A Suitcase (一口箱子
) - A Play by the Taiwan-based Chinese Playwright Yao Yi-wei ( 姚一葦)
In the summer of 1977, the bilingual
(English-Chinese) journal Street / Jietou, edited by the Culture Study
Group at Tamkang College in Tamshui under the direction of Wei Lan-de
(=AW) published an article by the director, playwright and scholar Mei-shu
HUANG on HUANG's staging of Yao Yi-wei's play "A Suitcase" ( 一口箱子
, Yikou xiangzi), accompanied by a review of the performance written
by André Jadis. Because the journal was suppressed by the Guomindang regime
subsequent to the publication of the issue focused on Yao Yi-wei, P'ai
Ch'iu, Yang Kwei and others, and because hardly any libraries can be assumed
to possess copies, both articles are now made accessible again in Art
in Society # 15.
See: Mei-shu HUANG, "Directing
A
Suitcase"
and: A. JADIS, "Yao
Yi-wei's A Suitcase" (The pages of this text open slowly because of
jpg.files)
Yao Yi-wei's A Suitcase (一口箱子
).
Book cover?
In order to facilitate academic research, the non-profit journal
Art in Society has opted to provide a link
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=13&ved=0CE8QFjAM&url=
http%3A%2F%2Fculture.teldap.tw%2Fculture%2Findex.php%3Foption%3Dcom_content%26view%
3Darticle%26catid%3D161%3Alanguages-and-multimedia%26id%3D2148%3Ayao-yi-wei-the-
mentor-of-a-generation-in-taiwanese-theatre-arts&ei=AbcYVJ_xMM6g7AbKuYHwAw&usg=AFQjC
NELCFhJwdLkRlny93Rnm0I6SF8yeQ&sig2=YSDgr7qrSDoGpH6bUpNrBQ&bvm=bv.75558745,bs.1,d.
bGQ
to a short synopsis (in English) of some of Yao Yi-wei's fourteen
(?) plays.
We also provide a copy of this web content, in case the link has become
obsolete.
DIGITAL TAIWAN – Culture &
nature
Yao Yi-Wei (姚一葦), the “Mentor
of a Generation” in Taiwanese Theatre Arts
Professor Yi-Wei Yao, born Gong-Wei
Yao (April 5, 1922 – April 11, 1997), grew up near Poyang Lake in Jiangxi
Province, China. At the age of 16 in 1938, he entered Jian Middle School.
Not long after though, several years of successive warring began and he
was forced to move with the school. Finally he was admitted to Xiamen University
and made the school his new home. After graduating in 1946, Yao moved to
Taiwan to work. However, political turmoil soon erupted in China, resulting
in Taiwan being diplomatically cut off from the mainland. It was not until
51 years later, in 1989, that Yao was able to visit his home in China again.
Yao worked at Bank of Taiwan for
36 years. Throughout his life, Yao found immense pleasure in reading at
his leisure time. He aspired in creative writings and teaching, and firmly
believed in the spirit of traditional humanities and classical aesthetics.
His studies were rigorous and his creative concepts far-reaching. Yao was
an accomplished writer in the areas of stage play, aesthetics, theory,
critique and essay. Starting in the 1950s, he participated in editing important
literary publications such as “Literary Review” and “Modern Literature.”
Through his work, he endeavored to discover new talents and nurtured the
young generation. Because of these efforts, Yao was called “a torch-bearer
in the dark night” in the literary circles.
With regard to theatre education,
Yao began teaching the arts when he was 35. For over twenty years, he taught
at such schools as Fu Hsing Kang College, National Taiwan University of
Arts (formerly National Taiwan Academy of Arts), as well as the Graduate
School of Arts and Department of Film and Theatre in Chinese Culture University
(formerly College of Chinese Culture). In 1982, he was able to retire early
from the Bank of Taiwan, giving him time to put all his efforts into the
preparations for opening the new National Institute of the Arts and establishing
the Institute’s theatre department. He was the department’s first head
and the first Dean of Academic Affairs. Yao dedicated himself to education
for 40 years, nurturing countless future leaders. In particular, he presided
over five seasons of contemporary experimental Taiwanese theatre exhibitions
which cultivated numerous practitioners in the fields of the arts and education.
