------Program code: DO-080916-00934 (what's this?)
Source: CCTV.com
09-16-2008 09:00
On January the 28th, 1990, which was lunar New Year’s Day, the Beijing Workers’ Gymnasium was filled with noise and excitement. The rock singer Cui Jian was holding a concert to raise money for the upcoming Asian Games. The concert, called ‘Start Once More’, announced the beginning of the fast-changing 1990s.
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The 1990s were an era when Chinese drama underwent a series of changes, as theatre workers conduced a series of experiments and adjustments. In the same month as Cui Jian’s concert, rehearsals of “The Dumb Waiter” ended, and the cast were ready for their premiere at the Central Academy of Drama.
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The production was the first as a director by Meng Jinghui, a second-year graduate student at the Academy. Meanwhile, a production of “Waiting for Godot”, billed as a farewell to the 1980s, was cancelled, after the authorities objected to it being staged on the academy’s coal heaps.
Pinter’s comedy explores the pointlessness and absurdity of modern life, as well as people’s incapacity and passivity under threat. In China, the beginning of the 1980s had witnessed an influx of all kinds of literary thoughts and genres. However, the new trend gave rise to serious conflicts with traditional Chinese theatre, especially where western drama of the absurd was concerned.
It was amid this conflict that Meng Jinghui, who was in his 20s at the time, made his name in Chinese drama circles. By the start of the 1990s, he was recognised as one of China’s leading pioneering theatre directors.
In 1991, Meng Jinghui, who was about to graduate, formed an experimental troupe at the Central Academy of Drama. They organized an activity called “Fifteen Days of Experimental Drama”. One of the pieces they performed was “The Bald Soprano”, by the French playwright Eugène Ionesco, at the end of which something strange happened. To the astonishment of the audience, the chairs were removed from the stage and the five actors remained standing for a full 3 minutes under the glare of the lights.
In June of the same year, Meng Jinghui directed another absurd drama as part of his graduation work. At the No. 4 Hall of the Central Academy of Drama, he staged French dramatist Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot”. Among the audience were graduate students in drama and literature from the Central Academy of Drama, the Chinese National Academy of Arts, Peking University and Beijing Normal University.
At the time when Meng Jinghui was beginning to stage experimental drama, most of China’s theatre troupes were in trouble.
By 1991, most theatre troupes were in serious trouble. As a way of encouraging and promoting domestic drama, the Ministry of Culture created the “Wenhua Award”, the highest award for stage arts. The first time the prize was awarded, two dramas won.
“Building King” was created in 1988 and performed by the Beijing People’s Arts Theater. It describes the happenings at an old roast duck restaurant, called “Fujude”, which had been established in the late Qing Dynasty. The restaurant nearly goes bankrupt, is rescued, and then finds itself in trouble again. From 1991 to 1993, the play was performed in Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan, where it was well received for its profound thought and exquisite depiction.
During this period, while mainstream drama groups began performing some contemporary works, young dramatists were continuing to experiment.
On December the 7th, 1992, Meng Jinghui’s representative experimental work “Returning to the Mortal World Together” was performed in the Black Casket Theatre at the Central Academy of Drama. The following year, he produced a new version, calling it “Longing for the Mortal World”. The leading role was played by Zhu Yuanyuan.
The drama tells of the young Buddhist nun Sekong who, unable to bear the loneliness of convent life, longs for the secular world. One day she flees from her convent. She meets a young monk, Benwu, and they fall in love. They break their vows, and marry. The drama was a huge success, thanks to its absurd and poetic conceptions. Its premiere was considered to mark the beginning of pioneering drama in China.
In 1992, after his graduation, Meng Jinghui was appointed director of the Central Experimental Drama Theatre. There, he established the “Chuanbang Troupe”. It was a time when many independent theatre troupes were appearing in Beijing.
In 1987, theatre director Mou Sen established the “Frog Experimental Troupe”, followed in 1992 by the “Drama Workstation”. In January 1993, Zheng Zheng founded the “Fire fox Troupe”. In August, Su Lei and a group of collaborators founded the “Saturday Drama Studio”. It was a make-or-break period for Chinese theatre, and these independent troupes were exploring means for it to survive. Their young founders created a unique cultural phenomenon in the 1990s; and the innovative plays they staged exerted a powerful influence, especially on young audiences.
In October 1992, the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China initiated the “socialist market economy system”. The following year, the reform was launched of officially-run theatre troupes. They were encouraged to study the experience of provincial and foreign troupes in order to establish new models for their development through reform. Gradually, a new system was created, based on quintessentially Chinese theatre troupes, but permitting considerable diversity.
However, numerous conflicts arose during the system reform. There were issues, for example, over the law as it related to the theatre. But the key problem was management, and in particular the systems governing employment and distribution.
The exhibition succeeded in boosting the popularity of small-group drama. From then on, plays were not restricted to traditional theatres. Creation was freer and less fettered. Great diversification became possible. And many young dramatists now had the economic means to experiment.
By the mid-1990s, television was developing rapidly. On June the 8th, 1996, CCTV began broadcasting a 25-part police series, “Heroes with No Regrets”. Many provincial TV stations later bought the rights to the series. It became a nationwide sensation, and the leading actor, Pu Cunxin, who played the director of the public security bureau, became a star. However, few people knew that he was originally a stage actor. Pu Cunxin had begun his acting career in 1977, as a member of the drama troupe of the Air Force Political Department and Beijing People’s Arts Theater.
