3. To my friends in Norway, the United States and China
and
In memory of Hao Zhenyi, teacher and friend
4. Acknowledgements
From August 1997 to May 2002, I studied and worked at the Center
for Ibsen Studies, University of Oslo, Norway. I wish to thank the
staff of the Center for Ibsen Studies for their help and friendship. I
am very grateful to Professor Astrid Sæther, director of the Ibsen
Center, who made every effort to help me in my research and in
my life. I owe a special debt of gratitude to my advisor, Professor
Asbjørn Aarseth, whose advice, patience and insight were
invaluable. I am indebted to Professor Vigdis Ystad, who read the
entire manuscript of my PhD dissertation and provided me with
constructive suggestions, and to Professor Knut Brynhildsvoll for
his help and enthusiasm in my research. I am also indebted to
Professor Sandra Saari, who spent a great deal of her precious time
in discussing with me my manuscript. We met thrice, in Oslo,
Rochester (New York) and Nanjing, between 2001 and 2002. My
book would never be as it is now without her help.
I would like to extend a special thanks to Professor Wang Ning for
his insightful comments on my manuscript. I want to thank Prof.
Kristian Smidt and Ms Randi Meyer for reading my manuscript
and giving me their advice. I am grateful to the late Professor Hao
Zhenyi and Professor Fan Zhenguo for their guidance and
encouragement. Professor Hao Zhenyi first aroused my interest in
Ibsen studies. The initial research project was discussed with him. I
also want to thank Prof. Dong Jian and Prof. Tian Benxiang for
their advice on my research on Tian Han and Cao Yu. Miss Zhu
Hui assisted me in typing a part of my manuscript.
Parts of my book have been published in various international
academic journals: ‘Chinese Translations of Henrik Ibsen’,
Perspectives: Studies of Translatology (9:3, 2001); ‘Hedda and Bailu:
Portraits of Two Bored Women’, Comparative Drama (35, 2002);
‘Ibsen and Chinese “Problem Play”’, Ibsen Studies (3:2, 2003). I am
greatly obliged to the courtesy of the editors of the above-
mentioned journals for permission to reprint this material.
5. I am grateful to the Norwegian Fritt Ord Foundation and the
Chinese Embassy in Norway for funding the publication of this
book. I want to thank Ms. Nina Moe at the Unipub Press
(University of Oslo) for her help and encouragement. Finally, I
want to thank my wife Kan Jie, Jingjing and Weiwei for their love
and support.
Chengzhou He
Nanjing University
6. 6
Note on translations
English-language Ibsen quotations are generally drawn from The
Oxford Ibsen, ed. James W. McFarlane. Original Ibsen quotations
are drawn from Samlede Verker (Hundreårsutgaven), ed. Francis
Bull, Halvdan Koht and Didrik Arup Seip. In either case, I use
parenthetical citation. Small and large roman numerals are used to
indicate the volumes in The Oxford Ibsen and Samlede Verker
respectively, e.g. (v, 50) – from page 50 of volume five of The Oxford
Ibsen, and (V, 12) – from page 12 of volume five of Samlede Verker.
As to the Chinese translations of Ibsen, I refer exclusively to
Yibusheng Wenji (The Collected Works of Ibsen), Renmin Wenxue
Chuban She (People’s Literature Press), Beijing, 1995.
Quotations from Chinese plays and secondary works in Chinese
are my own translations, unless otherwise indicated. In case of Cao
Yu’s three plays Leiyu (Thunderstorm), Richu (Sunrise) and Beijing
Ren (Peking Man), the available English translations either are
based on other Chinese editions of his works or use the old style of
transliteration. I use the Chinese edition Cao Yu Xiju Xuan (Selected
Plays of Cao Yu), Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1997. In
translating from this edition, I have benefited from the following
translations:
Wang Tso-liang & A. C. Barnes (trans.) 1964, Thunderstorm,
Foreign Languages Press, Peking;
A.C. Barnes (trans.) 1978, Sunrise, Foreign Languages Press,
Peking;
Leslie Nai-Kwai Lo (trans.) 1986, Peking Man, Columbia
University Press, New York.
7. 7
Contents
Contents....................................................................... 7
Introduction..................................................................9
Part I........................................................................... 19
Chinese Ibsenism: A Century Review.................................... 19
Chapter One............................................................ 24
Chinese ‘Noraism’: How Far Can Nora Go?............................24
Chapter Two............................................................ 34
China’s Ibsen: Realist, Romantic or Symbolist?..................... 34
Chapter Three..........................................................52
Chinese Ibsenism and Foreign Influences............................. 52
Chapter Four............................................................71
Chinese Translations of Ibsen.............................................. 71
Chapter Five............................................................ 92
Chinese Performances of Ibsen.............................................92
Part II........................................................................ 106
Ibsen and the Rise of Modern Chinese drama..................... 106
Chapter Six............................................................109
Ibsen and the Theatre of Modern Realism...........................109
Chapter Seven........................................................131
Ibsen and Chinese ‘Problem Play’....................................... 131
Chapter Eight.........................................................149
Tian Han: ‘A Budding Ibsen in China’..................................149
Part III....................................................................... 165
Ibsen and Cao Yu............................................................... 165
8. 8
Chapter Nine......................................................... 169
Ghosts and Thunderstorm: A Reconsideration....................169
Chapter Ten...........................................................197
Hedda and Bailu: Portraits of Two ‘Bored’ Women.............. 197
Chapter Eleven.......................................................229
Ibsen, Cao Yu and theChinese Tradition of Poetic Imagery. 229
Chapter Twelve......................................................247
The Thematic Imagery in Peking Man................................. 247
Epilogue....................................................................259
Ibsen’s Relevance to Contemporary Chinese Drama........... 259
Appendix I................................................................ 264
A List of Chinese Translations and Adaptations of Ibsen.... 264
Appendix II............................................................... 268
A List of Chinese Performances of Ibsen.............................268
Bibliography..............................................................271
A. Chinese Sources.............................................................271
Index........................................................................ 288
9. 9
Introduction
Compared to the traditional Chinese theatre, modern Chinese
drama has a considerably shorter history.1
During the so-called
‘First Westernization’ at the beginning of the 20th
century, modern
drama was introduced from Europe for the primary purpose of
spreading new ideas. Supported by progressive intellectuals,
modern Chinese drama challenged the sole dominance of the
traditional Chinese theatre, which operatic in form and formulaic in
acting primarily served to entertain its audience. One major,
distinctive feature of modern drama is its spoken, everyday language;
whereas in the traditional Chinese theatre ‘singing’ plays a leading
role. It was due to the awareness of this sharp contrast that modern
Chinese drama was called ‘huaju’ 话剧 (spoken drama).
At first, western plays of various periods and schools were translated
into Chinese and put on stage, ranging from Shakespeare’s Hamlet
(1600/1), Oscar Wilde’s Salome (1893) to Maeterlinck’s L’Oiseau bleu
(The Blue Bird, 1908). But the proponents of spoken drama soon
realized that realistic drama was extremely useful in promoting social
reform. Among the well-known realistic playwrights, Ibsen won the
greatest favour, as no other western playwright was as vigorously
discussed, translated and staged as he was.
Significantly, Lu Xun 鲁迅 (1881-1936), commonly considered the
greatest fiction writer in 20th century’s Chinese literature, was
among the pioneers in introducing Ibsen into China. In two of his
articles2
published in Henan 河南 (Nos. 2, 3 and 7) in 1907 in Japan,
1 It is generally agreed that the year 1907 marks the beginning of modern Chinese
drama. On June 1, 1907 some overseas Chinese students, who organized
themselves into a drama troupe Chunliu She 春柳社 (Spring Willow Society),
staged an adapted version of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin,
in Tokyo.
2 The two articles are ‘Wenhua pian zhi lun’ 文化偏知论 (On Extremities of
Culture) and ‘Moluo shi li shuo’ 摩罗诗力说 (On the Power of Mara Poetry), in Lu
Xun Quanji 鲁迅全集, Renmin Wenxue Chuban She (People’s Literature Press),
10. Henrik Ibsen and Modern Chinese Drama
10
Lu Xun praised Ibsen for the attacks he made in his plays on old
traditions and morals. Xin Qingnian 新 青 年 (New Youth), a
representative journal for the ‘New Culture Movement’, put out a
special issue on Ibsen in 1918, in which Ibsen was extolled as the
‘Number One Man of Letters in Europe’. The same issue published
an important essay entitled ‘Yibusheng zhuyi’ 易卜生主义 (Ibsenism)
by Hu Shi 胡 适 (1891-1962), another leading figure among
progressive Chinese intellectuals. Hu Shi’s ‘Ibsenism’, which in
essence advocates individualism, had a tremendous impact on the
Chinese reception of Ibsen in the following decades.
Since the 1930s, China’s Ibsen has met with the challenge of
socialism and Marxism. Some drama critics, such as Yuan
Zhenying 袁 振 英 and Lin Xiaochu 林 晓 初 , defended Ibsen by
suggesting that although Ibsen did not speak in favour of socialism,
socialist ideas were detectable in the dialogues of his plays (Yuan
1930, p. 36 & Lin 1932, p. 13). But even if Ibsen can be called a ‘half-
baked socialist’, he cannot in any way be associated with Marxism.
According to the Marxist class-conflict theory, Ibsen is a bourgeois
by birth. In fact, Ibsen’s voluntary return to Norway in 1891 after
27 years of exile was regarded as his compromise with the
Norwegian bourgeois class. ‘Unfortunately’, says Lu Xun, ‘Ibsen
stuck out his hand of compromise, so he tasted “the sadness of a
victor” ’(Lu 1973, vol. 2, p. 525).
Understandably, the Marxist interpretation of Ibsen began to gain
more ground after the founding of new China in 1949. But Ibsen
maintained his reputation in China as a world figure of literature.
Along with other Western literary figures, Ibsen served the needs
of propaganda in the socialist cause by attacking the bourgeois
society. In 1956, a commemoration was held in Beijing to mark the
50th
anniversary of Ibsen’s death. In his speech at the conference,
Tian Han 田汉 gave a ‘standard’ Marxist interpretation of Ibsen.
On the one hand, he tried to associate Ibsen with the socialist cause
by forcing Marxist ideology into his interpretation of Ibsen’s
1973, vol. 1, pp. 38-54 & pp. 55-102.
11. Introduction
11
dramas. Take his interpretation of Dr. Stockmann for example.
Many Chinese were familiar with this well-known sentence of Dr.
Stockmann – ‘The most powerful man is one who stands most
alone’. ‘That man’, Tian Han explained, ‘is obviously referring to
someone who refuses to compromise with the bourgeoisie.
Certainly, without the help of the poor, he would not be able to
muster very much strength.’3
On the other hand, Tian Han was
critical of Ibsen for being unable to stand on the side of the
proletarians. ‘It was for this reason that Ibsen sometimes showed
signs of vacillation or doubt, and even certain tendencies towards
symbolism and mysticism’ (p. 12), concluded Tian Han.
