This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

Chinese Theater Collaborative Main Menu About Resources for Plays Description of page Media Types and Opera Styles How to Teach With Chinese Theater Collaborative

Dou E Before Execution

This page is referenced by:

The Injustice to Dou E
窦娥冤 (1959)

Pu Opera Film
Director: Zhang Xinshi 張辛實

LINKS TO THE FILM

A link to the film with Chinese subtitles for arias (traditional).

INFORMATION

Name: The Injustice to Dou E / Dou E Yuan 窦娥冤
Year: 1959
Director: Zhang Xinshi張辛實 (1916-1984)
Producer: Changchun Film Studio
Script: Southern Shanxi Drama Association 山西晉南戲劇協會, Southern Shanxi Pu Opera Troupe 山西蒲劇院
Cast: Wang Xiulan 王秀蘭 (as Dou E), Yan Fengchun 閆逢春 (as Dou Tianzhang), Xiao Yuanna筱媛娜 (as Mother Cai), Wu Yongsheng吳永勝 (as Zhang Lü’er), Xiao Yuelai筱月來 (as Zhang Lü’er’s father), Yang Hushan楊虎山 (as Tao Wu), Zhang Qingkui張慶奎 (as Execution Overseer)
Language: Chinese Mandarin and Shanxi Dialect
Duration: 100 minutes
Subtitles : Mix of traditional and simplified characters. Interestingly, the Chinese subtitles that are featured in the original version of the film during arias (to assist comprehension) are rendered in mostly traditional instead of simplified characters. Even though the transition from traditional to simplified characters had begun in 1956, implementation of the new system, especially in typeface used in relation to classical literary and dramatic texts, was not yet complete. There is one exception: the Chinese character Dou (窦) is simplified in aria subtitles. Using simpler versions of complex characters is not necessarily a modern practice, as there are multiple conventional cases of such simplification long before the systematic simplification of Chinese characters carried out in the 1950s. To accord with the source text, the character Dou remains simplified throughout this module.

INTRODUCTION

The 1959 opera film of Dou E Yuan 窦娥冤 was the first such adaptation of this iconic story to be done in the Pu opera style. Produced during the heyday of Chinese opera film, the film was a rousing success and was readapted in 1997 and 2020 (Li 2022, 133). Pu Opera originated in Puzhou, a town in southwest Shanxi located on major east/west and north/south travel routes. Scholars have traced the roots of this form back to the Song (960-1279) and Jin (1115–1234) dynasties, when Shanxi was one of the epicenters of the emerging zaju drama tradition. It gained popularity in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, spreading from Shanxi to adjacent regions such as Shaanxi Province through traveling merchants. Nowadays, Pu opera does not entertain a national audience in the manner of Peking opera or Kunqu, it is still popular in Shanxi Province, particularly during temple fairs held to honor deities. Typically, the Temple Fair Office manages the temple fair for celebrating Emperor Yao’s birthday and cooperates with enthusiasts of the temple fair and the village committee. Together, with the support of patrons, they invite troupes to perform selections from a list of traditional, full-length, rearranged highlight scenes (zhezi xi 折子戲) as well as modern plays. Sponsors decide on the plays based on a variety of reasons, for instance, in the hope of attracting good fortune for the community (xuyuan 許願), or to thank the gods for making wishes come true (huanyuan 還願) (You 2015, 152).

Famous for bold singing in a high pitch (gaoqiang 高腔), Puzhou opera is noted for its ability to depict emotional moments. As such, it was a fitting musical style to retell the story of Dou E as an opera film. Wang Xiulan 王秀蘭, the lead actress who played Dou E, was already an established figure in live Pu opera performance before starring in the film. However, Wang’s primary expertise lay in the “coquettish role type” (huadan花旦), typically reserved for lively and entertaining protagonists who excel at physical movements and light comedy. Playing Dou E 窦娥, however, called for the “young gentlewoman” role type (qingyi青衣) typically assigned to serious, upright, and dignified young women characters. Hence, this film was a new challenge for Wang. Other well-known Pu opera actors rounded out the cast. Notably, Dou E’s father, Dou Tianzhang, was performed by Yan Fengchun 閆逢春, an actor excelling in an acrobatic move known as “flapping hat wings” (maochi gong 帽翅功), which refers to the flapping of the two side extensions or “wings” that were sewn onto the sides of a scholar’s hat. In the climactic scene when the ghostly Dou E is about to be reunited with her father, Yan makes one of his hat wings move up to show his conflicted emotional status (Yang 1983, 60).

