"Chinese Shakespeare", lost in the dust of history

On September 15, 1991, in the evening, in the Third Hospital of Beijing Medical University, a tall, thin old man lay on a hospital bed. He has been declared critically ill by doctors, but still appears to be showing signs of life. Occasionally, he would use Mandarin with a southern accent and vaguely spit out curses like "shit." In the end, this sign of life could not withstand the power of death, and he died just like that. He was originally going back to Beijing to visit relatives, but he didn't expect to die here.

Outsiders do not know the name of this old man, let alone his glorious past. In fact, he was Xiong Shiyi, the most well-known Chinese writer overseas in the 30s of the 20th century. His name was once juxtaposed with the famous writer Lin Yutang as "Lin Xiong". In 1934, Xiong Shiyi's English drama "Wang Baochuan" became popular all over the world, performing hundreds of performances from the London small theater to Broadway in the United States, so the New York Times praised him as "Chinese Shakespeare". His novel "Skybridge" has also been translated into many languages and sold well in Europe and the United States.

For various reasons, this "Chinese Shakespeare" does not have much fame in Chinese mainland. It was not until 2023 that the publication of the biography titled "Xiong Shiyi: The Vanishing "Chinese Shakespeare" brought the legendary playwright's life story back to the eyes of more Chinese readers. In the words of Zheng Da, the author of this biography, Xiong Shiyi is a person who is "brilliant and bold". He is an important writer lost in the dust of history and an indispensable name in the history of modern Chinese cultural exchange.

Bear Shiichi in London, circa 1935. Photo courtesy of Xiong Deyun

In Search of "Chinese Shakespeare"

Da Zheng is a professor emeritus at Suffolk University in Boston, USA, and for many years he has studied the history of Asian literature and Chinese immigrant culture. He remembers the scene when he saw Xiong Shiyi's archives more than a decade ago. At the home of Xiong Shi's youngest daughter, Xiong Deyun, he saw large boxes full of bulletins, notebooks and letters. These materials are well preserved, but they are placed chaotically, and even mixed with daily necessities. Xiong Deyun told him that these materials had been kept for a long time, and no one had sorted them out.

The fate of Zheng Da and Xiong Shiyi began with his research on another writer. More than thirty years ago, when Zheng Da returned to his hometown of Shanghai from Beijing for graduate school, a friend sent him a copy of "Chinese Painting" by Jiang Yi, a well-known calligrapher and painter of the Republic of China, which piqued his interest. Since then, Zheng Da began to pay attention to and study Jiang Yi. Later, in the process of searching for Jiang Yi's past experience, Zheng Da found that many people who had contact with Jiang Yi mentioned Xiong Shiyi and his drama "Wang Baochuan". Zheng Da didn't know who Xiong Shiyi was at the time, but he judged that this person traveled so widely that he should be an extremely important cultural celebrity.

In fact, Xiong Shiyi and Jiang Yi did have a close relationship, they were friends in China, and they shared a house together when they were in the UK. Xiong Shiyi's 1934 book "Wang Baochuan" was illustrated by Jiang Yi. In addition, Xiong Shiyi seems to sound like a very personal figure, unlike the conservative Chinese at the time, he is very eloquent and confident, and there are many Chinese and foreign celebrities in his circle of friends. Intuition told Zheng Da that the story behind Xiong Shiyi must be very interesting and worth his careful study.

In the process of writing Jiang Yi's biography, Zheng Da met Xiong Shiyi's youngest daughter, Xiong Deyi, and gradually became familiar with him. After the publication of his biography of Jiang Yi, Xiong formally invited Zheng Da to write a biography of Xiong Shiyi. Since then, Zheng Da has embarked on a journey to find Xiong's life experience. He spent several years sorting through the piles of materials in Xiong Deyun's house and carefully reading all the contents. He learned that after Xiong Shiyi left Chinese mainland in 1932, he had lived in Britain, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the United States and other places, and if he wanted to sort out the facts described in these materials, he could only go to various places to inquire about the information and find people he had contacted to conduct interviews to verify it.

