Fine Time, Fine Scenery -- Selected Plays by Zhao Yaomin

Author: Zhao Yaomin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-06-01
Features: Bohemians of the metropolis. Their thoughts wander at the edge of the familiar structure and order. In the late 1970s, they were the spiritual offspring of the academic culture of the language carnival era. Detached from our lived experience, they confront our spiritual essence. In the pre-set allegorical theatrical settings, they stumble and falter but achieve nothing, becoming objects of sarcastic ridicule. They appear freer than those around them, a self-voicing freedom lost in survival space, abandoned by the secular world. Abstract and concrete, the mocking wit of Zhuang De, the real and the fantastical, the playfully mocking and the petty bourgeoisie's poetic sensibility are collage and interwoven in the same frame. Experience the unique melancholy of midnight, sing the solitary figures under the night sky. The alarm clock plays tricks with time, the genius and the madman are one. The proud city Cinderella, filled with the dreamy charm of romance. The rider of the red horse, where is the red horse? Deep in their hearts, a white flame burns, stirring them restless yet unnoticed by ordinary people. It's hard to imagine that those witty and enduring thoughts could come from a head with half-closed eyes, a dazed gaze, and always looking as if just woken up, with loose hair.