Study Of The Female Director Of The Chinese Drama

Ever since the new era began, the rise of a generation of Chinese female drama directors has formed an ineglectable cultural phenomenon on the China theatre stage. Among them are, for example, Chen Rong, Zhang Qihong, Lin Yinyu, Chen Xinyi, Cao Qijing from Beijing, Su Leci, Lei Guohua from Shanghai, Zha Lifang from Sichuan Province, Wang Jiana from Guangdong Province, and also Tian Qinxin, a young director who is highly active in the recent two years. Despite of the various characters reflected in their artistic concept and style, these Chinese female drama directors that emerged in the new era, have been exploring new grounds and engaged in constant innovation. Gifted with the peculiar sensitiveness and enthusiasm as well as sharpness, they dedicated themselves to interpreting our history, reality and life.In this study we are mainly to discuss problems of the following several aspects. Firstly, taking ten successful works directed by the Chinese female drama directors for example, we will have a discussion on their undoubted contribution to and the subjective position in the history of Chinese drama art. Secondly, we attempt to introduce a deep conclusion and conduction about the overall importance of female-works in drama history and their social and cultural significance. In this way we expect to gain a better understanding of the drama history. Finally, we conduct a thorough analysis and interpretation on the representative works of each director in order to discover and summarize the aesthetical traits and significance of their works.Following is a study skeleton of 11 sections.1st Section,'Introduction to the Creation of Chinese Female Drama Directors'.In this section we analyze the three stages i.e. the time of realistic drama, new-era exploring drama and the social and cultural soil which fostered the emergence of Chinese female drama directors during the exploring process of modern concept and spirit, and their realistic and aesthetic importance. We also have a panorama of the'second climax of female drama creation'during the drama transition period ever since the new era starts, that is, the rising group of female drama directors. Showing distinct traits in their creation, they also display in their career a spirit of independence, freedom and arduous struggle. In their innovating and exploring career, they have brought a great promotion to the development of drama techniques and international communication of Chinese drama2nd Section,'Harbinger in the Art of Realistic Drama Performance'.This section puts attention on the realistic drama theory and practice of Sun Weishi, the first female director in New China. As an explorer and disseminator for the art of realistic drama performance, she participated in the construction of'The Two Grand Theatres', inherited and developed the tradition of realistic creation with other dramatists, and took an active part in the exploring marathon to'nationalize'dramas. All her efforts have played a critical role in the dissemination and enlighten of aesthetic concept in terms of both theory and practice. In her works, we discovered a general form of mentality constitution of Chinese intellectuals which has a profound attachment to her masterpieces. At the same time, through the analysis of her works we further understand the deep influence of time and politics on the artists'creation.3rd Section,'The Drama Flamen'.In this section we discuss Director Chen Yu's aesthetic taste and her artistic personality, according to the epic heroism and romantic revolutionary passion presented in her stage works. He highly evaluated the communist ideal and the aesthetic concept characterized by socialism and realism which directors insisted in their creations. She insisted on carrying forward the spirit of truth, goodness and beauty, strived to propagate perfect ideals and moral beliefs. She displays and refines the style of directors in 1950s and 1960s. Melting her soul to found art, she is indeed a'Drama Flamen', dedicating all her life and passion to the drama stage.4th Section,'Female Insight into History'.By analyzing several drama works, such as'Yu Wu Sheng Chu', 'Zha Long Tun','Xun Zhao Nan Zi Han', we could detect the female drama directors'acute insight into history. Afterwards we summarize their profound survey and speculation of the real world and the responsibility they have consciously assumed to develop the nation's culture. Thus we make an outline on female directors'independence position and their spiritual spine.5th Section,'Aesthetic Morphology: Feminine and Masculine'.In this part we undermine the aesthetic orientation that masculine characterized men while feminine women, by citing the bold style presented in plays directed by Chen Xinyi and Cao Qijing. Then we analyze the distinct aesthetic style found in their'Unrestrained School'and'Plaintive School'creations. In women's world there is naturally an imagination and expectation of their ideal male image and the perfect world; consequently noble gentlemen and heroes in majestic tragedy are often figured in plays by female dramatist. We praise her transcending over the limitation of traditional'harem atmosphere'and find the cultural and historicalal account for the flaming passion burning in her stage poems.6th Section,'Rebuild of Female Image'.In this part we briefly analyze the female image in literary works of all generations, unveil the tradition that women images are always smeared and treated as dolls, and also find the sympathy that male roles hold for women in tragic situations and its enlightening value for the shaping of female figures. We also discuss here the idea that the reconstruction of many female images indicates that female artists praise and call for ideal female figures with the spirit of independence and enlightening. The reshaping of female images in the creation of female artists obviously delivers the female directors'wish to rewrite the fate and character of female roles.7th Section,'Aesthetic, Romantic and Poetic Thinking'.We make an introduction to the common traits in female director's works, that is, poetic thinking, maternal care and universal love. Nearly every female director has the experience of making a kid play and they have a unique advantage in the field of kid play creation over their male colleagues, simply for they are women and mothers. They naturally embed their spirit of'maternal love'and education of'love'into their creation. In addition, they feel the world, care for people's destiny in their play and move the audience, with their power of love. One would smell a strong taste of mother's love in their plays.8th Section,'Modern Spirit and Stage Creation'.After the stage of new-era exploring drama, a modern spirit and worldwide consciousness began to take roots in their creation, for instances, the speculation and practice of'Absurd-School Play', the decomposition and reconstruction of classical topics, the return and revitalization of classical spirit in modern form, all of which reflect the directors'rationality value, wish to criticize and their conscious responsibility for the development of society, morality and culture.9th Section,'Establish Stage for Female Expression'.We pick some plays rendered with a strong sense of'feminist', to which we will give analysis and comments from the point of feminist, aiming at defining the starting-point from which directors use their point of'feminist'to create plays and sense the world and discovering the historical and cultural significance of plays with such characteristics.10th Section,'Merciful Consciousness and Humanistic Care'.In 1990s, Tian Qinxin and some other directors saw a booming of'Commercial Drama'and'Ode Play', while at the same time, they adopted a serious and sedate attitude in their own creations. Their works are neither meaningless ode nor merely cliché. We can feel a sense of deep sympathy consciousness and humanistic care, in which we see that the historic mission of cultural enlightening those intellectuals has committed themselves to since the'5.4 Campaign'has been carried on.11th Section,'Serious Proposition in a Business Society'.In a world crammed by ode and commercialized dramas, directors of 1990s hold the critical thinking and took their cultural responsibility, which at that time was quite valuable. Facing serious social propositions they were questioning, discovering and criticizing by means of drama creation and performance. They actively shouldered the burden of rebuilding our nation's system of belief and value.The epilogue summarize the contribution the group of Chinese female drama directors have made to the drama art history, the social and cultural importance of the group's rising and also their traits and historical limitation in creation, in order to reasonably anticipate the orientation of the group's participation in the course of Chinese drama history.This study has been on for five years so far since 2002, starting at the discussion of their aesthetic significance then switching to the criticizing of the works. We progressively and systematically focus on the female directors'idea, creation and the implicit aesthetic implication in their works. In this way we hope to fill the gap in the study of Chinese female directors and have a better knowledge on the important role that female directors have played in Chinese theatre culture.In front of us is still a broad space to be discovered in the study of Chinese female drama directors, though it is hard to complete and make it perfect in limited time with lots of question to be answered and many ideas to be revised. My individual power being limited, I hope this brand new point of view will in the future attract more scholars to contribute their sweats in the revise of the history of China drama art.