He is widely renowned by theatre practitioners as “the mentor of a generation.”
Even though Yao used historical
materials from the Song Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period in his
plays The Emerald Bodhisattvas and The Crown Prince Shensheng, he was able
to create a clever balance between the traditional and contemporary. In
his pieces Let's Start Again and Suitcase, he was able to expose a new
reflection on people’s inner-orientation through his methodical use of
metaphor and symbolism.
Play Title: The Emerald Bodhisattvas
(January 12, 1985)
In 1967, Yao used Cui Ning’s
(崔寧) jade carving to break through the dust-covered soul of the secular
world’s normalcy to reveal the original beauty (or benevolence) that
humankind possesses. As an orphan living with a distant relative called
County Mayor Han (韓郡王), Cui Ning lives far from his homeland. At
one point, County Mayor comes into possession of a beautiful piece of jade.
Cui Ning volunteers to help County Mayor sculpt the jade piece into a carving
of the goddess of mercy Guanyin (觀音) so that County Mayor may give
the carving to the empress dowager as an honorable birthday gift. The resulting
carving of Guanyin bears a striking resemblance to County Mayor’s only
child, his daughter Xiu Xiu (秀秀). After discovering Cui Ning’s
inadvertent expression of his deep adoration of Xiu Xiu via the Guanyin
carving, County Mayor and his wife decide to give Cui Ning a sum of money
and send him away to prevent him from affecting Xiu Xiu’s future. But
instead of preventing a relationship from happening, Xiu Xiu instead decides
to run away with Cui Ning. The couple runs a jade carving shop for two
years, but during the second year they are discovered by the Han family
housekeeper. Upon being discovered, Xiu Xiu decides that in order to save
the lives of her beloved Cui Ning and their children she must take her
children and return home with the housekeeper. After thirteen years of
raising her children on her own, Xiu Xiu hears the old sound of Cui Ning’s
reed organ floating in the wind and orders her maid to investigate, only
to discover that the organ-blower is a blind beggar. The beggar has no
means to repay the kindness of Xiu Xiu when she provides food to him, so
he gives her a piece of carved jade in gratefulness. To protect her children’s
welfare, Xiu Xiu pretends not to recognize the beggar as Chi Ning even
when he is dying. It is not until Cui Ning passes away that Xiu Xiu finally
feels regret. She feels that Cui Ning was in love with the Xiu Xiu of his
dreams, but that Xiu Xiu of his dreams simply does not exist.
Play Title: The Crown Prince
Shensheng (November 27, 1991)
(申生) is a historical drama
published in 1971. The setting for the play is set 2,500 years ago in the
Jin Dynasty of China’s Spring and Autumn Period. According to historical
records, Duke Xian of Jin (晉獻公) was obsessed with women and wine
in his old age and doted on Concubine Li Ji (驪姬) of the Li Rong (驪戎)
tribe. Li Ji gave birth to their son Xiqi (奚齊). Duke Xian, however,
already had several other heirs, Prince Shensheng, Prince Chonger (重耳)
and Prince Yiwu (夷吾). Li Ji carried a secret ambition to become Duke
Xian’s first wife and in 655 BC framed Shensheng so that he committed
suicide. She also forced Chonger and Yiwu to flee the state. When Duke
Xian died in 651 BC, Xiqi ascended the throne. But one of the state chancellors,
Li Ke (里克), gathered up supporters of the other princes and started
wreaking havoc in the state, eventually killing Xiqi. The script follows
the general storyline of the actual events but with particular emphasis
on parts involving Concubine Li Ji. At the start of the first act, Prince
Shensheng has just returned from successfully leading an army to wipe out
Dongshan. But this victory does not bring good fortune to the brave, strong
and well-loved warrior. Instead, it just increases Concubine Li Ji’s
vicious desires, forcing her to take action to eliminate Prince Shensheng
in order to allow her own son Xiqi to become heir to the throne. She conspires
with her trusted confidant, the duke’s jester Youshi (優施), creating
a plan to frame Prince Shensheng by making the duke believe Prince Shensheng
is attempting to kill the duke with poison. When the plan succeeds, the
duke is furious. Prince Shensheng has no way to redeem himself from the
lies and so quietly hangs himself. Xiqi then smoothly steps into the role
of the duke’s heir. The events following this actually have the opposite
outcome of what Concubine Li Ji desires: she is not at all happy. Instead,
all day and all night she is haunted by the figure of Prince Shensheng,
and she begins to feel very ill at ease. Several years later, the duke
dies and Xiqi ascends the throne only to be killed by rebel forces soon
after. With all that has happened, after seeing all she has worked for
disappear in the blink of an eye, Concubine Li Ji goes mad and kills herself
in the palace.