By the end of the 1970s, China experienced another social change
politically, economically and culturally. Regarded as ‘the Second
Westernization’, the new era was marked by its openness to
different schools of western thoughts and arts. As far as the
reception of Ibsen was concerned, there was a diversity of
interpretations of his dramas, although the orthodox Marxist view
of Ibsen did not give way until the mid-1980s. One important event
was the publication of the Chinese translation of Peer Gynt (Xiao
Qian 萧 乾 , 1981) and the subsequent staging of the play (Xu
Xiaozhong 徐晓钟 as director, 1983), which brought about heated
discussions. Never before had Chinese scholars been more aware of
the inadequacy of their interpretations of Ibsen. ‘The time has come
for Ibsen to go beyond himself’ (Lu 1984, p. 35). The interest in Ibsen,
particularly in his later writings, grew among Chinese critics.
No foreign author contributed as much to the rise of modern
Chinese drama as Ibsen did. At a time when intellectuals regarded
literature as a means to educate people and improve society, it was
not strange that Ibsen’s realistic plays were admired and treated as
models. Among Ibsen’s modern plays, A Doll’s House was the most
influential in China in the 1920s and 30s. The first modern play in
Chinese vernacular, Zhongshen Dashi 终身大事 (The Greatest Event
in Life) by Hu Shi, was written in imitation of A Doll’s House. It was
3 The program for the commemorative conference on George Bernard Shaw and
Henrik Ibsen, Peking, 1956, p. 11.
12. Henrik Ibsen and Modern Chinese Drama
12
followed by a number of other modern plays that end with women
leaving home in pursuit of independent personality and personal
liberation. These plays were grouped as ‘Nora Plays’, in which Nora
was the model for the Chinese female protagonists.
Tian Han, one of the pioneers of modern Chinese drama, was an
Ibsen follower. Calling himself ‘a budding Ibsen’ in China, he
made use of both the themes and the techniques in Ibsen’s plays.
Huo Hu Zhi Ye 获虎之夜 (The Night When the Tiger was Caught,
1922), touches on the problem of arranged marriages in the Chinese
countryside. In Ming You Zhi Si 名优之死 (The Death of a Famous
Actor, 1927), Tian Han is concerned with the fate of artists in China.
Apart from these two realistic pieces, Tian Han also wrote a
romantic play, Nangui 南归 (Return to the South), which is believed
to have been modelled on Ibsen’s play The Lady from the Sea.
Similarities and parallels are found not only in the pattern of
characterization, but also in the structure and mood of the play.
Cao Yu, a renowned Chinese playwright, had read all of Ibsen
before the beginning of his dramatic career. His virgin play Leiyu
雷雨 (Thunderstorm, 1934), which is generally regarded as the first
masterpiece of modern Chinese drama, is an Ibsenian play. There is
so much in the play that can be traced in Ghosts: the incestuous
relationship between half-brother and half-sister, the entanglement
between the two families with not only the obvious employment
relationship but also the hidden blood ties, the image of ‘ghosts’,
the method of ‘retrospective exposition’ and so on. The relationship
between Richu 日出 (Sunrise, 1936) and Hedda Gabler, which critics
have failed to see, is no less significant. Even in his so-called
Chekhovian play Beijing Ren 北京 人 (Peking Man, 1940), Ibsen’s
influence remains profound, not on the superficial level of plot but
in the deeper structure of poetic imagery.
The reception and influence of Ibsen in China has attracted critical
attention both in China and abroad. In the 1980s, two doctoral
dissertations in English dealt with this subject: Ibsen in China:
reception and influence by Tam Kwok-kan, from the University of
Illinois in 1984, and China’s Ibsen: from Ibsen to Ibsenism, by
Elisabeth Eide, from the University of Oslo in 1987. The former
13. Introduction
13
aims at a panoramic view of the cultural, literary and social impact
of Henrik Ibsen in China up to the early 1980s. Tam’s treatment of
Ibsen’s relationship to modern Chinese drama is limited. His study
of Ibsen and Cao Yu, for example, does not go far beyond the
superficial similarities in plot and characterization between Ghosts
and Thunderstorm that had been generally established by critics.
Eide’s dissertation, however, is narrower in its scope. According to
her own description, it ‘traces the reception of Ibsen’s works into
China in the period from 1917 to 1935, demonstrating how the
diverse backgrounds, schooling and attitudes of the transmitters
transformed Ibsen into a European thinker, liberal reformer, or
sinicized iconoclast’ (Eide 1987a, p. 11). Eide focuses on the early
reception of Ibsen in China, especially the role Hu Shi plays in it. In
1997, a Chinese doctoral dissertation entitled ‘“Yibusheng Zhuyi” ji
qi dui Zhongguo Huaju de Yingxiang’ (‘Ibsenism’ and its influence on
modern Chinese drama) was defended at the Central Theatre
Academy in Beijing. This research project is again mainly a critical
review of the early Chinese reception of Ibsen. A large part of the
dissertation is comprised of reflections on the two well-known
interpretations of Ibsenism by Hu Shi and Bernard Shaw. There is
little parallel study in that dissertation about the relationship
between Ibsen and modern Chinese dramatists.
The previous research focused on how Ibsen was interpreted in
China. However, his influence on modern Chinese drama, which is
essential to understanding his reception in China, has not attracted
sufficient attention. Therefore, the present study is mainly devoted
to investigating and analysing the similarities and parallels
between Ibsen’s plays and modern Chinese plays on the basis of
close textual analysis. The profound affinities in dramatic art
between Ibsen and modern Chinese drama are not only attributed
to influence but also related to intertextuality.
The term ‘influence’ used in literary studies can be traced back to
the mid-eighteenth century. Harold Bloom (1973) comments: “In
English it is not one of Dryden’s critical terms, and is never used in
our sense by Pope…. For Coleridge, two generations later, the
word has substantially our meaning in the context of literature” (p.
27). In Bloom’s view, influence is the story of inheritance between
14. Henrik Ibsen and Modern Chinese Drama
14
fathers and sons. Given that influence means power, authors rarely
admit being influenced, but rather claim their influence over others.
Walter Jackson Bate (1970) discusses the writer’s habit of gazing
beyond immediate predecessors to find in a still-earlier period a
source of authority remote enough to be more manageable in the
quest for your identity’ (p. 22). Influence study began to be
seriously challenged in the 1950s. In his essay ‘The problems of
Influence in Literary History,’ Ihab Hassan (1955) criticized treating
the feelings, ideas, and values of an author as if directly manifested
in the literary work. According to Julia Kristiva, authors do not
create their texts from their original minds, but rather compile
them from pre-existent texts (Allen 2000, p. 36).
The term intertextuality dates from Julia Kristeva’s book Desire in
Language – A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art (1969). One of
her definitions of intertextuality can be defined as ‘any text [that is]
constructed as a mosaic of quotations; any text [that] is the
absorption and a reply to another text’ (Kristeva 1980, p. 66).
Instead of the linear, single-sourced and uni-directional
relationships in influence, intertextuality emphasizes the
interaction of polymorphous ‘sources’. Later theorists of
intertextuality stress the role of the reader. Roland Barthes (1977)
regards the reader as the organizing centre of interpretation: ‘The
reader is the space on which all the quotations that make up a
writing are inscribed without any of them being lost; a text’s unity
lies not in its origin but in its destination’ (p. 148). This notion of
the reader distances intertextuality from most theories of influence
that remain committed to author-centred criticism.
Over the last two decades, the concepts of influence and
intertextuality have been sources of conflict among critics: Some
see intertextuality as the enlargement of influence; others prefer to
use intertextuality as a replacement of the out-dated notion of
influence. Personally, I like to use the term ‘intertextuality’ in a
context of enlargement. I believe that influence and intertextuality
can be brought together in research practice. ‘The shape of
intertextuality depends on the shape of influence’ (Clayton &
Rothstein 1991, p.3). Between Ibsen and modern Chinese drama,
influence and intertextuality swim together. Integrating the theories of
15. Introduction
15
influence and intertextuality, this study not only provides some
needed scholarly analysis for those western scholars who are
interested in Ibsen’s influence in China and for those Chinese scholars
who are interested in one of the most important sources of modern
Chinese drama. It also attempts to throw light on some essential
aesthetic and didactic values common to Western and Chinese
dramas. Specifically, this is what I propose to do in this research:
1. A century review of Ibsen in China. Instead of
describing the different interpretations of Ibsen and his
plays in a chronological way, I divide the Chinese
reception of Ibsen in the 20th century into three major
periods and analyse what contributes to the shift of focus
on different aspects of Ibsen in the light of reception
criticism. According to Hans Robert Jauss, it is mainly the
‘horizon of expectation’ of the readers in the recipient
culture that determines the reception of a foreign writer.
In the reader-response criticism, literary meaning is not
the result of a reader responding to an author’s cues, but
is an institutional matter, a function of conventions that
are publicly agreed upon (Tompkins 1988, p. xviii). Thus
we need to analyse the Chinese reception of Ibsen from
historical, cultural and literary perspectives. In addition,
studies of both Chinese translations and performances of
Ibsen are conducted to shed light on the process of
reception. The establishment of a strong factual base of
Ibsen’s reception in China enables a detailed textual
analysis in the following chapters.
2. Ibsen and the rise of modern Chinese drama. Chinese
‘Problem Play’, which was the outstanding type of
modern Chinese drama in the 1920s, was mainly
modelled on Ibsen’s social problem plays, particularly A
Doll’s House and An Enemy of the People. The aspects of
Ibsen’s dramatic art that modern Chinese dramatists were
interested in include: the thematic issues, the realistic
form, the technique of ‘retrospective exposition’ and so
16. Henrik Ibsen and Modern Chinese Drama
16
on. Although most of the Chinese problem plays are
immature in terms of dramatic art, they played a
significant role in spreading new ideas and in paving the
way for the future development of modern Chinese
drama. A number of problem plays, including the first
modern Chinese play, The Greatest Event in Life, are chosen
for detailed analysis to be followed by critical reflections on
the artistic weakness of Chinese ‘Problem Play’.
3. Ibsen and Tian Han. Unlike other Chinese writers of
social problem plays, Tian Han does not let his characters
talk about social issues, but has them hidden in the
dramatic situation and images. In The Death of a Famous
Actor, Tian Han is most faithful to the Ibsenian style of
realistic writing by creating ‘an illusion of reality’ on
stage. The psychological chain of events in the plot and
the symbolical use of verbal and visual imagery
contribute to the success of this play as one of the most
important realistic plays before Cao Yu’s Thunderstorm.
Return to the South has much in common with The Lady
from the Sea, such as the triangular relationship between a
woman and two men and the longing of the female
protagonist for the unknown.
4. Ibsen and Cao Yu. That Cao Yu was indebted to Ibsen
has been widely acknowledged. The question is: to what
extent was he influenced by Ibsen? Thunderstorm, as
indicated above, is an Ibsenian play. Its indebtedness to
Ghosts has been discussed, but not in sufficient depth.
Giving some attention to the ‘incest’ plot and the method
of ‘retrospective exposition’, my study goes on to develop
further parallels between Thunderstorm and Ghosts, such
as the structure of the relationships among characters and
the use of weather as a prevalent image. Despite the fact
that Sunrise and Hedda Gabler have so much in common,
no critical attention has been given to these similarities
and parallels. Not only do the female protagonists
resemble each other in their boredom with life, but also
they use similar symbolic expressions. From an artistic
17. Introduction
17
point of view, Cao Yu’s realistic drama is charged with
poetry in a manner similar to Ibsen’s realistic drama.
