For the process of human civilization, one hundred years is an important historical node. Looking back at the historical node of the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, we will find that the creation and performance of dramas has always been a literary and artistic activity that the Communist Party of China attaches importance to, and has played an important role in the party's political work.
Activism: The earliest artistic weapon
As early as the second half of the 1920s, the drama activities became an artistic weapon to publicize the party's policies and unite people's hearts.
Since 1928, two dramas "Fighting Local Tycoons", one-act drama "Harvesting Valley", large-scale drama "Peng Su'e", and four-act drama "Nianguan Struggle" have played a powerful role in rallying people's hearts and minds in the promotion and performance of the Red Fourth Army Propaganda Team. In December 1929, mao zedong drafted the "Resolution of the Ninth Congress of the Fourth Army of the Red Army of the Communist Party of China", the famous "Resolution of the Gutian Conference", which was drafted by Mao Zedong in the Gutian Liao Ancestral Hall in Shanghang County, Fujian Province, which clearly defined the unique status and role of literary and artistic propaganda work in the construction of our army, and specially emphasized: "Propaganda in disguise is the most specific and effective propaganda method", requiring extensive theater activities in the troops. From this time on, some of the previous discussions about literary and art workers being "idle eaters" and propaganda teams "selling dog skin plasters" gradually disappeared, and the Red Army drama team grew rapidly, not only with Hu Di, Qian Zhuangfei, and other talents with profound literary and artistic attainments who devoted themselves to the creation of red dramas, but also Li Bozhao, Shakov, and others who returned from Moscow Sun Yat-sen University.
In 1931, the Provisional Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic was established in Ruijin, which became the central revolutionary base of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. In order to celebrate the establishment of the Central Soviet District, Hu Di, Qian Zhuangfei, Li Bozhao, and others accepted the instructions of the Central Bureau to set up a "cultural and entertainment group" to undertake the task of organizing entertainment activities. "Watching a play" is the biggest entertainment activity designed by the "Entertainment Group". Notice that it is "watching the play", not "listening to the play". This "drama" is not a traditional opera, but a drama that has not been in China for a long time.
"Fragrant Mountain Night"
In December 1931, the Kuomintang 26th Route Army led by Dong Zhentang and Zhao Bosheng revolted in Ningdu and was reorganized into the Red Fifth Army. Most of these officers and men are northerners, and they are not accustomed to the cold indoors and many living habits in Jiangxi in winter. For a time, the mood of the troops was very unstable. When Mao Zedong heard about this situation, he once again summoned Hu Di, Qian Zhuangfei, and Li Bozhao, and asked them to organize performances in the Fifth Red Army to "sing and sing and act" to calm and stabilize the mood of the officers and men of the uprising. According to this instruction, they formed a 17-member theatrical performance team. Before leaving, Mao Zedong received them and said: The task of your visit this time is to let the soldiers know who to sacrifice for through propaganda and agitation. For whom is the war? Singing or acting, don't leave the topic. After returning from Mao Zedong, the three felt that the theme of creation was clear and the creative ideas were clear. The three of them discussed overnight, quickly collaborated on the drama "For Whom to Sacrifice", and quickly completed the rehearsal. The work depicts the suffering and ideological enlightenment of a Kuomintang soldier. From the process of watching the play, the Red Fifth Army clearly understood the truth of who to be a soldier, for whom to fight, and for whom to sacrifice.
Professional Theater Troupe: Play a combat function
A successful performance is a lively educational lesson. The success of a number of "political dramas" pushed the theatrical creation of the Central Red Army to a new climax. The establishment of professional troupes is becoming increasingly necessary.
By the spring of 1932, the vegetation of Ruijin had flourished. On the basis of the Red School Club of Ruijin's "Cultural Center" at that time, the "Bayi Troupe", the first literary and artistic society with a professional nature in our army, was established. Subsequently, invitations from the military and civilians in the Soviet zone followed. In various villages and towns, on the front lines of the battle, or in various meetings and important activities of the Provisional Central Government, the Bayi Troupe can always be seen active. Red drama has increasingly become a form of literary and artistic art that is extremely spiritually cohesive and popular.
