The first play Sun Weishi directed after her return was Pavel Korchagin, an adaptation of the Russian novel How the Steel Was Tempered. The leading role was played by Jin Shan, an actor and vice president of the China Youth Art Theater.
 |
Throughout the spring of 1950, Jin Shan would jog every morning along east Chang’an Avenue to Tian’anmen Square, and back again. He was trying to lose weight so that he could play the role of Pavel. Although he was nearly 40, his managed to lose 11 kilos in time for the play’s premiere.
 |
The staging of Pavel Korchagin made the character of Pavel an idol for many young Chinese people. Yet for Jin Shan, the role plunged him into a romantic crisis. In the play, his wife Zhang Ruifang played Pavel’s lover, Doniya . But in real life, the couple were estranged. Meanwhile, during the month-long rehearsal, he and Sun Weish had fallen in love, even though Sun Weishi was 29 and Jin Shan, 39. Before long, Jin Shan had divorced Zhang Ruifang.
In the autumn of 1950, Jin Shan and Sun Weishi got married. Jiang Qing, a new member of the Film Administration Committee, attended the wedding on behalf of Chairman Mao. She brought a set of velvet sheets as a wedding gift. Deng Yingchao sent a copy of the Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China, which had been enacted on May the 1st that year.
The new law outlawed many old practices that interfered in women’s rights, such as bigamy, concubinage, and the marriage of child brides. It stressed the freedom to marry and divorce. It was the first significant law in New China. To promote it, plays such as Zhao Xiaolan and Liu Lianying were staged. Audiences were particularly impressed by the film version of a pingju opera, called Liu Qiao’er. It made Xin Fengxia, who played the title role, a household name.
Soon afterwards, Xin Fengxia was introduced to the dramatist Wu Zuguang, by Lao She. At the time, loudspeakers in Beijing’s streets were constantly playing Xin Fengxia, singing in Liu Qiao’er. Wu Zuguang had made his name from two plays, produced before the founding of New China: City of the Phoenix and Return on a Stormy Night. After the founding of the PRC, he went to work as a director at the Beijing Film Studio. He and Xin Fengxia discovered they shared a passion for drama, and they soon fell in love.
In the summer of 1951, Wu Zuguang and Xin Fengxia got married. Lao She was the chief witness at the wedding.
Lao She lived in the Danshi Courtyard after the founding of the PRC. There he wrote many plays, such as Pearl, Red Courtyard, Waitress, Watching Chang’an from the West, and Camel Xiangzi.
In June 1952, Cao Yu became president of the Beijing People’s Art Theater. Jiao Juyin and Ouyang Shanzun were the vice presidents. During this period, Cao Yu wrote only one play, Clear Day , about the re-education of intellectuals.
In 1955, the Capital Theater, built on Wangfujing Street, was handed over for use by the Beijing People’s Art Theater. It was a grand building, decorated in the Russian style with equipment and lighting from East Germany. Its stage was 21 meters deep and 22 meters high. The auditorium had 2 tiers, with a capacity to hold 1,200 people. From then on, the Beijing People’s Art Theater had a home. It was also that year that Hong Shen, a pioneer of Chinese drama, passed away in Beijing at the age of 61.
On April 28th, 1956, Chairman Mao put forward the policy of “letting one hundred flowers bloom, let one hundred schools of thought contend”. Just a month before, the Ministry of Culture had organized in Beijing a performance of plays from across China. Various theater groups had put on 32 multi-act and 18 single act plays. Several outstanding plays were produced during that period.
On Children’s Day that year, the newly built China Children’s Art Theater performed The Magic Tulip. The play was based on a folk story, in which Malang, the God of Flowers, presents the special Ma Lan flower to Xiaolan, a diligent and kind girl. But the vicious Old Cat conspires to kill Xiaolan and take the flower. However, in the end, the Cat receives his due punishment. The play, lasting two and a half hours, was the first formal, full-length drama for children produced in New China. In 1956, it was staged over 100 times in Beijing alone. It left an indelible imprint on the childhood memories of an entire generation.
In 1956, a forum on women’s clothing was held by the China Communist Youth League and All-China Women’s Federation. It advocated that women should dress smartly and take care of their appearance. Also at that time, radio sets were selling well at the department stores. A radio, bike, watch and sewing machine constituted the four must-have items in a Chinese home. In October that year, an exhibition of Japanese goods introduced a host of new products to curious Beijingers. Most of the visitors saw TV sets for the first time. By the end of 1956, the socialist transformation which had begun in 1953, was completed.
In the winter of 1957, Lao She brought a new play to the Beijing People’s Art Theater. It was called Teahouse. As was his custom, he first read the new play aloud to the actors and theater staff. Cao Yu, president of the Theater and an old friend of Lao She, sat next to him, listening attentively.
In March 1958, Teahouse, the finest work for the theatre produced since the founding of the PRC, was staged at the Beijing People’s Art Theater.
The play is set in Yutai Teahouse in Beijing. Through the depiction of its patrons’ fates, it describes Beijing society during three periods: the late Qing Dynasty, the early Republic of China, and after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan. It’s a short play of just 30,000 words. Yet it encompasses three periods, 50 years and the lives of 70 characters. Its director was Jiao Juyin.
After 49 performances, on July the 10th, Teahouse was ordered off the stage.
In June 1959, the Beijing People’s Art Theater premiered another outstanding play, Guan Hanqing by Tian Han. At the time, historical plays, which had been popular in the 1930s and 1940s, were enjoying a revival.
In July 1960, the Russian experts at Beijing’s theatres suddenly left, following the breakdown in Sino-Soviet relations. The Soviet Union broke all contracts and recalled all its experts from China. It also halted the supplies of the important equipment that China desperately needed. The move caused enormous damage to China’s economic and cultural construction. Moreover, due to the three years of natural disaster in the rural areas beginning in 1959, people’s lives entered a period of severe difficulty.
In 1961, the Beijing People’s Art Theater staged Courage and Sword by Cao Yu. The play was designed to encourage people to overcome their difficulties.
After 1962, the economy began to revive. In March that year, the Ministry of Culture and the Chinese Theater Association convened a meeting on play-writing in Guangzhou. This meeting inspired a new upsurge in drama.
However, the Cultural Revolution would soon deal a massive blow to literary and artistic creation. Chinese drama struggled through a decade-long vacuum, during which the stage was dominated by model plays.
Editor:Yang