This is not simple, Xiong Shi lived in 1902, most of his friends, as well as some descendants, have passed away, and information about him is scattered around the world. Zheng Da began to take advantage of the opportunity of academic conferences to go to libraries and archives around the world to find traces left by Xiong Shiyi. Beginning around 2010, he researched and wrote while writing, and it took eight or nine years to complete the English version of the biography. In 2022, a Chinese edition of Xiong Shiyi's biography, also written by Zheng Da, was published in Hong Kong, China, and in 2023, the book was published in Chinese mainland. Thus, through these dusty materials, people began to see the stage that once belonged to Xiong Shiyi, and the legends he once performed on the stage.

"Wang Baochuan": It is an eye-opener for Westerners

On October 30, 1935, the cruise ship Belengaria departed from London, England to New York, USA, carrying many well-known movie stars, dancers, directors, screenwriters, among which a Chinese couple was particularly conspicuous, the man was wearing a brown Chinese robe, and the woman was wearing a black satin cheongsam and a leather coat, these two were Xiong Shiyi and his wife Cai Daimei. Their dressing is quite classical and fashionable, and their fluent English and cheerful personalities impressed their fellow shippers, who were worthy social stars on board that day.

This trip from the United Kingdom to the United States was the highlight of Xiong's life. He is about to take his screenplay "Wang Baochuan" to Broadway in the United States, becoming the first Chinese director to enter Broadway. In 1934, "Wang Baochuan" was a dark horse in a small theater in London, and the plot was a household name, and even loved by members of the British royal family. The popularity of this drama saved the small theaters in London at that time, and also made the unknown Xiong Shi, who was studying for a doctorate in the UK at that time, become famous overnight and enter the world literary scene.

In the United States, Xiong Shiki stayed at the most famous Edison Hotel in the area, and there were daily news reports about them in the newspapers. The American version of the drama "Wang Baochuan" is well-configured, starring the well-known American producer Maurice Geist, and the actors are all American actors. The costume was hand-sewn by Xiong Shiyi at the invitation of Mei Lanfang to a tailor in Suzhou, which is extremely gorgeous. At this highlight moment, Xiong Shiichi may recall his experience along the way: how did he create such a work, and how did he spread it around the world?

It was three years earlier, in 1932, and the 30-year-old Xiong Shiyi had come to the University of East London in England to pursue a doctorate. After going abroad, Xiong Shiyi quickly befriended his favorite British writers George Bernard Shaw, Barry and others, and learned from them. During the Republican period, the European cultural circle briefly set off a "Chinese style", and people were quite curious about works with Chinese elements. George Bernard Shaw gave Xiong Shiyi a lot of advice, and he and Xiong Shiyi's mentor Nicole agreed that Xiong Shiyi should use English to create traditional Chinese drama, something that had never been seen in England. Nicole even reminded Xiong Shiyi that there are almost no authentic Chinese dramas on the British stage, and if they can do a good job, they may be able to gain fame and fortune.

With the encouragement of the teachers, Xiong Shiyi wrote the drama script "Wang Baochuan" adapted from the traditional opera "Red Maned Horse". Xiong Shiyi is an English major, has translated many English works, and has also received a fairly solid Chinese training. A full understanding of Chinese and British cultures made him understand that the drama "Wang Baochuan" must not copy the content of traditional opera, but should be drastically reformed in terms of plot and form to make it more acceptable to Western audiences. He changed the name of the original protagonist of the story "Wang Baochuan" to a more catchy, elegant and easy-to-remember "Wang Baochuan", and also turned the originally submissive and promising heroine into a beautiful, witty, and dignified female figure, allowing her to actively pursue her own happiness like Western women. In order to make the plot understandable to audiences who are not familiar with Chinese culture, he also added a lot of explanatory text.

But the script of "Wang Baochuan" suffered a setback from the beginning, and initially, no British theater wanted to bring it to the stage. Because the "Chinese style" in the minds of foreign audiences at that time was just an exotic style they yearned for, they did not really understand Chinese. When Xiong Shiyi really wrote a story that belonged to Chinese, many people subconsciously felt repulsed and even sneered at him. But Xiong Shiichi still enthusiastically introduced his work to the troupe and publishing house, and it was this perseverance that allowed good luck to befall him. In 1934, the drama of "Wang Baochuan" was not yet eyebrows, and the script was published smoothly and was widely praised, so Xiong Shiyi really became a high-profile new star in the overseas literary circle.

