Side-by-side notes on the work of the drama club
In "Eighty Years of Vicissitudes of Time - Lu Wei's Memoirs", there is such an interesting description of Comrade Wang Yan: In the winter of 1939, on the day Lu Wei reported to the 10th division, he was assigned to the pioneer drama company to which he belonged. The president of the drama club is surnamed Wang, who is also a native of Dingxian County, but he is from Shao Village in the south of the city. A cursory look at it showed that he had also gone to school in Peiping, tall, with big hands, big feet, and a big face, carrying his satchel of coarse gray cloth all day (in fact, there was no secret except for a little paper and a small notebook that he often wrote and wrote). From the outside, he didn't look like a literati, but rather like a farmer, and he couldn't get rid of his accent when he spoke. Lu Wei later learned that before the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, when he was studying in Beijing, he also participated in the "Left League", named Wang Yan, whose scientific name was originally Wang Yi'an.
The number of drama clubs is small, it also belongs to the initial establishment, originally as a small propaganda team, Comrade Wang Yan only changed its name to drama club after it was assigned by the military region. During these days, they only moved with the march of the team, and due to the cruelty of the environment, they hardly slept in a village for two consecutive nights. One of the things I remember most is a long march, from Bayangzhuang in Baxian County to a night of rapid march, even without even passing through a village, it walked more than ninety miles, and a group of people came to a village in Yongqing County like a surprise attack. It was nearly dawn after camping, and the guard battalion blocked the intersections and announced that they were allowed to enter and leave. Today is the Chinese New Year's Eve of the old calendar, and the troops live in each family as usual in accordance with the requirements of the three major disciplines and eight attentions, and habitually clean the landlord's courtyard and fill the water tank for the family.
This is the area of the enemy, the guerrilla zone that has just been opened, and the Anti-Japanese regime has never been seen before. We took advantage of the heat to make an iron propaganda: We are the Eighth Route Army led by Mao Zedong and Zhu De, who resolutely resisted Japan and fought Japan, and we want to help the villagers to seek liberation from the undeserved slaves of the country and the sons and daughters of the villagers who are not popular with foreigners. The comrades of the drama club all went out, plus some cultural instructors and clerks of some somewhat cultured companies in the guard battalion also participated in the labor, found a lime bucket, took a brush, and painted some slogans in the main streets and alleys, and all the money was written with "Eighth Route Army Propaganda.". The village became a bit "angry". At night, the troops quietly assembled again and returned to the base area according to the same route. The purpose of such a surprise attack was nothing more than to enable those villagers near the enemy-occupied dot line to know that after the Kuomintang Central Army was defeated and retreated, right under the eyes of the enemy's occupation, there was still a huge anti-Japanese army that vowed to die and was not a slave to the country and resolutely drove the devils out of China, so as to enhance the fighting spirit of the masses, strengthen the determination to resist the war to the end, and support and cheer up the establishment and activities of the anti-Japanese regime behind our enemy lines.
In Sha Fei's Sina blog "Pioneer Drama Society," there is such an introduction: In 1939, Wang Yan, a cadre of the Political Department of the Jizhong Military Region, led Tian Chongzhe, Li Guangqi, Yang Youyi, Liu Chongwu, Jin Rongxiang, Li Wenbo, and others who had graduated from the military region's Fireline Drama Society's literary and artistic training class to perform the one-act drama "This Is Our Mistake" (written by Wang Yan) at the meeting of the 5th Military Sub-district stationed in the floor home nest to welcome the inspection team, the work group, and the rectification unit, and was successful. On September 21, with several people led by Wang Yan as the backbone, plus the "Young Pioneers" of the Political Department of the Military Sub-district, and some people from other units, the Pioneer Drama Society of the Political Department was formally established in Bayangzhuang, Xincheng County, with Wang Yan as the president and Li Guangqi as the secretary of the party branch.
