Sunshine Paradise - The Golden Dream of Cao Yu's Drama

Author: Zhu Jun, Pan Xiaoxi, Xing Yan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-10-01
Features: The great playwright Cao Yu is both a pride and achievement of Chinese theater and the most prominent figure in Chinese drama to date, yet he is not a flawless, pinnacle cultural icon. As a purely academic text focused on close reading, this book aims to explore and generate academic propositions of genuine value and life from the inherent cultural connotations and humanistic depth of Cao Yu's dramatic works. The plot and life models in Cao Yu's plays—“darkness of hell on earth + revolution in an authoritarian society + rebellion in a patriarchal family + pursuit of romantic love + self-sacrifice for love + punishment of sin in accordance with the Mandate of Heaven + salvation by a divine savior + transcendence to paradise”—largely represent a comprehensive reactivation and reintegration of the collective “primitive emotions” and “remnants of savagery” in Chinese society. In his later years, Cao Yu repeatedly reflected on the religiousized life model of first upholding the Mandate of Heaven and engaging in revolutionary struggles, then achieving enlightenment and transcending the mortal realm in a series of prose works. This was, in essence, a rational subversion and deconstruction of his own worldview, which combined the “human way” of hell on earth with the “divine way” of paradise. The parent project of this book, “Modern Drama and Religious Culture,” was part of the “Nineth Five-Year Plan” research project at the Chinese Academy of Arts.
The great playwright Cao Yu is both a pride and achievement of Chinese theater and the most prominent figure in Chinese drama to date, yet he is not a flawless, pinnacle cultural icon. As a purely academic text focused on close reading, this book aims to explore and generate academic propositions of genuine value and life from the inherent cultural connotations and humanistic depth of Cao Yu's dramatic works. The plot and life models in Cao Yu's plays—“darkness of hell on earth + revolution in an authoritarian society + rebellion in a patriarchal family + pursuit of romantic love + self-sacrifice for love + punishment of sin in accordance with the Mandate of Heaven + salvation by a divine savior + transcendence to paradise”—largely represent a comprehensive reactivation and reintegration of the collective “primitive emotions” and “remnants of savagery” in Chinese society. In his later years, Cao Yu repeatedly reflected on the religiousized life model of first upholding the Mandate of Heaven and engaging in revolutionary struggles, then achieving enlightenment and transcending the mortal realm in a series of prose works. This was, in essence, a rational subversion and deconstruction of his own worldview, which combined the “human way” of hell on earth with the “divine way” of paradise. The parent project of this book, “Modern Drama and Religious Culture,” was part of the “Nineth Five-Year Plan” research project at the Chinese Academy of Arts.