Symbolism is hidden behind an intact realistic surface. In
both Ibsen and Cao Yu, the use of leading images is
essential to the poetic realism. The concept of image is
deeply rooted in the Chinese poetic tradition, but Cao
Yu’s use of imagery is shown to be as much indebted to
the modern use of imagery typical of Ibsen as to the
Chinese poetic tradition. In Peking Man, the use of
thematic imagery is reminiscent of Ibsen, as in The Wild
Duck and The Master Builder. In a word, Cao Yu resembles
Ibsen in composing dramatic poetry in modern realistic
plays. Both are in essence dramatic poets.
In the epilogue, I do not intend to give a summary but to include a
sketch of Ibsen’s relevance to contemporary Chinese spoken drama.
With the establishment of realistic drama in China, Ibsen was
integrated into the Chinese dramatic tradition. At the end of the
1970s, social problem plays rebounded briefly. Bai Fengxi’s Women
Trilogy was an example. In the last two decades, modernistic drama
won favour and modernistic elements were vigorously employed
in playwriting and theatre production. But realism was still
respected, and indeed regarded by many as the main trend. Should
realism continue to have its hold on contemporary Chinese drama,
it is unlikely that Ibsen will be entirely forgotten. However, he will
never again play such a dominant role as he had.
In sum, if the Chinese ‘Problem Play’ marked the seeding of Ibsen
in China and Tian Han ‘the budding Ibsen’, the full blossoming of
Ibsen in China as well as modern Chinese drama occurred when Cao
Yu made his way onto the Chinese stage with his Thunderstorm,
Sunrise and Peking Man. Ibsen was essential to the realistic tradition of
modern Chinese drama, known as the ‘Ibsenian realism’.
18. 18
Part I
Chinese Ibsenism: A Century Review
‘Yibusheng zhuyi’ (Ibsenism) is not an uncommon Chinese usage, as
it has been registered in the dictionaries. What may be confusing to
readers today is that the explanations vary a great deal from
dictionary to dictionary. In Ci Hai 辞海 (can literally be translated
as ‘the sea of words’), the most authoritative Chinese dictionary
compiled in the 1930s, Ibsenism is defined: ‘Ibsenism refers to the
fervent individualism expressed in the works of the Norwegian
author Ibsen. It advocates the forming of a completely and
absolutely free character of one’s own (ziwo renge), and rejects all
on-going attitudes like yielding, conciliation, compromise,
conditioning, temporizing, and moderation’ (cited in Pollard 1987,
p. 335). While in Ying Han Da Cidian 英 汉 大 词 典 (Advanced
English-Chinese Dictionary, ed. Lu Gusun), Ibsenism is explained
as: The advocacy of writing and staging social problem plays and
propaganda of Ibsen’s ideas. What has caused these discrepancies
in the explanations of Ibsenism? The former might have grown out
of the initial Chinese responses to Ibsen, in which individualism
used to be highlighted. The latter, probably, originates from certain
English dictionaries. At any rate, it is close to what is given in the
Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary: Championship of Ibsen’s
plays and ideas. In the contemporary academic context, Ibsenism
usually refers to the reception, interpretation and transformation of
both the artistic and thematic aspects of Ibsen’s writings in
different cultures. Thus, Chinese Ibsenism is about the reception
and interpretation of Ibsen in China. To begin with, I will give a
brief survey of the initial Chinese interpretations of Ibsen.
Hu Shi’s essay ‘Yibusheng zhuyi’ (Ibsenism) published in Xin
Qingnian (New Youth, 1918) is one of the first Chinese essays
devoted to Ibsen. When he was studying in the United States, Hu
Shi began to read Ibsen and watched the performances of his plays,
such as Ghosts. In his diary, Ibsen was discussed time and again in
19. Part I - Chinese Ibsenism: A Century Review
19
relation to individual freedom and social progress: ‘If every person
shall, because of other people, abstain from the freedom of thought,
speech and action, then mankind will never progress. J.S. Mill has
strongly propounded this idea in his book On Representative
Government; Ibsen’s famous play A Doll’s House is also based on this
idea’ (cited in Eide 1973, p. 65).
‘Ibsenism’ was first written in English, and it was very likely that
Hu Shi got the inspiration from The Quintessence of Ibsenism (1913)
by George Bernard Shaw. Generally speaking, Hu’s ‘Ibsenism’ is
not so much a reading of Ibsen’s dramas as it is an attack on the
current situation in China. Similarly, his concept of individualism
is rather his ‘medicine’ for the then sick China than what Ibsen had
originally intended. That he applauds Ibsen, says Hu (1918), is
because ‘he tells us the truth, describing the various evil situations
of society so that we can have a close look at them’ (p. 490). In his
essay, Hu summarizes the themes Ibsen has discussed in his plays,
namely family, law, religion and the relationship between
individual and society. At almost every point, the summary is
followed by an exposition of the unsatisfactory reality in the
Chinese society.
In the last section of his essay, Hu Shi states explicitly what he
thinks Ibsenism means: ‘We are moved by Ibsen’s descriptions of
family and society and realize that our family and society are in
fact so corrupted that reform becomes really indispensable. And
this is Ibsenism’ (p. 502). After pointing out regretfully that Ibsen
offers no prescription to the social problems he has described, Hu
explains: ‘society’s symptoms are varied and no “cure-all”
medicine exists’ (p. 502). Nevertheless, he thinks that Ibsen has
given his advice on social reform, that is, to let individuals have
their talent fully developed. He quotes from Ibsen’s letter to
Brandes (1871): ‘There is no way you can benefit society more than
by coining the metal you have in yourself ... There are actually
moments when the whole history of the world appears to me like
one great shipwreck, and the only important thing is to save one’s
self’ (Morison 1970, p. 218).
20. Henrik Ibsen and Modern Chinese Drama
20
‘To save one’s self’ is in fact central to Hu’s own philosophy of
individualism, which he offered as his prescription for the health of
the Chinese society: ‘If we want to protect the health of society, we
must see to it that there are always such white blood cells as Dr.
Stockmann. If society is never short of these white blood cells, then
progress will definitely come’ (p. 506). What was romantic idealism in
Ibsen, Hu Shi made into a prescription for saving the Chinese nation.
Ibsen the individualist also appealed to Lu Xun even before Hu Shi.
Lu Xun adored the uncompromising Dr. Stockmann. When Dr.
Stockmann said –‘The most powerful man is the one who stands
most alone’ –it must have struck a responsive chord in Lu Xu’s
heart for his motto is imbued with the same spirit, namely, ‘to face
the accusation of a thousand men with indifference and raised
eyebrow’. Like Hu Shi, Lu Xun hailed Ibsen’s strong individuals
and thought they were desperately needed in the current China.
Admittedly, Lu Xun’s initial interpretations of Ibsen did not have a
strong impact on his Chinese reception. Later, they were either
outlived by his more critical comments on Ibsen or reinterpreted by
his followers to fit the general picture of Lu Xun as a socialist and
revolutionary writer.
Yuan Zhenying, a drama critic, interpreted Ibsen along the same
lines. Yuan was a major Chinese exponent of Ibsen, yielding a
number of articles and two books on him, namely Yibusheng de
Shehui Zhexue (The Social Philosophy of Ibsen, 1927) and Yibusheng
Zhuan (Ibsen’s Biography, 1930). The latter was based on a
biographical article on Ibsen, which was published in the Ibsen
issue of New Youth in 1918. Yuan’s interpretation of Ibsen parallels
that of Hu Shi in several ways. Like Hu, Yuan also regarded
individualism as the key to Ibsenism. For Yuan (1927), Ibsen
‘advocates the “individual I”, as if telling us “if you want to reform
society, you must begin with the individual” ’ (p. 41). Since Byron
had been well known as a revolutionary romanticist in China,
Yuan referred to Ibsen as ‘the Norwegian Byron, advocating an
absolute individualism’ (p. 18). Naming Ibsen a philosophical
dramatist, Yuan concluded that Ibsenism was a social philosophy.
21. Part I - Chinese Ibsenism: A Century Review
21
Even the most renowned translator of Ibsen, Pan Jiaxun 潘家洵 ,
also read Ibsen as no more than a polemicist. In his biography of
Ibsen, Pan (1921) calls Ibsen a social reformer in favour of
individual freedom. ‘For Ibsen, democracy and the politics of the
majority are but nonsense. The only way to reform society is to let
individuals have their talent fully developed’ (p. 5). Regarding
Ibsen’s change of language from verse to prose, Pan explains:
‘Ibsen was determined to diagnose the symptoms of the sick all
over society, so he had to employ a clear and exact prose as his tool.
Otherwise, the symptoms cannot be explained thoroughly’ (p. 5).
Pan suggests at the end of his essay that it is difficult to interpret
what Ibsen really means in his plays. ‘For readers who are careless
and can’t really get into Ibsen’s dramatic world, Ibsen is certainly
very difficult to comprehend. Even those who read him very
carefully and with all attention won’t always be able to get what
the writer really means’ (p. 11). Unfortunately, the danger of which
Pan had cautioned others turned out to befall him.
Despite their different personal backgrounds, Chinese intellectuals
had more or less the same picture of Ibsen – a rebel and a moralist.
This has something to do with the ‘horizon of expectation’ of the
Chinese readers during the so-called ‘first westernization’ in China.
On top of the hierarchy of the ‘horizon of expectation’ is the
unanimous expectation for change, economically, socially and
politically. What was crucial for the nation, according to the
intellectuals then, was to awaken the people by showing them the
truth. Modern Chinese literature was closely related to political
and social development: ‘Chinese writers and artists in the main
considered their cultural activities as part of the political and social
conflicts’ (Eberstein 1990, p. 6). Moreover, regarding the function of
literature in the Chinese tradition, ‘literature for the sake of
ideology’ is deep-rooted. Hu Shi’s essay ‘Ibsenism’ had played an
important role in the liberation of people’s minds: ‘The
individualism advocated in that essay was at that time no doubt
the freshest and most necessary injection’ (Zhu 1985, p. 75). It was
those initial interpretations of Ibsen that, I am afraid, led to the
narrow definition of Ibsenism in Ci Hai.
China’s Ibsen in general and individualism in particular is
22. Henrik Ibsen and Modern Chinese Drama
22
tantamount to one name, Nora, who has been a symbol of
individuality, woman’s liberation and spiritual rebellion for
generations. Nora was applauded, imitated, and later transformed
into an archetype that even resulted in an ‘-ism’ – Noraism. Noraism,
it seems to me, is a miniature of Chinese Ibsenism at the earlystage.
23. 23
Chapter One
Chinese ‘Noraism’: How Far Can Nora Go?
