Resisting Spirits: Drama Reform and Cultural Transformation in the People's Republic of China

Greene, Maggie

doi:doi:10.3998/mpub.9969070

Resisting Spirits: Drama Reform and Cultural Transformation in the People's Republic of China

Maggie Greene 2019

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Resisting Spirits is a reconsideration of the significance and periodization of literary production in the high socialist era, roughly 1953 through 1966, specifically focused on Mao-era culture workers' experiments with ghosts and ghost plays. Maggie Greene combines rare manuscript materials—such as theatre troupes' annotated practice scripts—with archival documents, memoirs, newspapers, and films to track key debates over the direction of socialist aesthetics. Through arguments over the role of ghosts in literature, Greene illuminates the ways in which culture workers were able to make space for aesthetic innovation and contestation both despite and because of the constantly shifting political demands of the Mao era. Ghosts were caught up in the broader discourse of superstition, modernization, and China's social and cultural future. Yet, as Greene demonstrates, the ramifications of those concerns as manifested in the actual craft of writing and performing plays led to further debates in the realm of literature itself: If we remove the ghost from a ghost play, does it remain a ghost play? Does it lose its artistic value, its didactic value, or both? At the heart of Greene's intervention is "just reading": the book regards literature first as literature, rather than searching immediately for its political subtext, and the voices of dramatists themselves finally upstage those of Mao's inner circle. Ironically, this surface reading reveals layers of history that scholars of the Mao era have often ignored, including the ways in which social relations and artistic commitments continued to inform the world of art. Focusing on these concerns points to continuities and ruptures in the cultural history of modern China beyond the bounds of "campaign time." Resisting Spirits thus illuminates the origins of more famous literary inquisitions, including that surrounding Hai Rui Dismissed from Office, by exploring ghost plays such as Li Huiniang that at first appear more innocent. To the contrary, Greene shows how the arguments surrounding ghost plays and the fates of their authors place the origins of the Cultural Revolution several years earlier, with a radical new shift in the discourse of theatre.

Series

China Understandings Today

ISBN(s)

978-0-472-05430-5 (paper)
978-0-472-07430-3 (hardcover)
978-0-472-12610-1 (ebook)

Subject

Citable Link

Figure 1. Two documents showing the style of repertoire records kept between 1949 and 1958.

Examples of Repertoire Records

From Chapter 1

Fig. 1. The top document shows the style of repertoire records kept between 1949 and 1958; the top notes the year and genres (in this case, a mix of Peking and Kun opera troupe repertoires from 1957), while the left sidebar notes the troupes. The bottom document is a “bird’s eye view” of the repertoire. While the categories and precision of those categories change over time, the format remains relatively consistent. From left to right, the columns denote genre, number of troupes active, overall number of scripts, number of plays on contemporary themes, number of traditional plays, foreign plays, and then the percentage of the repertoire made up of plays on contemporary themes. Source: SMA B172-4-917 & SMA B172-1-326.

Figure 2. Four popular science pamphlets from the mid-1950s debunking superstition.

Four Popular Science Pamphlets, mid-1950s

From Chapter 2

Fig. 2. Four popular science pamphlets from the mid-1950s debunking superstition. Clockwise from upper left: Daodi youmeiyou guishen (Are there supernatural beings or not), Beijing: Jiefangjun bao chubanshe, 1959; Jilin sheng kexuezhishu puji, ed., Zhen you shengui ma? (Are there really gods and ghosts?), Changchun: Jilin renmin chubanshe, 1956; Chen Cisheng, You meiyou gui? (Are there ghosts or not?), Nanjing: Jiangsu renmin chubanshe, 1956; Guangdong sheng kexuezhishu puji xiehui, ed., Tan “shen” jiang “gui” (Talking of “spirits” and speaking of “ghosts”), Guangdong: Guandong renmin chubanshe, 1958.

Figure 3. Glossy photo pages from Northern Kun Opera Theatre commemorative book.

Northern Kun’s Commemorative Book, with Calligraphy

From Chapter 3

Fig. 3. Glossy photo pages from Northern Kun Opera Theatre commemorative book. Kang Sheng’s calligraphy is prominently displayed alongside a photograph from him. Source: Beifang kunqu juyuan, ed., Jicheng yu fazhan kunqu yishu ([Beijing?]: Dongdan yinshuachang, n.d.), 3, 7. In author’s personal collection.

Figure 4. Glossy photo pages from Northern Kun Opera Theatre’s commemorative book.

Northern Kun’s Commemorative Book, Photos

From Chapter 3

Fig. 4. Glossy photo pages from Northern Kun Opera Theatre’s commemorative book. (R) The top photograph features (L-R) Bai Yunsheng, Han Shichang, and Mei Lanfang. The bottom photograph features (L-R) Li Shujun (the actress who would bring Meng Chao’s Li Huiniang to life), Mao Dun, Mei Lanfang, Kang Sheng, Chen Yi, Han Shichang, Bai Yunsheng, Cheng Yanqiu, and Qian Junduan. Source: Beifang kunqu juyuan, ed., Jicheng yu fazhan kunqu yishu ([Beijing?]: Dongdan yinshuachang, n.d.), 3, 7. In author’s personal collection.

