A Study Of Ding Xilin’s Dramatic Works In Comparative Perspective

Ding Xilin,a professor of physics who has created distinctive dramatic works that found favor in intellectual readers and audience in modern times,is a special case in China’s modern theater history.This study starts from an east-west variation in studies on Ding’s works.By collecting and sorting historical materials,comparing Chinese and English literature,doing close reading,the study will then review the historical connection between early huaju(spoken drama)and Ding’s drama,examine both domestic and western influence on his writing,and explore his writing motive and strategy,aesthetic claims,playwriting techniques,proposal for vernacular language,etc.,as to reveal that by innovating dramatic forms,Ding’s modern and artistic works established a new pattern for(early)huaju in China.The study is comprised of six sections:The Introduction introduces Ding Xilin,illustrates writing origin,literature review,theories and methods of this study,and propose the possible significance and innovation the study may achieve.Chapter One shows the reception of Ding’s plays in the Anglophone world.Since 1930s,they’ve been introduced,translated and performed in the English-speaking world.Essays and historical works speak highly of their unique and long-lasting intrinsic values due to the elegant language and a blending comic style of aestheticism and realism.There is a clear variation of domestic and oversea views on Ding’s works,which reflects a gap in aesthetic approaches and literary theories,and provides this study with enlightening ideas.Chapter Two examines Ding’s aesthetic proposition and drama strategy,and reconstruct how he was connected to early huaju.Comparing Chinese and western theater history,I find that early huaju’s turning to "amateur theater" follows a similar pattern with European theater’s transition from melodrama to realistic drama.It may be a result of both the spread of western leaning in China and the inevitability of theatrical development.Versed in both Chinese and western learning,Ding and his colleagues set their foot in the field of theater and claimed that the intrinsic value of theater lay in its aesthetic pleasure,so as to reorient the overemphasis on the didactic function of Chinese theater.They then came up with an exemplary strategy centered on intellectual audience and tried to explore new dramatic themes,forms and stage practice.Chapter Three surveys Ding’s transplanting and re-creating of western play writing skill and comic spirit.He combined the techniques used by western modern plays with domestic themes and materials.The connotative and situational features of drama were critical to his writing,while he preferred to leave blank for the audience to fill in.Thus,his writing prioritized dramatic forms rather than contents or utility.Also,by using the method of impersonation,he brought back the precious playfulness and pleasure to Chinese modern drama of blood and tears.His comedies delivered a moderate and eclectic spirit,which was different from comedy of mannersChapter Four highlights a hybrid form of language and style Ding created.He’s been devoted to experimenting with a form of eclectic language fusing traditional and vernacular Chinese with English grammar.In addition,his written language was an elegant palimpsest,giving extra literariness to the plays while recovering the value of rhetoric.Therefore,his plays refreshed the Chinese theater with a unique"Xilin style"language represented by his figurative debut A Wasp.The Conclusion finally proposes that by experimenting with a modern,exquisite and formalistic way of playwriting,and groping for a hybrid and literary vernacular written language,Ding’s plays provides Chinese early huaju with a new pattern.His dramatic works of great skillfulness,playfulness,equivocality and hybridity has essential artistic appeal and contributed immensely to the modernization of Chinese drama.