The overwhelming popularity of A Doll’s House among all the
western plays introduced in China can be glimpsed through a brief
mention of a few facts: In the three decades following the first
translation in 1918, there were at least 9 different Chinese versions
of A Doll’s House, more than for any other western work. Staged for
the first time in China in 1914, it was one of the first western plays
that the Chinese audience had seen. It is also the most frequently
staged play not just of Ibsen, but also of all foreign dramatists. The
year 1935 was called the ‘Nora-year’, because the play was staged
frequently that year in China. Why were the Chinese people so
fond of A Doll’s House? Because it is a family drama, involving only
a few characters and therefore less difficult to stage; because it is
written in everyday dialogue which makes it all the more
acceptable in the ‘May 4’ movement of vernacular literature;
because it is a successful realistic play that fits in with the trend of
realism in modern Chinese literature; because it is a masterpiece of
modern drama and thus can serve as a model for modern Chinese
dramatists; and, most important of all, because Nora was a pioneer
of the new, independent woman in fiction and in real life.
Historically, A Doll’s House marked Ibsen’s breakthrough as the
master of modern drama. Internationally, Nora used to be a
controversial figure, hated by some but applauded by many more.
Her final departure from home, especially from her three lovely
children, met with strong opposition. Ibsen was obliged by the
management of the first German production to provide an
alternative ending to the play, with Nora remaining at home. In
Britain, A Doll’s House was once described as ‘a morbid and
unwholesome play’ (v, 463). In Scandinavia, the character of Nora
entered into the national life of the three kingdoms. Her sayings
became catchphrases among the frivolous, and watchwords among
the more serious. In China, ‘Nala’ (Nora) was the synonym for
24. Henrik Ibsen and Modern Chinese Drama
24
women’s liberation. Ibsen’s fame depends on his creation of Nora.
In fact, A Doll’s House is often translated as ‘Nala’.
Over decades in China, the ‘Nora-fever’ affected not just a few
scholarly intellectuals but first and foremost generations of young
people. One of the highlights in the reception of Ibsen is the ‘Nora
event’ in 1935. A Doll’s House was staged that year in Nanjing, then
the capital of China. Miss Wang, a primary school teacher, played
the role of Nora. Immediately after the performance the
headmaster dismissed her, because he thought what Nora did was
unacceptable. In his opinion, no woman should under any
circumstance leave her husband and children. The dismissal issue
attracted enormous attention and was later transformed into a
‘Nora-event’ as discussions abounded in newspapers and
magazines. Women societies in Nanjing strongly condemned the
headmaster for infringing women’s rights. It is worth mentioning
that those engaged in the discussions did not usually address this
actress of Nora as Miss Wang, but ‘Nala’ instead. Miss Wang
herself took pride in it, for her letter to Xin Min Bao 新民报 (Xin
Min Post) actually ends with this signature ‘Yours sincerely, Nala’.
In China, the staging of A Doll’s House often became a political
event, where the conservative and progressive forces confronted
each other. It was against the background of social and political
turmoil that many a Chinese Nora walked out of the play, came to
the front of the stage and stepped into history.
ChineseChineseChinese ‘‘‘NoraNoraNora PlaysPlaysPlays’’’
No other play has contributed so much to the rise of modern
Chinese drama as A Doll’s House. Modern Chinese drama, to some
extent, began with imitations of this play. The Greatest Event in Life
(Hu Shi, 1919), the first modern Chinese play, is an imitative piece.
This one-act play is about a Chinese girl, Tian Yamei, who wants to
marry a man of her own choosing. But her mother does not
approve of it, because the fortune-teller says their birth dates do
not harmonize.4
Neither does her intellectual father, who sticks to
4 In China, people use one of twelve animals (mouse, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon,
25. Chapter One - Chinese ‘Noraism’: How Far Can Nora Go?
25
the old tradition that people of the same surname shouldn’t marry
each other. Although Tian and her boyfriend Chen have different
surnames, her father has discovered that the two families came
from the same ancestors two thousand five hundred years ago.
Disappointed, Tian decides to leave home, regardless of public
opinion. Admittedly, this play by an amateur dramatist is rather an
essay in dramatic dialogue. And Hu’s purpose in writing this play
it is not so much for the sake of dramatic art as for the propagation
of his ideas on such issues as the freedom of choice in marriage.
Nevertheless, one should not underestimate the historical
significance of the play. It is one of the first modern Chinese plays
written to represent the reality of everyday life.
In the 1920s, a number of modern plays were published, in which a
rebellious brave woman is the heroine who finally becomes aware
of her individuality and is determined to win her independence.
These modern Chinese plays usually end with the heroine leaving
home and were therefore grouped as Chinese ‘Nora Plays’. They
include Po Fu 泼 妇 (The Shrew, Ouyang Yuqian: 1922), Zhuo
Wenjun 卓文君 (Guo Moruo: 1924) and Qingchun Zhi Meng 青春之
梦 (Dream of the Youth, Zhang Wentian: 1927). The departure of
the heroines in these plays means a daring rebellion against the old
conventions that suppressed women at that time. These ‘Nora-
type’ plays more or less follow the same plot: first, the awareness
of individuality; second, the conflict with family and society; and
finally, the decision to depart from home.
Most Chinese ‘Nora Plays’ highlight the final departure of the
female protagonist. With few exceptions, those plays comprise just
one act. Hu Shi’s play has but a few pages. In almost all of these
plays, the psychological logic that leads to the moment of rebellion
inside the female protagonist is neglected. It shows that modern
snake, horse, goat, monkey, chicken, dog, and pig) to symbolize the year in which
one was born. And people used to believe that one’s temper is like that of his or
her animal ‘symbol’. This was often practised in choosing partners for young
people to determine whether or not they could get along with each other in
marriage.
26. Henrik Ibsen and Modern Chinese Drama
26
Chinese dramatists had not achieved a profound understanding of
Ibsen’s realistic dramaturgy.
NoraNoraNora ininin modernmodernmodern ChineseChineseChinese fictionfictionfiction
The inspiration, explicit as well as implicit, that stems from Nora in
modern Chinese literature goes well beyond the modern plays
mentioned above. Pollard (1987) claimed, ‘There was hardly a
[Chinese] writer worth his salt in the 20’s who did not deal with
the subject of female emancipation, Nora often being explicitly
referred to as the progenitor’ (p. 339). Nora’s resonance is so
extensive, subtle and profound that a thorough investigation of it is
out of the question. It can nevertheless be measured through a
survey of some remarkable examples.
In ‘Shang Shi’ 伤逝 (Regret for the Past), a short story by Lu Xun
(1925), Ibsen and Nora are not only directly referred to but also
reflected upon in various passages. The story is basically concerned
with the fate of a Chinese Nora in the current social situation. It
starts where Ibsen leaves his Nora. Zijun 子君 , a young Chinese
woman, is seditious against the arranged marriage. Echoing Nora’s
claim that ‘I am first and foremost a human being’, Zijun speaks
out boldly, ‘I am my own; no one has the right to interfere in my
business’ (Lu 1973, vol. 2, p. 278). She leaves home and lives with
Juansheng 涓生, the man whom she really loves. At first, they are
excited at their freedom and satisfied over their success in breaking
the bondage of tradition. Together, they spend the happiest time of
their life in the first few days. But they soon realize that they have
to cope with the problem of making a living. After failing to secure
even the basic means of subsistence, they become distressed and
regard their earlier high-sounding words of individual freedom
and marriage for love as nothing but empty prattle. When the
dreams are gone, Zijun feels like an outcast. Disappointed and
frustrated, she finally returns home and dies thereafter. Thus the
message Lu Xun had for his readers is clear: Ibsen’s Nora cannot solve
the problems facing Chinese women. Economic independence is vital
for any woman who wants to ‘slam the door’ behind her. Romantic
27. Chapter One - Chinese ‘Noraism’: How Far Can Nora Go?
27
individualists will meet unexpected hardships in the current China
and therefore should not be encouraged.
‘Hong’ 虹 (Rainbow, 1930), a novel by Mao Dun 茅盾, gives us a
panoramic view of a modern Chinese ‘Nora’: the growth of a rebel,
the running-away ‘Nora’, the period of frustration, and the final
recognition of her new role in the revolutionary cause. Mei 梅, the
heroine, has received new ideas about individual rights and
women’s liberation since she was a schoolgirl. Ibsen is one of the
literary figures that she has been talking about with her friends in
school. One of the most exciting and significant events in her
school days is the performance of A Doll’s House, in which she
courageously plays the part of Mrs. Linde, because in her opinion
Mrs. Linde is the most respectable character in the play:
She’s a woman who doesn’t let herself be controlled by love. In the
first case, she drops Krogstad and marries Linden [Linde]because
Linden has money. He can take care of her and her younger sister. She
sacrifices herself for the sake of her mother and younger sister. Later,
when she marries Krogstad, it is because she wants to save Nora.
That’s the kind of courageous and decisive woman she is! (Mao 1992,
p. 38)
Being a young romantic, Mei does not however have the
determination and will to rebel. Subject to her father’s will, she
marries a man whom she does not love. When her marriage life
with the brothel-frequenter gets unbearable, she manages to flee
from home. She spends the following years working first as a
teacher and subsequently as a private tutor. Later, she comes to
Shanghai and participates in the revolutionary activities there. She
begins to see the inadequacies of her previous individualistic
struggle and realize that she could be useful in fighting for a better
future for the nation. By presenting this new revolutionist Mei in
his novel, Mao Dun, this left-wing Chinese writer, has given his
answer to the question of Nora’s future.
28. Henrik Ibsen and Modern Chinese Drama
28
‘Jia’ 家 (The Family), the first volume of the famous trilogy by Ba
Jin 巴金5
, is another novel that I want to include in my discussion.
That the novel is extremely interesting is due neither to the explicit
reference to Ibsen and his plays in the text, nor to the fact that one
of the heroines reads Ibsen and has Nora’s spirit, but has to do with
the presence in the novel of a Chinese ‘male Nora’. For thousands
of years, the Chinese people learned by heart the strict teaching
that ‘father’s order can in no way be disobeyed’. Arranged
marriage had not only been applied to girls but to boys as well. In
The Family, Juexin 觉新, the eldest of the three brothers, is married
to a girl he does not love. He is maimed by his lack of courage and
trapped in the traditional morality. The Nora-spirit is manifested in
Juehui 觉慧 , the youngest of the three, who chooses to leave the
suffocating family. When his elder brother Juexin tries to persuade
him to wait for some time, he speaks firmly: ‘Well, I’m going! I’ll
show them what I am – a rebel’ (Ba Jin 1982, p. 396 cited in Pa Chin
1992, p. 315). Along with his ‘Nora’ sisters, this Chinese ‘male
Nora’ encouraged generation after generation of young people to
pursue their freedom and independence. This rebellious spirit was
like a fountain for the Chinese nation in its long march towards
modernization. And Ibsen was one of the major sources that
contributed to this fountain.
ChineseChineseChinese ‘‘‘NoraismNoraismNoraism’’’
There have been Noras in the Chinese performances of A Doll’s
House, different types of Chinese ‘Noras’ on the stage and in fiction,
stories of real ‘Noras’ in everyday life and heated discussions over
the fate of ‘Nora’ in newspapers and magazines. Never has a hero
or heroine of any other foreign writer aroused similar attention in
China.
The ‘Nora fever’ played an important role in the women’s
liberation movement in the first half of the 20th century in China.
5 Ba Jin (1904 - ) is one of the most important Chinese writers in the 20th century.
His trilogy includes ‘Jia’ (The Family), ‘Chun’ (Spring), and ‘Qiu’ (Autumn).
