Two Chinese Adaptations of Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones

TWO CHINESE ADAPTATIONS OF EUGENE O'NEILL'S THE EMPEROR JONES IT IS BEYOND DOUBT THAT Eugene O'Neill was the first Western dramatist to bring expressionism in drama to the Chinese theater. His contribution to the technique of modem Chinese drama has been equally as significant as Henrik Ibsen's contribution to the thought of contemporary Chinese playwrights. Although expressionistic features are nothing new in the traditional dramatic art of China, yet the students of modem drama (i.e., the hua chil or spoken drama, which owes its origin to the importation of Western literature into China at the tum of the century), who have exhibited great interest in adopting dramatic technique from Western masters for experiments in their own dramatic creations, welcome O'Neill's expressionism of an exotic nature with a thundering applause. Examples of O'Neill's technical influence upon Chinese playwrights may be observed in the two Chinese adaptations of The Emperor Jones, namely, The Yama Chao by Hung Shen (1894-1955) and The Wild by Ts'ao Yii (pseudonym of Wan Chia-pao, 1909-). The Yama Chao (1922) was written two years after the publication of O'Neill's The Emperor Jones (1920), and its author, Hung Shen, who had been trained in Professor George P. Baker's "47 Workshop " at Harvard University,l became then one of the pioneers of the new drama after his return to China. Like most writers in those revolutionary years, Hung Shen engaged himself in the social reform lO'Neill and Hung Shen were both George P. Baker's students. O'Neill was enrolled in Baker's famous course in playwriting, listed in the Harvard University bulletin as "English 47," in 1914-16, and Hung Shen in 1919-20. According to his own account, Hung Shen was one of eleven (out of 300 applicants) who were admitted to "English 47" that year, and the only Chinese student who has studied under Baker at Harvard. See Barrett H. Clark, Eugene O'Neill, rev. ed. (New York, 1933), pp. 35-40; Hun~ Shen, Selected Writings of Hung Shen: First Series [Hung Shen wen-chi ti-yi Chi, in Chinese] (Peking, 1957), pp. 6, 478-79, and 483-84. Hung Shen's relationship with modern American drama and his indebtedness to O'Neill regarding the creation of The Yama Chao are also accounted fot in the following quotation: Hung Shen was a student of Professor [George Pierce] Baker of Harvard University. His pre-war plays, The Five-star Bridge and The Yama Chao, were theatrical hits of the time, especially the latter which, containing soliloquies in seven consecutive scenes, was yet a bold attempt in the country. His depiction of mental status by means of soliloquy has been more or less influenced by O'Neill, the famous modern playwright and a schoolmate of his. (Translated from T'ien Ch'in, The Drama Movement in China [Chungkuo hsi-chii. yii.n-tung, in Chinese] (Shanghai, 1946), p. 45.) 431 432 MODERN DRAMA February movement and, therefore, attacked vehemently the corruption and injustice of a declining society through his dramatic works: He was quite successful in his championing a new culture by means of putting elements of modern Western drama on the Chinese stage. In revealing the crimes of feudalism of the old dynasty and of militarism of the war-lords during the first decade of the Republic when the new-born nation was trembling in violence and disorder, Hung Shen intended to present a panoramic review of the immediate past through individual experiences. This, of course, has to be treated symbolically in a play in terms of psychoanalysis in order to break the barriers of time and space and also to achieve coherence of fragmentary experiences of an individual. His efforts resulted in the introduction of the American The Emperor Jones to the Chinese audience.2 Except for the fact that it tells a different story, The Yama Chao may be considered largely a Chinese version of The Emperor Jones. It has borrowed from its American prototype the money motif, the structure of plot, the scene division, and the psychological treatment of hallucinations in a forest setting. Textual resemblance is also manifested...