The 5th Military Subdistrict (later renamed the 10th Military Subdistrict) is located in the triangle of Ping, Tianjin and Bao, and the environment for the struggle against the enemy is extremely cruel. At the beginning of the establishment of the drama company, almost no performance equipment was available, "starting from scratch", and later through enemy workers to buy gas lamps, buy cloth to make curtains. In order to adapt to guerrilla performances, the drama club separated the curtains, each person brought one piece, and then concentrated it during the performance, and immediately after the performance, it was taken away separately. Drama clubs are often transferred, and everyone practices songs, dances, rehearsals, classes, and small performances every day, doing propaganda and agitation, social investigation and mass work. Drama clubs often rehearse and practice songs in the streets, take the initiative to invite the masses to watch, and some primary school students learn to sing, which has become a good way to publicize and educate the masses.
In October 1940, after completing its career at North China United University, the drama club returned to the Pingxi Garrison of the 10th Sub-district, and soon caught up with the enemy's autumn "sweep". The drama club encountered the enemy army twice, and 4 comrades were killed and many were injured. After returning to the district, the drama club was renamed the Beacon Theatre Society. With the care and support of the head of the military sub-district, the drama club has not only strengthened its strength, but also improved its personnel structure, and its performance materials have also been much richer than before. In addition, the drama club has also brought back some programs from the United Nations General Assembly, and the performance activities have become more frequent, and the quality and effect of the performances have also improved compared with before. Every time the theater club went to a place, it had to perform, and the audience also asked for a new show. On several occasions, the drama club performed in villages less than ten miles away from the stronghold of the puppet army, and some puppet troops also dressed up as ordinary people to watch (our side also knows this situation according to the information of the enemy industry, but it is "seeing through and not saying it broken" in order to achieve the purpose of united front and education).
From the winter of 1940 to the first half of 1941, due to the repeated "sweeping" of the Japanese army's concentrated forces, the 10th sub-district was transformed from an anti-Japanese base area into a guerrilla zone, and the drama club was almost isolated from the outside world. In order to ensure performances and publicity activities, the personnel of the drama club created their own creations, creating one-act dramas such as "Deception", "Return to the Team", "The End of the Traitor", etc., which can be staged after a few days of rehearsal. The drama club also performed some live newspaper dramas and curtain plays, there is no fixed line, but according to the actual materials, the general storyline is stipulated, the relationship between the characters is fixed, and the actors improvise on the stage according to the theme. Due to being in a guerrilla zone and the company was ready to fight and move, the stage installation was very simple, using symbolic sets and paper-paste props, and sometimes suggestive sets. Drama clubs often receive orders from the headquarters to "discover the enemy situation and quickly transfer" before they have finished performing the scheduled program, so they have to prepare for the transfer while performing.
In the summer of 1941, the drama company accompanied the military sub-district organs and troops to the mountainous areas of Yi county and Tang County for about a month of rest, and after returning to Jizhong, it was active in the hinterland of Jizhong in Gaoyang, Boye, Renqiu, Hejian, Raoyang and Anping, and had a relatively stable performance and creative environment. Through study and practice, a group of comrades have shown their talents in performance and creation. At that time, the programs performed included "Night Attack" and "As It Were" edited by Wang Yan, which reflected the theme of realistic struggle. Wang Yan created and revised to supplement his works: "Atrocities", "The Moment of Life and Death", "Before Wutai Mountain", "Rebellion", "Night Raid", "Deception", "The Third Wish", "No", "This Is Our Mistake", "The Hour of the Dawn", "Advancing Under the Banner of the Red Star", as well as the short story "Old Foreigner", the long poem "Defending the Soviet Union" (in the article "Drama and Drama Society in Jizhong" written by Wang Duanyang, it is mentioned that Wang Yan wrote "Awakening", "Atrocities", "Marching people", "Marching". United Front", "Outside Wuchang City", etc.). In the spring of 1942, the Political Department of the Jizhong Military Region conducted a literary and artistic performance, and the Beacon Theatre Society performed "The Children of the Motherland", "Chorus of the Tenth Division", dances, drums, etc., which were affirmed and praised by the leaders of the Political Department of the Jizhong Military Region.