29. Chapter One - Chinese ‘Noraism’: How Far Can Nora Go?
29
For critics, the publication of the ‘Ibsen Issue’ in New Youth in 1918
marked the beginning of a ‘Nora era’. In his article ‘Cong Nala
Shuoqi’ (On Nora), published in the Women Supplement for
Zhujiang Daily (1938), Mao Dun says:
Women problems had already been discussed in Xin Qingnian
(New Youth) before Nora was introduced, but independent women
did not appear until Nala (A Doll’s House) was published and
became well known. Ever since, women’s movement is no longer
just a topic on paper … If we say that the women’s movement after
the time of “May 4” is nothing but “Noraism”, this is no
exaggeration’. (p. 71)
Though scholars generally think that Mao Dun invented the term
‘Noraism’, this was in fact not the first time ‘Noraism’ was used.6
Noraism, in my view, is about the reception and transformation of
Nora in a Chinese context. It comprises the changing
interpretations of Nora in relation to the Chinese reality. For Hu
Shi, Nora is a live embodiment of his philosophy of individualism.
‘Free will and responsibility’, according to Hu Shi, are essential for
achieving individuality. With regard to Nora’s departure, Hu Shi
(1918) explains: ‘She has been treated as a doll at home by her
husband, being denied both free will and responsibility in family
life’ (p. 504). To further support his argument, Hu Shi refers to The
Lady from the Sea. Ellida has been thinking of leaving her husband
and the two girls from his first marriage. But when the sailor she
has been missing so much has come back and asks her to go with
him, something dramatic takes place. She changes her mind after
her husband grants her freedom to choose and asks her to take
responsibility for herself. ‘Freedom … and responsibility!
Responsibility too? That … puts a different aspect on things’ (vii,
121). And then Hu Shi develops his argument:
An autonomous society or a republic must give the individual
freedom to choose and at the same time must ask him to be
6 It was used earlier in Wu Zhe’s article ‘Nala yü Waxilisha’ (Nora and Vasilisa),
published in Mingtian (Tomorrow), vol. 3, no. 1, p. 8.
30. Henrik Ibsen and Modern Chinese Drama
30
responsible for his own actions. If not, it won’t be possible to create
independent individuals. A society or a country without free and
independent individuals is like alcohol without yeast, bread without
leaven or a human body without brain. A society or country such
as that has no hope of progress. (p. 505)
When Nora’s departure aroused enormous attention in China, few
took the trouble to analyse what actually happened to Nora before
her departure, externally and internally. Instead, many were
interested in what will happen after she leaves home. Lu Xun
initiated such discussions.
In 1923, at Peking Normal College for Women, Lu Xun delivered a
lecture under the title ‘Nala Zouhou Zenyang?’ (What happens after
Nora leaves home?). In his lecture, Lu Xun is not so much
concerned with Ibsen’s Nora as with the fate of a Chinese woman
who dares to leave home in search of individual freedom. It seems
that Lu Xun only borrows the image of Nora from Ibsen and makes
a polemic about the struggle of Chinese women against patriarchy.
The prospect for a Chinese Nora, according to Lu Xun, is that she
will ‘either degrade herself, or come back home … another
alternative is to starve to death’ (Lu 1973, vol. 1, p. 145). For women
to avoid being puppets, they must have equal economic rights with
men. ‘First, there must be a fair sharing between men and women
in the family; secondly, women should enjoy equal rights with men
in society’ (p. 147). But Lu Xun immediately confesses that he has
no idea about how women can win these rights. All he knows is
that they must fight for it, and fight hard. Lu Xun’s essay was later
revived in a wide range of discussions in 1934. The discussions
under the name of Nora were, in fact, the exchange of different
views, conservative and progressive alike, on the current feminist
thoughts in China.7
7 A number of articles were published in Guowen Zhoubao (National News
Weekly), vol. 11, no. 11-20. Among them are: Juan Bing 涓冰, ‘Nala zou hou
jiujing zenyang’ (What really happened when Nora left.), no. 11, pp. 1-6; Jiang
Jiping 江寄萍, ‘“Nala zou hou jiujing zenyang” du hou’ (After having read ‘what
really happened when Nora left’.), no. 13, pp. 1-3; Gao Lei 高磊, ‘Guanyu Nala
chuzou’ (On Nora’s leaving home), no. 18, pp. 1-4.
31. Chapter One - Chinese ‘Noraism’: How Far Can Nora Go?
31
When the Marxist influence became stronger in China, Lu Xun
turned from his early enthusiasm for Ibsen, and became more and
more critical of the Norwegian writer. Ibsen’s return to Norway
after 27 years of exile became in Lu Xun’s opinion, a compromise
that Ibsen made with the bourgeois society at home. With the same
theoretical weapon of Marxism, Lu Xun made an attack upon Hu
Shi and his essay ‘Ibsenism’, which, according to him, ‘though
indeed easy to understand compared with the art work in the
recent time, seems to us both shallow and abstract’ (Lu 1973, vol. 5,
p. 577). He was especially critical of Hu Shi’s idea ‘to save oneself’,
which for him would mean nothing but selfishness. What
happened to Lu Xun has to do with the shift of his political stand.
Later, his Nora’s answer turned out to be ‘not until society is
liberated can women liberate themselves’, which in turn became a
revolutionary slogan for the Chinese women.
The dramatic change of Lu Xun’s attitude towards Ibsen is by no
means an isolated phenomenon, but represents a tendency in the
Chinese reception of Ibsen. Mao Dun, another example, was among
those who contributed to an initial introduction of Ibsen into China.
He has left us his comments on Ibsen from several different
periods. As early as in 1918 he published a biographical essay on
Ibsen, which is notable for its rich details of both Ibsen’s life and
his works. Soon socialist thoughts and Marxism had an effect on
his reading of Ibsen. In his preface for Pan Jiaxun’s translation of
Shaw’s play Mrs. Warren’s Profession (1923), Mao Dun makes a
comparison between Ibsen and Shaw: ‘Whereas Ibsen was a doctor
who diagnosed the causes of an illness without writing out
prescriptions, Shaw wrote the prescriptions’ (Mao Dun 1935, p. 12
cited in Eide 1987, p. 147). In 1925, Mao Dun published his essay
‘Tantan “Wan’ou Zhi Jia” ’ (On A Doll’s House), which was in my
opinion one of the best Chinese interpretations of the play at that
time. In the essay, Mao Dun discusses the contrast between Nora’s
superficial contentedness and her inner anxiety, the mixed
emotions of fear, expectation and determination, and the use of
32. Henrik Ibsen and Modern Chinese Drama
32
dialogue as a means of exposition in the play. But Mao Dun is not
consistent in his reading of Ibsen. A decade later, Mao Dun makes
another Marxist approach to Ibsen in his essay. When discussing
Ibsen’s use of symbolism in his later plays like The Lady from the Sea
and When We Dead Awaken, Mao Dun’s view becomes negative: ‘In
this group of plays, Ibsen tries to use symbolical methods to make
up for the inadequacies of his artistic imagery. The bourgeois
intellectual Ibsen falls into the trap of the ambiguities of thinking
predetermined by his birth when his plays touch upon the future
of the industrialized bourgeois society’ (Mao Dun 1935, p. 242). As
to why Chinese Noras ended up returning home, Mao Dun (1938)
explains: ‘Naturally, one of the main reasons is that Nora does not
have a correct political and social ideology, but merely enthusiasm
for rebellion’ (p. 72). Thus, he recommends a revolutionary soldier
as Nora, who has achieved a correct understanding of reality and
adopted a firm political stand. The change of attitude towards
Ibsen in Mao Dun is vividly shown in his characterization of Mei in
his novel Hong (Rainbow), who has grown from an individualist in
her early school years to a revolutionist, taking part in the cause of
national liberation.
Among Western Ibsen critics, Eleanor Marx initiated the social-
feminist approach towards A Doll’s House. Unlike other Bourgeois
feminists who think that Nora’s dilemma may be resolved by
gender-equality, Eleanor Marx argues that ‘the struggle is
primarily class-based, not gender-based, and that sectarian
interests must resolve themselves in the greater revolutionary
action’ (Durbach 1994, p. 235). Indeed, for Lu Xun and Mao Dun
the struggle of Chinese women is class-based: They are not going
to fight just for their own individual rights and freedom, but for the
liberation of all women and the whole nation. Instead of looking
for a job, they should take up a gun and become fighters. The new
image of a Chinese socialist Nora has little in appearance to remind us
of the lovely, charming middle-class housewife in Ibsen’s play. Could
Ibsen have imagined that his beloved Nora would have traveled this
far and have changed so much beyond his recognition?
Despite the huge differences, Chinese ‘Nora’ bears resemblances to
Ibsen’s Nora in that she pursues the goal to live as an independent
33. Chapter One - Chinese ‘Noraism’: How Far Can Nora Go?
33
human being. Chinese Noraism is by no means an absolute
departure from Ibsen. Though wrapped up in socialist and Marxist
thoughts, it is essentially in search of individualism. We may be
amazed at how far Nora has gone and not sure where she is
destined, but we do know where she starts her journey.
34. 34
Chapter Two
China’s Ibsen: Realist, Romantic or Symbolist?
Not until the beginning of the 20th
century had drama in China
been ranked among the literary genres and treated as of equal
importance with poetry or the novel. Earlier, theatrical
performances frequently did not have a written script. Most
dramatic texts were instead handed down by reciting from generation
to generation. Playwrights remained little known and were not
respected, in sharp contrast to the fame poets always enjoyed.
The establishment of modern Chinese drama was meant to bring
about a change so that drama would become accepted as ‘one
member of the literary family’. That Ibsen was chosen as a model
for modern Chinese drama served the need of reforming Chinese
drama. Lu Xun made this clear in explaining why Ibsen was
favoured in China: ‘Because we want the new drama of western
style to be established, and to spread the idea that drama is in
essence literature....’ (Lu 1973, vol. 7, p. 523) By employing Ibsen as
‘the general’, this army of drama reformers seemed to have a much
greater chance of victory. Who can deny the literary value of the
dramas of this great playwright?
Despite the overwhelming interest in Ibsen as a polemicist in China,
there were also critical readings of Ibsen as an artist, which has
often been underestimated. In addition, little attention has been
paid to the reception of Ibsen in China from the end of the 1970s. A
reconsideration of Ibsen in China focusing on the aesthetic
interpretations will contribute to a better understanding of the
Chinese reception of Ibsen in the 20th
century. In that respect, I
think China’s Ibsen has undergone a process of widening vision of
Ibsen from being a realist, to a romantic and then to a symbolist.
35. Chapter Two - China’s Ibsen: Realist, Romantic or Symbolist?
35
IbsenIbsenIbsen thethethe realistrealistrealist
The much belated arrival of Ibsen in China provided an advantage
for the Chinese Ibsenites to see Ibsen at his best, which was then
generally believed to be A Doll’s House and other realistic problem
plays. It was mainly through these plays that Chinese critics and
dramatists came to know Ibsen and formulate their initial concept
of modern drama.
‘Art for art’s sake’ or ‘art for life’s sake’? In the early 20th
century,
Chinese critics did not see this question of ‘either/or’, but a
necessity of ‘both/and’. Either due to not knowing much about the
art of this literary genre, or because it was not their interest, many
critics overemphasized the thematic significance of Ibsen’s plays
for the purpose of spreading their own ideas on social reforms.
