widowers ' Houses also shows another "particular

convention": the playwright's style. In perspective, the Teutonic myth occupies an

important position in Shaw's writing, since the playwnght works out different types of

heroes with various imaginative capacities in TRe Peqect Wugnente, and the myth is used

extensively in later plays. A lurking image behind Widowers ' Homes is the River Rhine.

235

Act 1 is set on the ban . of the river. Trench f is t meets Blanche when he is on board

a steamer travelling dong the R b e . Blanche with her father's enormous wealth is like

a Rhine maiden with the Rhine gold. Trench cornes in search of the Rhine maiden's

love. When he fmds out that the gold is tainted, he tries to reject the Rhine Gold and

throw it back into the river. But he stiii wants the love of the Rhine maiden. When

Trench learns that his own money is also tainted, he no longer has any objection to the

money. He will keep the gold. When Blanche insists on breaking off the engagement,

Trench has the gold without the love. At the end of Act III, Trench has both the gold

and the love. But Trench is more than a parody of Albenc than Alberic himself, for he

represents what Alberic has done, while he lacks the dwarf's strong will. Sartonus

represents Alberic's strong wili and his unscrupulousness. Lickcheese stands for the

dwarf's pragmatism and his power of transforming himself into whatever appearance he

wants. Shaw wrote in The Perfect Wugnerite on Alberic's magic helmet:

In the mine [of Alberic, where his slaves are piling up wealth for him under the

invisible hunger-whip,) . . . Alberic has set his brother Mime -- more familiarly,

Mimmy -- to make him a helmet. Mimrny dimly sees that there is some magic

in this helmet, and tries to keep it; but Alberic wrests it from him, and shews

him, to his cost, that it is the veil of the invisible whip, and that he who wears

it can appear in what shape he wills, or disappear fiom view altogether. This

helmet is a very common article in Our streets, where it generally takes the form

236

of a tail hat. It makes a man invisible as a shareholder, and changes him into

various shapes, such as a pious Christian, a subscriber to hospitals, a benefactor

of the poor, a model husband and father, a shrewd, practical, independent

Englishman, and what not, when he is realiy a pitiful parasite of the

commonwealth, consuming a great deal, and producing nothing, feeling nothing,

knowing nothing, believing nothing, and doing nothing except what all the rest

do, and that only because he is afraid not to do it, or at least pretend to do it.

(Essays 205)

Lickcheese's transformation from a carewom rent collector to a rich capitalist dressed

in ta11 hat shows his a f f i t y to Albenc who c m change his appearance with the help of

the magic helrnet. Alberic c m appear in whatever pious guise he wants, just as Sartorius

tries to justifj his being a slum-landlord. Alberic's hetmet sets the model for

Undershaft, the great benefactor of the poor. Apparently, Trench is a lucky Albenc who

gets both the Rhhe gold and the Rhine maiden, but the dwarf is really a combination of

Trench, Sartorius and Lickcheese, who represent Alberic's romanticism, will, meanness

and ability to hide his mean ongins.

However, in the Chinese translation, the River Rhine is presented as a

physical setting, and the mythical resonances are lost. Things are presented literally

rather than symbolically.

237

A play is a cultural product. What the audience hears and sees may be

a complex made up of a mixture of "particular conventions." When C r o h first meets

Vivie, Shaw's text reads:

Crofls advances to Vivie with his most courtly manner. She no&, but d e s no

motion to shuke hanàs. (1: 281)

Here, there is a mixture of western literary tradition in "counly", western mannerism in

"rnosr county manner, " and western trope in "shake hamY"'. Sir George Crofts is

consciously playing the role of the aristocratic courtly lover begging for the love of the

haughty lady, Vivie, whom he wants to marry. Frank is the slanderer. The trope of

greeting may be a nod or a handshake. Vivie greets Crofts with a distanced "nod',

denying him the more familiar and friendly handshake. However, in the 1919

translation, this scene appears like this:

The term "courtly " has associations in the West:

"Courtly love" is a conception of love first developed in the feudal courts of the south of France in the first half of the 12th century, and is the chief theme of the troubadours in their chansons; it is essentialiy aristocratic, its basic situation of human lover, haughty lady, and tale-bearing slanderers being modelled on the relation of vassal to overlord in feudal society. Treated as an elegant and entertaining social and literary game of gallantry in the Midi, courtly love passed into the north of France in the second half of the 12th century, where, in the hands of writers like Chrétien de Troyes, it developed into a more serious code of social morality . (Eagle)

238

Crofrs advances a step respec~lly. Vivie no&, but does not show any intention

of shaking hands with him. (1 11)

The 1923 translation makes another attemp t:

Crofls shows his most refined manners and walks towards Vivie. She nods, but

does not show any intention tu shake hands. (13)

Pun Jia-sheng's next attempt in the 1959 translation still reads:

Crofts advances a step most respec~jidly. (15)

It seems that the translators c m oniy deal with the literary conventions by describing the

appearance of the action in terms such as "most respectfùlly" or "most refined munners".

With this performance text, the audience from a foreign culture may not have the cultural

clues, the knowledge of the conventions, to decipher and interpret the action. Part of the

meanhg of the play is lost in the passage abroad.

"Particular conventions" are culture-specific. One way to enable their

passage abroad is to replace them with "particular conventions" from another culture-

While the denotations are different, the connotations are similar. For instance, Frank

239

tells Vivie that her clerk has "gone to play cricket on Primrose Hill" ( 1: 336). The

1919 translation just mentions his going to Primrose Hill to "play ball games" (148).

The 1923 translation is more imaginative, with "He has gone t a Primrose Hill to play

cricket", "cricket" here rneaning xi-shuai, the insect which rich Chinese used to amuse

themselves, or to gamble, in cricket fights.

Another culture-specific item is architecture. Frank tells his father that

Praed built Caernarvon Casde for the Duke (1: 295). Yet, Én China there was no

western style castle. A comparable impressive and enormous architectural stnicture was

the "temple". No wonder "Castle" is translated as "temple" in al1 three versions.

6. Contextual Analvsis - The context of the ~erforrnance

Another aspect of contextual analysis is the context of the performance.

This involves a look at "distinctive conventions. " "Distinctive conventions" are "the

d e s irnposed by the performance itself" (De Marinis 1 14). In the 1921 production of

Mrs Warren's Production, there are rules working for and agaïmt the production.

First, there are distinctive conventions working for the production. These

factors are theatrical environment, the producer, and the venue of the performance

including the city and the theatre.

The theatrical environment was contributive to the production of Shaw's

plays. Shaw writes in The Quintessence of Ibsenism: "Now an interesthg play cannot

in the nature of things mean anything but a play in which problems of conduct and

character of persona! importance to the audience are raised and suggestively discussed"

(Essays 162). The Chinese stage in Shanghai seemed to be quite ready for such dramatic

discussions. According to Chea Xian-mo:

*Not long after the May Fourth Movement, the drama movement in Shanghai was

surging and fast-changing. This trend was inseparable from the nationalist and

new cultural movements. At that time, most performances were made by the

youth propaganda groups, which specialized in giving speeches in costume,

advocating patriotic ideas popular at that time. (Tien, Zhong 217)

The producer is an essentiaI factor. Wang Chung-hsien was both a

professional actor and an ardent advocate of new drama. In the latter capacity, Wang

edited the " m g Guang" ("Light of Youth") Section of the Shi Shi Xin Bao (Nau Navs

Nauspaper). According to Gilbert Fong,"Wang Chung-bien argued for drastic

' t a i l o ~ g ' in adapting Western drama. 'As long as the original idea is preserved,

supefluous scenes should be deleted, and amplifications should be made to clear up

241

obscwities. In the most extreme cases, even a whole act can be added or omitted

without hesitation' " (Luk 2).

Wang Chung-Men was a member of the Xi Ju Xie She @rama Joint

Society). The Society was keen to perform the play of ideas. Chen Xian-mo

recalls: "*We feel that we would like to increase the influence of the youth propaganda

groups and to improve the form of their performance by linking patriotic content and

stage art. We hope that patriotic ideas c m be spread through a more complete story and

stage image" (Tien, Zhong 218). In this Society, more attention was paid to the play,

to the script, to rehearsals, to sets and costume, to characterization, and to the director.

Among the plays staged by the Xi Ju Xie She was "Nora", the Chinese adaptation of A

Doll's Home.

The venue is also contributive to the production, which took place in

Shanghai. Shaw's play is an example of "new drarna, " a modem western play as against

the traditional Chinese drama. Shanghai at that time was a "modem city," the

commercial and theatrical centre of China. Figure 11 shows a reconstnicted Western

style theatre in China in the 1920s. According to Mackerras (1975):

Shanghai was more productive of new and unconventional ideas than Peking. It

was a modem city, a great port and the most important economic centre in the

A Western Stgle Theatre in China in the 1920s

A scene fiom The Phantom Lover, a film in which a western style theatre in Peking in the 1920s is reconstructed. The pit and the boxes are shown here.

242

country. In view of its larger foreign population and closer contacts with other

countries, Shanghai might be expected to have a cultural life more uifluenced by

the West and less tied to the past than ahnost any other city in China. Tradition

certainly flourished there, but not to an overpowering extent, and it was inevitable

that this situation should be reflected in the texture of Shanghai's theatrical life.

(123)

The theatre itself has agency. It is a physical location, which varies from

production to production. The 1921 Chinese production took place in a new western-

style commercial theatre in Shanghai. The producer Wang Chung-hsien was a

professional actor at the Shanghai Xin Wutai (The New Shanghai Stage) (Tien, Zhong,

110). This famous theatre was modem and western. According to Mackerras (1990),

this theatre was "the first new-style theatre in al1 China, modern in the sense that it was

not a traditional teahouse . . . but more like the Western theatres of the day. Entry was

through tickets, the stage was semi-circular, not square, and there was decor Iighted with

larnps " (98). More importantly , the theatre is not unassociated with new style drarna and

the play of ideas. According to Mackerras (1990):

In 1913 Mei Lanfang visited Shanghai, where he came under the influence of the

modem Peking operas performed there, especially the idea of the "new dramas

with contemporary costumes" and the New Shanghai Theatre. He performed in

243

a long drama on the evils of prostitution and the repression of women called

Niehai boïan (Waves of the Sea of Sin). (99)

But there are also distinctive conventions working against the production

of Shaw's play. These inchde the staging of the play as a capitalist venture in a

commercial theatre, with the use of popular actors, advertisements, while the play itself

is anti-capitalist. The plot and moral of the play did not please the audience.

The commercial theatre was a new and fashionable thing in China. Zücker

wmte in the early 1920s:"Theatres on a commerciai basis are practically a new thing in

China, that is to Say sornething that has developed on a large scale only with the last

twenty years. Before that time theatrical performances were given mostly at temples or

harvest festivals at the houses of rich men, and most elaborately, at the imperial court"

(155).

The production of Mrs Warren 's Profession in the commercial theatre was

a capitalist venture in several ways. To market the venture, there were attempts to make

the production appeal to the general public and make it popular. First, popular actors

and actresses were used. According to Hsiao Ch'ien, "It took [the producer Mr Wang

Chung-bien] a long time to persuade several popular actors and actresses to take part

in the Chinese version of Mr Shaw's play" (19).

244

Next, advertisements were used to attract more potential consumers. In

fact, extra efforts were made to advertise the performance: "Generally, the theatre in

which it was to be produced advertised its programme in two newspapers only. This

tirne, Mr Wang decided to advertise in five" (Hsiao 19). The use of advertisements in

newspapers is something modem in China in 1921. Mackerras (1975) writes: " When

newspapers began to be widely circulated early in this century, . . . fuil details of the

dramas and the actors were published in them. Advertising techniques then developed"

(88 - 9). In the Chinese newspapers,"Many of them have their theatncal critics who

'puff actors and actresses for other reasons than for art's sake" (Zucker 154).

Advertisement works in contrasting ways. On one hand, it is "control

over demand, exercised through the cultural reproduction of the consumer, replacing

markets with management and with the corporate plan" (Jenks 189). The advertisement

helps to create the consumers for the product. An example of this kind of advertisement

is the poster of the first performance of Uncle Tom's Cabin, which took place on June

1, 1907 (Figure 12). Here, promoting westem style theatre, drawings of scenes are

shown. Juxtaposing this with the scenes from traditional Chinese drama with which the

audience was more familiar, the features of spoken drama were shown: westem

costumes, detail scenery, naturalistic sets and style of action, division into acts

imaginatively suggested by the rolled up first page revealing action in the next act.

Moreover, at the bottom of the poster, there are brief descriptions of each act, the

An Early Advertisement

Poster of the 1907 performance of Black Slaves Appeal to Heaven by the Spring Willow Society.

characters in each act and the actors play ing them.

On the other hand, advertisements also "have what the consumers want

rather than making them want what you have" (Jenks 203). The advertisernent follows

the preferences of the targeted audience. This type of advertisement can be found in a

modem western-style theatre in Shanghai, like the one perfonning Shaw's play. In the

adveaisement (Figure 13) distributed at the opening of the Mou De Li (Prosperous)

Theatre at Shanghai, which staged new drama, stresses the presentation of lofty plays,

beautifül sets, naturalistic costumes, sophisticated actors, clean theatre with supplies of

binoculars at the boxes, so that the audience can watch the play clearly with the help of

the buioculan. The performance started at 7:30 p.m. with prïce ran $0.80, $0.60,

$0.40. This type of advertisement is part of the capitalist venture to attract audience.

Shaw's pIay is anti-capitalist, uncongenial to the spirit of the theatre in

which it was performed. Mrs Warren's Profession features Mrs Warren and Sir George

Crofts fattening themselves from the capitalist system, and Vivie's choosing to rely on

her own efforts and work for the satisfaction of her own will, rather than in support of

the capitalist society. In Shaw's letter to Golding Bright dated 10 June 1896, he

writes: " [Mrs Warren 's Profession was] clramatic pictures of middle class society , from

the point of view of a socialist who regards the basis of that society as thoroughly rotten

economically and morally " (Letters, 1 632). In the 1933 Postscript to the play, Shaw

The advertisement distributed at the opening of the Mou De Li (Prosperous) Theatre at Shanghai staging new drama. It stresses the presentation of lofSr plays, beautiful sets, naturalistic costumes, sophisticated actors, clean theatre with supplies of binoculars at the boxes.

writes: "The root of evil is economic" (1: 367).

The audience of the 1921 production was the audience of a commercial

theatre open to the general public. The producer Wang Chung-bien attributes the

unsuccessfhl production to the "mgratehl and unintelligent audience" (Hsiao 19). The

audience found the play unsatisfactory for various reasons .

First, some found the play not intriguing enough. Wang Chung-hsien

comments: "Some understood but found the plot lacking in surprise" (Hsiao 19). These

spectators did not appreciate the mere play of ideas. As a result, according to Hsiao

Ch' ien:

Some impulsive critics immediately suggested that we should separate 'play' from

'km' altogether. Mr Wang, however, preferred a compromise. He wanted plays

with simple progressive ideas and an intriguing plot. We could tous assure the

intelligentsia of the country that we were still on the right track while sparing the

yawns of an unintellectual audience. (Hsiao 19)

Next, there was a moral concern, as Wang Chung-bien remembers: "Some

had moral objections to Mrs Warren herself" (Hsiao 19). This objection was caused by

several reasons .

247

The audience of a commercial theatre was supposedly more open-minded

than the conservative theatre goer of the traditional playhouse, In Imperia1 China, men

and women had different seats in the theatre:"The Ch'ing government was among the

most rigorous in Chinese history in its insistence on the separation of the sexes, believing

that the free mingiing of men and women in theatres would lead to a decline in public

morals" (Mackerras, 1975 90). According to Zücker, among the regulations drawn up

by the P e h g poIice to preserve order in the playhouses there was "the ordiilance

requll-ing the separation of the sexes in the theatre. . . . Peking police rules demand that

the ushers and tea-vendors in the galleries must also be women and that these galleries

must have their separate exits" (156). However, in the 1921 performance of Mrs

Warren's Profession, fashionable ladies sat in the fiont stalls. It was also these ladies

who rose to leave early .

The production of Mrs Warren's Profession was significant also because

there were actresses perfonning in it. At that time, many fernale roles in spoken drarna

were played by actors because of the lack of actresses. Fn the Xi Ju Xie She (Drama

Joint Society) to which the producer Wang Chung-hsien belong, there were ody two

female members, until Hong Shen revolutionalized the Society and promoted the use of

actresses to play female roIes in 1924, three years after the production of Shaw's play.

However, the presence of actresses in the performance also highlighted the

248

moral and sexual issues. Here it will be interesthg to compare the western and eastern

production of the play. In terms of the performance history of Mrs Warren's Profession,

the Chinese public staging in 1921 is significant. The play was banned in England and

" was publicly performed for the fust time in London at the Regent Theatre on September

28, 1925" (Ervine 256). Before this, the play was only performed privately by the Stage

Society at the New Lyric CIub in Coventry Street on January 5 and 6 , 1902, followed

by another performance given a decade later by the Pioneer Players. Thus, the Chinese

production came before the first Bntish public performance.

But uie play was censured by the Chinese audience for different reasons

fkom the British. According to Ervine,"the sole cause of the ban was the incidental

reference to the possibility that Vivie Warren and Frank Gardner might be half-brother

and sister. Had the few short speeches in which this possibility was mentioned been

removed, the play could have been public performed, despite the peculiarity of Mrs

Warren's profession" (252 - 3). Yet, the Chinese audience censured the play because

of the "peculiarity of Mrs Warren's profession." According to Hsiao Ch'ien, "In the

second act, when Mrs Warren began to tell Vivie the story of her life, several

fashionable ladies in the front stails nse to Ieave - and not without grumbling" (19). Hu

also reports: "A quarter of the audience left before the production was over, some of them

using obscenities on their way out" (19). In England, the suggestion of incest was the

cause for the British censorship, while the Chinese production was censured by the

249

audience because it shows a prostitute played by an actress. Sir George Crofts does not

suggest that Frank and Vivie may be half-brother and sister until the end of Act III (1:

333), weil after the fashionable Iadies have left in Act II. Ervine thinks that "Mrs

Warren's Profession is the first play in which the modem, independent-minded woman

appears" (2%). Yet, when "it was publicly performed for the fust t h e in London at the

Regent Theatre on September 28, 1925, . . . it then seerned to be dated and remarkably

mild. The crowd had not only caught up with the pioneer, but had passed him" (Ervine

256). The response of the shocked Chinese audience in 1921 was probably more like

what Shaw originally wanted.

The producer Wang Chung-hsien says: "Of course to those who had seen

the play abroad, our performance was far below European standards" (Hsiao 19). With

the CO-textual and contextual circurnstances in mind, this statement c m be seen in another

light. Perhaps one should blame less the producer than the cultural difference.

7. Repercussions of the production of Mrs Warren's Profession

Aithough the performance of Mrs Warren 's Profession in Spring 192 1 was

not a commercial success, it had repercussions on the Chinese theatrical scene. In July

1921, Cheng Zhen-duo wrote in Xi Ju (Drarna), Volume 1, Issue 3, advocating the Guang

250

Ming (Brightness) Movement. In his agenda, first, he proposes the "amateur stage".

He writes: "*Since the capitalists . . . did not get good box office in the performance of

Mrs Warren's Profession, they dare not perform western drama again" (Chao, II 427).

As the term "amateur theatre" suggests, this was formed by amateurs, not

professional actors. More importaut is that the term has a positive connotation in

Chinese. Translated phonologically as "ai mei" which literally means "love beauty, " the

amateur theatre campaign means a non-professional dramatic movement, as distinct from

the professionai theatres condemned as commercial. The amateur theatre is a reaction

against the professional theame. According to Ouyang Yu-qian:

*At that time, profess ional dramatic troupes were considered as being controlied

by the commercial theatres, and could not freely study art. Therefore the

amateur drama campaign was set up -- that is a non-professional dramatic

movement. People engaged centrally in the amateur drama campaign were

attracted by European modem drama, and accepted the realist creative method.

They introduced works by Shaw, Ibsen, Wilde and so on. They Uinovatively

promoted scientific realism, in order to c o ~ i r m the aesthetic and literary position

of new drama. (Tien, Zhong 101).

Remembering the tactical use of spoken drama at the outset of its introduction into

251

China, again Shaw was used as a tactic by people without a power base, by amateurs

rather than professionals- Cheng gives an idea of what the amateur theatre means: the

plays were performed by students or people working in non-dramatic professions. The

plays were best performed in schools, and admission was free. The plays performed

were worthwhile, and fitted the ideals of the troupe. The spirit of the amateur stage was

to perform for the common people.

The justifications for the amateur stage are Shavian: ami-capitdist and

individualist. Mrs Warren's Profession and Wiàowers' Houses are critical of the

capitalists. The anti-capitalist message may be taken more earnestly and seriously in

China than in England. The production of Mrs Warren 's Profession produced an ami-

capitalist sentiment intended by the playwright. Zheng Zhen-duo mentions the insidious

power of the capitalists in his article:

*Under the present capitalism, al1 businesses are controlled by the capitalists.

Working for their own interests, they wiii do the worst things for their gains. If

there are no interests and will incur losses, then they will not do the best things.

Nowadays, drarna is controlled by the capitalists, and so are the performers.

Therefore, apart from meeting the needs of the general public, performing

anythuig that are welcome by them, though these may be meaningless or insidious

drarna, they do nothing else. For money, they perform; for money, they manage

252

the theatre. They never pay attention to what is art, to what is the mission of

drama. Therefore, if one lives in drama, under the present circumstances, one

has to obey or accommodate the psychology of the evil society. (Chao, II 426-7)

Next, Cheng mentions the need to maintain one's individuality:

* m e n a person does something, especially something artistic -- he relies solely

on his own interests. With his interest, he can do anything. . .. People have to

try their best to avoid making what they want to do professional. They have to

maintain the independence of art, and do not rnake it a profession. (Chao, II 427)

The aim of the amateur theatre is nationalistic. The Xin Chung Hua Xi

Ju Xie She (New China Joint Dramatic Troupe), to which Wang Chung-hsien belongs,

States in its declaration: "*The New China Joint Dramatic Troupe aims at uniting all

Chinese amateur dramatists and drarnatic troupes, and al1 lovers of drama, to prornote

and study modem, educational, aesthetic drama, to prepare for creating a national drama

of China" (Chao, X 140).

At the same tirne, it is not difficult to sense something Shavian in the

dedications of the amateur theatre. The New China Joint Dramatic Troupe continues in

its declaration: "*Drama is the easiest and clearest way to study human beings . . . leading

253

to a way to change human beings. If human beings are changed, society will naturally

be changed" (Chao, X 140).

The ends of the amateur stage also reflect Shaw's intention to change

society through drama. Shaw writes in the Preface to Pygmalion: "It is so intensely and

deliberately didactic. . . . It goes to prove my contention that great art can never be

anything else" (N 663). The spirit of the amateur stage also echoes this, as Cheng

writes :

*It must have the hue of social problems and revolutionary spirit. Drama

of pure art should not be performed now -- especially in China.