The film version of Dou E Yuan resonates deeply with operatic conventions through its relatively minimalist mise-en-scène (e.g., restrained background design) and reserved camera work. Though most of the film is presented in static medium shots of the performers, sometimes the cinematography varies to show more background and emphasize emotions. The film features a grown-up Dou E, who is already widowed and living with her mother-in-law (Mother Cai). It begins with a long shot of a garden in the Cai household with the camera slowly panning to catch Dou E on the balcony. The camera then tracks in to feature Dou E in a medium shot: Dou E stares into the distance and sings that she is waiting for Mother Cai. Later, Dou E concentrates on doing needlework, picturing herself as an obedient widow and daughter-in-law, while recounting her story in arias. On the one hand, such a retrospective narrative fills the gap between the original play’s prospective staging of Dou E’s life from childhood onward and the film’s starting point in adulthood. On the other hand, decorated with wooden arches, screens, chairs, and tables, relatively more mise-en-scène than in a stage version of the opera, the interior space immediately introduces Dou E and Mother Cai’s modest wealth and embeds Dou E within a frame of domesticity, connecting her with the typical status of women before the communist revolution and setting up a contrast with politically motivated women during the socialist period in the People’s Republic.

PLOT SUMMARY

The script of the film follows the original play quite closely. As noted above, the Pu opera film begins with Dou E’s monologue. In the original zaju, Mother Cai’s usurious moneylending was at the root of Dou E’s marriage into the Cai family. Because Dou E’s father, Dou Tianzhang, could not pay off his loans, he had arranged for his daughter Dou E to serve as a childhood bride (tongyang xi 童养媳) to cancel his debts. Such financial schemes, however, posed potential dangers: Sai Luyi 賽盧醫, a ruthless quack deeply in debt to Mother Cai, intended to kill Mother Cai on her debt collection trip. The Pu opera film retains this plot element, but it does not emphasize usury to negatively characterize Mother Cai. Instead, Mother Cai is portrayed in a sympathetic light. She is rescued from the scene of attempted murder by the shrewd grifters Zhang Lü’er (Donkey Zhang, 張驢兒) and his father (Father Zhang). Mother Cai invites the two to the household as a gesture of gratitude.

Once in the Cai household, Zhang Lü’er is immediately attracted to Dou E and insists on a marriage match. Strong-headed Dou E not only refuses, but criticizes Mother Cai for bringing danger into the house. Moreover, she invokes the principles of widow chastity to forestall the marriage. Despite Dou E’s objections, Mother Cai agrees to persuade Dou E to accept the match with Zhang, but falls ill shortly thereafter. One day, when Dou E offers incense and prays for Mother Cai’s health in the garden, Zhang Lü’er appears and attempts to force Dou E to pay ceremonial obeisances to him in front of the incense. Dou E throws dust in Zhang’s face and is able to get away thanks to Mother Cai’s appearance and timely help. Zhang then decides that Mother Cai should be done away with. He visits and then blackmails the quack for a pack of poison and eventually sprinkles it into Mother Cai’s lamb soup. In an unexpected turn of events, Father Zhang is the one who eats the soup instead and dies as a result. Zhang Lü’er frames Dou E as the murderer by bribing the local judge and his private clerk. They promptly proceed to torture Dou E and coerce her into assuming responsibility for the murder. At first, Dou E protests her innocence, but when the judge threatens to torture Mother Cai as well, she makes a false confession to spare her mother-in-law from further suffering.

