Female Symbols of Resistance in Chinese Wartime Spoken Drama

Abstract

Ironically, 1937, the year that the Sino-Japanese War broke out, was also celebrated as The Year of Spoken Drama (huaju nian) in China (Xiju shidai, 1937; A Ying, 1937: 243). It was a year of chaos and paralysis, but it was also a year that profoundly changed the course and nature of modern Chinese drama. Chinese spoken drama (huaju, literally meaning speaking play, a name used to distinguish it from traditional operas), a genre born out of the influence of Western drama, constituted an integral part of the New Culture Movement. It began when the Spring Willow Society (Chunliu she), formed by a group of young Chinese theater enthusiasts (Zeng Xiaogu [?-?], Li Shutong [18801942], Ouyang Yuqian [1889-1962]), staged Chahua nu (an adaption from La dame aux camelias by Dumasfils) and Black Slave's Cry to Heaven (Heinuyutian lu, based on the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe) in Tokyo in 1907 (Ouyang, 1958: 13-47). But despite the pioneering efforts of Ouyang Yuqian, Tian Han (1898-1968), and Hong Shen (18941955), in the 1920s this new-style drama remained very much amateurish, with few professionals, a small number of dramatic