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In a short span of fewer than 40 years, the ROC was faced with domestic turmoil and foreign aggression. How did a multitude of famous scholars and masterpieces arise from these circumstances? |
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See answer below. |
Left: a book of sonnets by British playwright and poet William Shakespeare. Shakespeare had an influence on plays and poems during the Republican period. Middle: Norwegian playwright Henrik Johan Ibsen had a significant influence on Republican-period dramas. Right: In 1924, Indian philosopher and poet Rabindranath Tagore visited China. Here he is pictured with Lin Huiyin (林徽因) and Xu Zhimo. Tagore’s poetry and thought were an inspiration to Chinese literature.
Many literary works in this period, especially novels and plays, have since been adapted into films and TV series. Left: a poster for the 1956 film The Family (《家》), a drama adaptation of Ba Jin’s novel of the same name. Right: a poster for the 1982 film adaptation of Lao She’s Rickshaw Boy.
Some writers’ lives were just as legendary as their works, providing rich materials for films and TV series. The 1988 film Cherry Blossoms (or When Tat Fu Was Young《郁達夫傳奇》), for example, depicted the life of Yu Dafu, who was played by Chow Yun-fat (周潤發). In 1999, the cross-strait work April Rhapsody (《人間四月天》) adapted the story of Xu Zhimo’s romantic life featuring Lin Huiyin, Liang Sicheng (梁思成), and Lu Xiaoman (陸小曼). It had a great reception across Chinese communities.
The impact of Republican-period literature on Chinese music scene cannot be ignored either. Some poems were set to music and became popular songs. For instance, in the 1970s, Taking Leave of Cambridge Again and Chance by Xu Zhimo were set to music, which were composed by Li Datao (李達濤) from Taiwan and Chelsia Chan Chau-ha (陳秋霞) from Hong Kong, respectively. In 1974, a Hong Kong TV station broadcast Zhang Henshui’s novel Fate in Tears and Laughter as a TV play and the theme song as its namesake. The song was composed by Joseph Koo Kar-fai (顧嘉煇) with lyrics by Yip Shiu-tak (葉紹德) and was sung by Sandra Lang (仙杜拉). It is regarded as groundbreaking work in the Hong Kong music world previously dominated by Western and Mandarin songs, helping revitalise Cantonese pop.
In the 1920s-30s, internal and external challenges caused economic depression and mass destitution in rural areas. Liang Shuming, Y. C. James Yen (晏陽初), Huang Yanpei (黃炎培), and other progressive figures actively explored ways to help and support rural areas. Their methods varied from the popularisation of agricultural technologies, to a focus on farmer education, or on local autonomy and the building of political power, or an emphasis on economy, politics, and morality in equal measures. They conducted experiments in some rural locations such as Zouping (鄒平) of Shandong Province (山東), Ding County (定縣) of Hebei Province (河北), and Wuxi (無錫) and Kunshan (崑山) of Jiangsu Province (江蘇). The most famous among these was the Zouping Experiment (鄒平實驗) led by Liang from 1931 to 1937 historically known as the “Rural Reconstruction Movement”. Another Republican-period educator, Tao Xingzhi (陶行知), spent many years promoting mass literacy and education according to the “Integration of Knowledge and Action”, a principle first put forward by Ming dynasty (明代) thinker Wang Yangming (王陽明).
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In a short span of fewer than 40 years, the ROC was faced with domestic turmoil and foreign aggression. How did a multitude of famous scholars and masterpieces arise from these circumstances? |
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As an old saying goes, “heroes emerge in troubled times”. Looking back at the long history of China, it is observed that when states were divided and at war during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, diplomats were the most active, reforms were the most widespread, and new ideas emerged in short succession, which culminated in the Hundred Schools of Thought. The ROC emerged amid the fall of autocratic monarchy and the rise of the Republic. Meanwhile, China was gripped by sharp social contradictions, infighting among warlords, internal disorder, and external aggression, all together providing rich sources of thought for literary creations and academic research. The volatile circumstances of the times pushed writers to reflect social issues and scholars to think deeply on China’s future path. Meanwhile, it was difficult for leaders to maintain control and enforce decrees amid the chaos, which gave space for much freer speech, thought, and presses. There was thus a myriad of publications and viewpoints beyond the limited official news. The New Culture Movement, for instance, brought both hardline campaigns for the displacement of Confucianism by Westernisation as well as campaigns for the continuation of Confucian ways under New Confucianism. In terms of literature, the ROC produced both serious works contemplating the fate of the country and its people as well as new style martial art novels like Legend of the Swordsmen of the Mountains of Shu. There were romantic fictions classified as Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School. One can say that the chaos in modern China ushered in another “Hundred Schools of Thought”. |
