"Cruelty" Aesthetics Tendency Of Chinese Drama

In the 30s of last century, the Frenchman Antonin Artaud came up with the famous theory of "the Theatre of Cruelty". This series of drama assumption was realized after he passed away and spread to the whole world and the influence of it started from the 60s of last century till today. In China, almost at the same time as Antonin Artaud, the young dramatist Cao Yu emphasized time after time that the purpose of dramas is to show the "cruelty" and "steeliness" in the universe when addressing his maiden work Thunderstorm. The "cruelty" the two famous dramatists mentioned was familiar in the similar pursue of aesthetics trend. Half a century later, in the Chinese contemporary theatre, this aesthetics pursue present itself in the art show of drama stage with the dramatic characteristics far different from the traditional ones. They showed the traits of extreme situations, cruel themes, strong sense stimulations and so on. The cause of it, in one aspect rooted from the influence of western modern philosophy. In another, it was closely related to the history and statue in quo of our country as well as the personal experiences of the dramatic workers who was involved in the production of the dramas. Meanwhile, these dramatic works gave great influence on the development of the drama of our country.