The Greatest English Dramatist in the Largest Asian Country: A Complex Cross-Cultural Encounter

Abstract

Along the Expansion of Western civilization, Shakespeare's works have influenced China, the largest Asian country, for more than a century; on the other hand, Chinese also appropriated Shakespeare's plays for certain purposes. During the initial contacts, Shakespeare's works were translated only indirectly into Chinese as tales, rendered in classical Chinese, and such narrative literature served as sources for a number of stage productions. The translation of Shakespeare's plays started after the New Culture Movement, which aggressively introduced ideas from the West and had facilitated the spread of Shakespeare's influence in China, though Ibsen was promoted more fervently than Shakespeare then. The post-1949 Communist China manifested a contradictory vision about Shakespeare. While Chinese Shakespeareans upheld Marx's and Engels's positive appraisal of Shakespeare, Mao Zedong's utmost class ideology negatively confined the interpretation of Shakespeare's works; furthermore, Russia's Stanislavsky system strictly dictated the stage performance then. It was in China's contemporary era that Shakespeare enjoyed a golden age, when Shakespeare industry flourished both in study and extensive performance of various forms. Overall, while Shakespeare witnessed China's shifts of politics, literature and culture over the last century, the popularity of the greatest English dramatist in China signifies the penetration of Western influence in the largest Asian country.