With the development of the struggle situation and the needs of political and cultural work, after three preparatory meetings, on September 2, 1932, the Provisional Central Government decided to establish the Workers' and Peasants' Drama Society on the basis of the Bayi Troupe, located in Ruijin Shazhouba. The mission of the drama club is to lead the drama creation and performance activities in the central revolutionary base areas, and at the same time to be responsible for research and performance. On November 18, 1932, the Statutes of the Workers' and Peasants' Drama Society were promulgated. Paragraph 4 of Article 4 of the Constitution stipulates: "Under the Society, a branch may be established, but it can only be established after it is approved by the Executive Committee of the Society and the Political Department of the Red School." According to this provision, the Red Third Army established the "FireWire Drama Society" at the end of 1932, the Red I Army established the "Warrior Drama Society" in January 1933, the Red Fifth Army established the "Fierce Advance Drama Society" in February 1933, and the Red Army established the "Iron Fist Drama Society" in November 1933.
Since then, the red drama in the Central Soviet Region has flourished more vigorously, and a number of works such as "Nanchang Riot", "Kill Shanglushan", "Guangzhou Riot", "Hatred for the Fall of the Country", "WhoSe Blood and Sweat Flow", "Zhu De in the United States", "Shenyang Cannon", "Armed Up", "Class", "Whose Crime", "Final Victory Returns to Us" and a number of other works have successively played a unique combat function and educational function. There is probably no other historical period in the history of Chinese drama in which drama and politics have been so closely integrated and so effective.
In the great momentum of the left-wing theater movement throughout the country, the communist party-united dramatists quickly pushed theater dramas to the squares in the factories, such as the blue-clad drama clubs established in factories and the "peasant dramas" that experimented in the form of "open-air theaters" in the countryside. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Communist Party further advocated the anti-enemy propaganda drama that went to the square, and the street drama "A Good Plan whip" was produced in this context. By the 1940s, square theater flourished, and this popular practice of theater played a more effective combat function of theater.
After the Yan'an Literary and Art Forum, literary and art workers who actively responded to the party's call went to the front, into the countryside, and deep behind the enemy lines, and created a number of plays that were close to the living masses. In particular, in the second half of 1942, Yan'an Luyi, Luyi Experimental Theater troupe and Youth Art Theater and other units launched one-act plays such as "Our Command", "Liu Family Father and Son", "Divine Hand", and "Between The Army and the People", and the Combat Drama Society of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army rushed to Yan'an to perform the multi-act drama "Harvest", which reflected the new achievements of the drama cause led by the Communist Party and also brought a new atmosphere to the creation of drama. Subsequently, plays such as "Look Farther ahead", "Grain", "Grasping Zhuangding", "Comrade, You Have Gone the Wrong Way", and "Tiger Liela" have all become representative plays of Yan'an literature and art. As the source of new Chinese literature and art, it provides nourishment for the more abundant and diverse drama creation of New China.
Original work: Shows vitality
After the founding of New China, original plays sprung up like mushrooms. Whether it is telling the story of the war years or expressing the life during the period of peaceful construction, shaping the image of party members, inheriting revolutionary traditions, and strengthening spiritual beliefs, it has become an important task of new China's original drama. Specifically, the creation in this field can be divided into several categories, such as expressing the party's leadership, shaping the image of party members, and reflecting the party's own construction.
