Five Chinese Communist Plays

Fülszöveg

FIVE CHINESE COMMUNIST
PLAYS
EDITED BYMARTIN EBON
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Since the autumn of 1972, when Presi-dent Nixon visited Communist China, much of the mystery and misunder-standing between our countries has been lifted. One of the first events in the cultural exchange was the television showing of The Red Detachment of Women which fascinated American audiences. Since then, curiosity about Chinese culture has increased tremen-dously.
In this timely volume, Martin Ebon has selected five of the best and most repre-sentative plays of the current Chinese theater. The White-Haired Girl is a peasant betrayed by a wealthy land-lord, who emerges as the symbol of courageous resistance. The Red Detachment of Women, perhaps the most famous play, combines features of tra-ditional Chinese drama and folk... Tovább

Fülszöveg

FIVE CHINESE COMMUNIST
PLAYS
EDITED BYMARTIN EBON
s< t t
t ¦¦ & ¦ t I l
m-Ir ' ;; ^ í
i. : ' J ,3 ; v .3
l-h - i
c. ¦ ViCW Ú^V. «íí
. . 4 i
! ! ? " ' 11 S "V
•: ^ r ! i:i ; r
* * [ «" Ü \ i i ( í :
. i


Cl; . i ; : \ > '
11 í
.'¦ "V tí i '
Since the autumn of 1972, when Presi-dent Nixon visited Communist China, much of the mystery and misunder-standing between our countries has been lifted. One of the first events in the cultural exchange was the television showing of The Red Detachment of Women which fascinated American audiences. Since then, curiosity about Chinese culture has increased tremen-dously.
In this timely volume, Martin Ebon has selected five of the best and most repre-sentative plays of the current Chinese theater. The White-Haired Girl is a peasant betrayed by a wealthy land-lord, who emerges as the symbol of courageous resistance. The Red Detachment of Women, perhaps the most famous play, combines features of tra-ditional Chinese drama and folk dance to create a new and significant ballet choreography. In Taking Tiger Moun-tain by Strategy a Red Army scout cleverly infiltrates bandit headquarters and signals the attack by the People's Liberation Army. The Red Lantern, the story of another hero of guerrilla war-fare, features the first use of the piano as major accompaniment, as an ex-ample of Mao's dictum to "make for-eign things serve China." And Azalea Mountain, first produced in Peking in the fali of 1973, alludes significantly to the disgrace of Lin Piao and the triumph of Chiang Ching in its story of a woman who transforms a band of peasants into a crack combat unit by the use of Party
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techniques, and then expöses the unit's deputy chief as a traitor.
Reprints of Chiang Ching's address to the Forum of Theatrical Workers Par-ticipating in the Festival of Peking Opera on Contemporary Themes of July 1964, and the text of the so-called "Shanghai Policy" show the political and cultural background in which the plays ap-peared. And Martin Ebon's authorita-tive introduction places them in the con-text of Chinese art and literature.
Through these plays, and the text ac-companying them, it is possible to gain new understanding and insight into Chinese culture, philosophy, and current history. They demonstrate the impor-tance of politics in Chinese thought, and entertainment in Chinese life.
Martin Ebon has written books on a wide variety of subjects. The last was a biography of Mao Tse-tung. Vissza