George Bernard Shaw Play In China

George Bernard Shaw who is a well-known modern dramatist has been recognized as a thinker and social reformist by other masters in the west modern literary. As a dramatist, he has fulfilled 53 plays and other works in the career of more than 60 years. His works across a wide range of topics and are about many social problems, such as the violence in the capitalism society, the phenomena of prostitution, crime, slums, social unfair distribution, even colonial plunder and war. However, he is also one of the most controversial writers.George Bernard Shaw was introduced to China over 100 years ago. But because of political, social, and other factors, there have different characteristics of acceptance of George Bernard Shaw in different periods of history.This thesis firstly analyzes the process of the acceptance of George Bernard Shaw in the history of China, by a large number of historical materials. This process can be divided into three periods: the period of beginning, prosperousness and stagnation. And it illustrates different characteristics of the acceptance during each period. To be objective and fair, the first period is focused on analysis of the materials. In the second period, the research field of Shaw appears prosperous from the surface as ideological factors involved in. In the third period, being considered as temporary needs for the time, he and his works have been gradually ignored in the academic community for the misreading of his works.Then this study focuses on the analysis of hot topics during the process of accepting George Bernard Shaw in the Chinese cultural context. That is: Chinese readers expect different visions of analytical introduction of acceptance of George Bernard Shaw, Chinese academic community's works on George Bernard Shaw, the misreading of he and his works as well as the limitations in his works. This part concentrates on subjective and objective factors leading to the misunderstanding of George Bernard Shaw in China. Also this part is the centre of the thesis to carry out the present study. Shaw's works are based on British social background and explore the basic contradictions in Britain which is one of the capitalism countries and as a leader in the imperialism countries. His works are addressed to the west, but they are showed to the contemporary Chinese readers. The expected visions are different, since the environment in which the author and current readers is different with the readers pre-set. This difference causes the diversity in accepting situation.The artworks of Utilitarianism actually play a very positive role since they adapt to the needs of the times. But such an idea easily results in the overlooking of real artistic value of works. When ideology is watered down, it is demanded to restore the achievements of the artists themselves. Therefore, the serious misreading of Shaw is to ignore the achievements of his works which is the value of Shaw. This is also the aim in third part of my thesis.This thesis concludes that the process of accepting George Bernard Shaw in China is in different political, social and cultural context and the process has completely different characteristics. Through the study of the acceptance of Bernard Shaw in China's, it reflects the development of exchanges with foreign countries during the past 100 years. Also it shows China recipients' characteristics in different historical periods in terms of the cultural acceptance. The time Shaw being misread has past by, Chinese people read this writer who has been challenged a lot with the objective and peaceful attitude. As a cultural phenomenon, globalization of cultures becomes inevitable. we should analyze George Bernard Shaw with standards of art and open insights to re-interpretate George Bernard Shaw and his works, it can unveil long-lasting recognition as a "thinker" or "playwright in critical realism", in order to regard George Bernard Shaw as a "real artist". All in all, it needs to be further explored and recognized of Shaw's works, since his works are of current and practical significance, as well as of potential values.