This is because in the present ugly and dark situation, art should bear part

of the responsibility to produce brightness. Drama is especially moving, and so

is more responsible .

We have two responsibilities. First is to change drama. Second is to

change society. (Chao, II 428)

Nevertheless, The amateur theatre also has its shortconiings. It was

popular only among the intellectuals. Ouyang Yu-qian writes: "*It denied the tradition

of the earliest spoken drama, and some people also rejected the long standing good

Chinese dramatic tradition. The amateur theatre carnpaign was found among the higher

254

class intellectuals, and some of them were in a position even higher than those of the

Spring Wïliow Society. The campaign was not popular for it was separated fiom the

masses" (Tien, Zhong 101).

The passage of Mrs Warren S Profession to China has shown that it is

easier for the cultural reproduction of ideas to take place, than the cultural reproduction

of everyday life. The theatre, as a cultural space, is open to influence of the context of

the performance in addition to the performance text. The passage of Shaw and his plays

to China is incomplete, showing that westernization is inadequate without globalization.

The following chapters will focus on Shaw's actual passage to China, and how the spirit

of the playwright and his plays were sinotized and contrïbuted to the reformation of

Chinese drama.

De Marinis, Marco. The Semiotics of Peg5omzance. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1993-

De Vargas, Ph. "Some Elements in the Chinese Renaissance." The Nav China Review

3 (1922): 234 - 47.

Dukore, Bernard F . Bernard S h , Playwright: Aspects of Shavian Drarna. Columbia:

U of Missouri P, 1973.

EagIe, Dorothy . The Concise Oxford Dicrionary of English Literature. Oxford: OUP,

1979.

Eide, Elisabeth. China 's Ibsen: From Ibsen tu Ibsenisrn. London: Curzon Press, 1987.

Ervine, St. John. Bernard Shaw: His Life, Work and Friends. New York: William

Morrow, 1956.

Evans. T.E., ed. Shav: n e Critical Heritage. London: Routiedge and Keegan Paul,

1976.

256

Hong, Shen. Hong Shen Xuan Ji. (Selecred Works of Hong Shen.) Hong Kong: Xin Yi

Publishers, 1958.

Hsiao, ChYien. The Dragon Beardî Versus the Blueprints. London: Pilot Press, 1944.

Hu, Shih. H u Shih (Selecred W d n g s of Hu Shih). Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Co.,

1987.

HU, Xing Liang. "Utong Guo Xi Ju Xian Dai Hua Di Li Shi Xing Zhwn Zhe." ("A

Historical Transformation of China Dramatic Modernization. ") Wen Xue Ping

Lun (Literary Review) 2 (1995): 84 - 96.


Juig , Zhi-gang . "Zhong Guo Zhi Shi Zhe Di Qing Gan Zi Jue Yu 'Wu Si ' Hua Ju. " (The

emotional self-consciousness of the Chinese Intellectuals and spoken drama in the

May Fouah Movement. ") Xi Ju Yi Shu (Dramaric Art) 55 (1991): 100 - 7.

Luk, Yun-tong , ed . Studies in Chinese- Western Comparative Drama . Hong Kong:


257

Mackerras, Colin. n e Chinese neatre in Modem Times: From 1840 to the Present

Day. London: Thames & Hudson, 1975.

- . Chinese Drama: A Histoncal Survey. Beijing: New World P, 1990.

Drabble, Margaret, ed. The Oxford Cornpanion to English Lirerature. Oxford: OUP,

1998.

Shaw, Bernard. Collected P l q s With Their Prefaces. Ed. Dan H. Laurence. 7 vols.


--- . Collectes Letters. 4 vols. Ed. Dan H. Laurence. London: Max Reinhardt, 1965

- 1988.

-- . Major Critical Essays. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986.

---- . Bu Kuai Yi De Xi Ju (Plays Unpleasant) . Trs. Jin Ben-ji and Yuan Bi. n.p . : Gong

Xue She, 1923.

---- . Hua Lun Fu Ren Zhi Zhi Ye (Mrs Warren's Profession). Tram. min Jia-sheng.

Xin Chao (Nav Tide) 2 (1919): 105 - 162.

258

-- - Hua Lun Fu Ren Zhi Zhi Ye (Mrs Warren's Profession). Tram. Pun Jia-sheng.


---- . Lou Xiang (Widowers ' Houses). Tram- P m Jia-sheng . Xin Chao (Nav Tide). 4

(1919): 767 - 817.

Tian, Ben-xiang. "The Realism and Change of Chinese Modem Drama. " Wen Xue Ping

Lun 2 (1993): 5 - 15.

Tien, Han, Ouyang, Yu-qian, et. al., ed- Zhong Quo Hua Ju Yun Dong Wu Shi Nian

Shi Liao Ji . Beijing: Zhong Guo Xi Ju Chu Ban She, 1958.

Zucker, A.E. The Chinese Thearre. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1925.

The title of this dissertation is "Shaw's Passace to China." So far, the

passage of Shaw's works to China is covered. In this chaprer, 1 shall concentrate on

Shaw's actual passage to China, and examine whether the playwright is subject to the

same construction and interpretation as his works. In cultural globalization. the passage

of the image of the playwright is as much a literary transmission as the plays themselves.

The previous two chapters have shown that the theatre can bz regarded

from two aspects, as a cultural reproduction of ideas and of everyday life respectively.

The ideological considerations are enabling, making the plays pass quite readily f?om one

culture to another, whereas the everyday life considerations are more disablin%, making

the foreign audience regard the plays with caution and possibly reçervation.

1 shall go on to examine whether the ideolo_gicaI and everyday life

considerations continue to be funcrional in Shaw's actual passage to China in 1933.

Ideologically , the Chinese tried to incorporate Shaw into theii construction of nationalism

and globalisrn. Shaw becarne part of the rhetoric specifically to protest against Japanese

260

aggression, and generally part of the discourse to counter imperialism. These are shown

in the Chinese welcome of Shaw. In th is case, nationalism and globalization work for

one another.

However, the real arriva1 of Shaw showed that real, everyday Iife might

be quite different from expectations based on ideological constructions. The Chinese

could not fit what the real Shaw did and said into their rhetoric of nationalism and

globalism. The playwright eluded or defied construction. Consequently, a reaction

against Shaw was elicited to safeguard the cultural integrity of the nation. Nationalism

and globdization began to work against one another.

1 shall pay special attention to the preparation for and report on Shaw's

visit by the Shanghai newspaper, the Chinese Shenbao. The quotes marked with an

asterisk are translated by me, and many probably have never been translated into English

before.

1. Globalization and Nationalism

Nationalism and globaIization work for and against one another. On one

hand, nationalism complements globalization, for nations together fonn the global

261

context, Johann P. Arnason writes: "Nation and nation States do not s h p l y interact with

each other, under modern conditions, they fonn - or tend to form -- a world, Le. a

global context with its own processes and mechanisms of integration" (Featherstone 224).

Globalization also fosters nationalism and awakens the sense of the national, as Arnason

continues: "The differentiating impact of globalization strengîhens or reactivates national

identities, communities and projections . . . national differentiation as the obverse of the

constitution of a world society " (Featherstone 224).

On the other hand, nationalism and globalization may also work against

one another. Nationalism hampers globalization as Arnason notes:

Within the world of nations, the nations have a more or less pronounced tendency

to become worlds in their own right, and in this capacity, they also face the task

of coming to terrns with the other lines of differentiation which are built into the

global condition. This means a sub -- or counter -- globalization, c e n t e ~ g on

the nation and the nation-s tate. (Featherstone 224-5)

The active interaction between the national and the global helps to construct national

identity. The sense of the national is augmented thmugh reference to the global by

mapping the national withïn a global context. In this process, on one hand, a nation can

work out its affinity to other societies, that is, to locate itself within a global culture. On

262

the other hand, it c m work out its difference fkom other societies, and thus defme what

is charactenstic to itself. Roland Robertson wntes:

The ways in which national societies . , . have at one and the same time attempted

to leam fkom others, and sustain a sense of identity - or, alternatively, isolate

themselves from the pressures of contact -- also contribute an important aspect of

the creation of global culture. (King, 1991 88)

In this chapter, Shaw's passage to China in February, 1933 will be seen

from three perspectives. First, Shaw's lukewarm attitude towards his passage to China

will be shown. Secondly, this will be juxtaposed against the warm Chinese expectation

of the great British writer. Thiçdly, the cooling down of the Chinese response after

Shaw's real visit will be examined. The reality of his presence stimulated the Chinese

writers to be more conscious of China's difference and identity. This exemplifies

Robertson's assertion that "national-societal cultures have been differentially formed in

interpenetration with significant others" (King, 1991 88). The contact with the global

culture eventudly fosters the construction of national identity. Featherstone thinks: 'Tt

is . . . misleading to conceive a global culture as necessarily entailing a weakening of the

sovereignty of nation-states which . .. wilI necessarily be absorbed into larger units and

eventually a world state which produces cultural homogeneity and integration"

(Featherstone 2). The discourse on Shaw was part of the discourse of the nation.

2. The Chiqese Realist Drama

While the Chinese intellectuals in the early twentieth century were

interesteci in Shaw's plays and cntical wrîtings, in the 1930s around Shaw's visit to

Ckna, they were more interested in Shaw himself and the associations buiit around his

name. The Chinese had gone beyond mere imitation of western realist drama, and were

developing their own unique modes of realistic plays. Chinese playwrights were

deviating from Shavian realism. According to Tang Yi-pei, there were three main kinds

of Chinese reaüst drama emerging: reaüstic plot drama, realistic psychological drama,

and realistic epic

The Chinese realistic plot drama was developed from Ibsen. A

representative work is Ts'ao Yu's Lei Yu (Thunderstom), wriîten in 1934, one year after

Shaw's visit to China. Ts'ao Yu was influenced by western realist drama, such as

Ibsen's plays. According to Tang Yi-pei:

*When Ts 'ao Yu was studying at the Nankai and Tsinghua Universities, he acted

in a number of classic western realistic drama, including Ibsen' s A Do21 's House

and The Enemy of the People. The famous director of the Nankai New Drama

Troupe, Zhang Peng-chun, has given him an English version of The Complete

264

Ibsen. At that tirne, Ts'ao Yu finished reading this book with a dictionary .

Later, Ts'ao Yu read broadly, covering old and modem Chinese and western

plays, and understood Ibsen's unique style more thoroughly. (136)

Ts'ao Yu has also read Shaw's works. According to Christopher C. Ebnd: "He engrossed

himself in the plays of, among others, Gorlq, Chekhov, G. B. Shaw, O'Neill, Euripides,

and Aeschylus" (Ts'ao Yu xii). In the Intellectual Revolution, realist drama was

regarded as a way of propaganda, and Shaw's plays were read in this way as shown in

Chapter Four. The subject matter was regarded as most important. But Ts'ao Yu paid

attention to the aesthetic aspect, working on the treatment of the subject matter and the

aesthetic rnethod. Tang Yi-pei thinks that The Thunderstomt shows the three main

characteristics of Chinese realist plot drama:

*First, a tortuously changing story structure builds up the internal emotional

explosiveness .

Secondly, the plot structure quickly rises to a climax.

Thirdly, characterization is the internal power of plot development. (136 - 7)

Next were the Chinese realistic psychological drama, such as Ts'ao Yu's

Ri Chu (Sunrise) or Hsia Yen's Shanghai Wu Xian Xia (Under the Roof in Shanghai).

The three characteristics of the Chinese realistic psychological drama are:

*First, trying hard to follow the original in the description of life, in order to

maintain a high degree of realism. . . . The representation of daily life is the main

subject, so that the forms of daily life, especially the myriads of detail, are

represented realistically .

Secondly, showhg the drama of daily life through the depiction of the characters'

psychology. ... But the direct presentation of the character's psychological

movements found in western realist drama were not commonly used in modem

Chinese drama. For example, O'Neill's depiction of the subconsciousness of the

characters in The Emperor Jones was used in Ts'ao Yu's Yuan Ye (The

Wilderness), and was once regarded as unsuccessfully borrowed.

Thirdly, in the Chinese realistic psychological drama, the depiction in the whole

play is put under a strong emotional atmosphere. (Tang Yi-pei 139 - 40)

The final group of plays are the Chinese realistic epic drama. An example

is Lao She's Cha Guan (The Teahouse). In this type of drama, "the dramatic structure

contains excerpts of the horizontal cross-section of life combined with a vertical expense

of historïcal diagrarn" (Tang Yi-pei 141).

Tang Yi-pei concludes that Chinese realist drama has gone beyond the

imitation of westem realist drama:

266

*The f o m of Chinese realist plays, to a very great extent, is a constructive result

of borrowing western realist drama in its entirety. Therefore, its expression

dearly agrees with western realist drama. But this agreement in style only refers

to the realistic methods and skills, and does not affect the uniqueness and national

characteristics shown by the use of the realistic methods and skills. (144)

After the production of Mrs Warren's Profession in 1921, A m s and the

Man was staged in 1935 in Nanjing by the Chinese Drama Association in the Star

Theatre without much success. Other amateur productions included Pygmalion put on

by some students in Zhong Shan University during the War of Resistance against Japan,

and Yhg Ruocheng's "rehearsing A m and the Man with a group of yoiing students in

Beijing University in the late 1940s" (Wendi Chen, 1999 116). As Shaw's realistic

plays began to lose its attractiveness to the Chinese, interest was gradually turned to his

person. His arriva1 at China was highly regarded by the Chinese.

3. The Medla

The media have agency in shaping the thoughts of their audience.

Possesshg the power to construct the image of their object, the media guide the

audience's interpretation and understanding. Simultaneously , the media aiso reflect what

267

the audience thinks. They are both eliciting reaction from the audience and reacting to

it .

As the media often shape and influence popular attitudes, the Chinese press

contributed to the construction of Bernard Shaw, or "Shao Bo Na" as he is known in

Chinese, in advance of his actuai arrival. The media may be a clue to illuminate Shaw's

passage to China. The Chinese construction of Shaw can be seen in how the Chinese

press prepared for the arriva1 of Shaw, incorporating him into the rhetoric of nationalism.

When Shaw did not fulfil these expectations, the Chinese press played a crucial role in

offering a moral interpretation.

1 shall show that Shaw's visit was fxst presented as a Lùik to the global,

for Shaw was regarded as one of the world's great writers. The visit represents China's

further globalization. Yet, the appearance of the real Shaw prornpted the Chinese press

to go back to the national, and gradually estrange themselves from the playwright.

4. The Chinese Press

I shall pay particular attention to the coverage of Shaw's visit by the

Shanghai newspaper, the Shenbao.

268

The Chinese press is a powerful agent. Accordhg to Leo Ou-fan Lee,

there was "a rapid spread of ... new categones of value and thought in the Chinese

popular press" (44). These values and thoughts included the sense of living in a new era,

which "defmed the ethos of modernïty" (Lee 44)- In the construction of the dichotomous

and contrasting categories of "Eastern" and "Western": "The underlying assumption was

that 'Western civilization' was marked by dynarnic progress made possible by the

manifestation of what Benjamin Schwartz has cailed the 'Faustian - Promethean' strain

that resulted in the achievement of wealth and power by the Western countries" (Lee 44).

Newspapers such as Shenbao promoted the modem and the western. Lee

exp lains :

By the 1920s it was generally acknowledged that "modernity" was equated with

"Western civilization" in al1 its spiritual and material manifestations. ...

Intellectuals of a radical persuasion continued to be fm believers in modemity

fomulated in this manner. The center of cultural production for such ideas about

modernity was indisputably Shanghai, where the great majonty of newspapers and

publishing houses were located. (45)

Lee thinks that the Chinese popular press played a crucial role in instigating nationdism.

The popular press "made possible . . . the nation as an 'imagined cornmunity' in China"

269

(46). At the turn of the century, intellectuals and writers "attempted to draw the broad

contours of a new vision of China and disseminate such a vision to their audience, the

newly emergent public consisting largely of newspaper and journal readers and students

in the new schools and colleges" (Lee 46)- Commercial publishing had the task of

"enlightenment" and educating the public: "From its beginnings Chinese modemity was

envisioned and produced as a cultural enterprise of 'enlightenment' -- qimeng, a term

taken from the traditional educational practice, in which a child received his fxst lesson

from a teacher or tutor" (Lee 47).

The Shenbao brings a modern and western perspective. It was "originated

by a Westemer, which began to print Chinese and Western calendar dates side by side

on its front page in 1872" (Lee 45). Besides being a western gesture, this adoption of

Western calendar is aiso a globalizing act. One of the earliest westernized Chinese

intellectuals, Liang Qi-chao, used the Western calendar in his 1899 diary of his travels

to Hawaii, and "sirnply announced that, as he declared his own transformation from a

provincial person to a 'man of the world,' his use of the Western calendar was in

keeping with the general trend toward universalizing the measurement of t h e " (Lee 45).

This in turn contributes to Chinese nationhood, as Lee explains:

Benedict Anderson's widely cited book has Ied us to believe that a nation is first

an "imagined community" before it becomes a political reality. This new

270

"community" is itself based on a conception of simultaneity "marked by temporal

coincidence and measured by clock and calendar. " (45)

Translations were published in newspapers and magazines. According to Lee, translation

was one of the ways journais Iike the Dongfang z&i tried to "keep abreast of world

trends" (48)- Shaw's works were translated into Chinese. For instance, translations of

Shaw's works were collected in "the two gigantic series of Wanyou wenku, each

containing more than a thousand volumes" (Lee 56, 59). They were among the

translations of " worid classics, " grouped under Angio-American literature, which, among

others, include Shakespeare's Hamlet, and Milton's Paradise Lost. The Shenbao began

to publish a translation of Shaw's new work, The Black Girl in Search of God on the eve

of Shaw's visit.

Another feature of the Shenbao is that many farnous Chinese writers

contributed to its various sections. Lee wntes about the Chinese writers in Shanghai:

The treaty port concessions made it possible for writers . . . to partake of the

goods -- and to partake in an imaginary community -- of world literature. It was

through such imaginary acts that they felt connected to the city and to the world

at large. . . . They bought and read foreign books and journais, from which they

extracted materials for translation. In their works they were constantly engaged

in an imaginary dialogue with their favourite Westem authors. (35)

Having an "imaginary diaiogue with their favourite Westem authors" also implies a

construction of the Western author. A potential danger in this process is that once the

real personage appears, and does not fit into this construction, a strong reaction, or even

rejection, will be elicited. Most of the newspaper articles have a direct address or appeal

to Shaw, inviting or assuming that Shaw has a role to play in Chinese nationalism and

globalism.

5. Shaw's Emectations of his Visit to China

There is nothing more literally global than a world tour. Shaw's passage

to China in 1933 was part of his world tour, which began on December 16, 1932 on

board the Empress of Britain. He was aware of the global element in the tour, as he

wrote to Sutro on December 9, 1932: "1 am just off to navigate the globe. Shan't be back

until April -- if ever" (Pearson 417). Shaw amved at Hong Kong from Bombay, via

Ceylon and Singapore, on Saturday February 11, 1933. The Empress of Britain left

Hong Kong for Shanghai on February 15: 1933, and arrived there on February 17, 1933.

Shaw left Shanghai after a brief stay , and arrived at Beijing via Chinwangtao (Chin

Huang Island) at 6:40 p.m. on February 20, 1933. Leavuig China, Shaw went on to

Beppu, Japan, aniving there on February 28, 1933.

Shaw was a reluctant globe-trotter, and undertook the world tour at

Charlotte's insistence. He tolci Otto Kylimann in 1933:"My wife has taken it into her

head that she must go round the world before she dies; and 1 shall have to go with her"

(Letters IV 22 1). Shaw did not share his wife's passion for travel, saying , "If I had been

let alone, 1 should have died in the house that 1 was bom in" (Ervine 529). The Shaws

travelled because "Mrs Shaw was nomadic, and needed holidays from her double

housekeeping in London and Hertfordshire" (Pearson 418). For Shaw, "the cruise gave

him little pleasure. Tropical heat distressed him, and he was not the sort of person who

enjoys organised excursions " (Ervine 530).

In particular, the Shaws were not enthusiastic about their passage to China.

Blanche Patch recalls:

Charlotte found the cold after Hong Kong "most bitter" and faced with dread the

jouniey to Pekin, "after which it will be quieter". The pair of them were clearly

becoming bored with their adventure. One syrnptom is that they are "rather

stanred for news. G.B.S. has read the Times Weekly Sup. you sent from cover

to cover." Then, "1 am a most limp rag," says he himself. "We are just

escaping fkom the tropical heat which has enfeebled us since the Red Sea." And

273

there he sits, reading his Times Weekly and passing letters on to the ship's

stenographer as the Empress of Bntain bears them forward to Pekin and the Great

Wall of China. (Patch 95)

Upon reaching Shanghai, Shaw was far from enthusiastic. Figure 14 gives

a glimpse of old Shanghai. At fxst, Shaw did not want to go ashore: "Shaw had planned

to stay on board with Charlotte during the short stop at Shanghai, but ~hanged his plan

on receiving an invitation from Soong Ching Ling ('Madame Sun'), the sister of Madame

Chiang Kai-shek and widow of the revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen" (Holroyd, III 294).

Under Western eyes, Shaw was justified in staying on board. Hoiroyd thinks that

Shanghai was a dangerous place:

This was a nslq initiative. Shanghai was then bursting into medieval turmoil

with many contending warlords - nationalists, communists, Japanese irnperïalists

and European colonialists - al1 in barbaric struggle. Spies and conspirators,

opium trafkkers, gangsters and their victims jostled togcther. At no distance

from the nightclubs, banks and luxury restaurants were the prison-factories,

miserable rehigee camps, and dead babies in the gutters. (Holroyd, 111 294)

Holroyd narrates Shaw's adventurous journey:"Madarne Sun secretly brought the

notorious agent provocateur G.B.S., conveying him by tender from the Empress of

Old Shanghai

A glimpse of old Shanghai showing the central business district.

274

Britain at five o'clock in the morning of 17 February to her house in the rue Molière"

(Holroyd IIr 294).

5. The Chinese Emectations of Shaw's Visit to China

To the Chinese, Shaw's passage to China was extremely signif~cant. It

was a visit from a world-famous great writer, especiaily one who has been sympathetic

to the Chinese people in 1925 in the May 30 incident, a conflict between the British

police and the Chinese protestors against imperialism in Shanghai. Shaw's visit took

place in 1933, when nationalism was the keynote in China. According to Hsü, in 1928,

there was a "rising tide of nationalism in China which was creating the prospect of a

united country" (657). On March 9, 1932, the Japanese created the Puppet state of

Manchukuo, with "the late Ch'ing emperor, P'u-i, deposed in 1912, made Chef

Executive, with a group of left over old literati as ministers" (Hsü 664 - 5). In

September 1932, the International Commission of Inquiry led by the Acting Viceroy of

India, Lord Lytton, submitted a report:

[The report] condemned Japan as an aggressor and rejected her claim that

Manchukuo was a spontaneous development of the Manchus. The report refuted

the Japanese argument that the military operations in Manchuria were necessitated

275

by self-defense, and branded Manchukuo a Puppet state under the domination of

Japanese rnilitary and civilian officiais. (Hsü 665)

Consequently , the Japanese stepped up their aggression. According to Hsü: "The

Japanese reaction [to the report] was singularly arrogant and insulting: the Kwantung

army stepped up military operations in Jehol and attacked the various passes of the Great

Wall in January 1933. Two mon& later, in an ultimate act of defiance, Japan withdrew

from the League" (33sü 665). In March 1933, shortly after Shaw's visit, "the Japanese

took Jehol and penetrated as far as the Great Wall, threatening Peiping (Beijing) and

Tientsin" (Hsü 665). Shaw's visit coincided with this penod of Japanese aggression in

Jehol, and he witnessed part of the fightuig when he was flying over the Great Wall in

Beijing .

