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Mandarin Chinese to English: The Story Behind “Cao Yu’s Special 110 Year Old Commemoration Event” General field: Other Detailed field: Cinema, Film, TV, Drama
Source text - Mandarin Chinese 数万粉丝涌入直播间，不仅看到了久未露面的偶像，更观赏到一场由曹禺、万方名篇串联起的戏剧盛宴。「原来剧场那么好的」、「我要去剧场看一次」等令话剧人兴奋的声音涌现在评论中。
Translation - English Tens of thousands of fans flood into the live broadcast, not only to see their idol, who had not been seen for a while, but also to enjoy a feast of plays strung together by Cao Yu and Wan Fang. Exclamations such as “I didn’t know plays were this amazing” and “I want to watch at least once in the theaters” were seen in the scrolling comments.
This was the first time the theater attempted live broadcast. Wang Keran was not sure whether this attempt could aptly showcase the difference between plays and television dramas – how it is done “live” and how it can interact with the audience, “but what I know is, in this day and age, most audience choose to watch online, hence I will use this method to showcase the charm of theaters.”
Wang Keran’s thought was – how do we commemorate Cao Yu? “Can it be considered a commemoration by simply acting his works on stage?” He felt that something was simply missing.
He wanted a youth, to raise questions on Cao Yu’s works – and via these questions, highlight the vitality that links up the stories and the lives of our youth.
Wang Keran feels that, as classics, there should be a certain core vitality to it that crosses time, and touches the hearts of people regardless of the era. If they did not create the chance for the youth to understand the classics, it might instead create estrangements and misunderstandings.
The Chinese Central Drama Group used “Cao Yu’s Special 110 Year Commemoration Event” as the starting point to begin the conversation, in hopes of resonating with the audience.
Wang Keran said “The core of the conversation is, can Cao Yu’s works still stir up people’s emotions?”
The commemorative segment on Wan Fang and Xiao Zhan’s “Conversation of Two Eras” was birthed under such a thought.
As the daughter of renowned author Cao Yu, as well as a famous playwright in her own right, Wan Fang has an open attitude. She felt that this should be a question to be left to actors “On one hand, classics that has the hallmark of its era, but on the other hand, its influence also goes beyond its era. How do you portray that? How do you face new audiences?”
The emphasis on “current”, is a special feature of the Chinese Central Drama Group.
According to statistics for the audiences of Chinese Central Drama Group, 60% are aged 18 to 40, 70% are below 45, 90% are below 55. This is related to Wang Keran’s view on theater, to him, the audiences are able to project their mental rhythm onto the stories portrayed in theaters, “Plays are always reflecting the spiritual unrest of the people now, under the current circumstances.”
For many late nights, Wang Keran spent time with pop culture. He saw all kinds of popular works, fantasy literature, and also books recommended by the interns in the theater. He is 50 this year, and hence it was difficult for him to be interested in some of the works, but he still persisted, “I feel that as someone who is in performing arts, if I can’t communicate with teenagers, that I’ll be really old. My age is like this, but my expressions cannot cause the youth to feel that there is a gap between us.”
Before this live broadcast attempt, he already started using TV celebrities on stage. Starting from “Watching TV with You” (TN: A play), he has invited stars from all age groups to leave their mark on the Chinese Central Drama Group.
This was not a mere commercial consideration. Wang Keran felt, plays are an art of “actor”. In the history of Chinese Opera and theater history, it is common to be headlined by the actor, and fans attending for the sake of the actor is almost traditional.
“Which of the Chinese plays were not acted by the biggest star of that era? If the star is suitable, we would invite him/her. I need the star, I just need him/her to stand there, so that more people would believe and understand the charm of the theater.”
In stirring up the interests of young audiences, he always had this optimistic faith – “Many youth, while exploring why that pudding is delicious, is also exploring why pain and suffering descends upon them, why happiness is like a bright light, momentary but yet gives so much deeply enjoyable emotions to themselves.”
When Cao Yu wrote “Thunder Rain”, he was also a youth. When “Thunder Rain” premiered in China on 1935, it was organized by Gusong Drama Group from Tianjin City Normal School, and the 25 year old Cao Yu went to direct the rehearsals. All the actors were students, the set came from the school shed, they rehearsed during the summer break and acted in the school hall.
No matter it was via a popular celebrity, or via live broadcast, Wang Keran wanted to share and introduce theater to more youths.
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Born in Singapore, I went through a systematic education in both languages, and as such, both English and Chinese are my native languages. My professional background is in Computer Science and Information Technology, in the Banking and Finance industry. Throughout my career, I have had to work with Chinese vendors and outsourcing companies, and would have to do translation work on technical documentation once in a while.
In my free time, I translate magazines and articles for my hobby.
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