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Wu Zuguang

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Wu Zuguang
Native name
吴祖光
Born(1917-04-21)21 April 1917
Beijing, China
Died9 April 2003(2003-04-09) (aged 85)
Beijing, China
OccupationPlaywright, film director and social critic
LanguageChinese
Alma materSino-French University
Period1937–2003
Literary movementNew Culture Movement
Notable worksCity of Phoenix,
Return on a Snowy Night,
The Soul of the Nation,
Itinerant Players
Spouse
Lü En
​
​
(m. 1946; div. 1950)​

​
​
(m. 1951; invalid reason 1998)​
Children3

Template:Chinese name

Wu Zuguang (Chinese: 吴祖光; Wade–Giles: Wu Tsu-kuang; 21 April 1917 – 9 April 2003) was a Chinese playwright, film director and social critic, who achieved a legendary reputation in Chinese literary circles.[1] He authored more than 40 plays and film scripts,[2] including City of Phoenix, one of the most influential plays during the Japanese invasion of China, and Return on a Snowy Night, which is considered his masterpiece. He directed The Soul of the Nation, Hong Kong's first colour film, based on his own historical drama, Song of Righteousness.

He was even better known as an outspoken critic of China's cultural policies,[3] both of the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Communist governments, and was repeatedly persecuted as a result. He fled to Hong Kong in 1945 to avoid being captured by KMT agents, and returned to China after the foundation of the People's Republic China in 1949. He was denounced as a "rightist" during the Anti-Rightist Movement and performed hard labour in the "Great Northern Wilderness" for three years, and was again persecuted during the Cultural Revolution. His wife, the celebrated pingju actress Xin Fengxia, refused to divorce him and became disabled after undergoing beatings and forced labour. Despite these ordeals, Wu continued to criticize government censorship and call for political freedom, and was widely admired for his moral conviction.[1]

Early life

Wu was born on 21 April 1917 to a prominent scholar-official family in Beijing, with ancestral roots in Changzhou, Jiangsu. His grandfather Wu Zhiying (吴稚英) was a muliao of the Qing dynasty reformer Zhang Zhidong and participated in the Xinhai Revolution.[4] His father Wu Ying (吴瀛) was a founder and curator of the Beijing Palace Museum.[4][5] He was born in the home of his grand-uncle Zhuang Yunkuan, a minister of the Republic of China government.[4]

In 1935, Wu entered Sino-French University[a] in Beijing. The next year, his relative, a playwright who opened a drama school in China's then capital Nanjing, persuaded him to move there and teach at his school. He met several people who later became prominent dramatists, including Cao Yu and Chen Zhice.[4]

Wartime career

When the Japanese invaded China in 1937, Wu wrote the patriotic war play City of Phoenix (凤凰城), which made him a famous name in China at age 20. It was one of the most performed dramas during the eight-year war.[4] He later wrote several critically acclaimed plays, including Return on a Snowy Night, which is considered his masterpiece. His works are strongly influenced by the May Fourth New Culture Movement.[1]

As eastern China fell to the Japanese, he moved to the wartime capital Chongqing, where he worked as an editor for the Xinmin Wanbao newspaper. In 1945, he published Mao Zedong's now famous poem "Snow: to the Tune of Garden in Full Spring", which caused the ire of the Kuomintang government.[1] He escaped to British Hong Kong to avoid being captured by KMT agents, and made a living writing screenplays and making films. He directed The Soul of the Nation (国魂), Hong Kong's first colour film, based on his historical drama, Song of Righteousness, about the Song dynasty patriot Wen Tianxiang. He also made Return on a Snowy Night into a film,[1] as well as two others.[4] In 1946, Wu married the actress Lü En (吕恩) in Shanghai.[6]

Early People's Republic

Wu Zuguang and wife Xin Fengxia

After the Mao's Communists won the Civil War and established the People's Republic of China in 1949, Wu returned to Beijing. Like many intellectuals at the time, he held high hopes for the new People's Republic which finally restored peace in a united China after decades of war and division.[7] He wanted to return to writing plays, but was assigned by the government to direct Song of the Red Flag, a film about women textile workers. As he had no experience with factory life, it took him a year to finish the film, which he considered a "worthless failure."[7] He and Lü En divorced amicably in 1950, due to differences in personality and interests.[6]

In 1951, his friend Lao She introduced him to the famous pingju opera performer Xin Fengxia, who had acted in one of Wu's plays and admired his talent. They married that year, even though she had no formal education and was nearly illiterate.[7][8] Wu helped her to study reading, writing, and calligraphy.[8][9]

During this period he made the Peking opera film Goddess of the Luo River (洛神) and Mei Lanfang and His Stage Art, a documentary about Mei Lanfang. He also wrote the Peking operas Three Beatings of Tao Sanchun (三打陶三春) and San Guan Yan (三关宴).[4]

