Source: CCTV.com
09-04-2008 09:58
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February the 11th, 1907, was a cold day in Tokyo, Japan, with a highest temperature of 12 degrees. The auditorium of the Chinese Young Men’s Christian Association in Surugadai was crowded. The Lady of the Camellias was being performed by a group of Chinese students in Japan, who called themselves the “Spring Willow Drama Club”. With the leading roles played by Li Xishuang and Zeng Xiaogu, the play was an adaptation of the novel of the same name by the French writer Alexandre Dumas. It’s the story of a courtesan named Marguerite and a young man named Armand who fall in love but who are thwarted by the common prejudices of the day. Marguerite ultimately dies of tuberculosis. The society performed only the 3rd act in Chinese. For the audience, the play represented a complete departure from traditional Chinese drama in terms of the acting and stage sets.
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The performance drew more than 2,000 people, most of them Chinese students. There were also a few Japanese and American nationals among the audience. The main focus of attention was Marguerite, played by the male actor Li Xishuang. Li, who was also called Li Shutong, would, 11 years later, become a monk at Hupao Temple in Hangzhou, where he was known as Master Hongyi.
The “Spring Willow Drama Club” produced the play to raise money for the provinces devastated by the flooding of the Yangtze River the year before. Ouyang Yuqian, who was a member of the audience, would later recall: “It was the first drama properly performed by Chinese. The stage was well laid out. It set a precedent for a new type of Chinese drama that was entirely different from Peking Opera.”
Ouyang was in the third year of studies at Waseda University in Japan. After China’s defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894, some Qing government officials began to attribute the rise of Japan to the forward thinking of prime ministers Itō Hirobumi and Yamagata Aritomo. Both had studied overseas. The Chinese officials proposed emulating Japan’s reform. Three years after the war, the Qing government sent the first 13 government-sponsored Chinese students to Japan. Provincial governments soon followed suit. There were also students who went to Japan at their own expense.
In 1905, the Qing government abolished the civil service examination system. This made overseas study even more important for individuals, and it was facilitated by the greater ease of transport. Statistics released by the Ministry of Education under the Qing government reveal that the number of Chinese students in Japan exceeded 13,000 during that period. Among them was Li Shutong, a 25-year-old Tianjin native. Just 2 months before his arrival, Sun Yat-sen had founded the revolutionary United League in Tokyo.
The following year, Li Shutong sat the entrance examination for the Faculty of Western Painting at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. Out of 30 candidates, 5 were admitted. Among these 5, there were 2 Chinese students: Li Shutong and Zeng Xiaogu. They would become close friends and the mainstays of the “Spring Willow Drama Club”. Zeng played the role of Armond in The Lady of the Camellias.
Among the Chinese students in Japan in the latter years of the Qing Dynasty, few studied literature. Most chose military affairs, politics, law, medicine or industry. The majority of the 100 government-sponsored students studied military affairs. The Japanese government hoped to cultivate a group of pro-Japan officers who would control China’s new army. It was around this time that Liang Qichao launched the New Citizen Journal and New Novel. In the foreword to the latter, under the title The Relationship between Novels and the Control of the Masses, he wrote: “The reform of the novel should come before the reform of the nation’s populace.” By “novel” he was referring to literature and drama.
At the Faculty of Western Painting, Li Shutong was troubled by the models. The faculty had the tradition of using nude models. But Li was bothered by the sight of naked females.
It was November 1906, and an Autumn breeze was blowing through Tokyo. One day, when Li Shutong was practicing painting, he noticed the landlord’s daughter, who was as usual every day bringing him his meal. He decided she would be the ideal model for him. In Japan in those days, being seen naked was nothing shameful, although painting nudes was only done at art schools. To Li’s surprise, the girl accepted his request. Thus Li Shutong became the first Chinese artist ever to paint a nude model. While immersing himself in western painting, he was also exposed to the western drama that had been introduced into Japan.
The traditional forms of Japanese theatre – noh, bugaku, kyogen and kabuki – are similar to Chinese opera, in that the roles are clearly distinguished and fixed patterns of performance are observed.
Following the Meiji Reform, a movement was launched among those Japanese people who had been exposed to western drama, to reform the traditional theatre. This new theatre was called shinpa, and among its greatest exponents were Fujisawa Asajiro and Kawakami Otojiroh.
Li Shutong and Zeng Xiaogu regularly went to watch performances, particularly those staged by Fujisawa Asajiro.
Japan became a highly industrialized country as a result of the Meiji Reform. The country’s people acquired Western knowledge in many areas, including politics, military affairs, culture, education and even lifestyle. Yu Dafu, who went to study in Japan in 1913, wrote in Cultural Life in Japan:“Japan has become highly westernized since the introduction of European culture. There are entertainment facilities such as ballrooms, pubs, music clubs and movie theatres, which all resemble those in European countries. Even people’s clothes and the scenery and dialogue of traditional dramas carry a western element; the stores along Ginza Avenue even use English names.”
Influenced by Japan’s westernization, some of the self-sponsored Chinese students cut off their long queues. Li Shutong and his classmate Zeng Xiaogu did so, and went even further with their rebelliousness by wearing fashionable student uniforms. At the end of 1906, Li and Zeng set up the “Spring Willow Drama Club”, to perform new dramas. The Lady of the Camellias was their debut.
Having decided to perform The Lady of the Camellias, Li Shutong’s classmate, the 34-year-old Zeng Xiaogu, invited the famous actor Fujisawa Asajiro to direct it. He also asked him to rent them a theatre. The scenery was painted on pieces of newspaper stuck on wooden frames. Li Shutong, the richest member of the society, sponsored the show.
