Advertisement on the day of the premiere of "Wen Tianxiang" ("Declaration", December 15, 1943)
As one of the oldest theaters in Shanghai, Lyceum Theatre has witnessed many cultural events of great significance. In 1866, the Lyceum Theatre was founded for British expatriates on Yuanmingyuan Road, Nomen Road, destroyed by fire in 1871 and rebuilt in 1874. In 1930, it was relocated to its current location.
Since the end of the 19th century, the Lyceum Theater has maintained its position as the "temple of Western culture" in the Shanghai Concession. However, with the outbreak of the Pacific War in December 1941, the concession was controlled by the Japanese army, and cultural activities with Anglo-Americans as the main body came to an end. During this period, the Lyceum Theater, as a stage for Japan to exercise cultural control, staged various stage arts such as symphony, ballet, opera, drama and Chinese drama, in order to exaggerate the cultural policies under Japanese occupation to Chinese residents and overseas Chinese people from all over the world.
But the Lyceum Theater at that time also had another side, that is, an art space that broke free from the shackles of cultural control and struggled not to be crushed.
Drawing on heroic deeds and sustenance with realistic tendencies
For the Lyceum Theatre, the outbreak of the Pacific War was an opportunity for great change. Japan entered a state of war with the Allies such as Britain and the United States, and the Japanese took over the theater. After 1942, the number of Chinese dramas performed in theaters increased greatly, and although traditional plays and concerts were also staged after September, they almost became a special theater for dramas.
Among the many plays staged during this period, the most eye-catching is "Wen Tianxiang", which has been performed since December 15, 1943. The performance lasted until May 13, 1944, for about half a year, a total of 186 performances, becoming the second most popular drama in Shanghai during the fall of Shanghai.
"Wen Tianxiang" was originally called "Zhengqi Song", and the author was the famous dramatist Wu Zuguang. Born in 1917, he began to write plays during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and became famous for his works such as "Phoenix" and "Song of Righteousness", and achieved a place in the history of modern theater with his unique artistic contributions.
Wu Zuguang (Xinhua News Agency file photo)
"Song of Righteous Qi" was originally the title of a poem written by the patriotic general Wen Tianxiang of the Southern Song Dynasty, pretending to be a resistance to the Yuan army to call for resistance against Japan. The main contents are as follows:
In the wilderness, an old man is telling a child a story of the past. In the last year of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Yuan army attacked lin'an, the capital of the Song Dynasty, and saw that the capital was about to fall, but the ministers still spent their days and nights ignoring the major affairs of the state. Wen Tianxiang disregarded his own safety and impeached the ministers. While dispatching troops to prepare for battle with the Yuan army, he personally went to the Yuan army camp to negotiate with the yuan army generals who attacked Lin'an. The general of the Yuan army told Wen Tianxiang that seeing that the Song Dynasty was about to perish, why was he still blindly loyal to the Song Dynasty, and persuaded Wen Tianxiang to surrender to the Yuan Dynasty as a minister of the Yuan Dynasty, but Wen Tianxiang refused. Wen Tianxiang was arrested and taken to the capital of The Yuan Dynasty. Three years later, Wen Tianxiang learned that the Song Dynasty had perished, but still refused yuan shizu's personal persuasion to surrender and martyred the Song dynasty.
In 1941, "Zhengqi Song" was selected for the shanghai drama art society's prize-winning draft script. On June 4 of the same year, the Shanghai Drama Art Society premiered "Zhengqi Song", and the script was published by the Shanghai Theater Art Society in July of the same year.
The famous general history of drama edited by Chen Baichen and Dong Jian, "Draft History of Modern Chinese Drama", commented on "Zhengqi Song":
The advent of "The Song of Righteousness" (1940) shows that the author took a step forward in art. Although this drama is based on the deeds of wen Tianxiang, a national hero at the end of the Song Dynasty, it carries the author's realistic tendencies and feelings. The outstanding performance in the play is wen Tianxiang's patriotic grandeur and righteousness. When the author reveals this precious righteousness in contrast to the outrageous evil atmosphere of the emperor's fainting and treacherous courtiers, he shows his strong love and hatred. At the time of the performance of the play, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression had entered a stage of stalemate, Wang Jingwei had openly surrendered to the enemy, and the forces of traitorous surrender were on the rise. "Song of Righteous Qi" deepens the depiction of the struggle against the enemy in "Phoenix" into an ode to national integrity, indicating the author's keen feelings about the development of reality. In terms of art, this drama is no longer as piling up the plot of the drama like "Phoenix", the structure and language give people a sense of nature, freshness and fluency, the shaping of the character image is also more vivid and full, and the scene description and atmosphere rendering are full of beautiful poetic feelings. The unique qualities and artistic talents of young playwright Wu Zuguang are displayed here. This play won the "first prize" in the script appraisal award of the "Theater Art" magazine in Shanghai, which was the "isolated island" at that time, and was performed in Shanghai, Chongqing and other places, becoming a play with greater influence in the early stage of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
Great success at Lyceum
It can be said that "Zhengqi Song" received a certain degree of affirmation when it was first performed, but there were many anti-Japanese dramas with similar content in Shanghai during the isolated island period, so this work was not particularly eye-catching. However, since the Shanghai United Arts Drama Society changed the name of the play to "Wen Tianxiang" on December 15, 1943, and performed it at the Lyceum Theatre, the play has been a great success.
