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It is no exaggeration to say that the modern drama is a complete departure from the traditional drama. Plays with realistic scenery and dialogue in the daily spoken language are the orthodox form to-day, but were entirely foreign some thirty years ago. The conventional stage art was the equivalent of opera and ballet combined. Unlike other forms of vernacular literature, the modern Chinese drama originated in adaptations of European plays. The first experiment was La Dame aux Camélias in 1907, followed by Uncle Tom's Cabin . The choice was not difficult to explain. Young Chinese were then suffering acutely from parental oppression, especially where marriage was concerned, while they were bound to sympathize with the downtrodden Negroes. When a foreign play, with all its exotic appeal, reflected our own thoughts so much better than our native plays, it naturally provoked enthusiasm. The same was true of the popularity of Lady Gregory's Rising of the Moon after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. But it was Ibsen's plays which led the young Chinese dramatists to the highway—the road of social reform.
The influence of Ibsen was not confined to our dramatists. As a social critic, an uncompromising rebel against conventions, he won the heart of every Chinese writer. For a time, "problem plays" shared the vogue of "problem novels". From this Norwegian dramatist, Chinese writers learned that the highest mission of the drama was to expose the defects and reveal the absurdities of existing society. One playwright apologetically wrote in an epilogue: "Although this play is worthless in technique, I am glad to say that it has dealt with marriage and rural bankruptcy, the two cardinal problems of the day." In those days, it sounded convincing enough. The People's Theatre, in its opening announcement in 1921, declared: "The age to look down upon drama as a form of recreation has definitely passed. The modern theatre is a wheel to push forward social progress and a microscope to detect the diseases of our environment. It is a pitiless mirror in which all the seamy sides of our community life should be reflected."
In the course of transformation, dualism was unavoidable. Many early vernacular poems were really paraphrases of classical verse. The essayists did not even bother to make a thorough change in diction. Stock phrases used in the classics appeared from time to time, betraying the tenacity of human inertia. In the first period of modern Chinese drama, roughly between 1907 and 1915, the new plays were known as "reformed plays"( wên ming hsi ). It was just the very beginning of the breakaway from an age-long tradition. The vital force of this period was the Spring Willow Society formed in 1907 by Chinese students in Tokio. Later, they toured the Yangtse valley and innumerable dramatic societies sprang up all over the country.
Most of these societies were anxious to make the new drama a success; at the same time they wanted it to serve as a loudspeaker for the emancipation movement. The blend of these twin motives was somewhat clumsily managed. Unfortunately, having broken off with the operatic tradition, the sole virtue of the new drama they grasped was the employment of plain dialogue. Except for some theatrical improvements, such as the ban on the shouting of "bravo, bravo!" in the middle of a play, which was the custom of old-fashioned audiences, the contribution of wên ming hsi to dramatic art was negligible. In fact, they sometimes even disposed of any written text. Actors and actresses were barely told the plot and what respective roles they were to impersonate. This resulted in the divorce of wên ming hsi from literature, and the more conscientious members left the group and became serious students of drama, such as Ou-yang Yu-chi'en, who later became actor, director and playwright. The rest went into vaudeville which still survives in modern Shanghai, producing endless "serial plays", such as Fire over the Red Lily Abbey , with demi-gods flying about the stage.
During this period Chinese dramatists seemed to be hesitating at the crossroads. The "National Drama" school argued that our traditional operatic singing and symbolic scenery were really unique in the world. They were impressionistic and rhythmic, while Western realistic plays were merely mimic shows. At the other extreme, there were those who advocated abolishing the old form. Their contention was that singing could not possibly express the complicated feelings of modern man and that there was too much feudalism in the conventional drama. One thorough-minded critic curtly remarked that before establishing a republic, we had to overthrow the empire. Hence, to establish the new drama, all opera houses in the country should be closed at once. But there was yet a third group who, while admitting that traditional operas conflicted with the spirit of realism which was the backbone of vernacular literature, thought the traditional drama should be preserved as a form of entertainment for particular audiences and as a historic art for the students. This view was first expressed by the late Professor Liu Fu who must have seen the glories of Western opera in Paris. The Academia Sinica and other cultural institutions have done much to preserve and develop this traditional art. The visits of Mei Lan-fang to America and Moscow and of Ch'êng Yen-ch'iu to Europe were great events. But the orthodoxy of modern literary drama has definitely been established.