Play title: Let’s Start Again
(June 27, 1995)
In 1993 when Yao was 71, the play
was published by Unitas Udngroup. Not only is it Yao’s last written play;
the piece was directed by Yao when he reached the age of 73. The play concerns
a married couple on the verge of disintegration, striving to restore their
marriage but failing. Twenty years later, the pair meets again by chance,
triggering a series of reflections. From the point of view of the plot,
Let's Start Again seems to be a play about marriage issues. The two main
characters, Qiong Jin (金瓊) and David Ding (丁大衛), used to be married
but divorced because of conflicting beliefs. Twenty years after breaking
up, they meet by chance in a tourist hotel when they are both abroad. The
two open up their hearts and tell each other of all the desperate changes
they went through in the breakup. During this intimate conversation, their
relationship gets a new chance to grow.
Play title: [A]Suitcase(May
25, 2007)
Suitcase was Yao’s sixth published
play. Yao wrote it in 1973 after completing his research in the University
of Iowa’s International Writing Program. In almost every instance, the
theatrical language of his first five plays included the singing or odes
of poetic literature. But Suitcase was different in that it was comprised
completely of purely spoken language. The theatrical action of Suitcase
is the undying love Ah San (阿三) has for his suitcase results in his
being chased and eventually killed. The play is made up of four scenes.
The first scene presents the two main characters of the play: Ah San and
his partner. Through their fairly aimless dialogue, the audience learns
of their background and that the two are unemployed. The second scene takes
place in a noisy and crowded restaurant. The newspapers and radios are
all reporting on the disappearance of a suitcase which holds radium for
use in medical therapy and that there is a 20,000 NTD reward for the suitcase’s
return. The people in the restaurant all mistake Ah San’s suitcase for
the missing one and begin to scuffle with Ah San and his partner. This
scene is used to foreshadow Ah San’s tragic fate in the future. The third,
and most important, scene takes place in an ancient temple. The psychological
background and childhood experiences of the two main characters are revealed
when they talk in their sleep. Finally, they head to the wharf to hide
from the police and the people from the restaurant who are chasing them.
The fourth scene takes place in the abandoned ruins of the wharf’s lookout
post. The two main characters cannot escape from the chasing horde. To
prove their innocence, Ah San’s partner tries to convince Ah San to open
his suitcase while Ah San hysterically refuses. As the two wrestle over
the suitcase, Ah San and the suitcase both fall to the ground. An inspector
opens the suitcase to find old clothes, children’s toys, books, and an
award certificate. At this point, they discover that Ah San, lying on the
ground, has died. This is the tragedy’s climax and dénouement.
Text and images are provided by
Digital Collection of Originality in Theatre of Yi-Wei Yao, Chi-Mei Wang
and Stan Lai and School of Theatre Arts, Taipei National University of
the Arts
See also this information
on the playwright:
http://e-theatreen.teldap.tw/yi-wei-yao
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