In context, the press coverage on Shaw's visit is juxtaposed against the

tense situation in China. There were reports on the Japanese aggression in Northeast

China in the News Section. Patriotic advertisements were pervasive, such as "Hung

Kong Jirc Guo" ("saving the country with aviation") urging people to contribute to the

air power of China, or "Yi Shu Jiu Guo" ("saving the country by art") urging people to

seïï their artistic works to contribute to the North East Volunteer Amy. In the "Free

Discussion" and "Spring and Autumn" Sections, in which there were special issues on

Shaw, articles cornmenhg on the war could be easily founci. On the eve of Shaw's visit

276

on February 16, 1933, the News Section of the Shenbao reports on the proposed massive

advance of Japanese troops at Jehol. Juxtaposed against this was the report on Shaw's

impending visit to Shanghai the next day.

Shaw's expectations of visiting China may be lukewann compared to the

Chinese expectations. First, Shaw was regarded a social critic, a humorist, a satinst, and

a socialist. His visit was heralded by an article published in the Shanghai newspaper,

the Shenbao, in the section 'Zi You Tan " ("Free Discussion "). Contributors to this

section included famous Chinese writers such as Yu Da-fu, Lin Yu-tang, and Lu Xun.

On February 2, 1933, the titie article in the section is "Shaw and Galsworthy" written

by Yu Da-fu. The article begins: "*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." Yu went on to compare

Shaw with Galsworthy. Galsworthy was regarded as a " *detail recorder of British upper

class society." The wrïter was respected in China because of his social criticism. Yu

wntes: "*Although comparatively, he came f'rom the upper class, we could not help

respecthg highiy his attitude of speaking for humanity and criticizing society, even now

when the tirne is different and the tides are changing rapidly. " Shaw was appreciated for

two things: humour and social criticism. Yu writes: "*At first, Shaw seems to be

speaking dead words flippantly. But when one closes his eyes and reconsiders . . . he wilI

fmd immediately that al l his roguish laughter and angry words are cardiac stimulants

277

aiming at social disease." Shaw was associated with socialisrn. His visit to the USSR

and his meeting with S t a h were mentioned, quoting Shaw's words,"I studied Marx

much earlier than Lenin."

At the bottom of Yu Da-fu's article is a Notice frorn the Editors: "*The

world-famous Irish humorist-satirist Mr Bernard Shaw will visit our country in the

middle of next week. This section 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."

On February 3, 1933, the Shenbao "Free Discussion" Section again

compares Shaw to Galsworthy. In an article entitled "In Mernory of Galsworthy" written

by Mei lu, Galsworthy was regarded as a "*total realist, recording daily life and

characters in minute detail, and showing natural conversation. " On the contrary , Shaw's

works were found to be " *slightly romantic. " Galsworthy "*was a tragedian, and Shaw

was . . . a cornedian. "

Gradually, Shaw was linked to China. On February 10, 1933, the title

article of the "Free Discussion" Section of the Shenbao was again on Shaw. The focus

was solely on the playwright and his associations with China. Entitled "Bernard Shaw's

visit to China", Xuan presents Shaw in four ways. First, Shaw is associated the

278

global:" *The British Literary veteran Bernard Shaw will arrive at Shanghai shortIy in his

world tour." Secondly, Shaw is associated with the May Fourth Movement in

China: " *The Chinese iiterary field will not forget the warm 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 wann attention youths paid to this in the May

Fourth." In particular, Yuan's article associates Shaw with anti-capitalism and anti-

imperialisrn: "*Old Mr Shaw's works are anti-capitalistic. His style is humourous and

satinc. . . . Old Mr Shaw exposes the spokesman of imperialism's flattering whitewashing

of modem warfare. " Yuan compares Galsworthy to Shaw in another

way: "*Galsworthy's works superficially appear to show the controversy and rottemess

of modem capitalist society, but basically he affirms and speaks for the present system. "

In particular, Shaw was regarded as fitting into the present Chinese situation:

*Those . . . advancing towards brightness include Shaw in EngIand. . . . me] indicts

the atrocities of imperialisrn. At this time when there are dangerous fast-changing

situations in the Pacific, when the irnperialist powers are tightening preparation

for a world war to divide China and to attack the USSR, we express a welcome

to 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

corne to China.

2 79

Published next to Yuan's article is one by Sit Dai-kang on "The ten Great

Men in Contemporary Times. " Among these ten great men is Bernard Shaw, described

as "*an anti-imperialistic man of letters in the most radical imperialist country. He is

a man of genius and abundant howledge. His works are humourous."

Both the " Chun Qui" ("Spring and Autumn") and the "Free Discussion"

Sections of the Shenbao were dedicated to Shaw on February 17, 1933. These articles,

written before Shaw's real arrivai, also associate Shaw with Chinese nationalism. Before

Shaw's visit to China, the Dai Wan Bao (Big Evening Navs) on January 6, 1933 hailed

Shaw as the "Old Gentleman of Peace," hoping that his visit will suspend the Japanese

aggression ternporarily. The title article in the "Spring and Autumn" Section on

February 17, 1933 is entitled "Shaw's Visit to China" written by Bai He. In the article,

Shaw's humour and satire are linked to Chinese nationdism. Bai He ends his article

s ay ing :

*I remember old Mr Shaw has 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 tirne when he visits China, I think he will not bring impressions

of "pigtails" and "foot binding." What does he th& about Hong Kong under

British rule?

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Other articles fmd a nationalist use of Shaw's humour and satire. In the

article by Miao Shen, entitled "Humourous and Satiric Writing," Shaw's wit has an

application in the Chinese situation:

*In an oppressive serious situation, one cannot frankly scold the pains one is

suffering, nor c m one be warned kindy. Consequently, one has endless

grievances and womes. At this tirne, one has the power to make humorous

and satiric discussion, one can attack by innuendo, tactfully ushg humorous

words to present reality satirically. This is the so-called "the art of scoIding

people. "

At the end of the article, Miao Shen overtly applies Shaw's humour and satire on

Chinese nationalism:

*At the time of serious national calamity, the people are numb, the government

officiais are at ease. We c m think about the tragedy of a dying nation. Of

couse 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 as to

wake up and strengthen our hearts. Therefore 1 hope that ail kinds of

publications can bear this mission, and publish more literary works on the

difficulties of the people's iivelihood. Works making the youth's body and mind

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dru& should be published less. At this tirne when we are standing together

through thick and thin, we should Save and arouse in many ways.

The awakening power of Shaw is highlighted in a poem published on the same page

written by Chong Lou entitled "The sorrows of the Blind." This poem, inspired by

Shaw, has these lines:

*My heart feels the sorrows of the blind,

1 hope that one day the blind can open his eyes,

Society's medical care c m remove everything morbid,

So that mankind can enjoy the blessed dawn.

Shaw is also identified with the global in the Febmary 17, 1933 Shenbao

"Spring and Autumn" Section. An article written by Juan Yun entitled "Mr and Mrs

Shaw" begins: "*Since the Indian poet Tagore's visit to China, the visit of the world-

famous personages making the Eastemers dru& with respect was not realized until the

comhg of Bernard Shaw." The article identifies Shaw as an "*abject of world news,"

and Mrs Shaw's name is " known by people of the world. " Shaw became " *one of the

ten most famous people in the world," and he always walks before the "*people of the

world. " The article is illustrated with a cartoon of Shaw on horseback in medieval attire,

with the caption "Shaw Touring the World."

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Other articles in the section include anecdotes and quotations from Shaw.

These include quotations from "Maxims for Revolutionists" appended to Man and

Superman. There are translations of lines such as: "Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice

other people without blushing" (2: 797) and "Every man over forty is a scoundrel"

(2: 795). Shaw did mite these lines, but they are supposed to be written by John Tanner,

M.I.R.C. (Member of the Ide Rich Class)!

Another extensive coverage of Shaw is found in the next section, "Free

Discussion", in the February 17 and 18, Shenbuo. The whole section is a "Special

Edition on Bernard Shaw. " In the February 17 issue, the title article was written by Lie

Wen, who praises Shaw from two perspectives. First, Shaw's iconoclasm is valued: "*He

takes off the robes of ancient and modem heroes and shows the reality of the ordinary

man from ancient Cæsar to the modem Napoleon. " Secondly , Shaw is hailed as an anti-

capitaiist: "*He mocks at everything under capitalism, be it religion, science or love. "

Yu Da-fu wrote in the Shenbao (February 2, 1933) that in China, Lu Xun

was comparable to Shaw. Lu Xun wrote an article under the pseudonym He Jia-gan in

the February 17 " Special mition on Shaw. " In this article, entitied "In Praise of Shaw, "

Lu Xun regards Shaw as great. Quoting Shaw's speech at the Hong Kong University,

in which the playwright tells the students: "If you are not a red revolutionist at 20, you

will be at 50 a most impossible fossil . . . ," Lu Xun thinks that Shaw is great for he can

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think about what will happen 20 to 30 years later, while the average Chinese cannot do

so. Lu Xun writes: "*One will lose his life in becoming a revolutionary, and the poor

cannot afford to think for tomorrow." The article elicited a reaction. Wei Meng-ke

wrote to Lu suspecting that Shaw was a bit hypocrïtical. Lu Xun replied on June 5,

1933. The two correspondences are published in L m Yu (Analect), Issue 19, dated June

16, 1933. Lu writes in his reply :

*This time 1 speak in defence of Shaw. It staaed ffom his speech in the

University of Hong Kong. This University has a very slavish education system.

Nobody has ever dared to throw a bomb at it except Shaw. But some of the

Shanghai newspapers hated him for this. Therefore 1 must show some support,

for to attack Shaw at this time is to help slavish education. ... Therefore to

Shaw's words, we have to pay attention to the social advantages and

disadvantages .

Globalism and nationa lism are again the keynotes in the "Special Edition

on Shaw." The wnters hope that Shaw will report the war in China to the world. Yu

Da-fu's article, "Introducing Shaw, " ends with this paragraph, which is an open appeai

to the playwright:"*We hope that Shaw will make use of his humour to go to the

countries of the world, and tell them about our government's humour towards Japanese

impenalistic invasion, and the League of Nations' humour towards this event." In

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another article, Zheng Bai-ji's "Shaw is welcome to listen to the sounds of the cannons, "

the global and the national are again associated together:

*Bernard Shaw cornes to China. This great satirist of the world is coming to

China. . . . The large-scale Japanese invasion triggers off 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.

In this article, Shaw is hailed as a "peaceful socialist."

Other writers are more discreet. Lin Yu-tang's "On Shaw" compares the

authonsed biography of Archibald Henderson and the unauthorised one by Frank Harris.

Preferring the latter to the former, Lin thinks that Hams's shows the real Shaw. From

this, Lin, the translater of Confucius's Analects, moralizes and concludes: " *I think that

scholars studying any discipline should read the negative criticisms fust, and the positive

criticisms last -- people studying Chiang Kai-shek should read the revisionists' papers a

few years ago, before reading their papers in the past year. Then ideas will not be

pedantic. " Lin's cornparison of the two biographies continues in the next issue. In "On

Shaw III" published on February 19, 1933, Lin talks about Shaw's presentation of Jesus

in the Preface of Androcles and the Lion, and shows Shaw's unconventional views. Lin

thinks that the characters of great men are subject to misinterpretations.

On February 18, 1933, the "Spring and Autum" Section of the Shenbao

again has a title article on Shaw's visit. Entitled "On Shaw, " the article wntten by Fei

Ming sinotized the playwright:

*Shaw and Galsworthy are most farnous among the world's great writers China

is farniliar with, whose names are ttansiated into Chinese. . . . The translater has

taken great pains to translate the names - First, "Shao Bo-na" sounds better than

"Bo Na Shao ". Secondly, this great wrïter is a satirist with strong Chinese

flavour. Apart from accent, costume and eating habits, his speech and actions do

not look like a mechanical European, but like a comical Eastemer.

Rubeigh J. Minney has also commented on this sinotization of Shaw's name. He

wntes: "Mr Li . . . spoke of Shaw as "Shaw Bernar' ", not pronouncing the final "d" of the

Christian name, but placing, it will be noticed, the sumame First, just as we place it on

our passports and in the telephone directory: al1 Chinese names are written -- and even

spoicen -- in this order" (Nexi Stop 58). Identified as a hurnorous socialist, Shaw again

is asked by Fei Ming to serve a Chinese nationalist mission:

*Our respected great writer now cornes to China from far away, . .. bringing a

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deep humorous sentiment to resist the darkness of the present world. ...

China is a poor nation passing her days under the insults and slanders of the

thieves. . . . Now our great writer is coming to China at al1 costs, to see what kind

of nation China is, and what are the "civilized people" doing in China.

Another article published in the "Spring and Auhum" Section of the

February 18, 1933 Shenbao is an article by Wei Zhu entitled "To fly above the Great

Wall." Tallùng about Shaw's proposed flight above the Great Wall, the writer laments

the loss of key sections of the Great Wall to the Japanese. The writer imagines Shaw

saying: " * m a t is the use of the Great Wall to China? "

The "Free Discussion" Section of the February 18, 1933 Shenbao is

another "Special Issue on Bernard Shaw." These articles are more apolitical,

concentrathg on the literary aspects of Shaw's works . The title article, "On Shaw, " was

written by Yuan, urging more studies of Shaw's works. But what the author fmds Shaw

is attacking may also be readily applied to the local situation. Yuan writes:"*Shaw's

major works reveal the fallacies of man's traditional beliefs, which reminds one of how

Shaw was used as an iconoclast a g a h t tradition in 19 19 in the May Fouah Movement. "

Yuan thinks that in The Mun of Desriny, Candida and Widowers' Houses, Shaw is

mocking at those hypocrites who are self-seeking in the name of "duty". Bluntschli, a

soldier from an imperialist country, is shown in A m and the Man, which reveals that

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they kill because they are afraid to be killed. Major Barbara, Yuan thinks, shows that

cannons and machine guns are weapons, and so are patriotism, religion, justice and duty.

But Yuan misses the point in Man and Supemzan, probably because he cannot find any

social and political application of Shaw's theory of the Life Force and Creative

Evolution. Yuan does say: "*The philosophy of Man and Superman -- human beings are

an experiment, a m g between animals and superman. Love is a means Nature uses to

achieve his ends to the Superman. Love is a great cosmic force." Yuan however thinks

that Shaw may ultirnately be laughing at the "love philosophers."

Shaw was regarded as a social writer. Xu Jie's article, "The bee in

gentleman class, " compares Shaw to a bee flying in British gentleman society . Laughter

is generated when the gentleman in his audience thinks that he is attacking other

gentlemen, while those who do not belong to the gentility laugh when they € id the

gentlemen attacked.

The interest in Shaw continues in the February 19, 1933 Shenbao "Free

Discussion" Section. The article by Zhang Meng-lin, entitled "Telling the Truth",

touches on Shaw's theory of Creative Evolution. Zhang mites: "*People can only follow

their instincts. . . . When you instinctively feel that this action is not right, you will think

of ways to change. " But Zhang links telling the mth to Creative Evolution, saying: "*If

you cover reaiity with words, you cannot change for the rest of your life. You cannot

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evolve to a higher creature. Then, creatures higher than you (what old Mr Shaw calls

the Superman) wiil appear, and treat you as you wodd treat a monkey-" Eventually,

Zhang channels Shaw's truthfulness to a nationalist cause, hoping that Shaw will tell the

truth about the Japanese imperialist invasion in China.

6. The Real Bernard Shaw

Shaw's arriva1 was marked by two simultaneous processes: a Chinese

attempt to constnict him within their nationalist and globd rhetoric, and Shaw's

conscious/unconscious effort to evade this construction. Shaw's appearance caused a

clash between the ideologicd construction and the amorphous everyday life reality.

The real Shaw turned out to be beyond the Chinese's expectations.

Shanghai in 1933 was under Nationalist mle. The government was fighting the

communists rather than the Japanese. The first news report of Shaw's visit appears in

the February 15, 1933 issue of Shenbao. The caption reads:"Shaw propagandized on

communism to the students of the Hong Kong University." The report was mainly on

Shaw's speech in the afternoon of February 13, 1933 at the University:

If you read, read real books and steep yourself in revolutionary books. Go up to

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your neck in communism, because if you are not a red revolutionist at 20, you

will be at 50 a most impossible fossil. If you are a red revolutionist at 20, you

have some chance of being up-to-date at 40. So 1 c m only Say, go ahead in the

direction 1 have indicated. (RodelIe Weintraub 2 16)

Shaw's speech at the Hong Kong University elicited a response in Yang

Xing-zhi's poem, "Hal10 Shaw", published in the "Free Discussion" Section of the

Shenbao on February 18, 1933:

*Dear Shaw, why do you corne 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 non-resistance philosophy?

But 1 tell you:

Shanghai is not London New York or Paris,

Nor is it a red city iike Leningrad.

The British, American, Japanese, French fiags fly proudly in the s e ,

Clearly saying that China is only a colony.

The black smoke of the warships in the Whampao River,

The coolies at the Marnpao River are panting rapidly for breath,

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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 aagedy?

1 teil 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 humour,

And you cannot Say anything you like,

We wam you to keep your mouth shut here,

Actually there is no need to teii nonsense.

But, when you retum,

Bring good tidings!

You only have to Say:

China wiU be saved,

The Whampao River will rise one day,

And wash the darkness and authority of the land!

The nationalistic tone is unmistakable in this poem. Beginning with the bondage of

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colonidism, with the imperidistic oppression, the poet proceeds to proclaim his faith in

the ability of China to Save and liberate herself. Shaw is constnicted into the discourse:

he cannot Say whatever he likes, but he is given a role to play to promote China's

nationalistic cause.

Another response to Shaw's words in Hong Kong appear in the February

19, 1933 Shenbao "Free Discussion" Section- Guan Jin in his article "Return to teil your

mother " comrnents on a report by The North China Herald of Shanghai, dated February

16, 1933:

Mr Shaw greeted the correspondents with the words: "You do not took very much

like Chinese" and expressed surprise at the entire lack of Chinese pressmen.

"Where are the Chinese?" he asked with his usuai genial impertinence. "Are they

so primitive that they have no t heard of me? " (Rodelle Weintraub 22 1)

Piers Gray explains this incident: "The Hong Kong Government Secretariat for Chinese

Affairs was not enthusiastic about Shaw 'preaching' to the natives and so the Chinese

papers were discouraged from meeting him on the day of his arrival" (Rodelle Weintraub

221). The Shanghai readers did not seem to have this explanation available to them.

Thus, judging rnerely from the report of me North China Heruid, Guan writes in his

article: " *These two hot expressions c m hardly be borne by us! "

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Shaw's real visit was anuounced by capitalist pomp. On February 16,

1933, the Shenbao News Section focuses on Shaw's world tour on board the Empress of

Bnlain. Reporting that Shaw had already set off for Shanghai from Hong Kong, the

article goes on:

*me Empress of Bntain will only stop at Wu Song. The Chang Xing Company

booked yesterday two srnail vessels from Wheebck Marden Company, which will

go to Wu Song from Shanghai to take Mr Shaw and two hundred or so tour group

members to Shanghai. A large number of motor cars and rickshaws had been

rented to take the group members around the city.

Although Shaw has been haiIed as an anti-capitalist, anti-imperïalist and socialist,

curiously the article ends with a description of the grandeur of the Empress of Bntain

taking the world-famous playwright to China:

*The Empress of Bntain is the biggest and newest ocean-liner of Chang Xing

Company, with 45,000 tons displacement, costing E3,000,000. This visit to

Shanghai may be regarded as by an unprecedentedly great ocean-going liner since

the navigation of the Far East. It stops at Wu Song for the River Pu in Shanghai

is too shallow. The Chang Xing Company regards it as the biggest ocean-liner

ever to visit Shanghai. The beauty of the decoration cannot be f o n d in m y

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ocean-liner in the Far East. Therefore the occasion will be made use of to allow

the public to visit the ocean-liner. Ferries wiU transport the public from the

customs to the ocean-liner, so that the people of Shanghai cm look at the ship.

From an announcement of Shaw's visit, the article becomes an advertisement of the

Empress of Bntain, which was described as a capitalist and impenalist commodity. The

arriva1 of the ocean-liner was as exciting as the arrivd of the great writer.

On February 18, 1933, the Shenbao News Section has an article

entitied: "A Tour of a palace at sea - unspeakable thriving Iuxury in the ocean-liner."

This sounds like a reprinthg of publicity material fiom the shipping Company:

*The Empress of Britain which carries the British literary giant arrived at Wu

Song at 6:00 Iast rnorning. It was the largest new ocean-liner of Chang Xing

Company, and was the first great ocean-liner aniving at Shanghai since the

o p e h g of the port for trade. . . . Its greatness and magnificence made it the queen

of the ocean. The lwrury of the ocean liner includes: it costs 60 million Chinese

dollars; the trip to Shanghai was part of its first world tour; the interior

decorations are beyond description; the hall of the first class, the smoking room

and sitting room are in European style with granite coliimns, metal engravings,

and the most expensive velvet carpets; the Chinese style room has sandalwood

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fimiture, painted with Fuzhou lacquer; and decorated with Chinese antiques and

famous paintings; the lights are hidden; it has glass garden and ballroom. The

luxury of the ocean-liner far exceeds any other in the Pacific ocean. There are

too many things for the eye to take in. Everything is dazzlingly splendid and

magnificent .

To Lu Xun, Shaw is a paradox. In "Bernard Shaw is Truly Unusual"

(February 17, Lu makes a distinction between Shaw's ideas and his real person.

While Shaw is advocating socialism, he is living a wealthy life:

Shaw is at the forefront of pacificism and a lifelong supporter of socialism, his

plays, noveIs, and essays are full of exposition of his doctrines. Through he

believes in socialisrn 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. (Crawford, X I 63)

Yet, Lu Xun cannot deny Shaw's influence:

If Mr Shaw or his compatriots really believe in Comrnunism, please let him

distribute his wealth first, then taik. But, corne to think of it, if Mr Shaw were

actually to distribute his property, clothe himself in ragged proletarian garb, and

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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. (Crawford,

m.. 63-4)

The Chinese weicome was massive. On February 17, 1933, a Notice was

published in the Shenbao by the Shanghai University and Secondary schools Mr Bernard

Shaw Welcome Party Cornmittee, saying that they wiIl gather at the New Customs Pier

to welcome Shaw at 8:00 a.m., and the venue for Shaw's speech wiil take place at the

YMCA Hall at Szechuan Road in the afternoon. The Local News Section of the

February 17, 1933 Shenbao reports: "Students from the Universities and Secondary

Schools Welcome Bernard Shaw This Morning. " In the article, Shaw is identified as a

"writer of world literature. " University and secondary school students will gather at the

New Custorns Pier, holding flags and banners at 8:00 a m - to welcome Shaw.

