In 1930, with the establishment of the Left League, the Communist Party of China further strengthened its leadership over the left-wing drama movement and established the Left-Wing Dramatists' Union (hereinafter referred to as the "Drama League"). During this period, the discussion on "popularization of drama" initiated by the Drama Federation effectively promoted the exploration of performance forms such as dialect drama, street drama, and square drama, and also played a positive role in popularizing and popularizing the language of drama script creation. It can be said that the proletarian theatrical movement led by the Communist Party of China is actually the mainstream of theatrical activities in this historical stage. Among them, in the creation and performance of street drama (also known as square drama), the most influential and far-reaching dangtui "Put Down Your Whip". The play was premiered on October 10, 1931 in Datuan Town, Nanhui County, Shanghai, directed by Zhang Luo. The second performance was performed in the autumn of the following year by the Qingpu Puqing Opera Troupe, directed by Chen Liting. In January 1933, the Shanghai Camel Drama Troupe was established, which is one of the regular repertoire. From the September 18 Incident in 1931 to the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1945, "Lay Down Your Whip" can be said to be the most performed and influential anti-war drama in the north and south of the great river. In Nantong, Jiangsu Province alone, almost all the anti-Japanese propaganda teams have performed "Put Down Your Whip".
1 How was "Let Down Your Whip" born?
For the earliest production and performance of this script, Chen Liting's friend and playwright Li Tianji once made this statement:
Chen Liting was born in October 1910 in Shanghai. In the autumn of 1930, the 20-year-old Chen Liting came to Nanhui County to teach primary school for the second time. This time it was at Datuan Primary School in Datuan Town, Nanhui County. Nearly a year and a half of teaching career has enabled him to deepen his understanding of society in practical life, and the collusion of bureaucrats and local gentry is the basis of the authorities' rule. He came into contact with the bottom of life, and the suffering of the vast majority of the people far exceeded his personal misfortune of being out of school and unemployed. He witnessed the most tragic in the world— a group of refugees fleeing the wilderness, begging along the way, selling children and women, and crossing the town. The artist's conscience drives him to think and to be angry!
In the summer of 1931, he wrote a skit called "Lay Down Your Whip," about a group of street refugees. The girl who sold the art was tired and unable to perform, and the old man who sold the art was anxious to use the whip on her. The fierce whip provoked the anger of the audience, and a young man jumped out of the audience to shout loudly: "Put down the whip!" "Only when I asked the reason for the situation did I know that the old man was actually his own daughter who was dependent on him for his life, and it turned out that his hometown had been plagued and famine for many years, the harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes were not finished, the officials and gentry were oppressive and ruthless, and the soldiers were constantly harassing, and they really could not survive, so they fled to a foreign land and sold their art to make a living. The old man cried and spoke, tears falling. The daughter also begged the audience to forgive her father's irritability, her father loved her, and beat her for hunger. The old man hugged his daughter and cried bitterly, complaining that the weather was not smooth and that the poor were suffering. The youth then enthusiastically indicated that it was not heaven but man who should complain, and passionately demanded that the old man turn his whip around and point it at the culprits who had forced them to flee their homeland, to endure hunger and to live in exile. As a result, the actors who were prearranged in the audience led the shouting slogans, and the actors and the audience mingled together, corresponding to the same voice, and the whole audience boiled.
In 1931, Nanhui County would hold a cultural and entertainment celebration on October 10 as usual. Chen Liting wrote to invite acquaintances of the Shanghai "Zuolian" to use the festival to come to Nanhui for a publicity performance. Soon, the troupe sent Xie Yunxin (Zhang Luo), Liang Yaonan, Bu Luo and Misi Zhang. He didn't know any of these three people, but had only read Xie Yunxin's theatrical papers. While discussing what to perform, he showed Xie "Put Down Your Whip.". Xie said, "Just play what you wrote." Then they went from the big group to Nanhui together, directed by Xie, and made their first performance at the show. The life of the script lies in the performance, and in the countless performances of "Put Down Your Whip", there are three performance books with the greatest influence: one is Chen Liting and Wang Weiyi' performance book; the other is Zhang Ruifang and Cui Wei's performance book; and the third is Jin Shan and Wang Ying's performance book.
