Is There a "Chinese" Brecht? Problems of Brecht's Reception in China — from Mother Courage to Mack the Knife

Abstract

The first performance of one of Brecht's plays in China took place in 1959, but only a small number of Chinese were willing to subject themselves to a production of Mother Courage and Her Children that was based on Brecht's model. Director Huang Zuolin later spoke ironically of "only a few stray cats making up the audience." He attributed the lack of success to having "slavishly followed Brecht's handbook of direction" and ostensibly having driven the audiences from the theatre by his use of the V–effect. Huang was not, however, to be discouraged by this failure or by the subsequent suppression of Brecht's plays during the Cultural Revolution. Until the 1980s, he was one of the most important players in Brecht's reception in China, largely because, as one of the most prominent directors in China, he was able to give support to the foreign author.