The Sky of History
The largest number of plays expressing the leadership of the Party are the most numerous, with the characteristics of multi-angle and multi-faceted, and the most extensive impact. In this field of creation, some works reproduce the revolutionary war led by the Party, such as "Breaking Through the Darkness Before Dawn", "Thousands of Mountains in Thousands of Waters", "Jinsha Riverside", "Autumn Harvest Thunderbolt", "Horseshoe Sound", "From the XiangJiang River to Zunyi", "The Sky of History", etc.; some works reflect the underground struggle led by the Party, such as "Unsung Hero", "Wildfire Spring Wind Fighting Ancient City", "Jinggang Mountain", "Wedding on the Execution Ground", etc.; some works focus on the peaceful construction life led by the Party, such as "Longsugou", "For the Sixty-one Class Brothers", "Sentinel under neon Lights", "Sentinel under neon lights", "The Wedding on the Execution Ground", etc.; some works focus on the peaceful construction life led by the Party, such as "Longsugou", "For the Sixty-one Class Brothers", "Sentinel under neon lights", "Sentinel under the neon lights", "The Sentinel", "The Sentinel under the Neon Lights", "The Sentinel", "The Sentinel under the Neon Lights", "The Sentinel", "The Sentinel under the Neon Lights", "The Sentinel under the Neon Lights", "The Sentinel", "The Sentinel under the Neon Lights", "The Sent Wind and Rain in the Same Boat", "Riptide Brave", "Generation of Red", "The Future is Calling", "China, 1949", "I am waiting for you in heaven", "Fragrant Mountain Night" and so on. Among them, works such as "Breaking Through the Darkness Before Dawn", "Ten Thousand Waters and Thousand Mountains", "Dragon's Whiskers Ditch", "Sentinel under Neon Lights" and other works produced in the 1950s and 1960s have become classics that span the era; "Horseshoe Breaking", "From Xiangjiang to Zunyi", "I am waiting for you in heaven", "Fragrant Mountain Night" and other new century masterpieces are having an impact.
Plays that shape the image of Party members are another important subject area of contemporary original drama, providing a series of spiritual pioneers, revolutionary leaders and heroic models for the contemporary stage. "Chen Yi Out of the Mountains," "Mayor Chen Yi," "Commander Zhu De," "The People's Mao Zedong," "Zhou Jun'enlai," "Tiger Standing on Zhong Shan," "Breakthrough," and "Mao Zedong's Imagination in Xibaipo," which one does not reproduce the heroic strategy of the revolutionary leader with both accuracy and innovation? "Li Dazhao", "Looking for Li Dazhao", "Who Is the Master of Ups and Downs", and even the new work "Fu Delhi" directed by Mou Sen in 2021, which one does not uniquely express the ideal beliefs of revolutionary pioneers? Heroic plays and model plays such as "Liu Hulan", "Yang Kaihui", "Lei Feng", "Jiao Yulu", "Kong Fansen", "Archives of Life", and "Gu Wenchang" are even more touching because they have created the image of a true and faithful Communist Party member.
If the artistic effects of the above two types of works are touching, the works that reflect the party's own construction can be summarized as "amazing". At the turn of the century and since the beginning of the new century, works such as "Sacrifice of Love", which tells the story of party members who were punished by party discipline and sentenced to death for shooting their lovers, "El Niño Report", "This is the Final Struggle", and "Percussion", which raise the serious problem of challenging people's moral integrity with money, have all become rare plays with the value of "scraping bones and healing wounds" with valuable problem awareness, novel conceptual angles, and exquisite artistic structures. Although there are not many such plays, their rich spirit of reflection and warning role illuminate the contemporary stage.
It is not difficult to find that in the above types of rich creations, there are many excellent works that are familiar to the audience. Many works not only have thematic value, but also have historical and aesthetic significance. They not only artistically reproduce the history of the Party, but also profoundly affect our spiritual life.
Looking back at the centennial node, the development history of the Communist Party of China, founded in 1921, highly overlaps with the development history of drama art, which took root in China in 1907. The acting activities under the leadership of the Communist Party have become an important thread in the history of the development of Chinese drama; in the history of Chinese drama, those stories, individual characters, and artistic attempts that reflect the achievements of the Communist Party's construction have also become a profound mark of the times and art in the scale of a hundred years of history, and a historical witness of our party's century-old dream.
(The author is a professor at the Former Military Culture College of the National Defense University)