------Program code: DO-080905-00937 (what's this?)
Source: CCTV.com
09-05-2008 08:43
On a gloomy, damp winter’s day in November 1907, the sound of drums and gongs could be heard coming from Yongxi Hall at Shanghai’s Zheshao Assembly Hall. Wang Zhongsheng, a performer of new drama, and his Spring Sun Society, were premiering Uncle Tom’s Cabin in China. Several months earlier, the Spring Willow Society, made up of Chinese students in Japan, had premiered the drama in Tokyo.
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For 3 days that month, Yongxi Hall was decorated with red posters bearing white characters. The posters, stuck on doors and beside the stage, read: “Starring Wang Zhongsheng and Ren Wenyi”. Ren Wenyi, who was also called Ren Tianzhi, was the founder of another drama troupe, Evolution.
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Wang Zhongsheng was born into a merchant’s family. Having witnessed the commercial success of new drama productions staged by the likes of the Spring Willow Society that year, he and Ren Tianzhi set up a new drama troupe. Aware of Spring Willow Society’s reputation, he named the troupe the “Spring Sun Society”. Wang and Ren also set up the Tongjian Drama School, where he worked to promote new drama. This was the first drama school in China, and it soon helped make “new drama” a catchword. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, presented by the Spring Sun Society in the second year after Wang returned from Germany where he had studied law, created a sensation in Shanghai.
The Spring Sun Society’s production, although not a complete break with the old traditions, amazed opera performers with its brand new stage sets and costumes. Ouyang Yuqian acclaimed the show as “the debut of drama in China”. On the last day of performances, the Shanghai Railway Bureau contacted Wang Zhongsheng with a request. They wanted him to incorporate into the play a condemnation of Britain for infringing on China’s right to manage its own railways. Several days earlier, on October the 20th, the Qing government had ordered the Jiangzhe Railway Corporation to accept a 1.5 million-pound loan given by Britain for the construction of a railway linking Suzhou, Hangzhou and Ningbo. The news attracted widespread opposition, and a month later, the Railway Protection Movement broke out in Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces.
After the last performance of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Wang Zhongsheng made a speech. Encouraged by him, many people in the audience bought railway stocks.
In the meantime, Xu Xilin, who was a member of the Restoration Society, the director of the Anhui Police Academy and superintendent of the Military Academy, launched a revolt. En Ming, governor of Anhui Province, was assassinated. However, the revolt was quickly put down by Qing forces, and Xu Xilin was killed. Eight days later, Qiu Jin, who had agreed to support Xu, was executed at Xuantingkou, in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province. Even though more and more people were losing their lives, by 1907 democratic revolution was an irresistible trend. New drama, as a developing art, was used as a channel to spread news of events and advocate revolution.
In April of the following year, Wang Zhongsheng and his Spring Sun Society staged two plays, Xu Xilin and Qiu Jin, in Beijing. Both dealt with the Anqing Revolt.
The two dramas attracted the attention of the Qing government. Wang Zhongsheng’s known association with revolutionaries meant that his actors were also assumed to be revolutionaries. As new drama actor Chen Dabei once said: (Caption:) “Before the Republic of China, society equated the “revolutionary party” with new drama.”
Wang Zhongsheng was arrested on a charge of promoting revolution through drama, and sent back to Zhejiang Province. Later, the Spring Sun Society went to Hangzhou, where, in opera houses by West Lake, they continued to stage Xu Xilin and Qiu Jin.
In October 1907, the Qing government nationalized the railway industry. The existing public-backed construction projects were cancelled, in order to clear the way for the use of a 16 million-pound loan granted by a British-French-American-German consortium. The nationalization touched off the Railway Protection Movement in Sichuan and several other provinces. 43 days later, Emperor Guangxu died a sudden death at the age of 38, and the following day, 73-year-old Empress Dowager Cixi also died. The 3-year-old Pu Yi, son of Emperor Guangxu’s brother Zai Feng, ascended the throne, with the reign title Xuantong. Around this time, actors appeared in the cities along the Yangtze, giving new drama performances that advocated revolution. The actors were from the Revolution Troupe led by Ren Tianzhi.
With the growth of the Railway Protection Movement, it became an important subject of Tianzhi-school new drama.
Gold and Blood written by and starring Ren Tianzhi, was performed in many of the trade ports along the Yangtze. The first act contains the lines: (Caption:) “We’ve been robbed of our freedom. They even think of nationalizing our railways. They wish to have everything under government control and make us their slaves, even their beasts of burden. If we don’t obey their will absolutely, they threaten to kill us. The Sichuan Incident is already something tremendous.” Here, “nationalization”, “government control” and “Sichuan incident” refer to the “railway nationalization” policy and the Railway Protection Movement in Sichuan Province.
Just as “Tianzhi-style new drama” was reaching the height of its popularity, 20-year-old Ouyang Yuqian was finishing his studies at Waseda University and returning to Hunan Province. The once-popular Spring Willow Society, with many of its members returning to China, was dissolved. In October 1911, the Wuchang Uprising broke out. Ouyang received a letter from Lu Jingruo, a fellow member of the Spring Willow Society. Lu invited him to Shanghai to help him found a new drama troupe – the New Drama Fellowship. Ouyang accepted the invitation. In Shanghai, he continued his new drama performances and became famous for his portrayal of “bawdy women”. Another actor, Ma Jiangshi, always played the role of more subservient women.
Ma Jiangshi would eventually die on stage – some say of grief over the role he was playing. Around the same time, the United League was stirring up revolt in Shanghai.
On November the 3rd, 1911, a squad made up of naval and police personnel stationed in Shanghai, workers and residents, stormed the Kiangnan Arsenal on the Huangpu River in Shanghai. Hearing the gunshots, Wang Zhongsheng rushed from the Dan’gui Opera House where he was giving a performance, and joined the revolution.
The battle lasted all night. Finally, the officer commanding the arsenal, Zhang Shihang, fled by way of the Huangpu River. In the following week, Zhejiang, Guizhou, Guangxi, Guangdong and Shandong Provinces also declared their independence. Wang Zhongsheng traveled to Tianjin immediately after the Shanghai’s uprising. However, some casual remarks he made during a conversation with modern drama actor Wang Xiaonong, would prove extremely dangerous.
