話劇史における飜譯劇とその上演 : 一九三〇年までの場合

Abstract

When we refer to Chinese modern drama 話劇, obviously we can't ignore the existence of translated play 飜譯劇. The translation and performance of these translated plays from the Wenming-xi 文明戯 period to the foundation of Zuolian 左聯 in 1930 are controversial. This paper tries to probe into the causes and to clarify the meanings of translated plays in the history of Chinese modern drama. In the Wenming-xi period, theatrical performances were very succesful considering the poor literary translations of foreign plays. The main two reasons for the success are : 1. Xinhai Revolution 辛亥革命 brought about an open social atmosphere and audiences were interested in foreign things; 2. Acting troupe chose translated plays in order to increase business. Although literary translations were excellent, their performances were very poor after the May 4th Movement 五四運動 on the contrary. Here some factors could be taken into account : First, people attached more importance to literary translation over the theatrical performance; Second, many translated plays were too short for performance; Third, due to the cultural difference, there was a barrier of understanding of the Chinese audience to the translated plays; Fourth, cinema became popular and its influence was stong, etc. But after all, the key cause is that European Realism theatre was not ripe because the 1920s was the era that Chinese modern drama grew to maturity. On the other hand, because of lack of creative play 創作劇 during this period, we can find a meaningful fact : the first ripe modern drama theatre came from a translated play, famous Lady Windermere's Fan, by Oscar Wilde. From the above-mentioned examination, we have learned that the performance of translated plays was simply due to the external factors such as audience and business in Wenming-xi period, but to internal factor of unripe theatre later. Actually accompanied by decrease in the number of theatrical performances, this shift means that translated plays have got their own dramatic meaning at last. It is certain that as a complement of creative play, translated plays did take an important part in the process of riping of Chinese modern drama.