Figure 5a. Images from the Northern Kun Opera Theatre.

Image from the Northern Kun Opera, Li Shujun playing Li Huiniang (Before Death)

From Chapter 3

Fig. 5. Images from the Northern Kun Opera Theatre. Li Shujun playing Li Huiniang before and after death. Source: Meng Chao, Li Huiniang (Shanghai: Shanghai wenyi chubanshe, 1961).

Figure 5b. Images from the Northern Kun Opera Theatre.

Image from the Northern Kun Opera, Li Shujun playing Li Huiniang (After Death)

From Chapter 3

Fig. 5. Images from the Northern Kun Opera Theatre. Li Shujun playing Li Huiniang before and after death. Source: Meng Chao, Li Huiniang (Shanghai: Shanghai wenyi chubanshe, 1961).

Practice Edition from the Northern Kun Opera

From Chapter 3

Fig. 6. Practice edition from the Northern Kun Opera, dated May 12, 1961. The line that would become rather contentious: “Righteous youth! Handsome youth!” (underlined heavily in pencil—the only such marking in the text). This is in the practice edition and the 1962 book publication, but not the July–August printing of Play Monthly. In the author’s personal collection.

Figure 7. Two illustrations showing the “Li Huiniang problem.”

Two 1966 Compilations on the “Li Huiniang problem” and Hai Rui, Xie Yaohuan, and Li Huiniang

From Chapter 5

Fig. 7. On the left, a February 1966 compilation on the “Li Huiniang problem”: Zhongguo yuyan wenxuexi ziliaoshi, ed., Guanyu Li Huiniang wenti ziliao xuanbian (A selection of materials relating to the Li Huiniang problem), Changchun: Jilin Normal University, 1966; on the right, a contemporaneous volume dealing with Hai Rui, Xie Yaohuan, and Li Huiniang (Hanyuyan wenxue jiaoyanshi, ed., Hai Rui Baguan, Xie Yaohuan, Li Huiniang ziliao xuanji ), Selected materials of Hai Rui Dismissed from Office, Xie Yaohuan, Li Huiniang, (N.p.: Hubei sheng hanshou xueyuan, 1966). In author’s personal collection.

Defaced Practice Edition of Li Huiniang

From Chapter 5

Fig. 8. Defaced practice edition of Li Huiniang, from the Beijing Kun Opera. In author’s personal collection.

Figure 9. A chart and partial list of ghost plays performed between 1949 and 1963.

Discussion of the “ghost play problem” in Shanghai

From Chapter 5

Fig. 9. From the Wenyi zhanbao discussion of the “ghost play problem” in Shanghai. On the left, part of the list and explanation of various “ghost plays” performed; a chart listing the numbers of “ghost plays” performed between 1949 and 1963; on the right, partial lists of plays performed in 1962 and 1963. In author’s personal collection.

Figure 10. Four of the numerous versions of Li Huiniang staged in 1979 and 1980

Covers of Four Versions of Li Huiniang, staged in 1979 and 1980

From Chapter 6

Fig. 10. Four of the numerous versions of Li Huiniang staged in 1979 and 1980 (from upper left, clockwise: December 1980 Hebei bangzi, January 1979 Xiang gaoxiang, May 1979 Chu opera, December 1979 Dian opera). In author’s personal collection.

Figure 11. Two pages from the Li Huiniang lianhuanhua, using stills from the 1981 film.

Two pages from the Li Huinaing lianhuanhua

From Chapter 6

Fig. 11. Two pages from the Li Huinaing lianhuanhua, using stills from the 1981 film. On the top, Hu Zhifeng’s entrance as Li Huiniang; on the bottom, the slain Li Huiniang’s head in a box. In the next frame, the head has disappeared—signaling Li Huiniang’s “rebirth” as a ghost (Sha Jie, ed. Li Huiniang (Beijing: Zhongguo dianying chubanshe, 1982).

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Resisting Spirits: Drama Reform and Cultural Transformation in the People's Republic of China

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Examples of Repertoire Records

Four Popular Science Pamphlets, mid-1950s

Northern Kun’s Commemorative Book, with Calligraphy

Northern Kun’s Commemorative Book, Photos

Image from the Northern Kun Opera, Li Shujun playing Li Huiniang (Before Death)

Image from the Northern Kun Opera, Li Shujun playing Li Huiniang (After Death)

Practice Edition from the Northern Kun Opera

Two 1966 Compilations on the “Li Huiniang problem” and Hai Rui, Xie Yaohuan, and Li Huiniang

Defaced Practice Edition of Li Huiniang

Discussion of the “ghost play problem” in Shanghai

Covers of Four Versions of Li Huiniang, staged in 1979 and 1980

Two pages from the Li Huinaing lianhuanhua