Representatives will be elected to board the ship to give a welcome speech, and ask Shaw

to set the tirne to give a public speech.

What is intriguing is the press coverage of Shaw's visit. The News

Section of the Shenbao (February 17, 1933) gives the itinerary. Shaw will arrive at Wu

Song at 6:00 a.m., and was hindered by fog. The playwnght and the world tour group

will be taken by two ferries to Shanghai, d v i n g at 9:30 a.m. and 10:ûO a.m. Shaw is

supposed to have lunch at a hotel, and will stay in Shanghai for eight and a half hours.

296

He will then take the ferry to Wu Song at 6:00 Pm., and set off for Chin Wang Island

at 1 1 :O0 p. m. The article goes on:

*It is nunoured that the Shanghai Film and Culture Association will join the Al1

Shanghai Non-Professional Theatre Troupes to organize a welcome Party at 7:00

p.m. in the YMCA, but the YMCA writes to our newspaper saying that there is

no such thing, and no film and theatre representatives have contacted them.

The article concludes giving a biography of Shaw, calling him a "socialist" who has

visited the USSR. Chinese translations of Shaw's works include Widowers' Houses,

Cœsar and Cleopatra, Mrs Warren's Profession, The Philanderer, A m and the Man,

Man and Superman, Pygmalion and The Black Girl in Search of God. In fact, in the

February 15, 1933 issue of the Shenbao, to prepare for Shaw's visit, the ongoing long

novel T h e Dilemma of Love and Era" was suspended to make way for an unauthorized

translation, by Yi Xian, of Shaw's The Black Girl in Search Of God.

But this detailed report misses Shaw's real agenda in Shanghai. Shaw's

real schedule was:

6:ûû a.m. Amve at Wu Song from Hong Kong. Ernbark on the customs femes.

10:30 a.m. Arrive at Yang Shu Pu Pier

12:00 p.m. Lunch at Madame Sun Yat-sen's house at 29 Rue Molière

2:ûû p.m. Pen Club Reception at the World Coilege

3:ûû p.m. Press Conference at Madame Sun Yat-sen's house at 29 Rue Molière

6:00 p .m. Retum to the Empress of Bntain

11 :O0 p.m. Depart Shanghai for Chin Huang Island

Besides, at the top of the article is an advertisement from Kai Ming

Bookstore entitied "Welcome Bernard Shaw, " and advertising the unauthorized translation

of The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Soviehsm and Fuscim.

Shaw was a commodity for sale. But he is a reiucîant commodity . Although Mrs

Warren's Profession appeared in Chinese translation as early as in 1919, and other

translations followed, these were not authorized. Shaw had no idea that Chinese

translations existed when he went to China. Blanche Patch recalls :

1 camot quite follow Mr Hsiung's other story of "the very polite fellow who

presented Shaw with a pirated copy of one of his own plays which he had

translated. G.B. S. afterwards told Mr Hsiung how greatly he had been impressed

by the man's impudence. . . . Certainly there has never been an authorised

translation of any of his plays into Chinese. (95)

The Febniary 18, 1933 Main News Section of the Shenbao reports on the

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real Bernard Shaw. The main topics include "Shaw arrived at Shanghai Iast moniuig,

and proceeded North in the evening. " There is another short article on Shaw's telegram

tuming down Shi Ying's invitation to visit Nanjing, for his visit to the then national

capital could not be fitted into his itinerary.

M a t reaiiy happened in spite of the press coverage? At frst, Shaw did

not want to visit Shanghai for Charlotte was not feeling well. But Madame Sun Yat-sen,

Soong Ching-hg, who is also the sister of Madame Chiang Kai-shek and the Financial

Minister T.V. Soong, set off from Shanghai at 5:00 a.m. by ferry to meet Shaw at Wu

Song. The widow of the father of the Chinese Republic was accompanied by Yang

Xing-fo and some others, escorted by Marine Police. Madame Sun, like Shaw, was an

honorary Chairman of the World Anti-Imperialist League. Arriving at 6:45 a.m. at the

Empress of Bntain, Madame Sun visited the Shaws and had breakfast with them. At

Madame Sun's insistence, Shaw disembarked and set off for Shanghai.

Simultaneously, since early morning, people were gathering at the pier to

welcome Shaw. Among the some 400 people present were Hong Shen representing the

China Film and Culture Society, Ying Yu-wei representing the Xi Ju Xie She (Drama

Joint Society), the Shanghai Students Drama Society Entertainment Fair In Support of

the Volunteer Army, and other fans of Shaw. The students made a speech welcorning

Shaw to China. The banners held by these people at the pier showed their attempt to

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construct Shaw as a sympathizer of Chinese nationalism. As reported in the Shenbao

News Section dated Febniary 18, 1933, among the slogans chmted were:

*WeIcome, Bernard Shaw the revolutionary artist. Welcome, Bernard Shaw the

dramatist. Welcome, Bernard Shaw the god of peace. WeIcome, Bernard Shaw

who is sympathetic to the integrity of the Chinese temtory. 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

imperdism. 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.

Yet, Shaw literaiiy evaded the construction into Chinese nationalism, as he and Madame

Sun Yat-sen had already landed in low profile at 10:30 a.m. at Yang Shu Pu Pier, instead

of descending in high profile at the New Customs Pier where the welcoming gala had

been gathering since early morning. It was not until after 12:OO p.m. when the gaIa was

informed by the Marine Police that Shaw had landed elsewhere.

The Chinese writers who really met Shaw were impressed by the reality

of the situation. The luncheon party at Madame Sun Yat-sen's house included, besides

Madame Sun and Shaw, Lu Xun, Cai Yuan-pei, Lin Yu-tang, Agnes Smedley, Harold

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Isaacs, as shown in the photograph (Figure 15) and Yang Xing-fo. According to Piers

Gray, a senior lecturer of the University of Hong Hong writing in the 1980s:

Eu Xun's "prestige as China's foremost writer protected him from arrest, if not

suppression of his work and repeated anonymous thceats against his life." Cai

Yuan-pei's [is] a man "beyond reach of any ordinary attack" because he had

shown great moral courage during the May Fourth period in 19 19, when, as

Chancellor of Beijing National University, he had supported the students in their

demands for freedom of expression. Now he was active in the League for Civil

Rights (of which he was a CO-founder [with Madame Sun Yat-sen]), the

organization which was acting as Shaw's host in Shanghai. (Rodelle Weintraub

226)

Lin Yu-tang, the author of My Counrry and My People (1935) was Shanghai's

leading belle lemisr and literary editor (his journal Lun Yu [ A ~ l e c r s ] was to

publish a "Special Issue on Bemard Shaw" in March 1933 .) (Rodelle Weintraub

227)

Lu Xun, who was among Madame Sun Yat-sen's lunch guests, was leftist but hailed as

one of modem China's most farnous writer. He has been regarded as the Chinese

version of Shaw.

Bernard Shaw in Shanghai

The luncheon party at Madame Sun Yat-sen's house included, besides Madame Sun and Shaw, Lu Xun, Cai Yuan-pei, Lin Yu- tang, Agnes Smedley, Harold Isaacs, and Yang Xing-fo.

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Lin YU-tang recorded his impression of the real Shaw in his magazine, LEZ

Yu [Analects], In his article "On Shaw, " Lin recalls his f ~ s t impression of the

playwright: "*I was pushed to the front line of the welcorning Party . . . at the Whampao

river bank. In the two hours of waiting by the river, 1 felt that there was a lot of water

in the world. When 1 think of Shaw now, 1 feel water, water" (Lin 128). That is, Lin

had stood for two hours at the pier awaiting Shaw's arrival, staring at the water, so that

he involuntanly associated Shaw with water afterwards,

Whîle the Chinese writers used to have imaginary dialogues with Shaw,

the reai appearance of the playwright superseded these earlier dialogues. At the hncheon

party, Lin tried to interpret Shaw fiom his l o o k " * m e n Shaw spoke, his light blue eyes

glittered, as if he was afraid of the sunshine. It made one feel that he was sensitive, and

might be shy. " Lin felt the reality of Shaw:

*I saw this thin Irish great writer, and thought of his shocking views

encompassing the ancient and the contemporary. This would have made any

scholar afraid, and thought him untouchable- But when one saw him, he was a

humble literary person, and an understanding and courteous gentîeman.

The subjects covered in the luncheon party include vegetarianism, the

Chinese family system, the war, drama taught in the British universities, Chinese tea and

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so on. Inevitably, the conversation turned to war. Lin Yu-tang recalls Shaw's comments

on war in "On Shaw":

*The English never quarrelied with the German. Wben they met at the

batùefield, 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

American. By the time the European war was over, the bad feeling in the Allies

was high.

We often talked about the courage of the warriors. But since the

European War bravery was a historicai fact. in the war nobody tells about his

courage, but just about his fear. Now the modem war was cruellest. 1 once

heard a pro-war person talking about the good the war c m do to the human

character, for it encourages sacrifice, bravery and fearlessness. 1 told them how

to eliminate war. 1 said that we should abolish the military review which 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.

Another famous Chinese miter present in the luncheon party is Lu Xun.

Lu has been regarded as the closest Chinese equivaient of Shaw. His use of humour,

satire and social subject can be seen in his works like The Tme Stmy of Ah Q. Lu Xun

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has been in touch with Shaw's works since their introduction into China. He wrote in

"The beginning and end of my relationship with Yu Si" : " *At that time (in 1921), France,

Weiis, and Shaw were very influentid in China" (Lu Xun, N 165). Lu Xun regards

Shaw as a socialist. He writes in "Literary exchange between China and Russia"

(1932):"*Now Shaw and France have become fkiends of the USSR" (Lu Xun, IV462).

Lu Xun records his persona1 response to the meeting with Shaw in "Watching Shaw and

those who watched Shaw" (23 February 1933). Like Lin Yu-tang, Lu Xun f is t judged

Shaw by his 1ooks:There was no speciai aura of emuience. His snow-white hair and

beard, mddy complexion, and kindly face made me think to my self that he would be an

excellent mode1 for a portrait painter" (Crawford, AT1 68). Lu Xun seems to be more

impressed by Shaw's real appearance than by Shaw's ideas. He comments on the

playwright's attempt to use chopsticks:"To his credit, he kept working at [using

chopsticlcs] and soon became rather adept. . . . I did not particularly notice Shaw's satiric

traits as we were eating. His conversation topics were the usual things" (Crawford, X I

68).

The Chinese included Shaw into their rhetoric of globalism. After lunch at

Madame Sun Yat-sen's place, he attended the Pen Club reception at the World CoUege.

The Chinese looked to Shaw for ideological inspiration and a f f ia t ion .

But cultural difference seeped through in the close encounter at the Pen Club reception.

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For instance, Shaw asked Mei Lao-fang, the world-farnous Peking Opera performer, the

fimction of drums and cymbals in traditional Chinese drama. The Nor-ih 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 cornpetition

of half the audience and innumerable vendors. Don? you object?

Wei Lan-fang: The noisy dnuns and gongs were necessary] because the opera

was a folk art first perfonned in the open air and the drums have been kept to

this day . (Rodelie Weintraub 234)

The Shenbao reports tint Mei Lm-fang added:"*Chinese drama has two types. For

example, Kunqu is not noisy . Mr Yeh Gong-chuo says that there is no noise in Mr

Mei's performances, which are accompanied by music. "

However, Shaw's talks with Mei Lan-fang caused some reaction in the

Chinese newspaper. Shaw is not the only westerner fmding the Chinese orchestra noisy.

R. J. Minney wntes after attending a performance at Peking (Beijing): "1 found the

orchestra deafeningly noisy . Some days later, when 1 mentioned this, I was told that for

many centuries these operas used to be performed out in the open in front of temples,

305

and the cymbals and drums were banged so that they might be heard for miles and so

draw an audience" (Peking 40).

The Chinese writers comment on Shaw's views from a social and cultural

angle that emphasize difference. First, in the February 22, 1933 "Free Discussion"

Section of the Shenbao, Tsao Ju-ren criticizes Mei Lan-fang's answer to Shaw's question

on the use of gongs and cymbals in Chinese drama. He thinks that Shaw appreciates art

from a capitalistic urban angle, while Chinese drama is the art of ag-an society

performed in open fields, Such background justifies the use of loud gongs and cymbals.

Secondly, in the article "On the fdacy of China's lack of culture" published in the

"Spring and Autumn" Section of the February 24, 1933 Shenbao, Hsu Ru-hui comments

on Shaw's saying that "China has no culture." He teiis Shaw the origins of the use of

gongs and cymbals in traditional Chinese opera, tracing its sophisticated use in the T'ang

Dynasty and its development in the Q'ing Dynasty. Hsu comments on Mei Lan-fang's

inabiIity to explain these to Shaw.

But Shaw does not really dislike the gongs and cymbals. He wrote to

Edward Elgar on May 30, 1933:

At Tientsin they had a Chinese band for me. It consisted of a lovely toned gong,

a few flageolets (I don? b o w what to caii them) which specialized in pitch

306

without tone, and a magnificent row of straight b r a s instruments reaching to the

ground, with mouthpieces like the one 1 saw in the Arsenal in Venice many years

ago: brass saucers quite flat, with a small hole in the middle. They al1 played the

same note, and played it al1 the tirne, 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 fust

pause 1 demanded that they should play some other notes to display dl the

possibilities of the instrument. They pleaded that they had wver 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

dnimmer is always the most intelligent person in the band. He snatched one of

the bnunpets, waved it in the air like a mail coach guard with a post hom, and

filled the air with flourishes and fanfares and Nothung motifs. We must make the

B.B.C. import a dozen of these tnimpets to reinforce our piffling basses. (Letters

IV 340-1)

Later in Beijing, Shaw attended the Chinese theatre several tirnes. In his letter to Elgar,

Shaw comments on the use of the music in tradition Chinese drama:

But the Chinese will reveal to you the whole secret of opera, which is, not to set

307

a libretto to music, but to stimulate actors to act and declaim. When there is a

speech to be delivered, the fust (and only) fiddler fiddles at the speaker as if he

were lifting a horse over the Grand National jumps; an ear splitting gong clnags

at hirn; a maddening castanet clacks at him, and fmally 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. (Letiers IV 341)

Another person meeting Shaw in the Pen Club is Shao Xun-mei. He

records his impression: "1 saw Shaw for about twenty minutes, but 1 don't consider it too

short a time to wnte a detailed impression of him. . . . It could be my prejudice, but 1

think Shaw was mean and showed his meanness every minute of the twenty minutes. He

did not even waste his words" (Crawford, III 67). Shao disliked the social approach to

literanire, and preferred art for art's sake. He seemed to record a breakdown of

communication between the Chinese and Shaw in the meeting due to cultural difference.

Perhaps S.I. Hsiung, a professor of the University of Kong Kong at the time of Shaw's

visit, gives the clue to this cultural misunderstanding:

There is another person in China Shaw should remember, but it was not from him

1 heard of the encounter. At a reception given in Shaw's honour, a famous

professor was presented to him. On being told that the professor was a great

308

educator, Shaw, while shaking him cordially by the hand, exclaimed with deep

feeling: "God help you!" This little incident has been very carefully descnbed to

me by a number of my friends. I deduce fiom that that it is known in almost

every educational circle in China. 1 wonder whether Shaw would remember this

man at aii. (S- Wiiten, G.B.S.90 194)

Shaw was presented a box of miniature clay masks at the Pen Club

reception, like those found in Peking Opera, and an embroidered ancient Chinese robe.

When Shaw saw the masks of warriors, old men, young man, young lady and demon,

he moralized that while the differences in their characters could be immediately

discernible, those of human beings could not for they d l look alike.

Do Chinese al1 look alike to Shaw? An interesting example of multiple

perspectives can be seen in this anecdote reported by Hsiung:

I soon heard fiom a number of my friends at home telling me about their

interesting meetings with Shaw. They claimed to have held most original

conversation with the great man. They adored him and reported many of their

discussioa to me. When 1 asked Shaw whether he remembered meeting this

famous Chinese author or that prominent Chinese professor, Shaw sadly shook

his head. In fact he told me that the only person who had made a deep

309

impression on him was a very polite felIow who presented to him a pirated copy

of one of his plays: it was a bilingual edition, the man being the translater. Shaw

said he was greatly impressed by the man's impudence. Mrs Shaw was by his

side as she always was. She added promptly that that was in Japan - not in

China -- and the man a Japanese. She was sure that no Chinese could be so

impudent. (Winsten, G. B. S. 90 194)

Of course there were many Chinese translations of Shaw's works by 1933.

The press conference taking place at 3:00 p.m. at Madame Sun Yat-sen's

house showed Shaw disappointing the expectant reporters. First, Shaw's answers did not

fit into the Chinese nationalistic discourse. He was asked what were his impressions of

China in the visit. Shaw answered that it was hard to tell these quickly.

Secondly, cultural differences were highlighted. Shaw dealt a devastating

blow to cultural exchanges and westemïzation, to which many young Cfiinese

intellectuals had held fast as a clue to China's modernization. The Shenbao reports:

*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 c m hcrease human happiness, especiaily the control of nature. In

310

China, apart from fmding 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 govemment, and made use of

it to upset monarchical nile and church authority. Yet eventually it could not

overtum the power of the capitalists, since it was fundarnentally controlied by the

capitaiists. What good can these kinds of so-calied western culture do for China?

Thirdly, the reporters asked Shaw how the oppressed people of the East

could fmd a way out? Shaw pondered and replied that it was difficult to answer this, for

it was not so safe to answer these here in Shanghai. Nevertheless, Shaw spoke for the

collapse of capitalism, the spirit of Marxism and the Soviet revolutionary method.

A f d attempt to incorporate Shaw within Chinese nationalism is Weng

Zhao-yuan's Ietter to Shaw. The playwright toured around the Song Wu battlefield. The

anti-Japanese General Weng Zhao-yuan welcomed Shaw, and presented him with an

English version of his book Mernoir of the Song Wu Battle. At the same t h e , Weng

gave Shaw a letter, in which he mentions:

*You can discem the aggressor' s cannons, . . . and know the bloody resistant war

of the oppressed nation, wbich moves one to song and tears. 1 respect you as the

311

literary giant of this age, who work your heart out to wrïte about the philosophy

of the vicissitudes of human life. You lead people to walk the peaceful way.

Weng writes that in spite of the advances of western and eastern civilization, the

Iapanese aggression is cruelly ignoring human peace. The General concludes: " Wow you

have arrived here, and know this situation. How many kind tears wilI you shed for

mankind? "

Lu Xun's consciousness of the duality of the real Shaw and the ideological

construction of Shaw is shown in "Watching Shaw and those who watched Shaw", where

he comments on the kaleidoscopic press report: "The press releases of the next day were

far more coloumil than Shaw's own words. The reporters, who had all gathered at the

same place, at the same t h e , and heard the sarne words, managed to report disparate

stories. . . . We see that Shaw is not a satirist, but a reflective mirror" (Crawford, XII 69).

The real Shaw disappoints the press in not saying the expected. Lu Xun wntes: "Most

of the news reports on Shaw were unfavourable. Reporters came to hear what they

wanted, but also heard disagreeable sarcasms" (Crawford, XII 70). What is important

is the real Shaw's resistance a g a k t being constructed h t o the Chinese patriotic rhetoric.

Lu Xun notices this astutely in "A Preface to Bemrd Shav in Shanghai" (28 February

1933). On one hand, "Shaw was in Shanghai for less than a day, yet he gave nse to

many stories. This would not happen with any other literary man" (Crawford, X7I 72)-

312

On the other hand, though different groups wanted dflerent diings fiom Shaw, the

playwright did not answer their wishes. Lu Xun writes: "But the greatness of Shaw dso

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" (Crawford, Xlr 72).

The newspapers reported on the press conference in these ways, as shown

in the notes to the Selected Works of Lu Xun:

*Engi.ish newspaper, dated February 18, 1933 :

"In answer to a question on the suppressed nation and what they should do, Mr

Shaw says: They should solve their own problerns, and so should China. The

people of China should organize themselves, and choose thek leaders, not any

actor or feudal lords."

Japanese newspaper, dated February 18, 1933 :

"The Chhese reporters asked: 'What is your opinion on the Chinese govemment?'

--'In China, as 1 know, there are several govements. Which are you referring

to?' "

Chinese newspaper :

"China nowadays need a good govemment, and good govemment and oficials

may not be welcomed by the ordinary people." (Lu Xun, N 498-9)

313

Lu Xun also mentions Shaw's resistance to coostmction in "On the

aaniversary of the Analects: Another occasion to talk about Bernard Shaw" (23 August

1933): "When Ibsen was introduced to China during the May fourth Movement of 1919,

he fared quite well. This year, Shaw's amval has been a disaster. Even today there are

people who are still indignant about him" (Crawford, X17 75). Shaw speaks out rather

than leave people thinking about his meaning. Lu Xun agrees with Litvinov that "Shaw

was a great exclamation point. " Ibsen was not found offensive because "though he puts

[upper-class ladies and gentlemen] on stage and exposes their weaknesses, [he] offers no

conclusion" (Crawford, X I 75). On the other hand, "Shaw also puts upper-class folks

on stage, but he tears off their masks and their finery. ... He does not give them a

chance to evade or cover up" (Crawford, X I 76). In "Who is being contradictory"

(February 19. 1933), Lu Xun writes:"But now he has left China, a Shaw who ail agree

is a contradiction. I think that we must swallow Our pride and accept him as a literary

giant of world renown" (Crawford, X I I 66).

7. Beiiine - ideolow and everydav life

Shaw lefi Shanghai for Beijing (Peking or Peiping). He visited "one of

the lovely islands of Hangchow, and signed his name in the visitors' book h the old

pavilion, now a museum, where the poet Su Tung-po had once lived" (Minney, Bogus

314

Image 142)- Shaw went on by train from the island to Peking with Charlotte in a "long,

overnight joumey " (Minney , Bogus Image 142).

The News Section of the February 20, 1933 Shenbao reports on Shaw's

visit to Beijing. The playwright arrived at Chin Wang Island on February 19, 1933 late

at night, and set off by train to Beijing at 10:30 a.m. On February 20, 1933 when the

train passes through Tientsin at 1:00 p .m., students from various universities, including

Nankai University, boarded the train to welcome Shaw, but he instmcted the conductors

to lock up his cornpartment, and did not meet the welcoming Party.