Dissatisfied with the fact that too much attention had been paid to
the subject matter in Ibsen’s dramas, some concentrate on Ibsen’s
dramatic methods. China’s Ibsen is in fact not as one-sidedly
ideological as many scholars have claimed it to be, provided that the
interpretations of Ibsen’s dramatic art be given sufficient attention.
Among those who started an aesthetic reading of Ibsen in China
are Yu Shangyuan 余上沅 and Xiong Foxi 熊佛西, both of whom
were well-known activists in the drama reform movement in the
1920s and 30s. In his serialized essays on Western literature
published in Chenbao Fukan 晨报副刊, Yu (1922) included one essay
on Ibsen and his A Doll’s House. That essay is essentially a
biographical account of Ibsen’s life and literary work. But in the
last part, Yu mentions the discussion scene in Act III of A Doll’s
House and regards it as Ibsen’s unique contribution to modern
drama. Yu’s next essay on Ibsen is ‘Yibusheng de Yishu’ (Ibsen’s Art).
As the title indicates, it is Ibsen’s dramaturgy that Yu focuses on in his
discussion. At the beginning of his essay, Yu (1928) expresses his
dissatisfaction with the usual interpretation of Ibsen in China:
To approach artistic work from the perspective of social
effectiveness reveals that the critics are in want of artistic taste ...
Drama which aims at portraying and criticising life has led many
into applying it socially. In modern China, Ibsen is among those
who have had the bad luck of being misinterpreted. (p. 1)
36. Henrik Ibsen and Modern Chinese Drama
36
The value of artistic work, Yu continues, does not depend on the
ideology it advocates, but on the employment of a proper form to
convey it. Art is not theory, but execution.
Yu’s description of Ibsen’s dramatic methods, such as adherence to
‘the three unities’ and ‘retrospective exposition’, is not original. But
his observations about the realistic representation of ‘language,
characters and environment’ in Ibsen’s plays are extremely
insightful. Regarding Ibsen’s change of dramatic language from
verse to prose, Yu quotes the following paragraph from one of
Ibsen’s letters to Edmund Gosse (Jan. 15, 1874):
You are of the opinion that the drama ought to have been written in
verse, and that it would have gained by this. Here I must differ
from you. The play is, as you must have observed, conceived in the
most realistic style; the illusion I wished to produce was that of
reality. I wished to produce the impression on the reader that what
he was reading was something that had really happened. If I had
employed verse, I should have countered my own intention and
prevented the accomplishment of the task I had set myself.
(Morison 1970, p. 268f)
Speaking of Ibsen’s characterization, Yu finds that Ibsen portrays
his characters very vividly, exposing all the different aspects of
their personalities, so that he could at last visualize them in his
mind. Furthermore, he praises Ibsen for creating an illusion of
reality on the stage. The effects of such artistic representation are
great, says Yu. ‘Through the finite the infinite is to be seen. What
happens in the living room can be applied universally’ (Yu 1928, p.
14). Here, Yu claims, lies the greatest contribution of Ibsen to
modern drama.
Ibsen’s exquisite ability of employing stage props is shown by Yu
through an example of the pistol in The Wild Duck: We first hear a
gunshot in Act III. The pistol attracts greater attention when
Hjalmar corrects Gina’s mispronunciation ‘pigstol’. Then Hjalmar
lays the loaded pistol on the shelf and at the same time warns
Hedvig: ‘Don’t touch the pistol, Hedvig! One of the barrels is
loaded, don’t forget.’ (vi, 185). Later Hjalmar tells Gregers the
family secret related to the pistol: Both the old Ekdal and Hjalmar
37. Chapter Two - China’s Ibsen: Realist, Romantic or Symbolist?
37
had thought of committing suicide with the pistol, but did not have
the courage to do it. When Hedvig takes possession of the gun in
Act V, it is already familiar to us. Shortly afterwards, we hear
another shot from the loft. At first, we, like Gregers, think that it
must be old Ekdal who fired the gun. But it turns out to be Hedvig
who does the firing herself. She shoots herself instead of the duck.
When Hedvig is carried out from the loft to the living room, we see
her holding the pistol firmly in her hand. Yu concludes that the
effect of the pistol in the play is different from that of similar
objects in most ‘well-made’ plays, where the creation of sensation
is often the purpose. In Ibsen’s play, the pistol is part of the plot.
This example shows that Yu has developed a critical understanding
of Ibsen’s dramatic art. The conclusion of Yu’s essay is brief but
forceful. It is worth quoting: ‘Ibsen’s greatness lies not only in his
using life as subject matter, realism as a means of artistic achievement,
but also in his employment of dramatic techniques as a medium to
blend and balance thought and art, content and form’ (p. 16).
Yu’s efforts in bringing out the artistic and technical novelties of
Ibsen’s drama anticipated the change in the Chinese reception of
Ibsen from the dominant picture of a thinker to a more balanced
one of both a thinker and a dramatist. Such is the vision Xiong Foxi
had of Ibsen, as the title of his essay clearly indicates, namely,
‘Ibsen the social reformer and Ibsen the dramatist’ (1929). Xiong’s
essay begins with a summary of the current conception of China’s
Ibsen, which goes like this: ‘We know Ibsen because he advocated
women’s liberation; we agree with him because he called for social
reforms; we support him because he fought against all that he
thought was false, rotten and insane; we respect him because he
propagated individualism’ (Xiong 1931, p. 115). Immediately
afterwards, Xiong points out that this is but the image of the
middle-aged Ibsen. The older Ibsen, who is very different, has not
so far been introduced into China. Like Yu, Xiong also regards
Ibsen as superior to Shakespeare, in that Ibsen can do without royal
and aristocratic elements in his plays and writes stories about
ordinary people and contemporary issues.
In the rest of his essay, Xiong focuses on Ibsen’s dramatic
achievement and mentions specially the following three aspects:
38. Henrik Ibsen and Modern Chinese Drama
38
the structure of the ‘well-made’ play, the creative use of suggestion,
and the reform of dramatic language. Ibsen’s use of the techniques
of the ‘well-made play’ has given his drama the quality of
conciseness; while the use of rich suggestions leaves his writings
open to different interpretations. Regarding Ibsen’s language,
Xiong says that even though Ibsen was not the first to employ
prose in drama, it was in his writings that prose became the usual
medium of dramatic language.
At the end of his essay, Xiong also points out that Ibsen’s plays do
not usually appeal to Chinese audiences: ‘But he (Ibsen) has a big
weakness. He is fond of debating, giving long and boring lectures.
Audiences are often left sleepy by the continuous talking on stage,
which is especially true if his plays are staged in China. Having
been used to exciting scenes, Chinese audiences are not in favour of
discussions on stage’ (p. 121). This critical view of Ibsen seems to
me enormously relevant. It explains the aesthetic distance between
Chinese audiences and Ibsen, which has affected the reception of
Ibsen immensely. His later plays had to wait for decades before
being introduced is obviously one of the consequences.
If Ibsen to Xiong is both a thinker and a dramatist, Ibsen to Chen
Xiying 陈西滢 is first and foremost a dramatist, which must have
been a rather fresh interpretation of Ibsen for his contemporaries.
In his essay entitled ‘Yibusheng de xiju yishu’ (Ibsen’s dramatic art,
1930), Chen claims that Ibsen is not an ordinary dramatist but one
of the greatest dramatists in the world, who opens a new era in the
European theatre. Surpassing his most famous contemporary Zola
and his school of naturalism, Ibsen has turned out to be the master
and pioneer of the realistic drama.
In Chen’s opinion, Ghosts marks the breakthrough of Ibsen’s
realism because he abandoned the old tricks of the ‘well-made
play’, such as asides and misunderstandings. The audiences are
made to forget that this is just a performance. Instead, they feel as if
they were experiencing the life of the heroine in her tragedy.
However, Chen does not regard Ghosts as Ibsen’s masterpiece. In
his opinion, The Wild Duck and Rosmersholm are superior to Ghosts.
He finds William Archer’s interpretation of Rosmersholm very
39. Chapter Two - China’s Ibsen: Realist, Romantic or Symbolist?
39
illuminating and quotes from his introduction to the play: ‘He
[Ibsen] was yet to write plays more fascinating than Rosmersholm,
but none greater in point of technical mastery’ (Chen 1929, p. 52
cited in Archer 1907, vol. ix, p. xvi). Chen further illustrates his
argument by analysing the changes taking place simultaneously
within Rosmer and Rebecca: Both of them gradually lose
confidence in their faiths, become less and less capable of taking
control over the situation, and at last fall into a desperate need to
prove by jumping together into the mill. The Wild Duck, according
to Chen, is different from Ghosts or Rosmersholm. Its success does
not rely on its supreme psychological description as it does in
Rosmerholm, but mainly on its complicated style. It is tragedy under
a comic veil, the greatest tragic-comedy in modern time.
Among those who really appreciate Ibsen’s dramatic talent are
dramatists like Tian Han and Cao Yu. Both of them had a deeper
understanding of Ibsen’s art, especially the poetic quality of his
modern prose plays. Regarding A Doll’s House, Tian Han (1923)
claimed that Ibsen had no other intention than to write a poem. For
Cao Yu, Ibsen is first and foremost a poet of the theatre. A more
detailed study of their interpretations of Ibsen will be made later.
Understandably, these dramatists did not leave behind a large
number of critical essays on Ibsen, but their plays are more lively
proofs of their interpretation of Ibsen. The decade beginning in the
mid-1930s was remarkable in the history of modern Chinese drama
for the successive publications of a number of most distinguished
plays. In addition to Cao Yu’s plays Thunderstorm (1934), Sunrise
(1936) and Peking Man (1940), there are Qiusheng Fu 秋声赋 (The
Ode to Autumn, Tian Han: 1941), Shanghai Wuyan Xia 上海屋檐下
(Under the Eve of Shanghai, Xia Yan: 1943), to name a few. The
flourishing of modern Chinese drama owes much to the progress
of the Chinese reception of Ibsen.
Conversely, the ‘literary evolution’ in modern Chinese drama
enhanced the Chinese appreciation of Ibsen by cultivating the
dramatic sensibility of its critics and the general audience as well,
similarly to how Thomas Mann, whom Nietzsche greatly
influenced, in turn played an important part in the interpretation of
40. Henrik Ibsen and Modern Chinese Drama
40
Nietzsche (Fokkema 1995, p. 164). Unfortunately, this aesthetic
interpretation of Ibsen was interrupted during the war against
Japan due to the urgent need for promoting nationalism. After the
founding of new China in 1949, political ideology dominated the
literary life, the theatre included. Though Ibsen as a world celebrity
of letters was not banned, studies of his work were rather limited.
When Ibsen was revived from the end of the 1970s, the aftermath
of this long ‘pause’ was to be felt in the slow restarting of Ibsen
studies. Not only was there limited research on Ibsen and his
dramas, but also the new studies to a large extent repeated what
had been done earlier. Individualism, feminism and such
techniques as ‘discussion’ and ‘retrospective exposition’ remained
dominant in many of the discussions. Among the few new
approaches to Ibsen are: ‘Yibusheng de xiju he xiang xing bujing’
(Ibsen’s Dramas and the Box Set, Li Chang: 1979) and ‘“Leiyu” yü
“Qungui” de bijiao fenxi’ (A Comparative Study of Thunderstorm
and Ghosts, Qin Zhixi: 1983). The former discusses how the realistic
setting contributes to the powerful effects of Ibsen’s plays; the
latter analyses the thematic and technical similarities between
Thunderstorm and Ghosts in order to show how Cao Yu might have
been influenced by Ibsen.
