The Convergence And Divergence Between Politicalization And Secularization:A Study On Shanghai Theater Art Society

Shanghai Theater Art Society(hereafter STAS)is the drama group which had the longest existence,the largest number and the highest level of performances and the greatest social influence during the Shanghai Island period.It is also the backbone force of the theater movement in post-war Shanghai.Through its performances with salient political ideology,strong civil color,high level artistic entity,it promoted the thriving of theater movement in Shanghai during war and post war,and become a flag in the Shanghai theater movement,and had a special status in the history of modern Chinese theater.This paper is a monographic study on STAS.Introduction reviews the history of STAS,analyzes its status in theater history and generalizes the fundamental conflict between politicalization and secularization.Politicalization is shown in the transmission of political notions,embodiment of political appeals,and expression of political color of the theater itself;secularization is shown in the civilization of thoughts,secularization of subject matters,and popularization of style while closely related to the socialization of management and marketization of operation.The fundamental conflict is determined by the inherent features of Chinese drama,and related to the background of the organization of the theater itself,and directly connected to the special situation of Shanghai Island.It greatly affects the organizational form and artistic appearance of STAS.Chapter 1 is about the organization of STAS.STAS hoped to become a professional,independent,marketized artistic community,and had established relatively complete organization,and adopted scientific management and flexible operation strategies.These show a certain degree of professionalization and social appeals which are the organizational premise of the secularization of its orientation.STAS is a group directly led by the underground communist party.The civil positions and progressive political orientation represented by communist party promotes the development of the theater movement on the one hand,and hinders the process of its professionalization with its inevitable leftist style and party atmosphere on the other.In order to get a "legal" status,STAS had to depend on the authority of French Concession,which harmed its autonomy.In the mean time,it was inevitably contaminated by the vulgar styles because of its marketized strategy of "raising theater with theater" which twisted its secularization.The drama people always explored painstakingly between politics,art and commerce with a delicate and complicated mentality.Chapter 2 analyzes the performance program of STAS.The conflict between politicalization and secularization is shown in the combat between political concepts and civil ideology in its program.The two has a complicated relationship,with both periodical convergence and inherent divergence.The concept of nation and the civil ideology shown a convergence trend in the special situation of Shanghai Island,and after war when the theater returned to normal,the strain between the two became salient again.Political concepts can win the strong resonance of audience,and harm the artistic value of the program;civil ideology is both necessary to sway the audience and connected with the Kitsch trend in art.These deviated STAS from the track of individualistic and ordinary "people's drama" which set up since the May Fourth Movement,and prevented it from making great achievements in program construction.Costume drama of STAS had successful box office but lacked works of supreme quality.The strong political ideology and unbalanced imagination between past and present make it win audience temporarily but lost classic art.The majority of its programs is translated or adapted,but the malposition between Chinese and western prevented it from making real classic stage work.Its reality shows form the basic style of "combination of poem and secular world",and represented best the artistic spirit of STAS.The convergence or unbalance between "poem" and "secular world5" always influenced the achievement and artistic value of the program.Chapter 3 concerns the stage art of STAS.STAS made admirable achievement in the situation of short writing experience and limited materials.It takes the lead in the pursuit of artistic entity,its experiment in diversity in directing style,practice of centripetal acting and exploration of rigor and creativity in stage art.However,STAS is in the transition period.Its many limits from itself and the time confined its development.Its stage art is in the dynamic process of "on the way".It is full of vigor and historical defects.The achievement and defects of STAS all belonged to its time.One of its lessons is the influence on stage art entity from political ideology and secular style.Conclusion discusses the historical experiences and implications of STAS.The political quality of Chinese drama is inborn,but it is not necessary to drama art;secularization is the quality drama should have,but it should be limited to a certain degree.The necessary choice of Chinese drama development is:confronting and negotiating with politics while avoid politicalization on the one hand,and connect with secular world while keeping away from Kitsch on the other.