In January 1933, Chen Liting established the Camel Drama Society, and he proposed to the Drama Association that Wang Weiyi immediately participate in the drama club and perform in Jiading County. The organizer of this performance was Qu Baiyin (the president of the China Drama Publishing House after the founding of New China), they were all studying at Datong University at that time, they were all members of the drama alliance, and they had a certain social activity ability in their hometown Jiading. So I wanted to organize a progressive drama performance in my hometown, and the Camel Drama Society organized the repertoire in the square in Jiading Park. At the same time, an exhibition of Hu Yichuan's woodcuts was also held in the corridor of the park. The show lasted three days, two times a day. The company prepared seven or eight one-act plays, two of which were newly rehearsed plays, one was "Who's a Friend" and the other was "Drop Your Whip". "Who's a Friend" is based on a foreign puppet show. The first draft of the performance of "Put Down Your Whip" was auditioned in a middle school in Pudong, and the actors were all school teachers. After the script was revised, it was performed for the first time in Jiadingzuo, and after formal rehearsal, the director was the dramatist Zuo Ming, Wang Weiyi played an old man who sold art, and the daughter was played by Zhu Mingxian. Zuo Ming also taught a few opening words of the old man: "The little whip is leisurely, friends from all over the world, the south side is collected to the south, and the north side is collected by the north." Neither the north nor the south banks are harvested, and the two banks of the great river cross the spring and autumn. These opening sentences are not in the script, Wang Weiyi had it when he performed this play, Wang Weiyi and his daughter played a gong and drum at the beginning of the scene, and then read this opening statement, read a sentence, knock on the gong and drum, very much like that. This is Wang Weiyi's second performance. At the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Shanghai Amateur Experimental Theater Troupe was reorganized into the third and fourth teams of the Shanghai Salvation Drama. Wang Weiyi was on the third team, and "Lay Down Your Whip" became the team's reserved program. Playing Wang as a daughter, she was also changed from Tian Wei to Gu Minshu, who was new to the group, she looked thin and small, and it was more appropriate to play this role. Because the three teams worked along the Shanghai-Nanjing railway line, according to objective needs, the daughter sang an episode of the movie "Road Angel" "Tianya Song Girl". It is said that the art-selling girls who fled from the north will play several sets of knives, guns and fists, but the southern girls will not, they can only sing a small song or something. At this time, Wang Weiyi pulled up the erhu, and when the little girl sang to the high note, her throat was stuck and she coughed badly. The old man was angry, scolded her, and asked her to start singing again, but the girl just coughed and squatted on the ground and couldn't stand up, and the old man was even more angry, and was raising his whip to hit the girl... "Put down your whip!" "A roar shook the whole place, and a young worker jumped on stage...
From 1931 to 1936, members of the Shanghai Opera Federation performed "Put Down Your Whip" six times before and after. In May 1933, in the name of commemorating International Labor Day, the Farnan District Committee held a report meeting to celebrate the fourth victory of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in the anti-military "encirclement and suppression" campaign. The location is on the playground of a primary school on Yandang Road, Nanchang Road. The participants were party members and progressive students of Binhai Middle School, Nanguang Middle School and Quanzhang Middle School, which have close ties with the Grand Alliance for the Protection of Civil Rights. After the lecture, the drama clubs affiliated to the drama federation jointly performed three one-act plays such as "Put Down Your Whip", "Wang San" and "Baby Killing".
