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Brecht's Influence in China: A Chinese Perspective RO NG GUANGRUN Bertolt Brecht is one of numerous overseas dramatists who have influenced Chinese theatre. He was introduced to China as early as the 1930S, almost at the exact time that Brecht himself witnessed a Peking Opera performance by Mei Lanfang in Moscow and wrote an essay entitled"Alienation Effects in Chinese Acting.'" It was not until the end of the 1950s, however, that Chinese theatre really paid attention to, and was influenced by, Brecht. In 1959, according to a cultural agreement between the People's Republic of China and the then Federal Republic of Germany, Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children was to be produced in Shanghai, directed by Huang Zuolin, who had studied in Europe during the 1930S and who was at that time Vice-President (and soon to become President) of the Shanghai People's Art Theatre. Although there were only fourteen performances of the play and the attendance was not more than 40 per cent, it nevertheless initiated Brecht's first breakthrough among Chinese theatre circles. At the same time, the first Chinese edition of theatrical works by Brecht was published by a team of translators headed by Feng Zhi, an expert on German literature.' [t collected thirty-seven poems and three plays: Mother Courage and Her Children, Senora Carrar's Rifles, and Pumila and His Man Matti. In conjunction with the rehearsals for Mother Courage, Huang Zuolin delivered a lecture at the Shanghai People's Art Theatre on Brecht's theatrical practice and theory, which was later published in Theatre Research.3 Essays on Mother Courage and Her Children and about Brecht were also to be seen in theatre magazines in Beijing and Shanghai at the time. In 1962, Huang Zuolin prompted a second breakthrough for Brecht in China. A group of influential theatre people gathered in Guangzhou for a symposium on spoken drama, opera, and children's plays, focussing on how to increase and improve Chinese theatre production. Huang Zuolin put forward his idea that people should be tolerant of all kinds of styles, different Modern Drama, 42 (1999) 247 RONG GUANGRUN approaches, and a multidimensional understanding of theatre and drama, not only the realist approach to theatre represented in China by Stanislavsky. Later published as "A Talk on the Concept of Theatre," Huang's paper analysed Brecht's Alienation Effect and offered a comparative study of Brecht, Stanislavsky, and the Chinese traditional opera.4 Huang went on to argue that Chinese spoken drama should learn from what is best in Brecht's and Stanislavsky 's art, and to put forward his "concept of theatrical essentialism." His paper achieved a profound effect among the then isolated and closed theatre circles, and naturally enough Brecht became a hot topic with theatre people in China. Scholars began to write papers on Brecht, including translator Bian Zhilin, who had seen a production of Galileo during his stay in Germany and had met with Brecht's wife, Helene Weigel. Ding Yangzhong, who had studied at Leipzig and received professional training at the Berliner Ensemble, also published papers and became one of the most imponant specialists on Brecht in China. During that time, more of Brecht's works were translated into Chinese, including A Short Organum for the Theatre, "Theatre for Pleasure or Theatre for Instruction," "Alienation Effects in Chinese Acting," and the plays The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Exception and the Rule, and The Days of the Commune. However, during ihe mid-sixties the Cultural Revolution caused a halt in Brecht studies. Huang Zuolin was put under house arrest for three years, deprived of the right to direct plays and to pursue research: works by Brecht were considered non-revolutionary. The third breakthrough for Brecht in China came in '979, after the Cultural Revolution. The policy of reforms maintained by Deng Xiaoping brought about a reduction of the isolation of Chinese theatre and a new vision for theatre people. Attention was once more paid to Brecht. Late in '978, Huang Zuolin was invited by the China Youth An Theatre to direct Galileo, which was produced after four months of rehearsal. It drew a full audience and ran for...

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