By the early 1980s, China’s Ibsen was at a critical stage. The
vigorous introduction of contemporary western thoughts and re-
interpretation of Chinese tradition provoked a rethinking of the
existing ideological concepts. So far as modern Chinese drama is
concerned, there was a wide-ranging debate concerning the
fundamental principles of theatrical art. One key issue was
whether or not ‘the fourth wall’ – clearly part of the Ibsen heritage
on the Chinese stage – should be abandoned. Comparing Mei
Lanfang8
with Stanislavsky and Brecht, Huang Zuolin 黄佐临 (1990)
8 Mei Lanfang 梅兰芳 (1894-1961), leading actor, director and scholar of modern
Chinese theatre, first appeared at the Peking theatre, mainly playing the female
parts, e.g. Dan. His aim was to preserve the Chinese style of acting. His influence
on European theatre was great and widespread. Brecht was impressed with his
acting style. (The Encyclopedia of World Theatre, New York, 1977)
41. Chapter Two - China’s Ibsen: Realist, Romantic or Symbolist?
41
summarizes the fundamental differences between them:
‘Stanislavsky believed in “the fourth wall”; Brecht wanted to pull
down this wall; while for Mei Lanfang this wall never existed’ (p.
309). Obviously, ‘the fourth wall’ as a theatrical concept that had
been applied for decades by Chinese dramatists was in
contradiction to the aesthetic tradition of the Chinese national
drama. When the expressionistic theatre represented by Brecht was
gaining in popularity among Chinese theatre people, calls were
soon heard from every corner of the country to pull down the
‘fourth wall’ and break up with the theatrical ‘illusion of reality’
typical of Ibsen’s drama. To survive the crisis, China’s Ibsen must
find a new impetus. Not only more plays by Ibsen should be
introduced, but also there must be a more comprehensive analysis
of the artistic aspects of Ibsen. In 1983, Peer Gynt was for the first
time staged in China (by Central Theatre Academy, Beijing) and
brought about another ‘Ibsen fever’ as both the play and the
production were heatedly discussed. The romantic Ibsen, as the
writer of Peer Gynt was for the most part interpreted, did save
China’s Ibsen from falling into oblivion, but only for the moment.
IbsenIbsenIbsen thethethe romanticromanticromantic
Compared to the popularity of his social-realistic plays, Ibsen’s
early verse dramas remained little known in China for a long time.
Among the few verse dramas that did attract some attention in
China are Brand and Peer Gynt9
, both of which have been associated
with Ibsen’s philosophy of individualism. The two protagonists,
Brand and Peer, were in fact thought to be a good combination, being
the two sides of the same coin, which is ‘individualism’.
Critics like Yuan Zhenying are fonder of Brand than of Peer Gynt,
though they at the same time regard Peer Gynt as the apex of
Ibsen’s romanticism. In Brand, Yuan sees many positive qualities of
an individualist, which are constructive for the new society he
9 Originally, these two were written as ‘dramatic poems’, not as plays. That is to
say, they were not intended for the stage, but for reading only.
42. Henrik Ibsen and Modern Chinese Drama
42
envisions. The image of Brand as a strict (nearly cruel) moralist
seems to be lofty and unrealistic, but Yuan thinks it is honourable
and enlightening. In contrast, Peer is a daydreamer, a pleasure-
seeker, and above all, a compromiser. He does what the Boyg tells
him, ‘to go round’. He adopts the troll motto: ‘To thyself be,
enough.’ ‘Peer Gynt’, says Yuan (1928), ‘was originally a piece of
poetic imagination, but it turned out to be a sarcastic piece,
embodying above all a kind of philosophy’ (p. 25). Brand and Peer
Gynt are referred to in Yuan’s essay as ‘the two pillars on the stage
of Ibsen’s theatre’ (p. 15).
Among the Chinese Ibsenites, Xiao Qian seems to have been
especially interested in Peer Gynt. He watched an English
production of Peer Gynt for the first time in London during the
Second World War. He also listened to the radio theatre
performance of this play twice at Cambridge in England (Xiao Qian
1981, p. 74). In 1949, he published in Da Gong Bao 大公报 (Hong
Kong, August 15) an essay entitled ‘Pei’er Jinte – yibu qingsuan
geren zhuyi de shiju’ (Peer Gynt – a verse drama condemning
individualism), in which he attacked both the concept of
individualism and the dramatist himself.
Today China has stepped into socialism … As the new era began,
collectivism has become superior to any other system. Nevertheless,
just because many intellectuals are worried at not being able to
keep pace with the time, the reform of the individual for the time
being is still an important task. We have inherited from Ibsen the
poisonous idea of perfecting oneself without much care for the
others.
Later, Xiao Qian regretted this early writing of his and confessed
that his interpretation was subject to the political need: ‘At that
time, to overcome individualism was understood as essential to
ideological reform. Thus, Peer Gynt was interpreted as the
condemnation of individualism’ (Xiao 1981, p. 74).
The first Chinese translation of Peer Gynt (Act I and V) was
published in 1978, and the translator was Xiao Qian. In the preface
to his translation, Xiao Qian (1978) considered the conflict
regarding the principle of life between ‘man’ and ‘troll’ as the
43. Chapter Two - China’s Ibsen: Realist, Romantic or Symbolist?
43
theme of the play: ‘To be man, Ibsen thinks, is to stay where you
are, hold on to your faith and principle... On the contrary, “Trolls”
have no faith, no principle. They “go around” when meeting
difficulties’ (p. 71). Again subject to the tendency of social criticism
at that time, he mentioned in his essay specifically Peer’s trade in
Negro slaves for America and heathen idols for China. He praised
Ibsen’s courage in exposing such crimes as committed by the
imperialists in the history of their civilization. In 1981, Xiao Qian
published the complete Chinese translation of Peer Gynt. Two years
later, the play was staged by the Central Theatre Academy in
Beijing. The production was a big hitand the responses to it were
immediate and sensational.10
The Chinese production of Peer Gynt took place at a time when
Ibsen the social realist met with big challenges in China. The
realistic tradition began to be regarded by many as an obstacle to
the further development of modern Chinese drama. What was
advocated earlier was now attacked with equal enthusiasm, such
as the discussion of social problems, the illusion of reality and the
concept of the ‘fourth wall’. That Peer Gynt was refreshing for its
Chinese audience was not, in fact, due to Ibsen’s progress into a
new phase of his dramatic writing (quite the contrary, Peer Gynt
was written before his social plays). Peer Gynt opened for Chinese
audience a new dimension of Ibsen’s dramatic art, namely,
romanticism. Critics became suddenly aware that the Chinese
reception of Ibsen as mainly a playwright of social problem drama
had actually become a ‘prejudice against Ibsen’ (Lu 1984, p. 35).
The romanticism of Peer Gynt was interpreted in China from
different perspectives. First and foremost, it is a vivid presentation
of the conflicts within Peer, which are characterized by the two
philosophies of life, that is, the motto of the trolls as opposed to the
principles of man. The play comprises episodes in Peer’s
adventurous life that are subject to his animal or troll nature:
10 A number of theatre reviews, critical papers as well as director’s notes were
published, mostly in two of the prominent theatre journals, Xiju Bao (Drama
Paper) and Xiju Xuexi (Drama Studies).
44. Henrik Ibsen and Modern Chinese Drama
44
abducting a bride on her wedding night and agreeing to have a
troll’s tail installed on his back in order to become the son-in-law of
the Dovre-master. But Peer cannot be a complete troll, or why
would Ibsen let Solveig spend her whole life waiting for him? He
is wild, getting drunk and running around in the neighbourhood
instead of helping his widowed mother with the farm work. But he
has certain qualities that could associate him with ‘the son of
nature’ (Xu 1983a, p. 50). Besides, he has a pure feeling for Solveig.
He leaves home and Solveig because he thinks himself no suitable
match for her. There are moments when he regrets what he has
done, but he finds it impossible to confess his sins of the past and
live life anew. The fourth act is mainly about a degraded Peer, but
even there we catch him reflecting on himself: ‘What shall I – ?
What am I? O God – hold on! I’m whatever you want, – a Turk, a
sinner, – A troll – ; but help me; something has burst – !’ (iii, 374)
Peer’s peeling the onion in the last act is one of the most touching
and illuminating moments in the play. When he pulls all the layers
off, he finds no core in its centre. Immediately he says, ‘Nature is
witty’; this ironic utterance suggests that Peer may have suddenly
perceived the truth underlying his life. But troll he still is, as he
quickly dismisses his reflection, saying:
to hell with brooding!
Trudging round your thoughts you can come a cropper.
Well, that’s not something that need worry me
Since I’m already down on all fours. (iii, 397)
Near the end of the play, Peer decides to make his journey back to
his native region in Norway, which is understood as his first step
in turning away from his troll life. He does finally arrive at his log
cabin and is forgiven by Solveig, then an old woman. But does it
mean that Peer has won a victory over his troll philosophy of life?
Xu Xiaozhong (1983a) claims that Peer ‘is a failure, a “null”, he
died’ (p. 52). For Xu, Peer’s salvation is just a wish, embodying the
sympathy and generosity the playwright has for his hero.
45. Chapter Two - China’s Ibsen: Realist, Romantic or Symbolist?
45
The Chinese interpretation of Ibsen’s romanticism does not seem to
be very different from what John Northam understands. In his
essay ‘Ibsen – Romantic, Realist or Symbolist?’, Northam (1976)
says: ‘Romantic means to me a frame of mind, one which is
inclined to accord supremacy of importance to the promptings of
personal intuition. What matters, and what is supremely real and
true to the romantic is what one’s inner self experiences’ (p. 155).
What may seem unusual, however, is that most Chinese critics also
read this play as essentially realistic. ‘It (Peer Gynt) is realistic, in
that it presents a realistic picture of the deep conflict in the
bourgeois world in the 19th century’ (Lu 1984, p. 36). It is under this
same critical ideology that Ibsen was criticized for only pointing out
the problem of being self-centred, without offering any solution.
In Peer Gynt, the writer raises sharply the problem of morality. But
his answer regarding the solution of this problem is essentially
based on idealism and the bourgeois humanism because Ibsen
thinks that ‘wish, love and faith’ can save a degraded soul and solve
the problem of morality. (Xu 1983b, p. 81)
Chinese critics find that the romanticism in this play is distinguishable
in its lyrical scenes and in its seemingly loose structure.
Since it is full of dreams and fantasies, Peer Gynt is usually
described as an ‘extravaganza’ (Sun Jiaxiu 1983, p. 3; Lin Kehuan
1984, p. 100; Xu Xiaozhong 1983a, p. 57). Characteristic of this play
are the imaginary scenes, related to the various experiences Peer
has had in his adventures. The scenes, distant from one another
both in time and space, are imbued with lyricism. Solveig must be
an idealized figure, a symbol of sincerity and forgiveness. She is at
the same time both Peer’s faithful wife and his spiritual mother.
