Late Civilized Drama: The Improvement And Evolution

After "Revival in Jiayin(1914)", Wenmingxi waned gradually and eventually became unable to recover. In 1920's,Wenmingxi could only find stages at recreational venues around Shanghai. After that, there is almost no traces and variations of Wenmingxi in the drama history. In fact, the performance of Wenmingxi lasted until 1960's before the Culture Revolution. Without the heavy burden as an illuminative art, the secular feature of Wenmingxi was shown thoroughly. It became an organism in the culture of lower classes. The declined Wenmingxi has experienced reforms for three times. At the first time, some dramatists initiated a movement which brought about modern spoken-drama. Meanwhile, the movement pushed Wenmingxi, which is profit-oriented, to opposite, which was totally commercial and civilian.The second time happened during "Isolated-Island Period" (1937-1941). The movement was a result of popularization of drama. Spoken-drama workers who stayed in Shanghai during the period joined in, trying to inject new ideas into Wenmingxi that had already lost vitality and helping Wenmingxi flourish again in that period. The third time happened after the Liberation in 1949. It was socialism transformation of dialect plays. This time, the Wenmingxi became almost the same with spoken-dramas in terms of contents and subjects. However, since Wenmingxi has special relationship with traditional Chinese arts, directors of spoken-drama liked to treat it an experimental plot of modern drama. The three reforms of Wenmingxi formed up a history, during which Wenmingxi was defined as popularized, civic and superficial. Every reform was a confrontation and mixing between it and summit cultures. The consequences of these reforms seemed to be defeated. However, this unique form of drama has been passed down in other forms.