Shaw arrived at Beijing at 6:40 p-m., with some 130 members of the

world tour. A special envoy was sent by the Young Marshal Chang Hsueh-liang, son

of the warlord Chang Tso-lin, to receive Shaw. The tour group took 60 motor cars to

the grand Beijing Hotel. Shaw stayed at Room 305.

A press conference was held at 9:30 a.m. at the Ballroom of the Beijing

Hotel the next day, in which Snaw made a speech on the Chinese situation, reported in

the February 20, 1933 News Section of the Shenbao:

*I came to Beijing for sightseeing, and to visit the world-farnous old capital. I

do not have any responsibility or mission. The newspaper said that the Sino-

315

Japanese problem is serious, and JehoI was especially tense. In future, Beijing

and Tientsin may be included in the dangerous zones. 1 corne to China at a time

when the situation is serious, and tour the places. 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 c m o t forget

Beijing. The Japanese immigrants are preparing to return to their country, as the

catastrophe is coming. The nch Chinese is also moving South, as if Beijing c m

be abandoned. The property of the rich caanot be damaged. 1 do not understand:

is the pnce of the property of the rich higher than Beijing? The antiques of the

forbidden city are being rnoved south, and adds another new Ieaf in the cultural

history of Beijing, as if the antiques are more important than the Iives of a few

million of Beijing 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 loves peace, and the Japanese aiso clairn to be peace-loving. But the

peace of the Japanese is the peace after war. The peace of the Chinese is the

peace of peace. The Japanese told the League of Nations that they have the duw

to protect Manchukuo, and c l a h that they invade Jehol to protect Manchukuo.

In the name of protection, they invade and claim to be self-defensive. China has

adopted the policy of non-resistance. 1 feel that the policy of non-resistance no

longer applies. It changes to resistance, and China thinks that resistance means

self-protection. I do not h o w when the self-protection of China and Japan will

316

end. Some Chinese youths are interested in communism. Although the

governent has repeated injunctions, the students are still studying. Cornmunism

is a political problem. At first it was an economic problem. The nghtness of

comunism is still a problem deserving study. The absolute communism frst

adopted by the USSR has failed, so that the country turned to the New Economic

Policy and impiement 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 labour-capital relations problem is not one studied academically in China.

Therefore I cannot Say whether communism has any power in China. A few

years ago, Beijing forbade people to learn the Three People's Principles. Later,

Beij h g regards the students study ing the Three People ' s Principles as good

students. Therefore whether a discipline is right or not is determined by t h e .

1 tour China because 1 believe the historie sites to be unique, and to have great

value in cultural history .

On Febmary 25, 1933, Yu Da-fu's article "Literary and rnilitary lessons"

was published in the "Free Discussion" Section of the Shenbao on February 25, 1933.

Yu makes use of Shaw and the Iapanese aggression to comment discreetly on the

Nationalist govemment ' s policy of non-resistance. He writes :

*The literary lesson is from the glib Old Mr Bernard Shaw. He told reporters in

317

Beijing: The Chinese have a s m g e character. They are inconceivably polite and

fnendly towards the foreigners. But among themselves they are so impolite and

always fighting one another. He also said that the Great Wail was like a common

low wall.

Yu Da-fu makes a parallel comment on the Japanese aggression, saying:

*The military lesson is the Japanese imperïalist cannons and warplanes in Jehol.

These cannons and warpIanes are also telling the Chinese with a srnile: You are

so polite to the foreigners, and so impolite to your own people. You have given

away thousands and thousands of miles in North East China. Now Jehol may be

yielded also after you have obtained the war bonds and collected the money

offerings to the reinforcements. The Great Wall was originally built to prevent

foreign invasion. Now it becomes a castle and boundary for the foreigcers, and

a defence mechanism built by the Chinese for the foreigners .

WhiIe the Chinese scholars and writers turned to Shaw for intellecnial

thoughts and ideology, Shaw appreciated the Chinese way of life. In John Bull's Other

Island, the priest Keegan says: "1 did not know what my house was like, because 1 had

never been outside it" (2: 929). Shaw valued Chinese philosophy and wit.

318

Despite the controversies stirred up by Shaw's comrnents on the use of

noisy gongs and cymbais in traditional Chinese drama, the playwright frequented the

Chinese theatre in Beijing: "His great love of the theatre took him to a play every night

and often to matinées as well" (Minney, Bogus Image 142). In spite of picking up a

germ in the "crowded, suffocating theatre" :

It had no effect on him whatsoever. Charlotte, writing home to a friend, said:'He

gave the germ to me. 1 was very il1 and had to stay in bed for a week." But

Shaw continued to go out night after night, with an interpreter seated beside him

translating the Chinese operas, which at that time went on for six or seven hours.

(Mùmey, Bogus Image 142)

Patch remembers Charlotte writing to her: "Although Shaw himself threw [the gem] off,

he slipped just aftenvards and hurt his leg. 'He is walking about now and our Doctor

thinks it is nothing. 1 tell you because the papers may get hold of it and exaggerate

it."The papers did in fact miss much more than they ever discovered'" (95). But

probably the Shaws also missed much more than they ever discovered about the Chinese

press reports on their visit.

Shaw is aware of the difference between western and eastem cultures. He

told Winsten: "In the west we feel ashamed of growing old, instead of feeling proud. An

319

easterner flatters you by saying that you look older than your years, but you mustn't

dream of saying such a thing to any lady you know here. You would soon have the roof

over your head corne down about your ears" (194).

What was Shaw's lasting impression of China? Although he went there

in times of war, when social turmoil and political unrest were brooding, he was

impressed by Eastern peace. He told Stephen Winsten after his passage to China:"In

every good Chinese work of art there is this same central calm because age and not youth

is the ceme of living1' (Winsten 194). Shaw thought that the Chinese sense of caimness,

as he felt in the temple in Hong Kong, accounted for why "the Chinese can go on

fighting forever and still retain their sense of humour" (Winsten 194). He wrote to

Edward Elgar on May 30, 1933 :

I recommend Peiping (ci-devant Peking) 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 al1 the t h e , mostly without changing the

note; but they produce their voices in some rnagical way that brings out al1 the

harmonies with extraordinary richness, like big bells. 1 have never had my ears

so satisfied. The basses are stupendous. The conductor keeps them to the pitch

by tinkling a tiny bel1 occasionally. They sit in rows round a golden Buddha fifty

320

feet high, whose beneficent majesty and intirnate interest in them is beyond

description. In art we do everything the wrong way and the Chinese do it the

rïght way. (Letters IV 340)

It is well known that Shaw asked the pilot to tum back when he saw the Japanese and

Chinese fighting at the Great Wall. This is also emblematic of Shaw's passage to China.

The playwright went there in times of war, and was constructed into the rhetoric of

mtionalism and globalism. He dexterously avoided the ideological constmction, and

discovered peace and harmony in the way of life.

Chen, Wendi. "The First Shaw Play on the Chinese Stage." Shaw and History: The

Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies Vol. 19, University Park: The Pe~sylvania

State UP, 1999-

Crawford, Fred, D. S h m : The Annual of Bemard Shaw Sîudies Vol. 12. University

Park: The Pemsylvania State UP, 1992.

Ervine, St. John. Bernard Shaw: His Life, Work and Friends. New York: William

Morrow , 1956.

Featherstone, Mike , ed. Global Culnrre: Nationalism, Globalization and Modemi9 .


HoIroyd, Michael. Bernard Shaw- Volume 111 191&I950. The Lure of Fantasy. New

York: Random House, 1991.

Ha, Immanuel C . Y . The Rise of Modem China. Hong Kong: Oxford UP, 1975.

322

King, Anthony D., ed. Culture, Globaiization and the World System: Contentpora?y

Conditions for the Representation of iden@. Binghamton: Department of Art and

Art History, State U of New York at Binghamton, 1991.

Lee, Leo Ou-fan. Shnghai Modem: The Flowering of a New Urban Culture in China,

1930 - 1945. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard UP, 1999.

Lin, Yu-tang . Lin Yu-rang Xuan Ji (Selected Works of Lin Yu-tang) . Taipei: Du Shu

Chu Ban She, 1969.

Lu, Xun. Lu Xixn Quan Ji (Complete Works of Lu Xun). 15 vols. Beijing: Ren Min

Wen Xue Chu Ban She, 1982.

Minney , Rubeigh J. N a t Stop. Peking: Record of a 16.000 mile joumey through Russia,

Siberîa and China. London: George Newnes, 1957.

---- . The Bogus image of Bernard Shaw. London: Leslie Frewin, 1969.

Patch, Blanche. T t z i ~ ~ Years with G.B.S. London: Victor Goilancz, 1951.

Pearson, Hesketh. Bernard Shaw. London: Unwin, 1987.

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Shaw, Bernard. Collecred P l q s With n e i r Prefaces- Ed. Dan H. Laurence. 7 vols.


. Collected Leners. 4 vols. Ed. Dan H. Laurence. London: Max Reinhardt, 1965-

1988.

Tang, Yi-pei. "Zhong Guo Xian Shi Zhu Yi Xi Ju Feng Ge Di Duo Yuan Hua Xheng

Xian. " ("The Diversity in the style of Chinese Realist Drama.") Xi Ju Yi Shu

(Dramatic Art). 56 (1991): 135 - 46.

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Winsten, Stephen. Dizys with Bernard Shaw. London: Hutchison, n.d.

----- . G.B.S. 90. London: Hutchinson, 1946,

This chapter will focus on the performance o f Bernard Shaw's plays in

Modem China from the 1950s to the 1990s. When the plays were performed in China,

they underwent different degrees of change or Sinotization, s o as to adapt to the local

conditions. S ino tization rnay be minor involving only translaticons . Alternatively , it rnay

be conceptual by putting the play within an ideological framework, or even entail the

rewriting of the whole play to transplant it to Chinese culture or history. There are

tendencies toward both the global and the local.

To trace the process of Sinotization in the performance of Shaw's plays,

1 will present the debate about Sinotization in general, and about the performance of

Shaw's plays in China in particular, made by Chinese scholars and critics, and show how

this debate was directly contributive to the form the performances took. Rather than

sententiously evaluating each comment made by the Chinese scholars and critics, 1 would

like to show that the debate, just as the performances, were part of the cultural dialogue,

the negotiations made between the east and the west, between the local and the global.

325

Each comment made by the Chinese scholars and critics is like a piece in a colourful

mosaic, the pattern of which can be perceived in a panoramic perspective. The

comments made at different Gmes by different scholars and critics were voices in the

heteroglossia enveloping the performance.

1. Glocalization

The term "glocalization" is made up of "global" and "localization". It

refers to simultaneous processes of globalization and localization. According to Mike

Featherstone, Scott Lash and Roland Robertson, "Global localization" refers to "a global

outlook adapted to local conditions" (27). Under glocalization, the Iocal undergoes

changes, as Robertson writes:"The local ... can be regarded subject to some

qualifications as an aspect of globalization. . . . The concept of glocalization has involved

the simultaneity and interpenetration of what are conventiondy cailed the global and the

local, or the universal and the particular" (Featherstone, Lash and Robertson 30). Yet,

the local is also adapting and absorbing selectively, as Robertson thinks:"We should

recognize that nation-states have . . . been engaged in selective Learning from other

societies, each nation-state thus incorporating a different mixture of 'alien' ideas"

(Featherstone, Lash, Robertson 41). The global is also changed in glocalization. This

change or adaptation for local needs is an essential marketing concem, as Robertson

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States: "The idea of glocalization in its business sense is closely related to what in some

contexts is cded . . . micromarketing: the t a i l o ~ g and advertising of goods and services

on a global or near-glocal basis to increasingly differentiated local and particular

markets " (Featherstone , Lash and Robertson 27).

Globalization and localization are complementary processes, as Stuart Hall

thinks: "Global and local are the two faces of the same movement from one epoch of

globaiization, the one which has been dominated by the nation state, the national

econornies, the national cultural identities, to someîhing new" (Anthony King, 1991 27).

There is a centrifuga1 push toward globalization, and a centripetal pull toward

localization. 1 shall proceed to show that theatrical performance is a point of equdibrium

between these two forces.

2. Theatrical Performance

Theatrical performance is a dynamic production varying from time to time,

from place to place. Marvin Carlson notes:

The fact that performance is associated not just with doing, but with re-doiug --

its embodiment of the tension between a given form or content from the past and

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the inevitable adjustments of an ever-changing present make it an operation of

particular interest at a time of wide-spread interest in cultural negotiations -- how

human patterns of activity are reinforced or changed within a culture and how

they are adjusted when various different cultures interact. (195)

Performance varies with cultural assump tions , which pre-determine what w ill make the

performance successful and accepted by the audience. At the same tirne, the

performance may also change the perception and values of the audience. Susan Bennett

thinks: "Cultural assumptions affect performances, and performances rewrite cultural

assurnptions" (2) . Performances fu1fïl.i a social and cultural function, as Carlson

writes:"In 'theaûical' performance, ... performers and audience alike accept that a

primary function of this activity is precisely cultural and social metacommentary, the

exploration of self and other, of the world as expenenced, and of alternative possibilities "

(196).

The theatre is a site for culturai negotiations, a space for dialogical

manoeuvres between production and reception. Carlson draws attention to this function

of the theatre : " 'Theatrical ' performance [is] a special, if not unique, laboratory for

cultural negotiations, a function of paramount importance in the plurivocal and rapidly

changing contemporary world" (197). The production must consider the audience, which

plays an active role in interpreting the performance. Carlson writes:

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The audience's expected "role" changes fiom a passive hermeneutic process of

decoding the performer's articulation, embodirnent, or challenge of particular

cultural material, to become something more active, entering into a praxis, a

context in which meanings are not so much communicated as created, questioned,

or negotiated, The "audience" is invited and expected to operate as a CO-creator

of whatever meanings and experience the event generates. (197)

The play, as the product, must answer the requirements of the consumers, the audience.

3. Translation as Glocaiization - 1940s

Shaw remained famous in China in the 1940s. New translations appeared-

According to Hu Xi%-liang (1992) :

*' Shaw was a person of great renown in China. In China in the 1940s, his plays

were stilI models for dramatists to leam fkom and borrow. Shao Bo-Na Di Yan

Jiu (1939) (The Study of Bernard Shaw ) wrïtten by Lin Lu-xing, and Shao Bo-Na

(2942) (Bernard Shaw) edited and

Translation mine. Subsequent astensk.

translated by Shi Wei and so on, helped

translations by me will be indicated by

the

an

329

Chinese dramatists to understand this great master. His On The Rocks (The

Guillotine adapted by Chen Zhi-ce in 1939), Geneva (translated by Wu Jia in

1940, and by Luo Yin-pu in l94l), Pygmalion (translated by Lin Yu-tang in

1947) and so on were new translations in China. (29)

In spite of these new translations, the nature of the introduction of foreign

Literature d o China has changed in the 1940s because of the War of Resistance agaïnst

Japan. Hu Xing-liang (1 992) explains:

* Before the war, the centre of Chinese spoken drama was in Shanghai. Shanghai

was a society of the petty bourgeoisie and the small citizen. Translations or

adaptations of foreign plays were commended here. ... But in the War of

Resistance, . . . the aim of performance changed (from appreciation to propaganda),

the subject changed (€tom the learned and petit bourgeois to the ordinary public,

especially the peasants), the venue changed (frorn the city to the countryside, from

the stage to the sidewalk), and the ideas, content and artistic expression also

changed. Drama consciously or unconsciously became revolutionized, militant,

popularised.

In addition, the People's Republic of China was formed on October 1,

1949. The performance of Shaw's plays in the 1950s was therefore subject to Eurther

330

glocalization. There are three main types of glocalization in the theatre: ideological

glocalization, glocalization in performance, and glocalization in adaptation. Specifically ,

these glocalizations taking place in China may be regarded as "Sinotization" in different

foms.

4. Ldeological Gloakation - Shaw Centenarv Celebrations in China, Juiy 1956

The performance of Shaw's plays in the Shaw Centenary Celebrations in

July 1956 were put within ideological fiameworks.

The time July 1956 was an interesting one in China. Two months earlier

in May 1956, Mao Ze-dong dec1ared:"Let a hundred flowers blossom; let a hundred

schools contend! " According to Hsü:

Many intellectuals naively mistook the statement to mean a liberation of

expression and spoke their minds. The severe criticism that ensued surpassed the

govemment's expectation. Finding it unbearable and detrimental, the party and

government leaders pressured Mao to clamp down with lightning speed. The

critics were caught. . . . Many were sent to corrective camps or were forced to

sign a "socialist self-reform pact" to renew their pledge of allegiance. In the

332

wake of this antirightist campai@, the govenunent in 1957 initiated a "socialist

education movement" among ithe industrial and agrarian population. . . . The

importance of "redness," Le, ideology over "expertise," was very much

emphasized. (796)

The period was soon followed by the Cultural Revolution which Iasted from May 1966

to October 1976. In the Cultural RLevo1ution:"Attempts to destroy the old culture

included the public humiliation of any imdividuals associated with it, the banning of most

old-fashioned, traditional or Western art, and the suppression of vîrtually al1 forms of

religious practice" (Colin Mackerras, Ptadeep Taneja, Graham Young 9). After the

performances in the 1956 Shaw Centenary, the Chinese audience had to wait for a few

decades until another play of Shaw, Major Barbara, was performed in Pekùig in 1991.

On July 27, 1956, China celebrated the Shaw Centenary in Pe!cing at the

vast baiiroom of the Peking Hotel. Act II of The Apple Cart and Acts II and III of Mrs

Warren's Profession were performed. Excerpts were produced instead of the whole play,

for they were part of the ideological construction of Shaw, built up by speeches and

performances for the occasion.

Shaw was again associated with the global, for the event was entitled a

"Meeting in Cornmernoration of Great Figures of World Culture." Again he was

332

associated with Ibsen, for the occasion "comrnemorated the Centenary of Shaw's birth

and the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Ibsen" ( S h m Bulletin September 1957). The

event was held by the Chinese People's Association for Cultural Relations with Foreign

Countries, the Chinese Writers' Union, and the Union of Chinese Stage Artists, in

answer to the appeal from the World Peace Association. More than 1,000 people

attended the meeting, with some LOO foreign guests, including Lemox Robinson, director

of the Irish National Theatre, British author and Shaw's friend Rubeigh James Minney

and Gerda Ring, director of the National Theatre, Oslo, Norway . The steering group

included the famous Chinese writers Mao Dun and Chen Zhen-duo, foreign guests

Robinson, Ring, Minney, the famous Chinese playwnghts Hsia Yan and Tien Han, the

famous Chinese actors Ouyang Yu-qian, Mei Lan-fang, and so on. Minney was invited

because he "knew Shaw during the latter phase of his life", and Robinson because of his

being "Shaw's secretary for a short time, close on fi@ years ago" (The Shavian May

1957 26).

Act II of The Apple Cart began the performance of Shaw's plays in the

centenary celebrations in Peking. The play was not popular in China, and was put up

upon the suggestion by Rubeigh J. Minney, who recalls:

The scene frorn The Apple Cart in which the Amencan Ambassador tells King

Magnus of England that his country wished to return to the English fold. The

333

thought delighted them. The play had not yet been translated uito Chinese, but

although they had less than a week for making the translation and for rehearsais,

it was adopted and the members of the Peking Cinema Actors Troupe were word

perfect on the night of the performance. (Bogus Image 144)

The idea of returning to the motherland is important to modem China newly emerged

fiom the War of Resistance against Japan. A conditioned interpretation is important for

the play may be interpreted in two contrasting ways depending on perspectives. On one

hand, the choice of the play seems to be ironic: in the play, Amenca offers to give up

its sovereign independence and return to colonial status, while in reality, revolutionary

China was recovering its sovereign independence. On the other hand, the Chinese might

be more encouraged to identiQ with the English King Magnus, whose former subject

America is volunteering to return to motherland England. Consequently, the audience

had to be tutored. Its interpretation of the play was shaped by the speeches given before

the performance. Readings of Shaw took a socialist and cornmunist bearing in

Cornmunist China. In the opening speech made by Mao Dun, the Vice-Chairman of the

Chinese Literary Association and the Chairman of the Chinese Writers' Union:

*Mao Dun points out Shaw's sympathy toward socialist countries, and warm

support of the business of human peace and democracy. His humourous and

sharp satirical cornedies portray the faces of war mongers and weapons merchants

334

and reveal the enslaving policies of imperiaiist invasions. But they are

sympathetic toward people striving for freedom and liberation. To cornmernorate

hirn will enlarge the troops of peace, and strive for everlasting peace among

peoples of a i i nations. (Xi Ju Bao, August 1956)

Shaw attracts sociaiist China because of his anti-capitalism. In the major Chinese address

by Tien Han, the Chaiman of the Chinese Union of Stage Artists, he says: " After [Shaw]

exposed the real aspect of capitalism in his 'unpleasant' plays, his enemies held him up

for castigation as 'that hatefid Ibsenite"' (Shaw Bulletin September 1957 11). Tien Han

continues: " Owing to his having read Marx's Capital in early life, he cast a penetrating

gaze upon [the many developments in Europe since the turn of the last century] and the

social reasons behind them" (Shav Bulletin September 1957 12).

The Chinese regime and its spokesmen at this time preferred to see Shaw's

early plays Iike Mrs Warren's Profesion and Widowers ' Houses as representing a

continuing condition of Capitalist society rather than a condition largely arneliorated by

liberalism and prosperity. The Chinese were not presenting a Victorian and post-

Victorian England but pretending that this England stiil existed.

Shaw was found inadequate. Tien Han says:"As far as his political

thought is concerned, he has tried the t o ~ ~ ~ o u s path of reform which has resulted in

335

certain shortcomings in the political ideas expressed in his work. But just as Lenin has

pohted out, Shaw was 'a good man f d e n among Fabians'" (Shaw Bulletin September

1957 12). The Chinese intellectuals in the 1920s pointed out that Shaw's problem plays

failed to provide a solution. Tien Han also repeated this, but in the light of Marx and

Lenin:"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" ( S h Bulletin September 1957

12). Shaw was hailed as a socialist by Tien:

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

unions on the other, considering that both were fundamentally useless. (Shaw's

Revolutionist 's Hamibook, 19 17) It was not until after the success of the Russian

October Revolution, and the appearance of the Soviet Socialist Republic, that the

depression of the old playwright becarne dispersed. So he ended up saying, "We

are socialists. Russia's viewpoint is also ours." (Shmv Bulletin Sept. 1957 12-3).

336

Time has changed, giving histoncal validity to Shaw's comments. Tien

said:"In regard to many questions, Shaw is not only a satirist, but also a prophet.

Regardhg 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" (Shaw

Bulletin September 1957 14). What used to be censured in Nationalist Govemment times

became valued in the Communist era- Shaw's speech to the Hongkong University

students, which used to be attacked by the bourgeois press of Shanghai, becarne relevant

in the 1950s: "If at twenty you don? 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. " Tien quotes from Shaw's addresses during his visit to Hong Kong,

made on February 15, 1933, and reported in the Shaw Bulletin (September 1957 14):

"Europe can give no counsel to Asia, except at the nsk of the old rebuff

'Physician heal thyself.' 1 am aftaid 1 have likewise nothing to Say in the present

emergency , except 'China help thyself. '

"With China's people united who could resist her?"

