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Frank submitted to the Faculty of the School of International Service in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in International Affairs Chair: - Prof Robert Gregg Prof. Ira Klein Jean of the School of itemational Service a^gost h % Date 1996 The American University Washington, D.C. 20016 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 1381803 C o p y rig h t1996 by F rank, Adam Dean All rights reserved. UMI Microform 1381803 Copyright 1996, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. © COPYRIGHT by ADAM D. FRANK 1996 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ART BECOMES LIFE: THEATER AND THE POLITICS OF REPRESSION IN SHANGHAI, 1927-1945 BY Adam D. Frank ABSTRACT Modern Chinese spoken drama did not emerge in China until the early 20th Century, but by 1927 it had already become a feared propaganda weapon of the Communist Party and thus became a target of censorship by Chiang Kaishek’s Guomindang, foreign imperialists and, later. Japanese occupiers. This study argues that the leftists’ effective use of both modern and folk theater forms played a key role in converting urban workers, intellectuals, and the rural peasantry to the leftist cause. Further, the commandeering of theater for political ends was pan of a centuries-old tradition of using the myths and icons of popular culture in rebellions against delegitimized authority. Chiang Kaishek, unlike Mao, never accepted the importance of these myths nor the importance of film and theater in transmitting them. The study combines methodologies from history, anthropology, politics and literature to produce a work useful to each of these disciplines. ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PREFACE With few exceptions, I have used the pinyin method of romanization throughout the text. Pinyin has largely replaced older methods in scholarly works and is the method used by the majority of Chinese in romanizing Chinese words. Certain name spellings, e.g. Chiang Kaishek. have acquired a life of their own, and in those cases I have retained the traditional romanization. Discrepancies occur more frequently between text and notes. I have generally retained the spellings of author names as they appear in the text of the cited work. Thus, for China’s most famous playwright, you will find the spelling "Cao Yu” in the main text, but both "Ts’ao Yu” and "Tsao Yu" in the notes and bibliography. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii PREFACE................................................................................................................................... iii ABBREVIATIONS..................................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION: THE POLITICS OF REPRESSION............................... 1 2. THE INTELLECTUAL ROOTS OF THE LEFT-WING THEATER MOVEMENT................................................................................ 7 The Tradition of Censorship May Fourth’s "Three Generations" The Period of Formative Emulation in Drama, 1907-1927 3. THE EMERGENCE OF THE LEFT WING, 1927-1935................................ 23 Shanghai: Still Life of the City GMD and Foreign Cooperation Against the Left Tian Han and the Organization of the Left-Wing Theater The "Left Decade" The Union of Theater and Film Workers The New Life Movement Workers and Peasants Theater in CCP Areas: Early Stages 4. THE ART OF PROPAGANDA: THE UNITED FRONT, 1936-1941 ......... 54 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The Galvanization of Shanghai's Left-Wing Theater Workers Escape to the Solitary Island 5. SHANGHAI UNDERGROUND, 1941-1945................................. Li Jianwu and the Underground Theater Movement Shanghai in Yenan, 1942-1945 6. CONCLUSIONS .............................................................................. BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................................... Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CCP Chinese Communist Partv GMD Guomindang PSB Public Security Bureau SMC Shanghai MuniciDal Council SMP Shanghai Municipal Police Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: THE POLITICS OF REPRESSION At approximately 8:00 p.m. on the 29th of April, 1930, the Shanghai Art Drama Theater dimmed the lights for that evening’s performance of All Quiet on the Western Front, the Chinese stage adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s classic anti-war novel. Using a technique later made famous by Bertolt Brecht, the theater had shown film clips of the First World War prior to the performance and, during previous performances, had projected subtitles on a screen to comment on the play.1 Suddenly and without warning, officers of the Guomindang-controlled Public Safety Bureau stormed the theater, surrounding the performers with more than twenty officers, shutting down the performance, and arresting theater workers.2 The League of Left-Wing Writers—founded by China’s great twentieth-century writer Lu Xun, leftist playwrights Xia Yan and Tian Han, and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) literary theorist Qu Qiubai-almost immediately issued a proclamation decrying the raid and unjustifiable arrests: ■Xia Yan, "No One Could Forget the Year 1930: Before and After the Establishment of the Art Drama Society and the Drama League (Shei wangde yi jiu san ling nian—yishu ju shi yu ju meng chengli qianhou) in Historical Documents from Fifty Years of the Chinese Spoken Drama Movement, 1907-1957, Vol. 1 (Zhongguo huaju yundong wushi nian shiliao ji, 1907-1957, diyi ji), eds. Tian Han, et al. (Beijing: Zhongguo xiju chubanshe, 1958), 152. Some scholars have argued that Brecht actually borrowed this technique from the Chinese. 2"Art Drama Society Resists Unjustifiable Raid and Closure, Declares Shanghai Masses Document" (Yishu jushi wei fankang wuli bei chaofeng, daibu gao shanghai minzhong shu) in Historical Documents from Fifty Years o f the Chinese Spoken Drama Movement, 1907-1957, eds. Tian Han, et al., 308-309. 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The League of Left-Wing Writers is the newly emerging cultural movement’s primary' wing.... We cannot bear this sort of oppression toward the Art Drama Society. We must safeguard the development of the newly emerging culture movement. We must call together a revolution of the masses, a common uprising. We especially urge that comrades of the hard-working, newly emerging cultural movement unite and resolutely resist the authorities devastating the culture movement. We advocate....freedom of speech, press and performance!3 Needless to say, such rhetoric did not endear the League of Left-Wing Writers to either the Guomindang (GMD) or the official governing body of Shanghai’s International Settlements, the Shanghai Municipal Council (SMC). The censorship of this Western