2 The Beiping performance was a sensation
In April 1937, Zhang Ruifang and Cui Wei performed "Put Down Your Whip" together. This performance activity was initiated and organized by the underground party of the Communist Party of China in Beiping, with the newly established Chinese National Liberation Vanguard (hereinafter referred to as "Minxian") as the core. The authorities mobilized a large number of military police to surround the students on all sides of the Xiangshan Mountain in Beiping, where the performance site was performed, as if facing a great enemy. Zhang Ruifang made fond memories of this unforgettable performance:
The moderator of the "Student Federation" took decisive measures to change the course of action, and immediately divided more than 7,000 students into several groups in the square and distributed bag after bag of bread and food prepared in advance. Students eat and play games, scattered in piles, playing handkerchiefs, "touching the ball" and singing in circles. The heavily armed military police saw the students playing, and when they didn't see other activities, they relaxed their surveillance, and they were paralyzed.
At this time, Lao Cui and two students from Tsinghua University, who played young workers and young men, borrowed a few clothes from nearby farmers and began to put on makeup. Cui Wei plays an old man who wears the old cotton robe of his fellow countrymen, a hemp rope tied around his waist, and a beanless felt hat, which is folded into a square with old newspaper and covered in front of his forehead as a brim. I played The Fragrant Sister, and the short jacket and flower pants I wore were also borrowed. It just so happened that someone was playing tricks nearby, and we rented his shoulder. As soon as the gong and drum were sounded, more than 7,000 people formed a large circle. In the square, our "Put Down Your Whip" went on. I used to make up a set of physical training at home according to some photos of the song and dance troupe, and practiced kicking, splitting, and bending down, and this time I used it all. At the beginning of the play, with the sound of gongs and drums, I bent down, kicked my legs and pulled the rack, making myself feel quite self-conscious, first singing "Fengyang Flower Drum", the audience that had been arranged in advance took the lead in applauding; and then sang the "918" minor key: "The sorghum leaves are green and green, and on September 18 came the Oriental soldiers..." Xiang Jie could not sing because of hunger and inner pain, the audience cheered, the old man was busy letting Xiang Jie practice martial arts, she fell down because of her lack of strength, the old man was so angry that he pulled out the whip in his waist to whip Xiang Jie, and a young worker came out of the crowd. Shouting: "Put down your whip", the play enters the climax...
"Put Down Your Whip" Although the lines are written in crepe, the audience and actors are very moving. North China is in danger, we can't be slaves to the country, and we have seen many exiled students in northeast China have no hometown and have suffered a lot. We are not acting, this is a living reality, the more I act, the more emotional, the tears brush constantly flowing, many audience members are also watching with tears. When the young man took the old man's whip and pushed the old man to the ground, Cui Wei really cried as he lay on the ground. When I recounted our suffering life in a large paragraph, I forgot the words, so I ran to Cui Wei lying on the ground and cried and called my father, the feelings were never interrupted, the tears were sparse, I couldn't say half a word, Cui Wei just lay down to give me a word... At the end of the play, the youth figured out that they were a father-daughter relationship, and after telling them the truth of unity and resistance against Japan, they turned to the audience and said, please help their father and daughter... Before they could finish speaking, the onlookers threw money at our venue, and all of a sudden there were copper plates, silver dollars and banknotes. Everyone helped to put it away, and finally filled Cui Wei's Cantonese rattan basket with makeup supplies, and we handed over the money to the "Student Federation".
Participating in this square performance, for me, is like opening up a new world, I did not expect that revolutionary drama can have such a great effect. "Put Down Your Whip" was performed in the second half, and the military police who were surrounded and monitoring us found that this was not a trick, but propaganda and anti-Japanese resistance, but they were shocked by the excitement of the whole audience, and did not dare to stop and interfere with us. Nor do I want to be a slave to the state. When the students knew, they shouted slogans to the military and police: "Chinese don't fight Chinese!" "Those who do not want to be slaves to the country, unite and overthrow Japanese imperialism!" The square suddenly became a venue for democracy propaganda, and the police stood by and stopped interfering with us.