The director at that time was Zhang Shankun. Shanghai United Arts Drama Society is a theatrical group organized by Zhang Shankun in 1943. Zhang Shankun (1907-1957) was born in Nanxun County, Zhejiang Province, and graduated from Jinling Middle School in Nanjing and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He loved theater, and after his success in using video images (comic strips) in theater performances, he became interested in movies, and founded the Xinhua Film Company in 1934, which was a great success. During the film production, he established partnerships with the Japanese and continued filmmaking activities during the fall. In 1943, the Wang puppet regime merged the Shanghai Film Company to form the China Film United Joint Stock Company (Huaying), and Zhang Shankun became deputy general manager and director of the production department. Hua Yingyuan wanted to create a drama department, but was unsuccessful. So Zhang Shankun founded Lianyi Company and recruited actors at a high price.
The first work staged by The United Arts Drama Club was "Xiangfei", and "Wen Tianxiang" was the second work of the drama club. In fact, the long-term performance of "Wen Tianxiang" exceeded the expectations of the drama company. Looking at the performance advertisement, you can find that there have been several times such as "the final performance" and the like. But each time it went on again, and finally it lasted for half a year. The main reason for this is that the strong support of the audience has made the show have a very high box office value. Director Hu, who had seen the performance of "Zhengyi Song" in the Lonely Island Period, recalled that the actor who played Wen Tianxiang at the end of the day recited, "This magnificent qi is a righteous qi between heaven and earth...", and there was silence under the stage, followed by thunderous applause. The same is true of "Wen Tianxiang", which was staged during the fall.
Shao Yingjian pointed out in "Drama during the Shanghai War of Resistance" that it was similar to the "Roar! Like "China", the secret resistance of Shanghai theater people can be read from "Wen Tianxiang". In fact, although Zhang Shankun maintained cooperation with the Japanese side in the film industry, he organized another troupe to rehearse "Wen Tianxiang", so he was arrested by the Japanese army in 1945 and released after mediation.
Behind the long performance
Because "Wen Tianxiang" was performed in Shanghai under the occupation of the Japanese army for half a year, a considerable number of Japanese people also watched the play and left some drama reviews and viewing impressions. From this, you can get a glimpse of the speculation of the people at the time about the reason why "Wen Tianxiang" was not banned.
Novelist Chiji Abe wrote down the following sentiments in his post-war novel "Green Clothes":
I don't know if it is because the Japanese army has declared the tide of "freedom" in Shanghai defeated, or whether it wants to let people's dissatisfaction have a vent, or maybe it is simply to set such a trap in order to report and suppress it? What the truth is, it is completely unclear. Probably these motivations do exist.
It can be said that the feelings of Abe Zhiji (pretending to be a character in the novel) explain to a certain extent the reason why the Japanese army allowed or had to allow "Wen Tianxiang" to be staged: either because the Japanese army had difficulty controlling the anti-Japanese atmosphere of the shanghai people; or turning a blind eye to the borrowing of historical dramas in order to leave a channel for the public to vent; or trying to catch anti-Japanese and anti-Japanese elements by allowing the performance of anti-Japanese dramas. It's not clear which of these is the real cause, maybe it's all the cause.
Whether it is because of the secret struggle of Shanghai theater people or the "laissez-faire" of the Japanese army under various considerations, this work of promoting patriotism and righteousness has not faded for half a year in Shanghai under japanese occupation, and the main driving force behind it is still the support of the broad masses of the people. The audience of "Wen Tianxiang" has expanded from the intellectual audience of the drama to the general citizen class, otherwise it is obviously impossible to achieve a six-month-long performance. "Wen Tianxiang" is precisely because of the "new school" factor, that is, with a very tense character image and story, as well as a stylized performance form, it is just right for the general public audience to accept, so that they can express their patriotic enthusiasm through watching the play, so that they have the warmest support.
As scholars have described, "Whenever Wen Tianxiang uttered the line 'Return my world', hundreds of spectators would give thunderous applause and echo through the Lyceum Theater." Suddenly, Lan Xin turned into a boiling crucible. ”
Column Editor-in-Chief: Zhang Jun Text Editor: Zhou Chengyi
Source: Author: Zhou Chengyi Finishing