Tien fmds these words prophetic in perspective,and have an application in modem China:

These words of Shaw have the ring of absolute sincerity. Under the leadership

of the Chinese Communist Paay and Chairman Mao, the Chinese people are

337

uniting together, anci after escaping h m national crisis and having driven away

the Kuornintang reactionary clique, we are actually in the process of adopting the

beneficial aspects of modem "civilization" and rejecting and weeding out h a m l

aspects according to our own benefit, and building a socialist, industrïalized New

China. (Shaw Bulletin September 1957 14)

Shaw was used to reinforce the patriotic appeal. Tien says that he was "deeply patriotic,

with a warm love for humanity, and very much concerned for the fate of the human

species " (Shaw Bulletin September 1957 15) -

What was interesting was the swing between the local and the global in

Tien Han's speech on Shaw. On one hand, Tien found a local Chinese application of

Shaw's works. He comments on Shaw and ïbsen:

Their works are not only loved by the Chinese people but have had an actual

influence on society . Their attitude in pursuit of tmth and in upholding it will be

forever an example to us. . . . In order to establish Chinese realism on a fm

basis, we should study their works, act them, and attend performances of their

plays more industriously than ever. (Shaw Bulletin Septernber 1957 15)

Shaw has a local application in China.

338

On the other hand, paying attention to S&aw aiso implied a Chinese effort

to join the global community. Tien concluded his speech saying: "On this day, when we

are holding a festival in memory of these two great writers, we are full of boundless

optirnism in regard to the development of the progressive dramatic culture of the whole

world" (Shaw Bulletin September 1957 15). There was an attempt to reach out to the

world. Tien Han's speech was foilowed by speeches b y Robertson, Minney (Figure 16)

and Ring. Lennox Robinson talked about Shaw's plays, and Minney commented on

Shaw's personality. The latter recalls: "1 tumed to Shaw's personal attributes, his

idiosyncracies, his contrariness, his gay sense of mischief and his unexpected gusts of

generosity" (Nen Stop 68). He also covered Shaw's flight over the Great Wall. After

the celebrations, the Chinese People's Association for Cultural Relations with Foreign

Countries prepare the following items for sale, advertised in The Shavian:

r

Selected Works of GBS in Chinese translation (Mrs Warren's

Profession, The Apple Cari?, and Major Barbara)

Program of the Commemoration of Ibsen and Shaw (In Chinese,

English, and Russian), including the speeches by Lennox Robinson

and R.J.Minney - - - - -- -

Postcards in Commemoration of the 1956 world culnual figures,

including GBS , Mozart, Ibsen, Franklin, etc.

The Shm>ian comments on the postcards: "the whole described by one of Our members as

A Foreign Perspective

Rubeigh J. Minney making a speech at the Shaw Centenary Celebrations in Peking, July 1956.

339

'genial Chinese Commuist propaganda for Western culture' "(10, September 1957 25).

The performance of The Apple Cart itself was glocalized. On one hand,

it was localized. The actors were Chinese. According to the Xi Ju Bao (Dram Navs)

(August 1956), the actors were from the Peking Cinema Actors Troupe, including Li

Keng. On the other hand, it was westernized, with the actors "dressed in European

clothes , but speaking Chinese " (Minney , Next Stop 58). Minney recalls the preparations :

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 Westem gestures,

and so on. They took infiite pains. They were striving for perfection, and for

the most part they attained it. (Next Stop 66)

Yet, what impressed Minney in the performance was not this cultural appropriation, but

something quite unique and local, narnely, a Chinese girl using her fan:

The Chinese girl who played the Queen was young and pretty and in her Westem

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

340

fan most expressively, opening it and shutting it to indicate her reactions to what

was being said by the King and the Ambassador. (Bogus Image 144)

Minney fmds himself attracted to this 1ocalization:"It was a brilliant performance and

done so subtly that it distracted our attention from the rest of the taik and action" (Next

Stop 66). The performance of excerpts was aiso reminiscent of traditional Chinese

drama. Excerpts of the Chinese plays were often performed instead of the whole one,

which could Iast for hours or even days.

In the Shaw Centenary celebrations in Peking, the performance of the

excerpt from The Apple Cart was foIlowed by a performance of Acts II and III of Mrs

Warren's Profession (Figure 17). The excerpt was performed by the Central Academy

of Drama Performance Officiais trainees, inchding Tien Hua. To Robinson and Minney,

the selection seemed strange. Minney recalls:

[The Chinese's acquaintance with Shaw's plays] was confined almost entirely to

Mrs Warren's Profession. We tried to veer them off this. 1 said:"There are a

great many other plays which you ought to look at -- if you have Chinese

transIations of them. Mrs Warren's Profession is about a woman who owned a

number of brothels. You have, we understand, abolished al1 brothels. That is

a closed chapter now in the people of China, " But, no matter what arguments we

Mm Warren 's Profession performed in the Shaw Centenary Celebrations in Peking, July 1956

The Chinese Frank Gardner, Vivie Warren and Sir George Crofts at the end of Act III -- also the end of that performance.

341

advanced, back they came to Mrs Warren. We Ieamed 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 al1 over China and

it had accordingly the advantage that the artists already knew it. (Nexr Stop 65)

Perhaps Robertson and Mimey had no idea about the introduction of Mrs Warren's

Profession to China in the May Fourth Movernent in 19 19. The keynote of individual

independence was reiterated in the opening speech made by Mao Dun:

*Shaw and Ibsen are not unfamiliar to the people of China. The people of China

love thern ardently. As far back in the May Fourth Movement, the search for

free and liberated thoughts and ernotions in Ibsen's drama greatly influenced the

New Literature Movement in China. The people of China also ardently love

Shaw's sharp political criticism and humourous, pungent cornedies. (Xi Ju Bao

August 1956)

Shaw's realism was still appreciated in the 1950s. In the major Chinese address by Tien

Han, entitled: "Let Us Learn from the Great Masters of Realist Drama," he says: "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."

(Shaw Bulletin, September 1957 1 1).

In the May Fourth Movement, Shaw was hailed for his social criticism and

play of ideas. Tien Han r e a f f i e d this in the Shaw Centenary speech: "[He] made

dramatic literature a weapon for criticizing society and revealing human life, and tumed

the theatre into what Bernard Shaw calied 'a factory of ideas' " (Shaw Bulletin September

1957 15). The Chinese playwright says about Mrs Warren 's Profession:

Shaw çuggests a different solution for Vivie, the new woman, in her determined

and uncompromising stmggle to leave her brothel-keeper mother and that rotten

parasite who Iived on the income denved 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. . . . even though in

capitalist society, the problem of the professional woman is not an easy one to

solve. (Shaw Bulletin September 1957 15)

Ibsen's A Doll's House, presented as Nora, was staged the following evening by the

Chinese Youth Art Theatre. W e the 1921 production of Mrs Warren's Profession in

Shanghai failed, the 1957 production was successful because it was interpreted by the

speeches, and sanctioned officialiy.

343

Other commemorative activities in Peking included a Report Meeting held

jointly by the Beijing Library and Beijing People's Cultural Palace, inviting Wu Xue, the

Director of the China Youth Art Theatre, who had visited Norway, to taik about the life

and art of Ibsen and Shaw- An exhibition was aiso held at the Beijing Library, showing

pictures about thern, as well as their works and cnticisms in different languages.

Commemorative events were also held in Shanghai, Tientsin and

Shenyang.

In July 1956, concurrent with the celebrations at the Peking Hotel was the

publication of Chen Zhen-duo's Preface to Selected Works of Bernard Shaw, the fxst

item advertised in The Shavian. Again glocalization is shown. Chen begins by

globalizing the playwrïght:

*Shaw . . . does not merely belong to Ireland, or the English speaking world. He

belongs to the whole of humanity, and is one of the best men of letters produced

by mankind. . . . As a famous representative of cntical realism, Shaw is a major

writer in world literature.

Then, Chen localized Shaw and recast him into Communist mode:

344

*Al1 hîs words are aimed at exposing the ugliness and cruel exploitation of

imperialism. He exposes the hombIe suppression and terrZying decadence of the

capitalist system dispassionately. He has a broad humanism, and has limitless

concem with the fate of mankind. He has boundless sympathy for the insuIted

people.

Shaw is commended as an anti-capitalist. Chen thinks that Widowers '

Houses shows the homble life of the British proletariat, and how the capitalists

shamelessly and dispassionately extort the little money eamed by their hard work. Mrs

Warren's Profession, Chen thinks, shows the poor life of the British female workers, who

work hard but eam meagre pay, which is so little that they c m o t support themselves,

but are forced to sel1 their bodies. Major Barbara shows the cruelty and greediness of

the ammunition dealer Andrew Undershaft. He stands for the imperialist merchant, who

only knows the power of money. Heartbreak House shows the crisis and terror caused

by the well-educated members of the capitalist class in the First World War. Chen also

comments on The Apple Cart, thinking that it shows the real face of the right wing

socialist, and the behind-the-scenes power struggle between the parties in power, their

conspiracy and compromise.

In spite of these localizations, Chen concludes his Preface reiterating the

global: "*Shaw creates al1 that is meaningful and noble, which are liked by people all

over the world. "

5. Glocaiization in Ideolom - A m s and the Man in Shan~hai, Aumst 1956

The celebrations for the Shaw Centenary "were held in Shanghai on

August 3rd at eight o'clock in the morning in the midst of the worst typhoon Shanghai

has had for thirty years" (The Shavian 9 (1957) 26). In spite of the severe tropical

stonn, the event was well attended. Minney reports:

Astonishingly the foyer was full of people. Al1 the local dignitaries were there,

the mayor, the Secretary-General of the China Federation of Literature and Art,

Mr Wang, actors and actresses, playwnghts and directors, as well as Mr hllan,

the British Consul-General in Shanghai. . . . The theatre was packed to the doors.

. . . There m u t have been twelve hundred. ( N a Stop 149)

Mr Wang was Wang JO-hg, one of the principal stage and f i directors in Shanghai.

The programme included speeches, "a scene from Mrs Warren's Profession . . . a scene

from A m and the Man, the scene in which the soldier breaks into the bedroom" (The

Shavian, May 1957 26-7).

346

On one hand, globalization is shown. The production was westemized in

many ways. First, the city itself was westernized. Minney reports: "Because of the long

British association with Shanghai, 1 found English was spoken there fairly widely. Many

in the room had learned it in school, and even in the town, especially in the curios shops,

it was the language they used most" (Nerr Srop 151).

Secondly, the western drama element was emphasized by the theatre in

Shanghai. According to Minney, there were a contrast between Shanghai and Beijing

(Peking): Shanghai appeared to be the centre of "the modern theatre, that is to Say plays

on the Western pattern, " while Peking was "the centre of the old classical plays, which

were loosely caiied operas" (Nat Stop 141). The contrast between the modern and the

traditional was emphasized also by the CO-existence of traditional story-teller theatres and

the Western style theatres. Minney gives an account of the theatres in Shanghai at the

time of the Shaw Centenary:

[There are] about 116 theatres in Shanghai today. About thirty of them are story-

telIer theatres, where a single actor .. . takes the stage alone and provides the

entire entertainment for two to three hours. This, though new to us, is pari of

the traditional background of the theatre in China. There are still story-tellers in

the bazaars. They used to give their solo performances outside the temples and

are even now to be found in great numbers outside the Temple of Heaven in

347

Peking. . . . The opera was evolved by fbsing of these story-tellers and the temple

dancers. This was done by one of the Ming Emperors about a thousand years

ago. ( N m Stop 141)

Juxtaposed against the story-teller theatre was the new Western style theatre, the biggest

of which is described by Minney:

One 1 saw in Shanghai, with seats for thhteen thousand, must be the largesr

theatre in the world. Instead of an undefmed green-room just behind the sets, it

has a great range of reception rooms where the artists receive their friends.

There are private baths attached to the main-dressing rooms, and more make up

accommodation than 1 have ever seen before in either theatre or film studio; here,

as many as 350 players can make up at the same time, seated at their own

dressïng-tables , thus eliminating waiting or delay . ( N e z Stop 3 8)

Thirdly, the actors were westernized. They wore western clothes, and

adopted western manners. Minney finds the performance impressive (Figure 18):

In A m and the Man we had the most brilliant Bluntschli 1 had yet seen. Shih

Hui played this role with a dash and swagger you would expect to fmd in a

Western rather than a Chinese actor. His romantic moments with Ling Chen

Arms and the Man in Shanghai, July 1956

Raina and Bluntschli wore western clothes and adopted western rnanners.

348

(Mrs Denni Wang) were aIso extremeiy good. His make-up was so redistic that

it was difficuit to believe he was not an Englishman. ( N a t Stop 149 - 50)

Shih Hui is both "an actor and a film director" (The Shavian May 1957 27).

Moreover, the actress playing Raina has western training. Minney

writes: "The girl was played by Demi Wang, who was at the Old Vic in London for two

years studying under Michel St. Denis" (The Shavian May 1957 27). Denni Wang

deserved further attention. She was not merely westernized, but actively using the

techniques she learned abroad and applying them in China, developing them

experimentally. She was "responsible for the production of Romeo and Julier in Peking,

which created such a great stir there" (Next Stop 145). This production was an

experiment mixing the east and the West. For instance, in the portrayal of the Friar: "He

did not corne on in the conventional flowing beard, but as a young man with shaven chin,

and, when later he beheld the dead lovers, he approached thern with reverence, and went

through a series of Chinese religious rites in absolute, and intensely moving, silence for

about ten minutes" (Next Stop 38). This production was part of a Iarger attempt at

glocalization, as Minney explains:

Denni Wang's] interpretation of Romeo and Juliet was part of the

experimentation that is going on in the evolution of the modem theatre. Their

349

approach is neither extravagant nor revolutionary, but a very gentle adjustment

merely to see if the effect can be improved. And not only in direction and

acting, but in writing too. Groups of writers are sent out into various parts of the

country. They Live for some months at a rnining camp or on a CO-operative farm,

or among the Miao people, observe their habits, their tum of speech, their way

of life, and they wnte plays that are as close to reality as possible, and when the

writer has finished, the director and the cast go down and live in the district for

some weeks to acquire every innuendo of speech and gesture. (Next Stop 145)

Minney also recognized the wish to adapt the western to the local, when

he was asked to return to China and produce A s You Like Ir in Chinese. Minney

reflects:"It revealed none the less, the intense desire on the part of the Chinese for a

doser understanding of Shakespeare and their wish to learn from our style of production,

adopt what is suitable, and thus extend the range of their experimentation" (Nert Stop

150).

In the Shaw Centenary celebrations in Shanghai, again Shaw was

associated with Ibsen. The last act of A Doll's House was performed after Shaw's plays.

Famous Chinese writers participated in the celebrations. After the

performances, a banquet was held at a hotel, and the Shaw table was chaired by Pa

350

Chiang. According to Minney , "Pa is one of the most popular of present-day novelists.

His Iatest book, Home, was enjoying a considerable sale al1 over China and was being

f h e d in Shanghai at the t h e " (Next Stop 150).

6. Glocalization in Performance -- Major Barbara in Pekin~, June 1991

The performance of Major Barbara in Peking, opening on June 1, 199 1,

(Figure 19) has been regarded by many as the first time a Shaw play was pedormed in

China in its totality. Perhaps this is bue7 for in the 1921 production of Mrs Warren 's

Profession in Shanghai, few members of the audience stayed until the end of the play.

Yet, the nature of the productions was different. W e the 1921 production was an

attempt to introduce something definitely new and western to China, the 1991 production

was localized in interpretation. The 192 1 production was a marginalized event, while

the 1991 production was a central occasion. The 1921 production had an aura of

illegitimacy, presenting something strange and even morally challenging in China, the

1991 production was surrounded by an air of legitimacy. It was produced by the Beijing

People's Art's Theatre, formerly the Capital Theatre. Wendi Chen gave an excellent

introduction of the theatre's legitimacy in the People's Republic of China:

The Beijing People's Arts Theatre had been kuown for its close relationship with

Major Barbara performed in Peking, June 1991

Undershaft and Barbara. This production was regarded by many Chinese critics as the first time Shaw's play was performed in China in its totality.

351

the Central Government. As a child to the Chinese Communist regime, it has

enjoyed the privilege of being directly numired and "guided" by top leaders of

the Party and the country. Many Govemment VIPs had visited the theatre and

attended performances there, including the late Chairman Mao Zedong, Premier

Zhou Enlai, and the present Chairman Jiang Zemin. The administration of the

theatre had always been in the hands of well-respected professionals who could

also act as cuItural leaders and guardians for the Government. Cao Yu [(1910-)],

one of the most disthguished 20th cenniry playwrights, has been the President of

the theatre from 1952, when the theatre was founded, to the present, -- over forty

years. . . . Because of its location in the backyard of the Communist Party's

headquarters, the theatre continues to receive careful scmtiny from the Party

bosses. (27)

China has changed since the 1950s, especially since 1978:

The Third Plenum of the Eleventh Central Cornmittee, fiom 18 to 22 December

1978, introduced the policies of reform under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping.

. . . In policy terms changes were introduced in the economy in the direction of

market sociaiism and free enterprise in the countryside. The Cultural Revolution

was totally negated and China seemed able to throw out al1 the Maoist propaganda

which had been so deleterious to the Chinese revolution as a whole. . . .

352

Economic and social fkeedoms of various sorts became permissable. (Mackerras,

Taneja and Young 18)

The Third Plenum ushered in extensive changes in more or less ail major spheres

of life. Apart fiom the legal system and the economy, these included ideology,

education, literature and the arts, the minoriSr nationalities and religion.

(Mackerras, Taneja and Young 18)

The cultural situation until the end of the Cultural Revolution is

summarized by Hu Miao-sheng:

*Up to the end of the Cultural Revolution, though one cannot Say that the

research on the theory and history of dramatic performance in China was a barren

desert, it could still be regarded as a wasteland awaiting cultivation. The

CoZZected Wntings on rhe Art of rhe Stage, a collection with discussions on the

stage art including cnticisms, transIations and technology , is just a 500,000 word

document. (102)

According to Yeh Shui-fu, in the "ten years' commotion" of the Cultural Revolution,

foreign literature was regarded as "feudalistic, capitalistic, revisionist. " Under the

theones of "*destruction, separation and blankness, foreign literature became a big

restricted area" (4).

353

With the arrest of the "Gang of Four" which included Jiang Qing the wife

of Mao Ze-dong, and her fnends influential in the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural

Revolution on October 6, 1976, China has entered a "New Era." The study and

reap;Rarance of Western drama on the Chinese stage became possible. Deng Xiao-ping

was reinstated to office in M y 1977. He said in the Fourth Meeting of Workers in

Literature and Art in China on October 30, 1979, that "*the most fundamental standard

for measuring the right or wrong of ail work should be whether it is beneficial or

hazardous to the four modemizations," (Deng 180) which are the modemizations of

industry, agriculture, science and technology, and national defence. Under the policy

of "reform and opening," Chinese interest in Shaw revives.

Shaw's play was staged for a number of reasons. First, the play was

staged to conmbute to the development of spoken drama. Wendi Chen writes:

According to [the Director Ying Ruocheng's] explicit statements, his objectives

were primarily professional: to further the cause of Spoken Drama, which was

besieged by popular culture. .. . Ying made [this point] at the organizational

meeting on April 15, 1991, when he formally announced his decision to stage

Major Barbara. He emphasized that he wanted to resume a Spoken Drama that

had been languishing in a "deep valley" for a long time. He recognized that

"Spoken Drarna fell into the 'deep valiey' for various reasons -- social, political,

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as weil as reasons related to policies and the system of the institution. " With the

steady decline of Spoken Drama, there was increased anxiety among theatre

professionals over its ultimate fate. (35)

Spoken drama was still associated with the play of ideas. The Director

Ying Ruocheng said in the organizational meeting on Apnl 15, 1991 : "Spoken Drama,

as a stage art, cannot be replaced by any other art because its main characteristic is

ideas. Spoken Drama is the most efficient art fonn for disseminating ideas. It not only

provides the audience with entertainment, but also with food for thought" (Chen 35).

Shaw rernains acceptable to modem China probably because of his political

inclination and his realism. Gao Xu-dong wrote in 1993:

*I think that Lu Xun's leftist tum towards an ideological socialism was related to

Shaw's influence. Just look at how encouraging is the "Declaration to Chinese

People " signed by Shaw and other people. (1 15)

Gao went on to quote from the "Declaration" which shows that Shaw is both anti-

capitalistic and supportive to China. The quote ends with this: "*Your enemies are Our

enemies. Your war is Our war. Your future victory is Our victory " (1 15).

355

Shaw's attitude toward the capitalist society is another appeal. He Feng

descnbes Shaw's England in a way much in line with communist literature:

*On one hand, England at that tirne, with her rapid development of industrial

production and high concentration of capital, first entered the monopolizing

capitalist society, that is, the stage of imperialisrn. At the same time, she also

fostered the snatching of wealth and economic control in the colonies overseas.

On the other hand, she faced the polarization of wealth within the country. (68)

Gui Yang-qing, Hao Zhen-yi and Fu Jun write in History of British Dram (1994):

"*Shaw's plays uncover and cnticize the various defects in capitalist society, and analyse

ceriain social problems " (297). They continue: " *Shaw thinks that capitalist society needs

change, but he does not support violent revolution. This viewpoint c m also be found in

his playst'(297). Among the things covered by these Chinese critics, Shaw's views on

the capitalist society are highlighted. For instance, the first production of Widowers '

Homes in 1892 arouse the violent cnticisms of capitalist class newspapers; the hypocrisy

of the capitalist class is revealed in Candida, especially through Candida's father Burgess

through whom the exploitation and moral principles of the capitalist cIass are shown; You

Never Can Tell touches on the problems of a capitalistic class broken farnily; Major

Barbara shows the inequalities in capitalist society in which the capitalist is the real

ruler; in Heartbreak House Shaw expresses his views toward capitalist society; in The

356

Apple Cari the d e r has to be controlled by the capitalist in a capitalist society; and in

Too T'e to be Good there is a symbolic criticism of the spiritual crisis in capitalist

society (297 - 307).

Shaw's realism is affirmed in contemporary China. Zhang Yan-hua,

writing in 1988, thinks that the playwright is a "realist" who tries to "*achieve

unconditionally the real by fieeing himself ideologically from au preconceived concepts

of life. " Zhang continues: " *He uses his own eyes to observe life and analyse life. In

order to achieve this straightforward real, the drarnatist must get rid of all pretentious

performance formula, and emphasize the experience of feelings to create an illusion of

life" (63).

Shaw's realism has not lost its attractions. He Feng writes in 1996:

*Shaw adapts the literary tradition of European redism. He especially promotes

and develops the European new realistic drama represented by Ibsen, making

drama nearer life and the audience. This better expresses the spirit of the age,

and is more aggressive and influentid. . . . Shaw's plays mainly observe and

reflect life from the political and economic perspective, judging what is right and

wrong. (68)

357

An important aspect of Shaw's realism is his comments on society. Gui

Yang-qing, Hao Zhen-yi and Fu Jun write in History of British Drama (1994):

*Shaw's works raise many problems with general, long-lasting social meaning.