Soon in the same year, British drama director Prius was attracted by "Wang Baochuan" and decided to rehearse the play, and with their hard work, "Wang Baochuan" quickly performed a hundred performances, with a large audience, and almost all members of the British royal family have seen this play. According to records, Queen Mary of England frequently visited the small theater to watch "Wang Baochuan" as many as eight times. After several months of rehearsals, "Wang Baochuan" was performed in the United States for more than three months from January 27, 1936, with as many as 105 performances, and the wife of US President Roosevelt also personally watched the play, calling it "charming, funny, subtle, and eye-opening for Westerners."

It's hard to imagine that Xiong Shiyi came into the field of vision of Westerners on such a scale at that time, but everything really happened. "Some people say that his success is accidental, just change the Chinese drama, and it has become like this, not at all, Jiang Yi once said that Xiong Shiyi is a person who works very hard and will always work hard until he succeeds." Zheng Da, author of "Xiong Shiyi: The Vanishing "Chinese Shakespeare", commented on the success of Xiong Shiyi and "Wang Baochuan" overseas.

"Wang Baochuan" stage stills "hydrangea throwing" scene. Photo courtesy of Xiong Deyun

Flowering outside the walls, fragrant outside the walls

"We ignored Xiong Shiichi for too long, and we owe Xiong Shiichi too much." This sentence is a sentence written by Chen Zishan, a professor at East China Normal University, in the preface to his biography "Xiong Style One: The Vanishing "Chinese Shakespeare". When Xiong Shiyi died in 1991, no one knew about him, and his name was not included in the "Dictionary of Modern Chinese Writers" that year, and when it came to Chinese writers who wrote in English overseas, people still only knew Lin Yutang, not Xiong Shiyi. It took another 15 years or so for Xiong Shiyi's major works to appear in the mainland, and there are still many gaps to be filled in the research on Xiong Shiyi's works.

How obscure is Xiong Shiyi in Chinese mainland? He had six children and multiple grandchildren, and even these grandchildren knew nothing about his grandfather's work for a long time. Xiong Shiyi's son Xiong Dehui was a professor at the University of Foreign Chinese in Beijing, and his son Xiong Wei used his father's library card to borrow books in a library that was not open to the public, and only then did he read Xiong Shiyi's "Wang Baochuan" and "Tianqiao", and only then did he learn about Xiong Shiyi's works. His other two grandchildren learned of his grandfather's former glory from Edgar Snow's description in "Journey to the West".

In addition to some specific historical reasons, another important reason why Xiong Shiyi's works have not been disseminated in Chinese mainland is that he spent most of his life writing in English, and the language barrier caused the poor communication. Zheng Da, the biographer of Xiong Shiyi, analyzed that from Xiong Shiyi studying in the UK in the 30s of the 20th century to the mid-50s of the 20th century to live in Hong Kong, China, he hardly used Chinese published works. During this time, Lin Yutang, a writer of the same type as him, published Chinese works very early, so Lin Yutang's reputation in China was naturally greater than Xiong Shiyi.

In fact, Xiong Shiyi's "disappearance" in the Chinese literary scene was not intentional. He probably didn't want to develop in Chinese writing circles. In the 30s of the 20th century, China's local vernacular literary movement has become increasingly mature, and there are many schools in the literary circle, and the writers of the "left-wing", "Beijing school" and "Shanghai school" have their own characteristics, and these writers have also had a lot of exchanges with the world literary circle. At that time, Xiong Shiichi had already begun to translate and write, and had chosen his future direction, which was to translate and create theatrical works. He was particularly fond of the plays by the British writer Barry, and has translated more than a dozen of his works. Before going abroad, he had entered the literary circle of Beijing and Shanghai, translated novels by famous European and American artists for the Commercial Press, and published translations in magazines such as "Novel Monthly".