According to the article "Documentary of the Activities of the Forward Drama Society" in "The Fire of War on the Banks of the Tuotuo River", in the spring of 1944, the situation of the struggle in Hebei and China continued to improve. In order to strengthen the anti-Japanese propaganda and the literary and artistic work of the troops, the political department of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region sent Wang Yan, who had served as president of the Spring Thunder, Line of Fire, Forward, Pioneer, And Beacon Theater Clubs in the Jizhong Troops, and led some comrades who had worked in the Jizhong Fire Line, Avant-Garde, and Forward Theater Clubs to the 7th Sub-District, and formed a literary and labor team based on the original work group, with Wang Yan as the captain. Due to the initial construction, the number of personnel, poor equipment, no female comrades, and many difficulties in performing, they had to work, build, and expand at the same time. In the end, the whole team expanded to more than 20 people, with a rough scale, and only then began to choreograph some small programs, such as "The Last Bullet", "Sixteen Guns" and other one-act dramas, and some self-written songs, such as "The Song of Digging a Ditch" and "The Eighth Route Army Leveled the Devil's Wang Eight Nests" and so on.
In October, the Fireline Drama Society of the Jizhong Military Region sent members to the 7th Sub-district Cultural and Labor Team to help with the work, which enhanced the strength of the Cultural and Labor Team, and the performance program was enriched, not only able to perform small operas and one-act dramas, such as "Brothers and Sisters Opening up the Wasteland", "Booty", "Look Farther", "Production Chorus", etc., but also rehearsed some large-scale programs. As the Kuomintang reactionaries became more reactionary, class contradictions rose in the country, and a civil war crisis lurked. In order to meet the future land reform and liberation war and carry out proletarian education, the literary and labor team rehearsed Hebei Zizi's "Blood and Tears Vengeance". Due to the large number of rehearsal personnel, Wang Yan invited some personnel of the two village theater troupes of the seventh level of Dingxian County and Neibao to cooperate fully, and also hired the personnel of the Anguo opera class to actively rehearse. After the "Blood and Tears Vengeance" was discharged, it was performed more than 20 times in the larger villages and troops south of the Shahe River and north of the Tuotuo River. At each performance, the masses and troops shouted with excitement: "Down with the Kuomintang reactionaries!" "Swear to die to defend the Liberated Areas!" "Swear to die to avenge the victimization of fathers and sisters!" ...... There were many cadres, masses, and fighters who wept as they watched and cursed the Kuomintang reactionaries.
In the winter of 1944, the cultural and labor team changed its name to "Battlefield Drama Society", and Wang Yan was soon transferred away.
This article "The Literary and Artistic Warrior Who Does Not Hold a Gun" - Wang Yan's story is coming to an end, from which we can feel that without a gun, we can destroy the enemy and strengthen ourselves. As stated in "The Story Left to Future Generations- The History of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in Hebei": The various troupes in Jizhong played the role of literature and art as a weapon of struggle in the War of Resistance Against Japan. When giving play to the role of literature and art as a "weapon of struggle," Comrade Wang Yan was more often a "tinder", and was sown to the Forward Drama Society of The 1st Division (6th Division), the Field Drama Society of the 2nd Division (7th Division), and the Pioneer Drama Society of the 5th Division (10th Division), and was ordered to set up and strengthen the Drama Society and give play to its role in arousing the people and publicizing the anti-Japanese resistance. Although he missed the opportunity to become a military cadre and was not allowed to change his career, we are very happy to see that it is precisely because of this that a great, heroic, and famous military playwright was born in Jizhong, and a "founding colonel of the literary and art circles who does not hold a gun" was born in Jizhong. This is exactly: Yan Zhao wind bone, the spirit does not die!