By Yuan Yuan
In 1906, some Chinese students who were studying in Japan
organized an acting troupe called the "Spring Willow Society (chun
liu she)." They staged the plays La traviata and Uncle
Tom's Cabin in Tokyo in 1907, which is regarded as the birth
of modern Chinese theater. Drama, as a friendly bridge, linked the
two countries a century ago.
2007 is also the 35th anniversary of the establishment of
diplomatic relations between China and Japan, and drama is again
serving as a way to strengthen cultural ties between the two
countries. This time, the stage is not only in Japan, but also in
China. Talents of the most daring theater practitioners from China
and Japan have been invited to embark on a venture that will open a
new era for Sino-Japanese drama.
Co-written and co-directed by Chinese director Li Liuyi and
Japanese director Oriza Hirata, the drama Lost Village
premiered at the Hong Kong Arts Festival in March to the acclaim of
audiences. The play offers a new and artistic exploration of the
relations between the two nations.
The story takes place in a small, remote village in China where
people make a living by selling fake antiques. When a historic site
is discovered during the construction of a Japanese factory, many
people from both countries are attracted to the village for
different purposes, and coincidentally meet in a local tea house.
Then come the stories, happy and sad, absurd and impressive.
San Ye, an antiques dealer, spends his whole life trying to make
money and achieve a high social status. Li Hua, the manager of the
tea house who was abandoned by her husband, looks forward to his
return and a peaceful life.
Wei Zi is eager to become a policeman, and his life's goal is to
maintain public order and be in a position of authority. The
amateur archeologist wants nothing material, and he fancies that
the artifacts might come from another part of the universe.
Meanwhile, Mr. and Mrs. Sakurada from Japan just want to find their
daughter here. The relics that are buried underground not only
represent a piece of history but also shoulder everyone's
hopes.
"The drama has no detailed plot, it just tells fantasies,"
Director Li said. "It describes different people's opinions of
history, and calls for peace in the global village. Each of the 13
characters, by their own story, expresses the notion that everybody
has a dream."
Li is regarded as one of the representatives of the new
generation of theater directors of China. He has explored a new way
of presenting drama based on traditional theater ideas. One of his
representative plays, Crazy Mahjong was performed in Japan in 2001
and again in 2003. He also boldly mixes Peking Opera with dramas in
such plays as Hua Mulan and Mu Guiying.
Li said that he and Mr. Hirata have been friends for many years.
"His dramas focus more on the superposition of life conditions,
while I pay more attention to spiritual superposition. But in
essence, our ideas have many things in common," he said.
Director Hirata has won many prizes internationally for his
works. He developed "contemporary colloquial theater theory," which
has had a strong influence on Japanese theater. "Drama is an import
from the West for both China and Japan. What we should do is to
make it closer to our own lives. I appreciate Li's abstract style
in making dramas; that is quite new and creative," he said.
?
A major concern
History is one of Hirata's major concerns in creating dramas.
"We shouldn't forget history, nor do we limit ourselves in history.
Thinking about how to deal with history is one of our
responsibilities in modern society," he said. "Every time we talk
about the history of China and Japan, the topics are always
concentrated on wars and invasions. However, as artists, we should
take another perspective on this question."
Talking about the cooperation with Chinese actors, Hirata said
the interesting difference between the actors of the two countries
is that Japanese actors are inclined to rehearse a play starting
with segments and moving on to the whole work, while Chinese do
just the opposite. "The Japanese actors start rehearsals section by
section according to the script one hour earlier than the Chinese
every day, and then both sides rehearse the whole drama. After
that, the Chinese actors stay to discuss the details further,"
Hirata said.
Li added that Japanese actors work very hard step by step to
make every detail perfect, and bycomparison, Chinese actors show
another kind of style: they are serious about the art but they show
this attitude in a relaxed way."
The 13 actors in this drama, eight from China and five from
Japan, speak their native languages on stage. However, speaking
different languages does not present a problem since they can
communicate with each other through body language. Hirata said the
five Japanese actors practice Chinese very hard every day and one
of them can speak quite a few Chinese words.
"The tone of Japanese is very smooth, not as cadenced as
Chinese. The function of language in drama is just like music. Our
two different languages will play a symphony on the stage," said
Lin Xiyue, a Chinese actor who plays the role of Piao Ge.
As an unprecedented collaborative theater project among the the
Hong Kong Arts Festival, the National Theater Company of China and
the New National Theater in Tokyo, the play has finished its show
at the China National Children's Art Theater in Beijing and will be
performed at the New National Theater in Tokyo in May.
"The Hong Kong Arts Festival can become the best platform for
artists from both China and Japan," Li said, "One of the purposes
of this festival is to strengthen cultural communication among
people from different backgrounds and lay a cultural foundation for
the next generation, and Lost Village fulfills this
purpose," he said.
"I hope that this drama can reflect the real conditions of how
the people of both countries react to history," said Hirata.
(Beijing Review April 10, 2007)