At that time, Xiong Shiyi was young and ambitious, hoping to have a place for him in the literary world in the future. He was a studious child, and at the age of 12 he went to Beijing to attend Tsinghua School, and many years later he was admitted to the English Department of the National Higher Normal School (now Beijing Normal University). When he worked in Shanghai and Beijing, he kept in touch with older scholars, including Hu Shi, Liang Shiqiu, Lin Shu, Chen Yinke, and others. He has always been confident about his future. But the plan never kept up with the change. Around 1930, when Xiong Shiyi was teaching in Beijing, he heard that Hu Shi had the opportunity to publish Barry's works, so he handed over the translations of more than a dozen Barry plays in his hand, along with his own script "God of Wealth". But later, Hu Shi did not pay attention to or appreciate Xiong Shiyi's translation, and kept it at home.

It wasn't until the poet Xu Zhimo read these manuscripts in Hu Shi's home that things took a turn. Xu Zhimo liked Xiong Shiyi's humorous and gorgeous writing and praised him, and because of Xu Zhimo's appreciation, Chen Yuan, then dean of the School of Literature of Wuhan University, also began to invite Xiong Shiyi to Wuhan University to teach Western drama. However, according to the regulations of the "Ministry of Education" at that time, Xiong Shiyi had no overseas study experience and could not teach related subjects, and he eventually failed to become a professor at Wuhan University. This accidental encounter gave Xiong Shi a great stimulus. He decided to leave everything at home and go to England to pursue a doctorate. Although Xiong Shiyi was already a father of five children at this time, and his wife Cai Daimei was still studying at university in Beijing, the family burden was not small, but he was still determined to go abroad to see.

Since then, Xiong Shiyi's development direction has begun to tilt overseas. After the fire of "Wang Baochuan", Xiong Shiyi decided to suspend his pursuit of a doctorate and concentrate on the performance of this drama around the world. In the process, the external environment also further promoted his choice. In 1935, "Wang Baochuan" was well received after its performance in Shanghai, but some critics criticized the work as merely a means to curry favor with foreigners. In 1937, the Anti-Japanese War broke out in full swing, and Xiong Shiyi, who was returning to Nanchang to visit relatives, was trapped, and eventually he returned to Britain with his wife and three children to settle down. Since then, the Chinese literary world he once yearned for can only become a possibility in a parallel universe, forever passing by him.

Zheng Da's "Bear Style One: The Vanishing Chinese Shakespeare".

Ups and downs and loneliness

Xiong Shiyi biographer Zheng Da believes that Xiong Shiyi's sudden popularity in the 30s of the 20th century has a lot to do with his subsequent silence in the Chinese world and the specific historical situation he encountered. Not long after "Wang Baochuan" became popular in the United States, World War II broke out in full force, disrupting social order and the rhythm of life. During the war, cinemas were closed and the publishing industry was restricted. In addition, the emergence of television, film and other forms of entertainment has also had an impact on the theater stage. All these external factors laid the groundwork for Xiong Shiyi's later career changes.

Xiong Shiyi in 1944 did not think of this for the time being, at that time, he became popular with "Wang Baochuan", published the best-selling novel "Flyover", and lived a good life on royalties. For the sake of the children's educational environment, Xiong Shi's family moved to Oxford and rented a house. Soon, he was hospitable, and all the cultural celebrities in the Chinese circle gathered at home, and when he Chinese came to Oxford, he almost had to visit his home, and Hu Shi, Bian Zhilin, Hua Luogeng and others were his guests. He did not expect that he, who was still a popular person in the social circle at this time, would start a difficult second half of his life.

In the past few years in the UK, because of his extravagant personality and lack of planning in spending money, Xiong Shiyi's life has long hidden a lot of troubles. Although he had best-selling works, the subsequent publishing contract was not completed on time, and he lived on manuscript fees alone, and his income was not stable. The Xiong family's economic situation gradually became more than enough. He and his wife, Cai Daimei, are trying to make more money. He began writing press releases for the BBC early on and later had a short-term teaching position at Cambridge University. The talented Cai Daimei even wrote a novel "Overseas Flower Reality" herself, which also sold well. But those incomes are still a fraction of the bucket. Because of financial problems, his relationship with his wife also began to crack.