The decline of wên ming hsi taught the country a valuable lesson. To build a solid foundation for the new drama, we needed playwrights. Another reaction to their failure was the attempt to make drama entirely nonprofessional, so as to dissociate themselves from the vaudeville stage. "We refuse to be directed from the booking-office!" they solemnly declared. Many plays have been written by Hsiung Foo-hsi, Ch'ên Ta-pei and Hung Shên. The Three Rebellious Women of Kuo Mo-jo was a great success in combining modern ideas with historical themes. The late Hsü Chih-mo collaborated with his wife in a beautiful symbolic play, The Pien K'un Hill . Ting Hsi-lin's pleasantly satiric plays show the influence of A. A. Milne. Indeed, most dramatists, with the "problem play" in mind, worked quite independently of their audience. The settings were often laid in some corner of the social inferno, a polygamous family or a village with a villainous squire. A play frequently meant a torrent of yelling and complaint against social evils. Then, the exposure and the cold but undramatic analysis of the social evil concerned, often in the form of a sermon. The more naive ones often ended with an idealist, holding a burning torch as he gazed with shining eyes towards the distant but rosy future.
In this immature stage, dramatic education was already progressing. The "New China Dramatic Society" in Peking had a membership of two thousand with forty-eight affiliated organizations. The Peking College of Fine Arts founded its drama department in 1925 and the Jên Yi Drama School, though enjoying a brief life of ten months only, was perhaps thefirst school to devote itself to drama proper. These worthy attempts sowed seeds for the future Little Theatre Movement. A number of successful film actors were trained at that time. Another interesting development was the popularity of women appearing with men on the stage. It probably began with Hung Shên's adaptation of Lady Windermere's Fan in 1924. Before that, the part of Nora in Ibsen's Doll's House was always played by a man and it was regarded as an honour to be chosen for the role. In 1926, the adaptation of James Barrie's Dear Brutus scored a success. The Education Board of Kiangsu Province were so pleased that they addressed an encomium to the producer acknowledging that "it is a very valuable play, with subtle philosophical implications, teaching men to preserve their original personality".
The amateur dramatists succeeded in ridding the theatre of its mercenary character, but they also deprived it of the power to entertain. Admittedly, the monotony of a certain type of play bored even the most enthusiastic of its patrons. In 1921, Wang Chung-hsien experienced a blow. He produced Mrs. Warren's Profession in Shanghai to a non-student audience. The performance was conspicuously advertised in the newspapers, but the booking was barely half that of an ordinary variety show. And when Mrs. Warren began to relate her life story to Vivi in the second act, several fashionable ladies in the front stalls left the theatre—and not without grumbling. The good-humoured producer afterwards analysed his audience thus:
"Some wholly failed to understand what was happening on the stage. Some understood but found the plot lacking surprise. There were those who had moral objections to Mrs. Warren herself, and others who disliked the excessive repetition of such new terms as the equality of the sexes. To those who had seen the play acted abroad, our acting left much to be desired."
As a conclusion, Wang suggested a compromise. He wanted to have plays "with simple but progressive ideas, dramatized in rather complex plots. Thus we can assure the intelligentsia that we are on the right track while sparing the non-intellectual audience from yawning."