The characters are Iively, and the language witty. . . . His works make use of

comedy to examine society, and show his opinions on important issues such as

politics, religion, class, woman and education. Therefore, Shaw's plays are

creative social problem comedies. His success reaches the peak of world

ciramatic art.

Discussing the new developments in drama's reflection of real life, He Feng writes:

*Shaw has played an important role in making European drama keep Pace with

tirne, enabling drama to move from the stage to the society, from "the leisured

class" to the masses, from refiecting the "linle comedies and tragedies" in the

family to showing big changes of the century. He really strengthens drama's

knowledge of society, its cntical powers, and so on. (68)

Other cntics highlight Shaw's discussion technique. Rong Guang-yuan

writes: "*Shaw is the writer most keen to promote Ibsen's new technique of 'discussion,'

and practises the technique most determinedly. In his own work he ûied hard to use

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humorous, witty dialogue and paradox. . . . Shaw is very clear in theory" (15). Rong

thinks that philosophizing is relevant, and concludes:

*In formulation and in practice, it has been proved that one can be philosophic

in drama, and this is also an expression of the enrichment of dramatic art. This

helps to satisfj the audience's demands for multiple interests, and to expand the

scope of Iife shown in drama. As socialism becomes more civilised and people

more cultured, there will inevitably be a constant increase in the audience's

demand for philosophizing in drama. (19)

He Feng notices:

*Shaw's intelligent and deep "political discussions" have not destroyed the

aesthetics of the plays. Instead, they change the taste of his contemporary

audience, making tbem willing to accept rational insights and spirituai wannings

fkom his penetrating discussions, and show the falsity and shallowness of the then

popular light comedy. (68)

The 1991 performance of Major Barbara also reflected these ideological

concerns. This performance was appreciated within the ideological fiamework. Shen

Hui-hui reviews the play in the Guang Ming Ri Bao dated June 15, 199 1 :

359

*Major Barbara was first performed in 1906. . . . Bernard Shaw stepped out

bravely, crying out to stop the imperidkt war. He was not afraid of bsing

misunderstood or criticized. Using his deep thinkiog, he foresaw that imperialism

and capitalism would make use of war to lead mankind into a darker abyss. In

Major Barbara, he satirically reveais the real purposes of the conspiracy between

politics and religion, and criticizes sharply the church and political authority at

that tirne.

In another review published in the People's Daiiy on June 20, 1991,

Wang Zuo-liang notes how well the Beijing People's Art's Theatre Troupe delivers

Shaw's language:

* m a t Shaw is saying in the play is in western society, the capitalists rule

everything. In order to show this through characterization and setting, he makes

use of al1 his linguistic powers. . . . The Beijing People's Art's 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

perfonn various kinds of foreign plays in these years have expanded their

experience. Therefore when the play began, the refined and yet authoritative

expressions of Lady Bntornart, played by Zhu Lin, aroused Our expectations.

360

When Undershaft, played by Zhu Xu, enters, faced by his wife, who is difficult

to deal with, and his children, he courteously and vigilantly ward off their

cnticism, and refuses their demands.

Wang appreciates the clean and clear performance, which lasts some two hours. He

thinks that the play c m go beyond its topicality because of its language, and there is a

local application:

*Language -- Shaw's language, the language of the actors of the Beijing People's

Art's Theatre -- have aesthetic use, and surpass aesthetics to hearten people,

asking them to be clear-minded, and consider the problem thoroughly. This is

the spirit of comedy. It can have a long-terrn effect. Elements of Shaw's

writings are no longer familiar to us, but his subject is not outdated. The bright

and clear conversations and fearless laughter wïll Iast forever.

At the same time, Wang Zuo-liang concludes his cnticism in a note of

globalization and associates the Beijing performance with performances overseas:

*In Autumn 1947, I frst saw Major Barbara in a London theatre. Thanks to the

comrades of the Beijing People's Art's Theatre, I can hear Shaw's laughter again

in Beijing after more than 40 years .

But there is also a need to localize the plays. Shen Hui-Hui continues:

*Directors fiom dl countries are uiterpreting Shaw's plays anew using the

contemporary spirit, so as to ensure that his good plays are always performed and

new. His works, as the cultural inheritance of rnankind, will continue to inspire

people. After participating in Bernard Shaw's deep and quick-witted thoughts,

c m the audience in Our country raise better suggestions on bis ideals?

In spite of the appreciation of Shaw's works, his ideas are aiso found to

be Iimited in modem China. The performance of Major Barbara revealed these

inadequacies. A nurnber of critics found the performance of the second act fauing shoa

of their expectation. Sun Jia-hsiu writes:

*The second act in this play is highly regarded by Shaw. This act reveals the

poverty and incomgibility of the capitaiist system thoroughly. The capitalist

system makes one lose his respectability. The worker who has never been fed

by others cannot help eating the food granted him. The capitalist system t u m

people into rash, cruel, inhuman beings. ... The capitalist system creates

polarization and immorality; such as drunkenness or lying. In this act, Shaw is

keen to expose the capitalist system. The performance does not show this clearly

enough, for some of the discussion has been omitted. I feel that the workers in

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the play are representations of different types. The actors should convey their

feelings more clearly to the audience. If they perform in a general way in actions

iike fmding it embarrassing to eat, hitting others, or lying, they WU not easily get

what Shaw wants to reveal speciaily. One wonders if the actions in the f ~ s t part

of the act c m be emphasized in management or performance, and highlight the

scene when the general begs the capitalist for help. (45 - 6)

Gui Yang-qing, Hao Zhen-yi and Fu Jun highlight Shaw's not joining the proletariat.

They write:

*But Shaw bas not joined the proletariat bodies. He joined the newly formed

Fabian society. Although Shaw says that he may be the only one in England who

understands socialisrn, and calls himseIf a socialist, he has not realized the

fundamental difference between the Fabian society and the proletariat

organisation. (292)

Gui, Hao and Fu conchde: "*Shaw is not a communist but a Fabian. We could clearly

see this political viewpoint fiom his works" (294).

In the early 1920s, the problem play has been cnticized as failing to solve

China's specific problems. Critics in modem China add a Mmis t interpretation. Liang

Hong-ying concludes his review of the performance of Major Barbara:

*In [Shaw's] wor-h, on one hand, the capitalist society is exposed and criticized.

On the other hand, due to a Iack of the viewpoint of historical materialisrn, the

correct way out is not pointed out. (63)

Sun Jia-hsiu also writes:

*The ideas of Bemard Shaw expressed in the play were considered advanced at

the time when it was written. But 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 views raised in the play were those when he joined the Fabian

Societj, that is, a slow progressive revolution and the practice of amelionsm.

They advocate using production to work for social progress, and irnproving

employer-ernployee relationship. One has to be fed before one c m ta& about

morality. But Shaw is not critical toward what is produced. Even cannons can

be produced. Shaw affirms capitalist production, which m e m that he also

affirms the capitalist system. (45)

The Chinese critics are more concemed with the social aspect of the play

364

than with Shaw's theory of the Life Force and Creative Evolution. For example, Sun

Jia-hsiu writes:

*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. (46)

The critics do not think that Andrew Undershaft represents raw power, the stage when

the Life Force is struggling blindly in its fight for new ground, relying on "Blood and

lion" and resuiting in destruction, bloodshed and death. Cusins represents the intellect

giving a safe, constructive direction to Undershaft's raw power. He tells Barbara, "Dare

1 make war on war? I dare. 1 must. 1 will" (3: 182). Barbara, as Undershaft's

daughter, inherits his raw power, but brings it to a higher level. "Money and

Gunpowder" are worldly powers, saving the body of Rummy Mitchens, Snobby Price

and Peter Shirley, but Barbara will Save the souls of the Bill Wakers. She says at the

end of the p1ay:"I have got rid of the bribe of heaven. Let God's work be done for its

own sake" (3: 183 - 4). Her marriage to Cusins represents the Life Force directed

constructively to advance the purposes of Creative Evolution.

365

Chapters Four and Five have explored the difference between the

publication and translation of Shaw's plays in China, and the performance of these plays.

This difference persists in modem China. There was a need to adapt the plays to the

local situation in the early twentieth century. Sun Jia-hsiu notes:

*China has published many translations of Shaw's works, and recommends him

as a world-farnous 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 flavour, the Chinese audience will have difficulty accepting

it. Ying Ruo-cheng has translated the play into an intelligent natural language

understandable by the Chinese audience. ... 1 think that the Chinese audience

likes plays with a strong plot and rich human emotions. Therefore, the

performance of Shaw's plays 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. (45)

Shavian realism has somewhat lost its appeal to the modem Chinese

audience. After the "prototype plays" of the Cultural Revolution, Zhang Yan-hua thinks

that "*people . . . were not satisfied with recovering the tradition of realism. The heavy

lesson from history made people deeply feel the importance of using their own rational

366

thoughts to weigh and judge everythingW(64). Zhong Ban wrote in 1980 that Shaw's

p1ays were "traditional" and his modem reaiistic drama might not suit the times (125,

127).

Changes to a foreign play may first occur on the stage. Hu Miao-sheng

wrote in 1990:

*Drarna in China after the Cultural Revolution . ., was first reformed on the

stage, then in the production, and lastly in the writing of plays. Stage art was the

vanguard in destroying the predominant realism. It defeated reaiism not only at

the realisation in performance, but also in drarnatic concepts. (103)

Other critics are deterred by Shaw's didacticism. Rong Guang-yuan

comments: "*Although Shaw's witty dialogue fascinates many, some or nearly half of his

works are didactic, and make the work conceptual. " To Rong, " *polishg maxims at the

expense of plot will make the play dry and didactic" (15).

Another factor is the difference in cultural background between the east

and the West. Zhong Yan-hua thinks that "*though cultural background is eventually

limited by political and economic factors, " it has "*direct influence on literary art" (58).

In directing Shakespeare's plays on the Chinese stage, Hu Wei-min fmds that there is a

367

need to "*pay attention to the appreciation habits of the nation, to fully respect and use

the cultural superiority of the nation, making it infiltrate into Shakespeare's plays and

form its own characteristics " (39). There is a need to solve the " *contradiction between

traditional Chinese cultural psychological structure and western cultural psychological

snucture" (39). That is, it is necessary to fmd equivalence not only in denotation, but

aiso in connotation. This is especiaily important in the treatment of more abstract

literary means, such as symbols and allusions. In these ways, the characteristics of the

plays will be preserved, and bold creations will also be made possible. To enable the

Chinese audience to appreciate and make sense of the performance, foreign plays may

have to go through a process of "Sinotization" or " becoming Chinese. "

7. Glocalization as Adaatation -- @mulion in Hone Konp, November 1997

To examine the Sinotization of Shaw's plays, 1 will turn to the 1997

performance of Pygmalion in Hong Kong. This production was a conscious effort at

glocalization. Liu Ming-hou notes the necessity to endow famous western drama with

the host nation's era and aura: "*The aesthetic of drama has to adapt to the psychological

needs of the audience from different times and different social backgrounds. To unite

farnous western plays and western stage art theory with the aesthetic needs of

contemporary Chhese audience has long been a conscious effort of our drama directors"

368

(A Robert Lee and Vicki Ooi 13). On one hand, Liu Ming-hou acbowledges the role

of the theatre in globalization. Taking about the recent performances of western plays

such as Beckett's Waiting for Godot or Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of An

Author in China, he says:

*These imply that China after the reform and opening needs to meet the global

culture. Many spectators , especiaily young university students , urgendy need to

understand the global culture, to understand westerners and their clramatic art.

They do not want to keep to thernselves, and hope that the east and the West

understand and comunicate with each other. The stage of drama provides a

window for them to look at the world. (Lee and Ooi 19)

On the other hand, Liu Ming-hou also emphasizes the need to Localize the play in the

production. He States:

*In the performance of famous western plays in China, the second creation by the

director is very important. The director has to have his own explanation, and to

study the play's aesthetic psychology. Making use of various arh'stic means, the

director reaily arouses the aesthetic experience accumulated in the audience's

psychology, and starts off the mechanism in the audience's cognition. (Lee and

Ooi 21)

369

What are the "various aesthetic means" contributive to Sinotization of

western plays? In the First Shakespeare Festival in China, four plays were performed

using traditional Chinese opera forms. Hu Wei-min, who directed Twelfrh Night in the

Festival, said:

* m e n we acknowledge the other, we should not easily Iose ourselves. In the

performance of [Shakespeare' s plays in this Festivaq , there are dispositions and

elements that are oriental, Chinese, and showing Chinese aesthetics. A strong

consciousness of the national culture and an awareness of western culture absorb,

procreate, and mix to form a new Stream of culture. (Ma Li 37)

Drama, as a "performiag art", involves the playwright and the text he

produces, the director and the performance he directs, as well as the audience who

ultimately receives the play. In talking about the recipients, Zhu Dong-lin writes:

*The aesthetic sense has a psychological bent, choosing those few subjects it feels

specially familiar and interested in. Therefore, the recipient starts from his

character and temperament to fmd and discover his spiritual farniliar. His

aesthetic psychological structure is shouting for a corresponding one to form a

new coalition. In this way, the recipient c m only choose among the many artists

from abroad, to discover and approach his spiritual kin. (27)

370

An issue arising after the first Shakespeare Festival in China is the

contention between the "Shakespearean" and "Sinotization." Accordhg to Ma Chao-

rong, the "Shakespearean" refers to the sense of time, place, character, plot, the local

conditions and customs, as well as the humanism expressed in the plays. Ma th& that

the Sinotization of Shakespeare's plays refers to the injection of characteristics of the

Chinese nation into the plays. This process includes two levels :

*The first level involves a formal injection of the Chinese artistic characteristics

into Shakespeare's plays. This mainly involves a translation fiom English into

Chinese or other ethnic languages, or an edition of Shakespeare's plays according

to the forms of Chinese operas with music accompaniments of these operas, etc.

The second level of Sinotization is, without affecting the humanism in the original

work, to try to transplant the time, setting character, plot, the local conditions and

customs, and so on, ont0 the historical soi1 of Chinese history, and make the play

a Chinese history play. (49 - 50)

Ma thinks that the frrst level of Sinotization has greater chance of success. This involves

fmding a series of "counterpoint relationships" between Shakespeare's plays and the Han

drama, and a translation retaining the humanism, t h e , place, character, plot, customs

and local conditions and so on. The result may be a production of Shakespeare's plays

in the form of Chinese opera. The "counterpoint reiationships" may involve the

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assumption of the imaginary stage in both Shakespeare and Chinese opera, the open

structure in the plays, the mixture of comedy and tragedy, or the legendary elements in

the plays.

The second level of Sinotization is more dificult to achieve. Ma thinks

that transplanting Shakespeare's plays onto Chinese soi1 and making them become a play

on Chinese history is dfl~cult, because it is hard to fmd a counterpoint relationship

between European history and culture and Chinese history and culture. Ma identifies

four major differences: 1) Difference in the national character; 2) Difference in religion;

3) Difference in political, economic, military and cultural systems ; and 4) Difference in

customs and social relationships .

The 1997 production of Pygmalion in Hong Kong will be examined in the

light of these two levels of Sinotization. Although the production was a musical, it was

a Sinotized version of Shaw's play rather than My Fair Lady, as the producer Clifton Ko

Chi-sum tells the leading Hong Kong English newspaper, the South China Morning

Post: "It would have been impossible to adapt fiom My FairLady anyway, because rights

for the classic Broadway musical, adapted from Shaw's Pygmalion, forbids it fiom being

performed in any language but English" (Winnie Chung 26). (Professor Stanley

Weintraub thinks that this is not so.) Nevertheless, to show the difference between the

two levels of Sinotization, 1 would like to examine the excellent textual translation of

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Pygmalion by Yang Xian-yi, and the performance of the play in Hong Kong.

Yang Xian-yi's translation is an excellent linguistic translation. This

translation also shows that it is useful to have a cultural tramsIation based on the

localization of the play. Yang is faithful to Shaw's play, and sets Es translation also in

London. The name of places are romanized. Yang provides the cultural translation with

notes in the translated text. Shaw's play depends on locality, on the setting in London

and the dialects used there. This is a challenge to the translator. A way to get through

this is using intricate footnotes. For instance:

A BYSTANDER. He wont get no cab not until half-past eleven.

The translation reads:

*A BYSTANDER. .. . Whatever you Say, a cab can be obtained not until half-

past eleven.

A foomote explains the grammatical nuances of Cockney:"*In the local dialect of

England, the affirmative is often iodicated by double negative" (3). Eliza Doolittle's

dialect poses another challenge. In English, elisions can be s h o w by speliings:

373

THE FLOWER GIRL. Nah then, Freddy: Look wh' y' gowin, deah.

The notes in the Chinese translation reads: " 'Now then, Freddy: look where you're going,

dear.' *The flower girl's cultural standard is comparatively low. Therefore her speech

does not confonn to the nom. Her dialect often ornits certain sound segments, such as

speaking 'Higgins' as 'Iiggins' and so on" (6). The Chinese translation provides the

rneaning, while the notes tell the manner of speech. English is a phonemic language,

while Chinese is morphemic. Eliza DoolittIeys dialect c m be indicated by spellings in

English:

TEE FLOWER GIRL: Theres menners f yer! Ta-oo banches O voylets trod

into the mad.

In the translation, the Chinese characters indicate the meaning, but not the sound. The

notes give the correct spellings. This way to translate is reasonable. for the nanslated

text in Chinese can no longer give an imitation of the sound of the dialect. At other

times , the translation replaces English slang with Chinese slang:

THE NOTE TAKER. Whats a copper's nark?

The translation reads: "*Mat is one that runs outside?" with a note saying "copper's nark

374

is an English slang, 'copper' meaning the police station and 'nark' the secret agents

employed by the police." Cultural difference also complicates the translation. The titIe

of Shaw's play, pVgmlion, gives the guiding myth: the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea

indicating the creation of a human being. But the Chinese title is Mai Hua Nui (The

FZower GirC) omitting the mythical resonance. Another submerged fairy tale is that of

Cinderella announced by "the Church dock striking the first quaner. " This relies on the

cultural background of the audience. The mythical assonances will be lost if the audience

has no way to decipher them.

Since the Chinese readerdaudience come from a different cultural

background fiom Shaw's intended London audience, the translater fmds it necessary to

provide the geographical and historical locality in the footnotes, such as explainhg what

are Covent Garden, Park Lane or Hanweli, which is not necessary in Shaw's text for his

intended readerslaudience share this knowledge.

However, how c m a performance in Chinese present these intricate

footnotes? The impossibility of footnoting a performance justifies the second level of

Sinotization, with the transplant of the tirne, setting, character, plot, the local conditions

and customs, and so on, into the historical soi1 of Chinese history, and make the play a

Chinese history play. The performance of Pygmalion in Hong Kong shows this second

level of Sinotization.

375

The play was performed in the Lyric Theatre of the Academy for

Perforrning Arts fiom November 1, 1997 to Novernber 23, 1997. It was produced by

Springthe Fïim Productions, at a cost of some HK$10 million, about Cdn$2 million.

The keynote of the production is localization.

First, the play was localized. The South China Morning Post reports:

"We thought it was a novel idea when we decided to do this musical.

Instead of translating it directly from the English version of My Fair Laay, we

took the original Shaw play and localised it with the girl coming from Taishan [in

Guangdong], " said director Ko Tin-hg. (Winnie Chung 26)

Sirnilar localization can be applied to other places, such as Singapore, where different

kinds of Ianguages (e.g. English and Mandarin) have implications on the local scene.

Secondly, the production was especially designed to appeal to the local

audience. The producer Clifton Ko Ch i - su said:

"We had to make a choice: do we re-do it over in Chinese or do we do

an English-language musical?" the producer said. "Which would appeal to local

audiences more? Under these considerations, we decided that we would adapt

fiom the play and corne up with a 'Chinese' version- (Chung 26)

ThirdIy, the theatre troupe was concemed with Iocalization. The South

China Morning Post explains: "'Localization' has always been the name of the game for

Springtime Productions, which was set up by the two Kos and award-winning playwright

Raymond To Kwok-wai three years ago" (Chung 26).

The second level of Sinotization involves making the western play a

"Chinese history play." Shaw's Pygmalion was first produced in London in 1914. The

play is a very localized one, in the sense that Shaw set the play in the tirne and space of

his € k t audience. The production in Hong Kong is set in Hong Kong in the 1930s'

when Hong Kong was still a colony under British rule. The very beginning of the play

is Sinotized. The adaptation begins with a Chorus singing "Hong Kong . .. ." The

director ta.iked about the historical couterpoint between Shaw's text and the script by

Rupert Chan Kwan-y iu:

When George Bernard Shaw wrote the play in the 19 los, class in England was

basicaiiy judged by the way the person spoke. In Hong Kong there are more

elements. It was a colony but other than having to h o w English, one also had

to speak perfect Cantonese or Mandarin and know social etiquette as weii as to

be thought of as "high society." (Chung 26)

377

The concern with London dialects in Shaw's play becomes the concern with dialects in

different parts of China in the Hong Kong production.

In the transplanting of character, counterpoints are also found. Professor

Higgins becomes Professor Tarn Ying-kit, the only professor of phonetics in the elitist

University of Hong Kong, the only university in the colony at that time which was

attended by the rich and famous. A graduate of Oxford University, Professor Tarn c m

pIace people from different parts of China according to their dialects. Shaw's Eiiza

Doolittle becomes To Lan-heung, a flower girl working at the Sheung Wan Market

(Figure 20). Eliza's Lisson Grove dialect becomes To Lan-heung's mixture of Chiu

Chow dialect adopted from her father, Pun-yu dialect adopted from her mother, and

Taishan dialect adopted from her step-mother. Colonel Pickering becomes Dr Ma Tung-

loi, a Chinese retuming from Malaysia specializing in linguistics. Freddy becomes a

student of Professor Tam Ying-kit studying at the University of Hong Kong.

Instead of starting at the St. Paul's at Covent Garden, the play starts at

Shengwan outside the Ko Sing Theatre. Cultural exchanges are shown since the

playgoers have just watched a performance of new-style Cantonese Opera, a genre of

traditional Chinese cirama, in western dress. Mei Lan-fang had also performed in the Ko

Sing Theatre. Another theatre mentiowd in the play is the Tai Ping Theatre, in which

Ma Tze-tsang and Tam Lan-hing performed the old style Cantonese Opera. The taxi-cab

Pygmalion performed in Hong Kong, November 1997

The flower girl Eliza-To Lan-heung in Hong Kong. Note the mixture of the East and West. From left to right: the Amah (House Maid) in traditional Chinese attire for servants, Eliza-To Lan-heung in traditional Chinese apparel for a poor girl, and Pickering-Ma Tung-loi in Western clothing.

is localized as a rickshaw, a manageable stage prop.

