The Argument Of "Drama Innovation" In New Youth And Its Value Assessment

As an important part of the New Culture Movement,the proposal of Drama Innovation Theory in"New Youth"magazine as well as the theory-related argument are of great significance, since it promoted the modernization of Chinese drama and influenced the trend of Chinese literature.The slogan of"drama innovation"originated in the late Qing Dynasty, which reached a climax in the time of the New Culture Movement. New Youth was regarded as the field of argument between the new drama and old drama school, in which it's historically inevitable that the idea of"drama innovation"came into existence. It was the case that"drama innovation"chose New Youth and vice versa. The emergence of"drama innovation"was closely related to the purpose of the"New Youth"magazine. The new drama school even held different kinds of attitude in this argument, in which there were the moderates represented by Hu Shi and the radicals represented by Fu Sinian as well as the in-betweens represented by Ouyang Yuqian. All of those directed their real attack at Zhang Houzai who is the supporter of the old drama. As a whole, it's unfair of this argument both in terms of power and status. It was the advocates of the new drama who started the argument and they meant to make Zhang Houzai suffer from his own scheme by asking him to be involved in that. Anyway, the results of this argument are of no importance and the far-reaching significance towards Chinese literature instead counts for much more. In addition, the argument is regarded as the concrete practice of the advocated New Culture Movement. Specifically, the introduction of Ibsenism to China based on the"drama innovation"had a huge impact on Chinese drama as well as the trend of Chinese literature. Moreover, the theory of"drama innovation"made great contribution to the criticism of the out-dated national character and led to advocate the concept of Western tragedy. Therefore, the Drama Innovation Theory and its corresponding argument earn an important place in the history of literature, which deserves our objective and impartial assessment.