With Xiong Shiichi's personality, he will definitely not give up his efforts, but the good luck of the past seems to be really running out. In 1954, when Nanyang University (now Nanyang Technological University) was about to be established in Singapore, Lim Yutang was invited to serve as the president, and he appreciated Xiong Shiichi's ability and invited him to Singapore to work with him as the dean of the university's Faculty of Arts. It was a stable, livelihood-solving job, so Xiong embarked on a journey to Singapore. However, things backfired, due to complicated school running conditions, personnel problems and other reasons, Lin Yutang and Xiong Shiyi resigned one after another and could not stay in Singapore.

At that time, cultural talents from all over the world gathered in Hong Kong, China. Xiong Shiyi was also optimistic about the development of Hong Kong, and after leaving Singapore, he chose to go to Hong Kong, China to make a living, where he prepared the Chinese film version of "Wang Baochuan". But his time has passed, and the film version of "Wang Baochuan" did not replicate the success of that year, but he has remained in Hong Kong. Over the next thirty years, Xiong began writing plays and novels in Chinese. He is still enthusiastic about the dissemination of Chinese culture, and has also established Tsinghua College in Hong Kong and Taiwan, cultivating many liberal arts talents. Unfortunately, during that time, Chinese mainland was in a special period, and Xiong Shiyi's Chinese works missed the opportunity to enter the mainland.

In his later years, Xiong Shiyi arranged his life and work in an orderly manner, but his life stage had long since changed from a gorgeous large theater to a quiet and lonely small theater. Since he went to Singapore, he has been separated from his wife and children, Choi Daimei in the UK, some of his children have returned to work in Chinese mainland, and some have lived overseas. His former friend grew old and died, and his loneliness grew with each passing day. He also began to bow his head slightly, and in his later years, in a letter to his wife Cai Daimei, he began to sigh: "Clothes are not as good as new, and people are not as good as old." ”

Rarely, regardless of the circumstances, Xiong Shiyi's personality has remained the same as before. For old friends, he can help generously, regardless of previous suspicions, and for new friends, he is still warm and generous. Zheng Da told two stories that can embody Xiong Shiyi's character. In 1945, when Hu Shi went to Oxford University to receive a doctorate in law, because of the shortage of supplies after the war, he could not find a doctoral suit, so he asked Xiong Shiyi for help, and Xiong Shiyi did not care that Hu Shi had ignored his works, and soon helped him find them. In Xiong Shiyi's later years, playwright Yang Shipeng also became friends with him. When the two met for the first time, Xiong Shi wore two expensive watches on one hand, showing the time in two different time zones, and he immediately took off one of them and gave it to Yang Shipeng, who was a junior, but had to accept the cheaper one.

This kind of character creates the brilliance of Xiong Shiyi when the wind is good, but it also exacerbates his loneliness when it is not good. In his later years, he still showed himself as a light and lively image in the past, and he has left his figure in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Chinese mainland, the United States and other places. He tried to find a better place to live out his old age, and even planned to write, teach and continue to tell Chinese stories in his later years.

His drifting in his later years did not end with the end of his life. After his death, Xiong Shiyi's ashes traveled with his descendants to various overseas locations, until 2011, when people decided to bury his ashes in Beijing along with the ashes of his eldest daughter Xiong Delan and eldest son Xiong Dewei. Beijing was the place where he studied, the starting point of his literary dreams, and the home of many of his relatives. Perhaps, at the last moment of his life, Xiong Shiyi, who has persevered all his life and traveled from place to place, will finally experience a trace of the warmth of returning home when he thinks of being able to reunite with his loved ones.

(Source: "Xiong Shiyi: The Vanishing "Chinese Shakespeare", by Zheng Da, Life, Reading, New Knowledge, Sanlian Bookstore)

Published in the 1105th issue of China Newsweek magazine on August 21, 2023

Magazine title: Salvage Bear Shiichi: The Legendary Life of "Chinese Shakespeare"

Author: Qiu Guangyu