This document is downloaded from DR‑NTU (https://dr.ntu.edu.sg) Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Brecht and China: towards an ethical subject Zheng, Jie 2011 Zheng, J. (2011). Brecht and China: towards an ethical subject. Doctoral thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/46472 https://doi.org/10.32657/10356/46472 Downloaded on 02 Oct 2021 00:28:31 SGT AN ETHICAL BRECHT AND CHINA: TOWARDS SUBJECT BRECHT AND CHINA: TOWARDS AN ETHICAL SUBJECT ZHENG JIE ZHENG JIE ZHENG JIE 2011 2011 SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES 2011 Brecht and China: Towards an Ethical Subject Zheng Jie School of Humanities and Social Sciences A thesis submitted to the Nanyang Technological University in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2011 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Daniel Keith Jernigan, without whom I could never have survived through all hardship in dissertation writing. He not only guided me in my study and research but also provided unwavering moral support. His expertise and his meticulous scholarship have been of great value for me. One simply couldn’t wish for a more inspiring, responsible and caring teacher. I thank Dr. Neil Murphy for his continuous support in the Ph.D. program, which made my research life enjoyable. I own a great debt of gratitude to those who gave valuable criticisms and suggestions throughout my writing: Dr. Bede Tregear Scott, Dr. John Richard Tangney, Dr. Kwok Kian Woon, Dr. Sim Wai Chew and Dr. Sy Ren Quah. A special thanks to Dr. Brendan Patrick Quigley who taught me to understand that it was not shameful to admit that an ultimate conclusion is not always provided in our writings. I am grateful for the unfailing encouragement and support from Dr. Andrew Kimbrough. He has always been my inspiration when I am confronted with the obstacles in the completion of this research. This dissertation could not have been written without the support of my husband, Fang Jianjun, who has always been patient and tolerant with me when I experienced ups and downs. Needless to say, all the errors that appear in the dissertation are my own. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE DOCUMENTATION BAP Brecht on Art and Politics, edited by Tom Kuhn and Steve Giles, translated by Laura Bradley, Steve Giles and Tom Kuhn. BT Brecht on Theatre, edited and translated by John Willett. CP Collected Plays of Bertolt Brecht, edited by John Willett and Ralph Manheim. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 CHAPTER 1 BRECHT’S PERCEPTION OF CHINA----------------------------------- 15 1. Brecht and Western Intellectual Traditions ------------------------------------------ 16 2. Orientalism as a “Self-Questioning Strategy” --------------------------------------- 22 3. Evolving Images of China in the Western Tradition -------------------------------- 25 4. Brecht’s Perception of China ---------------------------------------------------------- 33 CHAPTER 2 LANGUAGE AND CONSCIOUSNESS --------------------------------- 47 1. Brecht’s Thinking about Consciousness --------------------------------------------- 48 2. Consciousness, Language and the Verfremdungseffekt ---------------------------- 53 3. Confucius’ “Rectification of Names” and Brecht’s Language Strategy --------- 57 4. The Strategy of Augmentation -------------------------------------------------------- 64 CHAPTER 3 BRECHT’S DIALECTICAL THEATRE --------------------------------- 71 1. Brecht and Lao Zi’s Dialectics -------------------------------------------------------- 72 2. From Epic Theatre to Dialectical Theatre ------------------------------------------- 78 CHAPTER 4 BRECHT’S EARLY AND MIDDLE-PERIOD PLAYS----------------- 92 1. The Critical Scene and another Perspective ----------------------------------------- 93 2. The Rejection of Bourgeois Humanism -------------------------------------------- 100 3. The Collective and the Individual --------------------------------------------------- 107 4. The Complexity of Class Consciousness ------------------------------------------- 113 CHAPTER 5 SUBJECTIVITY AND ETHICS ------------------------------------------ 125 1. Brecht’s Concern with Ethics -------------------------------------------------------- 127 2. Goodness and Friendliness ----------------------------------------------------------- 131 3. Redefining Goodness ----------------------------------------------------------------- 138 4. The Relativity of Good and Bad ----------------------------------------------------- 146 5. Reconfiguring Subjectivity ----------------------------------------------------------- 150 6. A New Human Relationship ---------------------------------------------------------- 154 CHAPTER 6 BRECHT AND CHINESE TRADITIONAL XIQU------------------- 161 1. From Entfremdung to Verfremdung-------------------------------------------------- 162 2. Mei’s Performance and Its Aesthetic Principles ----------------------------------- 168 3. Producing a New Actor and Audience ---------------------------------------------- 175 4. “Poetic Illusion” ------------------------------------------------------------------------189 5. “Emotional Criticism” --------------------------------------------------------------- 195 AFTERWORD ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 204 NOTES ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 207 BIBLIOGRAPHY --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 214 ABSTRACT This dissertation on Brecht and China proceeds from a single idea: it is timely and of great importance to revisit the connection between Brecht and China in the context of twentieth-century intercultural theatre, to reflect upon Brecht’s attitudes to Chinese thought and theatre, and his construction (or imagination) of China, and most importantly, to examine how he works Chinese thought into his inheritance of Western traditions on his reflection upon the issues related to Man. This study views Brecht’s perception and usage of Chinese thought and theatre as continuing the tradition of the penetration of Chinese thought and culture into Western intellectual traditions. Brecht’s example attests to two facts: that the incorporation of Asian thought into Western system of thinking is important to Western intellectual traditions, and, moreover, that “Eastern” and “Western” traditions are, instead of developing in unparalleled courses, more often than not intertwined. Specifically, this study attempts to discover to what degree (and why) Brecht works classical Chinese philosophy (Confucianism and Taoism) and traditional Chinese theatre (his experience of watching Mei Lanfang’s performance) into his effort to explore “a new human type” in theatre—a subject which is as yet little understood. Brecht mediates between Chinese and Western intellectual traditions in the following aspects: his understanding of language and consciousness, his redefinition of the audience/actor relation, his philosophical visions and finally, the notion of subjectivity and ethics evolved in his dramatic works. By contextualizing the discussion on Brecht and China in the history of the absorbance of Chinese thought into the history of Western ideas, this study understands Brecht’s notion of Man as a product of dialogue between the Western and Chinese traditions in the first half of the twentieth-century literary scene. INTRODUCTION In 1992, based on Bertolt Brecht’s play The Caucasian Chalk Circle and Li Qianfu’s Yuan zaju1 The Chalk Circle, the Dongpo Theatre produced the jingju (Peking Theatre) version of The Chalk Circle for the ninth Arts Festival Week in Hangzhou. This adaptation of classical Chinese plays is interpreted by Wenwei Du as arising out of the need to “ease a theatrical crisis that has existed since the mid-1980s” in China (“Historicity and Contemporaneity” 223). He further suggests that this adaptation should be categorized into “radical adaptations where ‘East and West’ intertwine” (223). Interestingly this new version, with the lesson that, in Judge Bao’s words, “True benevolent feelings are not inborn; the bonds between nonrelatives can be tighter than blood ties” (Du 223), follows Brecht’s parable more closely than the original Chinese one. Du notices that this blend of the Chinese and the Brechtian makes this adaptation “untraditional” in the sense that favoring “a foster mother who cares” over “a biological mother who abandons” does not accord with feudal ethics as advocated in zaju. He reads this adaptation as a response to contemporary materialism rampant in today’s China in which there emerges an unhealthy tendency that human relations have become based on monetary value. Finally he comes to the conclusion that “our limited vision within one historical and cultural context can be broadened when our history and tradition are examined from a cross-cultural perspective” (226). What interests me is not the similarities (or differences) between these three versions in surface content or the Chinese director’s concerns behind this adaptation, but the questions left out in Du’s essay: Why is Brecht’s adaptation more applicable than the original Chinese one in addressing the issues in contemporary China? Is it because Brecht’s lesson is “Western” (implied by Du) or because, on the contrary, Brecht has adopted (and thus “preserved”) traditional