Warehouses of memories, workshops of dreams, hotbeds of love, the courtroom of morality and the sauna bathroom of the soul these are playwright Wang Jian's vivid descriptions of his new production playing in Beijing.
East and West Wings, (Dongfang Xiwu) is the location where the drama happens and tells the story between a Beijing native landlord and his tenants from other parts of China.
Qiangge, (Brother Qiang) a middle-aged, Beijing native laid-off factory worker, makes ends meet by renting the east and west wings of his old courtyard to "Beipiao."
"Bei" is short for Beijing, and "Piao" in Chinese means floating or drifting. Beipiao are people who come to Beijing from other parts of the country to pursue their dreams. Usually without hukou (household registration) and regular jobs, they float in the city while struggling hard for a better future.
They believe the capital provides ample opportunities for success than their relatively backward hometowns.
Geng Tian, a former tenant of Qiangge, is one of the few Beipiao who leads a better life after years of striving. From a farmer's family in Central China's Henan Province, Geng used to be extremely poor and failed the entrance examination for post-graduate studies for three times.
Now assistant to a big real estate company's CEO, Geng came back to the courtyard to lobby his late landlord to sell the houses to his boss, who will turn the whole neighbourhood to a high-class office building.
Qiangge refuses Geng resolutely, because the yard is a heritage from his grandpa, also the rent is his only income now.
Geng leaves disappointed. Then Qiangge has another visitor, Bai He, his old tenant and flame.
Now a rising star, Bai is no longer the innocent young girl enthusiastically dreaming to be a super star. She comes to get back some of her nude photos from Qiangge, but the latter, still in love with her, refuses.
Jingniu also a Beipiao tenant of Qiangge overhears their conversation. Desperately hunting for a job, the girl decides to make use of the affair as her stepping stone for a job as paparazzi.
After Bai leaves, she gets Qiangge drunk and records the story between the two when the drunken man recalls the past. With the recording, Jingniu gets a reporter's job in a tabloid and stops her life as Beipiao.
With the news of "the rising star's past" is revealed, boss of Bai's company dumps her and stops shaping her as a teenager idol. To fight for his beloved woman, Qiangge thinks up a trick. He invites Geng Tian to the courtyard, and they drink a lot of wine
Although most roles in the play are Beipiao, the crew believe the play is about "people," more than just Beipiao or Beijing natives.
"The play is not only about Beipiao's struggle to be assimilated into their second hometown, but also about the traditional Beijing natives, and the common spiritual predicament both groups are facing," said Wang Jian, the playwright.
Wang himself is a Shanghai native who has been living in Beijing for more than 20 years. Still serving in the army as a soldier-writer, Wang was never "floating" as the tenants do in the play, and has no experience of being a landlord or tenant. But years of observation and association with Beijing people and the Beipiao bestow him the confidence to write the story.
"Traditional Beijing people, as the protagonist Qiangge claims at the end of the play, do not work very hard but care desperately about their reputation," he said.
"But they are very kind people who tend to help others without hesitation when needed. Their superiority as residents in the capital metropolitan unavoidably clashes with the flood of people from outside Beijing, who work much harder and sometimes lead a better life."
Wang tells a story about the impact of newcomers on Beijing locals. One of his friends, a Beijing senior, had a lunch appointment with him but could not find the way to the restaurant. So he had to ask someone on the street. When the person told him exactly where the restaurant was, the Beijing local suddenly realized that the person was with a strong non-Beijing accent. Very puzzled and unhappy, he asked Wang: "Why should I, a Beijing native who has lived in the city for more than 50 years, ask some migrant the way?"
"This is the impact of migrants on old Beijing people. And many old Beijing people just cannot accept this, although it has been a fact that tens of thousands of migrants are now part of the city."
The play's second layer, according to Wang, is the Beipiao's eagerness to blend into the city and the hardships during the process. "Although I am not Beipiao, the struggle as a migrant in a new city, the anxiety to understand and be part of the city's culture are just the same," Wang said.
Some reports claim there are more than 300,000 Beipiao in Beijing's entertainment circle wanting to be famous. But very few of them will become stars.
The third layer of conflict, as Wang and Gu Wei director of the play agree on, is the spiritual crisis of both Beijing natives and Beipiao, and maybe of all the Chinese people today. "In some sense, everybody is 'floating'."
Yin Wei, a 20-year-experienced actor who plays Qiangge, also believes that the drama goes beyond just showing the hardships of Beipiao as most stories about similar subject did before.
"Beipiao is only a carrier, what the play captures, however, is the spirituality of all the people in a changing society."
(China Daily October 19, 2006)