The plot is also transplanted. In Pygmalion, Eliza Doolitttle takes

phonetics lessons so that she can be a flower girl in a flower shop. Similarly, To Lan-

heung takes lessons Erom Tarn Ying-kit, so that she can sell flowers to rich astomers

in a flower shop in Central District at Lyndhurst Terrace. The test at Mrs Hagins's at

home becomes an invitation from the Governor of Hong Kong to the Ladiies' Club,

asking them to join the Azaleas Garden Party (Figure 21) and afternoon rtea at the

Governent House. The Hong Kong Governent House is famous for its azâaleas, and

its garden was opened to the public once a year during the colonial years when the

flowers bloomed. Eliza's stunning exit line, "Not bloody likely" is locahed into a

nursery rhyme ending with an equally vulgar "urinating on the d e a s to make them

blossom forth quicker." The Chinese Eliza leaves the Garden Party after singing a

Fukien folk Song asking for rain. Eliza Doolittle will be passed off as a duchess at an

ambassador's garden Party. This is localized in the Hong Kong production as the

Congregation Party of the University of Hong Kong taking place at the Gowemment

House, since the Govemor was the Chancellor. Nepommuck becomes a Professor Chan,

a professor of linguistics from Cambridge University, UK, who teaches Dr Hu Shih, a

Mandarin speaker, to speak Cantonese. Professor Chan, like Nepommuck, camot

identifL EIiza, and mistakes her to be the iilegitimate daughter of a lcnight returning from

England half a year ago (Figure 22).

Pygnialion performed in Hong Kong, November 1997

The h t trial: Eliza To Lan-heung in the Garden Party at the Govenunent House, standing as rigid as a doll. From left to right: Mrs H1ggins--Madame Tarn, Eliza To Lan-heung, Freddy, Pickering- -Ma Tung-loi, Higgins-Tarn Ying-kit.

Opgrnalion performed in Hong Kong, November 1997

The major trial: Eliza To Lan-heung at the Congregation Party of the University of Hong Kong, taking place at the Government House.

379

The ending of the Hong Kong production is interesting. There are two

casts and two endings. The South China Morning Post reports:

Cast A -- which plays Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays -- will be led by

Academy for Perfomiing Arts (APA) Dean of Drama Chung King-fai as the

professor and RTHK disc jockey Ada To Man-wai as Eliza, while Cast B will be

headed by Springtime's contracted actor Tse Kwan-ho and APA student Chiu

Woon as Eliza. . .. Because of the different acting styles and ages of the actors,

two different endings have evolved. (Chung 26)

The production with Cast A, with the older Chung King-fai, ends with the separation of

Higgins and Eliza according to the endhg in Qgmalion, while that with Cast B, with the

younger Tse Kwan-ho, ends with the coming marriage of Eliza and the professor of

phonetics, sirnilar to the ending in My Fair h d y (1957)-

A most obvious Iocalization in the Hong Kong adaptation is the

presentation of Iocal conditions and customs. Al1 geographical names are substituted with

local places, and Chinese customs, such as the wedding of Eliza To Lan-heung's father,

are staged in the traditional Chinese style. The stage production is aIso different fiom the

original Shavian realist play. The performance begins with a dance employing techniques

fiom the military scenes of Peking opera such as an actor jumping over a huge flag

380

waved by another actor, and both of h e m are dressed in kung fu attire. The closing

ribbon dance also explodes the reaiism and calls attention to the artificiality of the play.

Glocaiization is at work. On one hand, the adaptation is not far away

fiom the original. A critic, Kevin Kwong, writes in the South China Moming

Posr: "Apart from the setting, the rest of the story is practicdly the same as the original:

Professor Tarn makes a bet with Ma that he could transform To fiom being a humble

flower girl into a glamorous socialite who could miogle with the hoi polloi at

Govemment House in three months." The director also thinks that thematicaliy the play

is universal, and the South China Mornhg Posr reports: "As Ko Tin-lung sees it, the story

of Pygmalion is so universal it c m be adapted to any race or culture. 'If you look at it

carefuliy, what is the play about? In one sense it is about class dfierentiation. The

professor tninks that by changing Eliza, he can help build a bridge between two classes"'

(Chung 26).

Presumably the play is Shavian, and Shaw was mentioned twice. The tirne

of the play can be more exactly placed at around 1935, and Shaw's visit to the University

of Hong Kong is mentioned in the production, taking place in "the year before last."

Freddy reminds Tarn in the play that Shaw told them in his speech to the University

students to be antagonistic to the University and teachers.

381

On the other hand, locdization also means that something of the onginal

play is lost and other things gained. The director Ko Tin-lung says:"but in another

sense, it is not what Ianguage is most important or more upper class. At the bottom of

it all is the question of whether a person can overcome his preconceptions of class to

pursue love, as in the case of the professor" (Chung 26). This seems to counter Shaw's

anti-romanticism. Higgins, like Pickering, aIso treats Eliza equally, saying: "The great

secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of

manners, but having the same manner for aU human souls. In short, behaving as if you

were in Heaven, where there are no third-class carriages, and one sou1 is as good as

another" (4: 774). Shaw's theory of the Life Force and Creative Evolution is not

conspicuous in the production. In Shaw's Pygmlion, Higgins has not "made a woman

of Eliza." It is Eliza herself that has changed from some lifeless statue into a "real

human being" with individuality and with will. Ln the relation between creator and

creature, EIiza goes beyond her creator's intention, and this shows that there is

something more at work than Pickering and Higgins, and there is a fuial divine spark.

That is, the ultimate creation cornes from a natural force within Eliza. Pygmalion enacts

the Shavian educational process descnbed in "Parents and Children." Eliza as the

"child" undergoes an education when she is socialized by Higgins and Pickering. Shaw

thioks that the child should then be left alone to be educated by the Life Force within it.

Eliza's ability to break free from Higgins and P i c k e ~ g shows the presence of the Life

Force within her. Higgins's phonetic experiment on Eliza gives way to the Life Force's

382

"experiment. " The Pygmalion myth therefore helps Shaw to show his theory of the Life

Force and Creative Evolution.

But the adaptation also e ~ c h e s the original play. It was transplanted into

"the histoncai soii of Chinese history, and made the play a Chinese history play." The

performance, set in 1935, is set in colonial Hong Kong. It is a variegated canvas

showing the varieties in the colony, with the paradigms EnglisWChinese,

WesterdEastem, upper classl lower class. It also presents Hong Kong as a unique place

with the coexistence of eastern and western cultures, and with variations within the

Chinese culture indicated by the various kinds of dialects. These are introduced in the

opening chorus. This sense of variety conveys the idea of cultural exchmges, the

mixture and convergence of the east and West. Visuaily, the characters Wear both eastem

and westem costumes: men wearing western tuxedos and suits, as well as Eastern

traditional attire; women wearing westem evening dresses and Chinese cheong sams.

There are also audio symbols. The play is a full-musical, and the music is a mixture of

Chinese and English songs, with songs like My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean, Twinkle

Twinkle Linle Star juxtaposed against songs with Chinese fiavour. Western songs are

accompanied by a Chinese orchestra from Shanghai. The characters switch freely

between the English and Chinese Ianguage.

The performance is not only showing a segment of the past, the history

383

of Hong Kong in the 1930s. It also has a relevance for contemporary Chinese history.

Hong Kong became a British Colony as a result of the Opium War. The Treaty of

Nanking, according to Irnmanuel Hsii, was signed on the Cornwallis, on A u p s t 29,

1842, in which there is this c1ause:"Cession of Hong Kong. (The Chinese text of the

treaty euphemisticaliy States that the emperor generously gram a place of rest and

storage to the British after their long voyage to China)" (243). When the play was

performed in November, 1997, the People's Republic of China has just resurned

sovereignty over Hong Kong on July 1, 1997 for four months. It will be interes~ing to

reconsider the performance in this historical context. Hong Kong, originaily belonging

to China in the Q'ing Dynasty, was westernized under British rule, and then returmed to

China. Sirnilarly , Eliza To Lan-heung starts from Chinese with her Taishan dialect. She

is westernized when she takes English language classes and learns upper-class manners

from Higgins - Tarn Ying-kit, and then returns to the Chinese sector, the place where she

cornes from, to attend her father's wedding.

English is the hegemonic language of the niling class in colonial Hong

Kong, but the Chinese used by the masses in the performance pervades the play. The

hegemonic language of the performance is Chinese. Eliza To Lan-heung l eam Emglish

fiom the Westemized Tarn Ying-kit, but in the end, when Tarn declares his love for

Eliza, he uses Chinese dialect. Supposedly, he uses this to overcome his embarrassment,

but this also shows that the English speaking Tarn leanis from Eliza. In terms of power

384

play, English-speaking Tarn Ying-kit learns from ELiza To Lan-heung. The mentor-

student relationship is reversed, by analogy reversing the power relationship. It also

implies Tarn being reclaimed by the Chinese culture. The play ends with a note of

localization:

TO LAN-HEUNG. Do you want to drink tea or coffee tomorrow morning?

TAM YING-KIT. I want to drink Y m Yang.

"Yuan Yang" is a unique Cantonese expression meaning the mandarin duck, the Chinese

emblem of an affectionate couple. It is also slang for a drink found in the cheaper

Chinese food stails in Hong Kong, prepared by mixing tea and coffee together. Thus this

closing expression not only symbolizes the corning marriage of Eliza To Lan-heung and

Tarn Ying-kit, it also shows his dedicating hunseif to her side. A western play is put

to Chinese use to commemorate the return of the British colony to Chinese sovereignty.

Defi tely, glocalization enriches the performance, and enables the play

to be mily transnational. The local audience can then comprehend and accept the play

from abroad.

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The term "globalization" has become a catchphrase by the end of the

twentieth century, applicable to nearly al1 aspects of modem life. For instance, there is

economic globalization referring to the fiee flow of capital, global agreements on

political, social, environmental issues to bring about regulations and defining the rights

and sanctions applied bilaterally across borders. Another example is technological

globalization bringing about standardization. Yet, there are comparatively few studies

on cultural globalization, examining how elements of culture manage to make the passage

abroad. This dissertation is an attempt to fiII this gap. An increasingly potent way for

culture to pass from one place to another is through literary transmission, made possible

by the latest developments in technology, such as the intemet, and the formidable

publishing industry. This dissertation aies to look at literary transmission as a process

of cultural globalization. What forces will enable literary works to pass to other

coutries, and what forces will inhibit them from doing so? What kind of literature will

appeal to a widest audience? What has to be done to an existing piece of literature to

enable its transmission abroad? The study of Bernard Shaw's passage to China tries to

provide some answers to these problems. The process of cultural globalization is more

392

prominent in thîs case due to the great cultural differences between the east and the West,

making it easier to iden@ the enabling and disabling forces behind this process.

Discovering the forces of cultural globalization will be useful. Practically,

it will provide hints for writers and publishers aiming at a world market. More

importantly, it will help to promote cultural exchanges and elirninate cultural

misunderstandings . No t only does it facilitate cultural exchanges and foster

understanding between cultures, it also helps to devise strategies to market cultural

products abroad. A play can be marketed abroad when the p ~ t e d texts are sold there,

when theatre troupes go on tour, or when local theatre troupes stage an imported play.

In this increasingly globalized world, nearly everybody has encountered

foreign literature in one way or another. Sometimes one is actively comprehending and

accepting, while at other times one is puzzled and resisting. There is a feeling of

familiarity when one c m fhd cultural parallels, but one is alienated when there is little

cultural equivalence. This is because literary transmission is not a standardized process

equally applicable everywhere. The same piece of Iiterature may be interpreted and used

differently in various parts of the world.

Bernard Shaw's passage to China shows that literary transmission c m be

regarded as a process of cultural globalization. The process focuses on the interflow of

393

cultural elements through cultural barriers. M e n Literature passes from one culture to

another, culnual elements may be appropriated and transplanted into another culture.

These elements may be changed according to the host culture. Literary works rnay be

interpreted differently in a host culture in ways unimaginable by the writer.

The forces behind globalization can be generally divided into two types:

forces producing cultural homogeneity, and forces giving rise to cultural heterogeneity.

Cultural homogeneity refers to the tendency towards sameness. Zn literary

transmission, this may be a result of the process of (ex)change involving the cross-

cultural transplanting of literary models, images and ideas, which are borrowed, adapted,

(re)interpreted, or (re)visioned. Cultural elements may be changed by acquiring the

characteristics of the host culture, such as in the appropriation of the image of Confucius

in Back to Methuselah. Borrowed items become similar to the culture borrowing them.

At other times, there is real exchange: things pass from one culture to another and vice

versa. The literary model, ideas, and the transplanted items are enriched and take on

new meanings, such as in the use of Sir Robert Ho Tung and the shrine in his mansion

in Buoyanr Billions. Cultural globalization pinpoints the erasure of boundaries, language

differences, difference of tastes or traditions, the eradication of local variations, and the

creation of one worldwide culture. There is a tendency towards sameness when cultural

products pass fiom one culture to another.

394

Cultural heterogenization is also an important factor. m e n a piece of

Literature is transmitted, there is a need to adapt to local forms, to take inio account

intrinsic cultural codes in the image, idea, literary models, and so on behg exchanged

or borrowed. In this way, literary works can be understood by audiences or readers

with a different cultural background. For a performance to be successfil, the forces of

cultural heterogenization must be considered. The potency of cultural heterogenization

is shown particularly when national identities are reactivated, the tendency towards

standardization may be challenged and undermined by this acknowledgement of variety

and locality, in which there is an emphasis on cultural specificity of local and traditionaI

forrns, styles and values-

In globalization, cultural homogenization is always accompanied by

cultural heterogenization, The desire to join the world and participate in the global

culture is also counteracted by a wish to remain unique and different, maintainhg

cultural heritage, and safeguarding national or cultural identity.

An examination of the passage of Shaw and his plays to China shows a

dual concem with globdization and Sinotization. The first performances of western

plays on the Chinese stage in the early twentieth century revealed the factors behind the

movements toward globalization and Sinotization. Spoken drama was introduced as a

dedication to the new anci modem, as a reaction against the old and traditional. The

395

Chinese stage had been the place where values were fostered and identities conferred.

Spoken drama was used to elicit political and social consciousness and to urge reforms.

Theatncal devices from spoken drama were adapted to refonn and modemize traditional

Chinese dramatic forms . There was a tendency toward cultural homogenization.

On the other hand, the f i s t performances of spoken drama in China also

exhibited Sinotization. Western plays were translated, performed by Chinese actors, and

interpreted in the Chinese context as means to arouse the political consciousness of the

people against imperialist encroachrnents, with additions such as Chinese explanations

to the plays and scenes acted out in traditional Chinese dramatic forms. Tbere was a

tendency toward cultural heterogenization.

The passage of Shaw and his plays to China was a continuation of this

development of spoken drma in China. There was a wish to join the world's stream of

culture and to have a niche in the global development. But joining the global did not

mean compromising China's national or cultural identity. Westernization did not mean

globalization. Shaw's passage to China started as westernization and ended up in

globalization.

Westernization works more readily as cultural reproduction of ideas than

as cultural reproduction of everyday Iife. In the passage to foreign countries, a play

396

becomes something more than a fixed, ïnfiexible text. Instead, it is a cultural discourse

interacting actively with other cultural discourses inherent in the context of the theatre

abroad. The play gradually becomes part of the rhetoric of the host country, and is made

use of by the country for its own purposes. Ideologicdiy, Shaw was one of the ways

used by the young Chinese inteilectuals in the Tnteilectual Revolution to defme the

identity of New China in the global context, through reference to the West. Shaw and

his plays were introduced through publications. This was an attempt at the culmal

reproduction of ideas with a view to adapting these ideas to the Chinese situation. The

publications of Shaw's plays and criticisms were regarded in the context of a larger cal1

for social and political reform, means through which the young Chinese intellectuals

strove to work out and constnict the identity of modem China and her place in the world.

Shaw was Sinotized to reflect social and politicai concerns. The realistic drama of

thought was a useful way to provoke thinking in the audience, as individuality,

pragmatism and realism were among the catchwords of the era. The playwright was also

used to get rid of old drama to make way for new drama. There was minimum attention

paid to his theory of the Life Force and Creative Evolution, which is dealing with the

change of man rather than the change of society . This was also not classicaiiy Confucian.

While dramatic and theatrical techniques c m be borrowed and developed

abroad, the subject matter is more culture specifc. For instance, the western social

problem may not be identical to the eastem one, and the western social horrors exposed

397

in the plays may not be the eastern social horrors- It is impossible to have total

westeniization, to copy the West to the east, but it is possible to have globalization, to

adopt similar approaches in drama, to use drama to b e critical of society to change and

achieve a better society .

The cultural reproduction of everyday life on stage proves to be more

dmcdt than the cultural reproduction of ideology. For a performance abroad to be

comprehensible to the audience, attention has to be paid to the performance codes, which

rely heavily on the cultural reproduction of everyday life aspects such as gestures,

concepts, literary conventions, allus ions, or rnyths Such background h o wledge is

inherent in the intended audience of the playwright, but may not be found in the foreign

audience. This may lead to potential incomprehension for the spectators abroad.

Besides, an audience has to be theatricdly sophisticated, knowing things

such as the style of the playwright, the ability to recognize stage stereotypes, theahcal

roies, dramatic forms and so on. The foreign audience may not have a complete set of

these decoding tools .

The theatre abroad is an important concern, for the theatre itself is already

associated with a cluster of meanings, created in the type of theatre, the actors,

advertisernents. The foreign audience is another complication. They may already have

398

their own set of interpretations of the playwright and his pIays, which may be drasticaiiy

different from the real person and what he intends his play to be. The playwright and

his plays are subject to local construction. Nevertheless, these interpretations of the

audience abroad is valid in the context of the performance. Shaw became a symbol of

Chinese nationalkm in the 1930s, and the arriva1 of the playwright proved to be

disappointing to many .

Literary transmission reveals a contention between globalization and

localization. Linguistic translation is only the beginning of the process. There is a need

to search for ideological explanations, and the difficulty of reproducing everyday life on

stage may require local adaptations, transplanting the play to the host culture and building

it into its history.

Adaptations may include transplanting the tirne, setting , character , plot,

local conditions and customs, fmding local counterpoints for the original text. Because

of the change of the context of the performance, certain meanings of the play may be

lost, and others gained. Meaning is denved from the theatrical expenence as much as

fiom the text. Local relevance and interpretation may enrich the play. The Sinotization

of Shaw's plays created unexpected sparks and elicited new meanings.

Ultimately, literary transmission is subject to selections made by the host

399

culture. There is a selection process at work in the Chinese reception of Shaw. Cultural

globalization always involves the conflicting tendencies towards homogenization and

heterogenization. On one hand, China is definitely entering the global scene. On the

other hand, despite the opening of China since 1976 to the study of Western materials,

the predomhmce of the Chinese culture in its encounters with the foreign persists. Mao

Ze-dong States in "On New Democracy" (1944): " *'China should absorb the advanced

culture of the foreign countries to be the raw matenal of her own culture"(Fung Chi et

al. 5). Jiang Ze-min, the President of China, said at the "Celebration of the 70th

Anniversary of the Formation of the Communist Party" :

*The spirit of promoting the nation's excellent cultural heritage and fully realizing

socidism should be inherited. We should be rooted in China, and fklly absorb

the good cultural results of the world. Forgetting our nation and complete

Westernization are not allowed. We have to firmly grasp the basic requirernents

of a socialist culture with Chinese characteristics. (Fung Chi et al. 11)

The interest in foreign plays in China is essentially to look for ways to strengthen the

Chinese culture. Mao Ze-dong said in his t a k at the "Yenan Forum on Literature and

Art" in 1942:"*We have to adopt al1 good literary legacies and critically accept

Translation mine. Subsequent translations by me will be indicated by an asterisk.

400

everything that is useful" (Fung Chi et al. 5). In line with this, Hu Miao-sheng writes

in 1990:

*The aim of studying Western history of drama is "for our own use. " 1 think that

the thuigs deserving most to be followed in the development of Western drama

are creativity and diversity. . .. Chinese drama is going fiom the singular to the

muitifarious. (104)

Eventually, what is Shaw's message to China? This tums out to be a

message acceptable to and even inadvertently followed by China. Shaw presented an

album to Wang Tjo-ling, one of the principal stage and film directors in Shanghai when

he was a student in London. Pasted on the front page of this album, which "had been

most beautifuiiy bound at Letchworth by the Golden Cockerel Press" (Minney, N i Stop

144) was a letter written by Shaw, ending with these encouraging and prophetic words:

Up, China. Nothing can stop you in the Eastern world. Go ahead with your

plays -- only don't do mine. (Minney , N a t Stop 144)

These words are powerfd in perspective. True enough, China is gnining a niche in the

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passage of Bernard Shaw, Shoo Bo Na, to China is significant. Literary transmission is

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Casolla, Aldo Bottion, Carlo Colombara. Video CD. BMG.

Figure 2 The Great Wail in China

From Turandot. By Giacomo Puccini. Dir. Zhang Yimou. Perf. Giovama

Casolla, Aldo Bottion, Carlo Colombara- Video CD. BMG.

Figue 3 The Great Wall of China

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423

Figure 6 The traditional Chinese stage -- the theatre in the palace

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Figure10 MeiLan-faginYiLuMa,aprobIernpIay

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Nanyi.

424

Figure 1 1 A reconstructed western style theatre in China in the 1920s

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Figure 12 Poster of the 1907 performance of Black Slaves Appeal to Heaven

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Figure 13 An advertisement distributed at the opening of a theatre in Shanghai

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425

From Minney, Rubeigh J. Next Stop, Peking: Record of a 16,000 mile

journey rhrough Russia. Siberia and China London: George Newnes,

1957-

Figure 17 Mrs Warren *s Profession performed in the Shaw Centenary, Peking

From Minney, Rubeigh J. Next Srop, Peking: Record of a 16,000 mile

journey through Russia, Siberia and China. London: George Newnes,

1957.

Figure 18 Arms and the Man performed in the Shaw Centenary, Shanghai

From Minney, Rubeigh J. Next Stop, Peking: Record of a 16,000 mile

journey through Russia. Siberia and China. London: George Newnes,

1957.

Figure 19 Major Bmbara performed in Peking, 199 1

From Sun, Jia-hsiu. "He Shae Bo Na Xi Ju Shou Ci Shang Yan."

("Congratulations on the First Performance of Bernard Shaw's Play:

Watching the Spoken Drarna Major Barbara.") Zhong Kuo Xi Ju 7

(1995): 45 - 7.

Figure 20 Pygmalion performed in Hong Kong, 1997

426

From Pygmalion. Prod. Ko Chi-sum. Video CD. Universe Laser &

Video.

Figure 21 The garden party in Pygmalion produced in Hong Kong, 1997

From Pygmalion. Prod, Ko Chi-sum. Video CD. Universe Laser &

Video.

Figure 22 The transformation of Eliza To Lan-heung in Hong Kong, 1997

From Pygmalion. Prod. Ko Chi - su- Video CD. Universe Laser &

Video,

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