When the Northern Campaign of the Revolutionary Army reached the Yangtse in 1926, Kuo Mo-jo and many other dramatists joined the steadily growing force. Drama again served as a loudspeaker. This was followed by the immense popularity of the Nan Kuo Movement. T'ien Han, the leader, wrote tens of plays during their itinerary performances up and down the Yangtse. They were mostly very sentimental plays. The Tragedy on the Lake , for instance, dealt with a frustrating love a air. It was often rumoured that a number of suicides had been caused by it. The production of Oscar Wilde's Salome , with the courageous and talented Miss Yü Shan, was an outstanding success. Its violent erotic colour had a special appeal for the anti-Confucian younger generation of that time. But there was yet another foreign play which gained widespread popularity, namely, Roar China! , a Soviet Russian play about the massacre of Wan Hsien.
The Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 did much to stimulate dramatic activities in China. Under a strict Government ban on anything anti-Japanese at the time, playwrights had to express their patriotism in a veiled form. The Amateur Theatre in Shanghai made great strides in all aspects of the stage. Chen Baichen's T'ai P'ing Rebellion was quite exceptional. They also produced a number of classical plays of the West, such as Gogol's Inspector and A. Ostrovsky's Storm . Their production of Romeo and Juliet was also remarkable. In the past years, there had been a number of Chinese who went abroad to study stage design and other branches of theatrical technique. The Amateur Theatre rallied their combined efforts. The most amazing thing about their success was that the plays were mainly left as in the original, except the dialogue, which was rendered into Chinese. Compared with the audience of Mrs. Warren's Profession , Chinese theatre-goers seemed also to have become infinitely more receptive to foreign forms.
But the most fundamental progress still lies in playwriting. In this respect, there is no doubt that Ts'ao Yü achieved the peak. Being a celebrated amateur actor in North China and a professor of literature, he happily blended stagecraft with scholarship. Beside this, he is one of the most original and brilliant writers of the day. At Tsinghua University, Peking, he acquired a remarkable knowledge of European dramatic tradition, from Greek tragedies to the lyrical realism of Eugene O'Neill. His Thunderstorm , published and produced in 1936, was a memorable event. Technically it was the first full-length play, with a prologue and an epilogue superadded. But it was the dramatic force of this unusual tragedy that achieved an unprecedented popularity. Hundreds of performances of this play were given by the Travelling Dramatic Society and it was very soon adapted for the films. This was followed by Sunrise and two others. Ts'ao Yü was a profoundly conscientious playwright. He demonstrated how one can benefit from Europe without being Europeanized. Yet he has not fully succeeded in reconciling his artistic with his social consciousness. After being accused of fatalism in Thunderstorm , he effectively stressed his optimism in the last act of Sunrise , when he made the workers sing as the sun rises. But even in the portrayal of character, he has shown unsurpassed dexterity.
When the war against Japanese aggression broke out in 1937, drama was soon bundled into the publicity-van and was again employed as a loudspeaker. Patriotic repertory companies and the dramatic section of the political department of China's M. O. I. toured through the villages and towns of the interior. The attempt at experimenting with stage art dwindled and the writing of pure drama has not been greatly encouraged. Drama has also served as an effective weapon in time of national crisis in China since the Revolution of 1911. For the duration of the war, the function of drama was to awaken and arouse the people. As most performances were held in the open air, plays with the minimum of costume and practically no scenery were preferred for practical reasons. This led to the creation of street-plays, the best known of which is Lay Down Your Whip!. To serve their country at this crucial moment, dramatists not only sacrificed their technical equipment, often they had to risk their lives on tour behind the Japanese lines. But they realize that the country depends on them to maintain contact with Chinese people living in the guerrilla areas. One of these plays, written by Miss Ting Ling for the Chinese peasants, was translated into English and produced early last February at Santaniketan, the University of Peace, founded in Bengal by Tagore. Its title is Reunion . Professor Aaronson, producer of the play, wrote an article after its performance, saying: "We have not chosen this play just because of its political content. It has strong human interest. It is an episode of contemporary China. It may happen every day in the areas occupied by the Japanese troops. We do not wish to foment hatred towards the Japanese, but we hope to make it manifest how aggression can destroy the well-being of humanity.