Integration And Contradiction

In the early1980s,Chinese contemporary drama was beset with serious crisis.Toresolve the crisis,playwrights and critics conducted various attempts.In their efforts,abatch of experimental plays were born and brought vitality to the theatrical circles.Thehigh-profile and controversial experimental plays written by Gao Xingjian were likepioneers in the exploration of new play types,followed by mixed judgments.But beyondall question,Gao Xingjian’s plays winned a place in the theatrical circles with theirunique charm and outstanding performance.The society was transforming fiercely and so is people’s psychology.GaoXingjian realized that the traditional drama was too partial and limited to satisfypeople’s psychological need.To reflect more complex and diverse real life and includeabundant thoughts,he must break the sole structure modes,centralized value perceptionmodes and the old-fashioned aesthetic experiences of traditional drama,and construct atype of modern drama with polynary aesthetic value.Therefore,he absorbed artistictheories and writing techniques from western drama masters,and also learned fromChinese traditional opera to build a “complete theater”,which contained singing,dialogue, acting and acrobatic combat and had the characteristics of actor-audienceinteraction,fiction and comprehensiveness.His Polyphonic Art Thought was particularlyeye-catching.The thought broke the simple monism value perception modes.It was apolynary way of thinking and did not provide a value judgment.There were variouskinds of philosophy and rational thinking in his drama.He experimented multifariouslinear narratives in his drama,and tries to build a multi-tone effect on language,acousticsand visible image,and attempted to make flexible spatial and temporal changes.Thisarticle is a study of the polyphonic art thought in Gao Xingjian’s experimentaltheater,and a interpretation on the contradiction between his polyphony theory andpractice,aims to provide another angle to analyze Gao Xingjian’s play.