She has a ready answer to the riddle that has so long puzzled Peer.
PEER. Then tell me the answer!
Where was I myself, the entire, true man?
Where did I have God’s mark on my forehead?
46. Henrik Ibsen and Modern Chinese Drama
46
SOLVEIG. In my faith, in my hope, and in my love. (iii, 421)
The play ends with Peer hiding his face in Solveig’s lap and then
the most beautiful ‘Solveig’s Song’ is heard.
If Peer Gynt is remarkable for its individual lyrical scenes, then
where is the unity underneath? Xu Xiaozhong believes it is in
Peer’s action, not externally but internally.
Peer pursues his effort in finding out who he is and the real
significance of being a man, blindly and stubbornly. With this will
and hope, he has been from his homeland to overseas, from paradise
to hell, and from living a man’s life to that of trolls. Throughout his
life he can neither have the heart to destroy nor live life anew. He
has always been walking away from difficulties. Such an action of
Peer is the unifying force among the inserted conflicts, dispersed
opponents and incoherent stories. (Xu 1983a, p.58)
The heated discussions of the romantic Ibsen through Peer Gynt did
not, unfortunately, enable Chinese Ibsenites to apply Ibsen’s
romanticism more thoroughly and generally. Few saw romanticism
in his middle plays, which had been regarded as models of the
realistic drama. But is Dr. Stockmann a mere realist or is he to some
extent a romantic idealist? What about Nora slamming the door?
Did not the writer intend to use it as a symbolic gesture? As to his
later plays, most Chinese critics saw in them the return of his early
romanticism. But no special enquiry has been made as to what
progress Ibsen has made. Ibsen as a romantic, according to Asbjørn
Aarseth, has gone through a process from the early national
romanticism, to ideal romanticism and finally to vital
romanticism.11
Though Chinese critics have failed to identify
11 In his lecture entitled ‘Henrik Ibsen fra nasjonalromantikk til vitalromantikk’ (4
Jan., 2000, Oslo), Asbjørn Aarseth elaborates his idea that Ibsen is first of all a
romantic and describes the progress of the romanticism in Ibsen’s drama from
national romanticism (Catilina to Pretenders), to ideal romanticism (from Brand
to Kejser and Galiljer) and finally to liberal romanticism (from Pillars of Society
to When We Dead Awaken). The last five plays, from Hedda Gabler onwards, are
described as vital romanticism; this last direction comes as a result of influence
from the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
47. Chapter Two - China’s Ibsen: Realist, Romantic or Symbolist?
47
changes in Ibsen’s romanticism, their understanding of the
romantic Ibsen was enhanced incidentally, when his later plays
began to attract greater attention and another aspect of his art
moved into focus, namely, Ibsen’s symbolism.
IbsenIbsenIbsen thethethe symbolistsymbolistsymbolist
Peer Gynt revived Chinese enthusiasm for Ibsen and marked
another climax in the Chinese reception of Ibsen, but it could not in
any way establish a solid platform on which China’s Ibsen could
progress. In other words, Peer Gynt could not enable Chinese
Ibsenites to defend Ibsen when his social realism was challenged.
Not until critics (re)discovered Ibsen’s symbolism did China’s
Ibsen entered a new stage.
The shift of interest towards Ibsen as a symbolist took place when
his later plays began to attract greater attention in the 1980s. Before
then, Ibsen’s later plays had remained largely unnoticed. And the
very mention of them had usually been for illuminating
discussions on Ibsen’s individualism or/and feminism. A typical
example is the interpretation of The Lady from the Sea. All agree that
Ellida is an answer to Nora, but they interpret it differently: Some
think Ellida solves Nora’s problem – She wins her freedom when
she is given the right to choose her partner; others accuse Ibsen of
betraying his earlier rebellious spirit by arranging a compromise
for Ellida.
The reason Ibsen’s later plays did not attract attention in China can
be contributed to critical views that were unfavourable. For Chen
Xiying, The Wild Duck and Rosmersholm are masterpieces, but not
the plays after them. ‘During the years between 1879 and 1886, the
five plays except An Enemy of The People are all remarkable,
progressing successively ... Plays that were written later are as
many as six, but much inferior in quality’ (Chen 1930, p. 55f).
Misunderstanding of Ibsen’s later plays continued in the 1980s. In a
long article ‘Yibusheng he ta de xiju’ (Ibsen and his drama), Sun
Jiaxiu (1982) has the following comment on Ibsen’s Rosmersholm:
48. Henrik Ibsen and Modern Chinese Drama
48
In this play, Ibsen uses the illusion of white horses as a symbol,
which obviously goes together with the theme and the event. But in
fact, the symbol has the play covered with the atmosphere of mysticism
and decadent emotion. We feel that it damages the realistic quality of
the play, and at the same time reflects a negative element in the
writer’s emotion. (p. 80)
In regards to The Lady from the Sea, Sun says that ‘it is inferior both
in thematic content and in dramatic techniques. The mystic colour
here is even denser, which is a reflection of Ibsen’s limitations’ (p.
80). Ibsen’s last play When We Dead Awaken seems to Sun the most
disappointing: “The play has achieved nothing so far as dramatic
techniques are concerned. It lacks dramatic action and life. The
characters are very abstract ... We perhaps can see further how the
limitations in his thinking and emotion have brought Ibsen sadness
and disappointment” (p. 81f). There are many reasons for such
negative responses towards Ibsen’s later plays. The lack of
understanding concerning Ibsen’s use of symbolism is an
important factor.
There have been disagreements regarding how to approach Ibsen’s
symbolism. Should discussions be limited to the later stage of his
dramatic career, namely the plays written after (and including) The
Wild Duck, or should symbolism be regarded as one basic method
in his playwriting? The answer to this question of ‘either/or’ is
simply ‘both/and’, as the two approaches will later be shown as
not contradictory but complementary in the Chinese interpretation.
In 1984, Chen Maiping 陈迈平 published an essay ‘Yibusheng xiju
zhong de xiangzheng’ (Symbols in Ibsen’s Drama) in Xiju Xuexi
(Drama Studies). The essay has three subtitles, which are worth
quoting: first, ‘Symbolism is the basic tendency in Ibsen’s
playwriting’; second, ‘Why must Ibsen use symbolism’; and third,
‘A re-interpretation of Ibsen and modern drama from the
perspective of symbolism’. The first section of Chen’s essay
explicitly states that ‘though Ibsen’s dramatic career is usually
divided into the periods of Romanticism, Realism and Symbolism,
the use of symbolism is one of his basic methods in playwriting’
(Chen 1984, p. 39). Symbols are abundant in Ibsen’s plays, and
symbolism plays an important part in his dramaturgy. In some
49. Chapter Two - China’s Ibsen: Realist, Romantic or Symbolist?
49
plays, dramatic actions are symbols. Besides, the reiteration of
symbolic objects often serves to build up tension and formulate
dramatic rhythms. Next, Chen refers to Lukacs:
It is obvious that Ibsen’s use of symbolism is different from that of
other great modern writers. Whether the symbol is an object (the
orphanage in Ghosts, the wild duck, and the tower in The Master
Builder), a character (the stranger in The Lady from the Sea), a
belief, or an illusion (the white horse in Rosmersholm), they appear
so frequently in many different scenes that they have a variety of
meanings. (p. 41)
The second section begins with a quotation from Plekhanov: ‘The
whole problem is why Ibsen has to use symbolism’. Chen’s answer
is simple: ‘Ibsen’s thought goes beyond reality and enters into the
sphere of abstraction, but he won’t stay there. Instead of being a
thinker and philosopher, Ibsen is determined to be a poet,
expressing his thoughts with poetic language and illustrating his
philosophical ideas in dramatic images’ (p. 42).
In the third section, Chen comes to evaluate Ibsen’s achievement in
the light of symbolism. In his opinion, Ibsen’s drama is another
milestone in the development of western drama, in that Ibsen
dresses up his ideas and then sends them to stage front. For
Aristotle, plot comes first; in Shakespeare, plot gives way to
character; and with Ibsen, ideas are most distinguishable. Ibsen’s
‘drama of ideas’, according to Chen, is inseparable from his use of
symbolism. But it seems to me that Chen, like many others, is not fully
aware of the danger of overestimating the symbolic aspects of Ibsen’s
characterization, that is, turning characters into ‘skeletons’ of ideas.
Another more detailed analysis of Ibsen’s symbolism was made in
a doctoral dissertation (Liu Minghou, 1994) under the title
‘Yibusheng de Xiangzheng Zhuyi Xiju’ (Ibsen’s Symbolic Plays).
Instead of generalizing about the characteristics of Ibsen’s
symbolism, Liu conducts a careful reading of various symbols,
major as well as minor, in Ibsen’s later plays: ‘The white horse’
(Rosmersholm) is a symbol of the past, and the fate of both Rosmer
and Rebecca is dependent on it. The ‘tower’ (The Master Builder) is a
symbol of ideal and hope. That Solness falls down from the top of
50. Henrik Ibsen and Modern Chinese Drama
50
the tower and dies symbolizes his inability to overcome his
problems. By comparing Ibsen’s later symbolic plays with his
middle social ones, Liu finds a shift of focus from the outer world
to inner conflicts. She thinks that Ibsen’s symbolic plays are built
upon psychological realism. The characterization of Hedda Tesman
is a good example. Hedda is, in her view, a tortured and alienated
woman. Born with desires to own and control, she is made to
experience successively failures and disappointments. That she has
to shoot herself in the end is shown as a result of her inner conflicts,
externalized in her relationships with mainly the three males, her
husband Jørgen Tesman, her former lover poet Eilert Løvborg and
her admirer assessor Brack. Among the various symbols, Liu
discusses how the pistols, the ones she inherited from her army-
general father, have played an important role in the play. Liu
regards Hedda Gabler as one of Ibsen’s best plays.
In a letter to his Danish publisher Frederik Hegel12
, Ibsen
mentioned that he employed a new method in his ‘new’ play The
Wild Duck: ‘This new play occupies in some ways, a unique
position among my dramatic works. The method differs in certain
respects from that which I have previously employed’ (Meyer 1971,
p. 38). Many critics see the method Ibsen spoke of here as
symbolism. But didn’t Ibsen use symbolism in his first play Catilina?
Aren’t Aurelia and Furia surrounding the hero in that play
intended symbolically? In Brand and Peer Gynt, Ibsen was able to
use symbolism freely. What is new in the symbolism of The Wild Duck
is perhaps, according to Michael Meyer, that this is ‘a play dependent
on, and held together by, a symbol’ (p. 47). His increasing resort to
symbolism characterizes Ibsen’s dramatic art. Northam (1976) claims:
‘Ibsen does not reach the apex of his art until he can make symbolism
not just a working method but the actual subject of his drama’ (p. 161).
It is this progress in Ibsen’s use of symbolism that many Chinese
critics have failed to grasp in their interpretations.
12 Some Chinese critics, such as Xiao Qian, mistook this Danish publisher Hegel
for the great German philosopher Hegel (Xiao Qian 1981, p. 75). The latter died
in 1831, three years after Ibsen was born.
