Chastening Desire: Chinese Adaptations of Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms

This article studies three Chinese adaptations of Eugene O'Neill's 1924 play Desire Under the Elms: the 1989 chuanju, the 2000 Henan quju, and the 2007 huaju (spoken drama) adaptations. These adaptations create interesting intertextual tensions not only with the O'Neill play, but also with one another in terms of art, ethos, and morality. The two traditional Chinese drama endeavors took bold, creative license in "chastening" the O'Neill play for their intended audiences to better appeal to their moral sensibilities. In doing so they turned the American classic into a "new" Chinese play of social justice and a cautionary tale. The huaju production, on the other hand, was a more faithful rendition; and, ironically, in taking this artistically more "conservative" route, it managed to give fuller, more nuanced portrayal of the main characters—probing more boldly into the sexual mores, politics, and psychologies embodied in the original play.