3 The performance in the United States alarmed Roosevelt
In 1937, the Shanghai Theater Circle Salvation Association successively established 13 rescue drama teams. They traveled all over central and southern China, performing the play "Put Down Your Whip" hundreds of times.
In "Put Down Your Whip", Wang Ying plays Xiang Jie, and Jin Shan plays the old man who sells art. Dressed in printed cloth pants with white and blue flowers, Xiang Jie resembles a girl who sells artists, and as soon as she appears, she vents the resentment and sorrow of the exiles. When her father drew a ruthless braid, Xiang Jie burst into tears, and the exiles in the audience also shed tears, and the whole audience was in tears. Her performance with Jinshan is unique, the performance is deep, delicate and exquisite, and she is known as the "Literary Whip". The show also went abroad and had a wide impact on the world stage. According to Wang Ying's statistics, since the July 7 Incident, their performance has been performed more than 2,200 times in the frontline and rear cities, all over Nanyang and New York, the United States. Zhou Enlai and Dong Biwu have watched the performance many times. In the autumn of 1939, the New China Theater Troupe led by Jin Shan and Wang Ying performed in Singapore, which was deeply appreciated by the famous writer Yu Dafu and the famous painter Xu Beihong, who created the famous oil painting "Chinese Female Master Wang Ying".
In 1942, after Wang Ying returned to Chongqing from Hong Kong, the CCP decided to send Wang Ying to study in the United States and at the same time publicize the Chinese War of Resistance among the American people. In the United States, Wang Ying was hired by the Association of East and West as its director and director of the Chinese Theater Department, and co-translated "Put Down Your Whip" with Nobel Prize winner Pearl Buck, as well as plays and songs by Ding Xilin and others.
Wang Ying's performance of anti-war dramas throughout the United States alarmed President Roosevelt, who was in power. On the evening of March 15, 1945, she was invited to the White House to perform the anti-war drama "Lay Down Your Whip". In the audience sat President Roosevelt's wife, Vice President Wallace, Nobel laureate Pearl Buck, senior White House officials, and envoys to the United States. The performance was a huge success, and the applause continued at the end of the play. With the development of the anti-Japanese situation, "Lay Down Your Whip" has been performed in Beiping, Shanghai, Hankou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Kunming, Fuzhou, North China and Central China Anti-Japanese Base Areas, as well as Hong Kong, Singapore and New York in the United States, and many famous actors such as Cui Wei, Jin Shan, Zhao Dan, Tao Jin, Wu Xue, Wang Ying, Zhang Ruifang, Zhang Manping and many other famous actors have performed this play.
The play has been published in many differently signed performances and adaptations. There are chen liting works, Wang Weiyi adaptations, there are signature Cui Wei, there are also a group of authors, or anon. It was first published in June 1937 by the Shanghai Theater Publishing House, Selected Best One-Act Plays of 1936 (edited by Ah Ying). Adaptations include: "Put Down Your Whip" (adapted by Wang Weiyi), "Xiang Jie" (adapted by Zhang Yisheng, performed by the National Drama School), "Fight Japan Together" (adapted by Lu Di) and so on.
In early December 1937, the National Drama School (later upgraded to junior college, that is, the National Drama College) held its third performance in Changsha, led by Cao Yu to perform the street drama "Crazy Mother" (edited by Luo Wenhong, a graduate of Cao Yu's second class), "Xiang Jie" (adapted by Zhang Yisheng), "Siren" and "Northeast House".
In 2009, after the research and examination of many experts and scholars, the original author of this street drama "Lay Down Your Whip", which carries forward the patriotic spirit of the Chinese people, is Chen Liting, and the script is included in the third volume of the "Selected Plays of Chinese Drama in the Past Hundred Years" compiled by the China Drama Art Research Association. It was published in April 2007 by China Foreign Translation and Publishing Corporation.
(Author Affilications:Shanghai Theatre Academy)
This article was published in Yanhuang Chunqiu, No. 5, 2020
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