Persecution

Family portrait

The good time did not last. Wu was denounced in 1957 as a "rightist" in Mao Zedong's Anti-Rightist Movement, and was sent to the Great Northern Wilderness in Heilongjiang to be "reformed through labour."[3][9] His "crime" was to criticize the Communist Party's control of the theatre and to argue that the neihang (experts) should have a greater role in such matters. He was denounced as an enemy of the Party, even by his renowned colleague Tian Han. Tian later referenced Wu's work approvingly, which is seen by some as an implicit apology,[10] and was himself persecuted to death. Xin Fengxia was pressured to divorce him, but refused. Citing a legendary love story from one of her operas, she said "Wang Baochuan waited 18 years for Xue Pinggui, and I will wait 28 years for Wu Zuguang."[8][9] As a result, she was herself labeled a rightist and went through struggle sessions.[8]

Wu returned to Beijing after three years of hard labour, but six years later, China fell into the even greater turmoil of the Cultural Revolution, which began in 1966.[8] Xin Fengxia and Wu Zuguang were both denounced at the beginning of the period. She became disabled below her left knee after a severe beating. Their friend Lao She drowned himself after being similarly tortured.[7] Wu and Xin both served years of forced labour.[2][9] In December 1975, she became paralyzed after suffering a stroke, and Wu took care of her for the rest of her life.[9]

Post-Cultural Revolution

After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Wu was politically rehabilitated in 1980[3] and inducted into the Communist Party, an event he described as "neither an occasion for laughter or tears."[11] and his publication ban was lifted after two decades.[3] His play Itinerant Players (闯江湖), based on Xin Fengxia's experiences,[4] was performed that year.[2]

Wu was in general loyal to Deng Xiaoping's government, but continued to be an outspoken critic. In 1983, he dismissed Deng's Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign as futile.[3] In September 1986, he read an essay at a meeting of the Chinese Writers' Association, entitled "Against Those Who Wield the Scissors—a Plea for an End to Censorship". It was enthusiastically received by the audience, but only a censored version was published, minus 1,000 "acrimonious" characters.[12] After the December 1986 student demonstrations that soon followed, he was pressured to leave the Communist Party in 1987.[12] Retired Politburo member Hu Qiaomu came to his home in person to demand his resignation from the party. He obliged, as he did not think he was "the sort of person who should be in the party."[11] In spring 1989, Wu signed a petition calling for greater political freedom. Following the army crackdown of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, Wu called for a reassessment of the incident, but was forbidden to speak at a CPPCC meeting.[2]

Xin Fengxia died on 12 April 1998, during a trip to Changzhou, Wu's ancestral hometown.[7] He was devastated by the loss and his health quickly deteriorated. He suffered three strokes in the next few years, and died on 9 April 2003.[4]

Children

Wu Zuguang and Xin Fengxia had three children.[7] Their son Wu Huan is also a writer, painter, and calligrapher. After the deaths of Wu Zuguang, he organized the exhibition "A Hundred Years of the Wu Family" at the Poly Art Museum in Beijing. It was also held in France, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Ying, Li-hua (2010). The A to Z of Modern Chinese Literature. Scarecrow Press. pp. 211–2. ISBN 978-1-4617-3187-0.
  2. ^ a b c d Sullivan, Lawrence R. (2007). Historical Dictionary of the People's Republic of China. Scarecrow Press. pp. 574–5. ISBN 978-0-8108-6443-6.
  3. ^ a b c d e Jones, Derek (2001). Censorship: A World Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. p. 9538. ISBN 978-1-136-79863-4.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i "吴欢吴霜忆父亲吴祖光：旷世才情不平则鸣". Ta Kung Pao. 19 May 2013.
  5. ^ a b "Exhibition Displays Wu Family Achievements". Cultural-china.com. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  6. ^ a b "北京人艺表演艺术家吕恩逝世". Xinhua. 17 August 2012. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ a b c d e f Wu Zuguang (9 April 2014). "回首与新凤霞的往事". Sohu (in Chinese). {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ a b c d e "新凤霞与吴祖光的绝世爱情". Chongqing News (in Chinese). 21 August 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ a b c d e Lee, Lily Xiao Hong; Stefanowska, A. D. (2003). Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women: The Twentieth Century, 1912–2000. M.E. Sharpe. pp. 597–9. ISBN 978-0-7656-0798-0.
  10. ^ Wagner, Rudolf G. (1990). The Contemporary Chinese Historical Drama: Four Studies. University of California Pres s. pp. 67–68. ISBN 978-0-520-05954-2.
  11. ^ a b Seymour Topping (27 December 1987). "Thaw and Freeze and Thaw Again: the Cultural Weather in China".
  12. ^ a b Martin, Helmut; Kinkley, Jeffrey C.; Ba, Jin (1992). Modern Chinese Writers: Self-portrayals. M.E. Sharpe. pp. 34–41. ISBN 978-0-87332-817-3.
  1. ^ Founded in the Qing Dynasty and known as l'Université Franco-Chinoise in French, the campus is located in present-day Dongcheng District in Beijing, on the northeast corner of the Forbidden City; after the founding of the People's Republic it served as a campus for the Huabei University, then its operations were ultimately merged into the Beijing Institute of Technology.

Further reading

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