The later part of the plot generally cleaves to the original story, though certain differences appear toward the end of the film. Unlike the original play, Mother Cai, for example, does not marry Father Zhang. Instead, she spends her time working on an appeal, yet finds it hard to entrust the case to a judge since all the local officials are corrupt. At this point in the story, Dou E’s father, Dou Tianzhang, arrives in the area as a court inspector on a mission to investigate cases for evidence of judicial errors. Dou E visits her father as a ghost. In Guan’s zaju play, this scene builds suspense through Dou E’s continuous attempts to place her own case on top of all the files to be reviewed amidst her manipulation of the candlelight, both signs of a ghostly presence. Against the backdrop of repeated campaigns against superstition carried out in the 1950s, the Pu opera film downplays such supernatural elements. Instead, in the film, Dou E’s ghost does not manifest in her father’s office, but appears in his dream. When the father and daughter are reunited, Dou Tianzhang does not draw his sword to exorcise the ghost, as in Guan’s play. Instead, the father and daughter cut through any ghost-related confusion immediately since Dou Tianzhang believes right away that the ghost is in fact his daughter. What is emphasized in this scene are Dou E’s pleas for justice and the suffering she had endured at the hands of unscrupulous judges.

In the opera film, the trial works as a catharsis with the quack and Zhang Lü’er blaming each other for the murder. Tao Wu, the previous official, is also executed for corruption. Dou E’s ghost appears after the trial. She happily floats from heaven to earth and brings rain to relieve the drought that had been caused by her unjust execution. The film’s final shot features a triumphant Dou E. Although one might initially interpret this figure as her ghost, the vibrant red shirt she wears evokes 1950s peasant attire and of course, red revolution, rather than Dou E’s earlier costumes (red can also evoke marriage, but this meaning is unlikely given the play’s resolution). This raises questions: is this Dou E a “resurrected” red heroine symbolizing the success of the recent communist revolution, or is it the actress Wang herself, depicted as a politically proper performer against the backdrop of politically motivated drama reform? This module will analyze how the final shot layers these interpretive possibilities, contributing to the construction of the socialist revolutionary subject.

THEME: Creating A Socialist Revolutionary Subject

As a popular figure first in musical theater and subsequently in films, Dou E is a powerful character who was understood to have given voice to the unjustly wronged. The 1959 Pu opera film is no exception. As it was produced in a critical juncture during the early years of the PRC when socialist values, such as collectivism, class awareness, and gender equality, were introduced, Dou E’s plight could become a vehicle for communicating proper revolutionary comportment.

Made in the same year as the 10th anniversary of the newly established PRC, the film assumed symbolic historical meaning. It reminded audiences of the dark era (hei’an shidai 黑暗时代) of what in Marxist parlance was called “feudal” China (fengjian shehui 封建社会) on the occasion of a significant anniversary of the new society. A mix of opera film and melodrama, the film presents two polarities: the suffering young woman (Dou E) and the unfeeling official (Tao Wu). Together, these figures evoke not only empathy toward the weak, but also hatred of a hellish past, in which ordinary people suffered at the whim of (incompetent) bureaucrats. Dou E, as a righteous woman, can only attain justice as a ghost, which reminds the audience of the famous lines in the 1951 revolutionary opera The White-Haired Girl (Baimao nü 白毛女) “The old society turns humans into ghosts/The new society turns ghosts into humans” (Sun 2023, 156). Through a comparison between the old and the new, the film transformed emotions of hatred into an appreciation of the new socialist present and eagerness for socialist revolution. Dou E’s gender further demonstrates this contrast because it emphasizes a bright new socialist society, where traditionally homebound women would “hold up half of the sky” by performing all kinds of jobs outside of the household. Unlike Dou E, who suffers continually and can only be redeemed by death, women in the new socialist society could assume agency to redeem themselves.

There are three versions of Dou E in the film. Her movement through these roles emphasizes how an oppressed person could become a revolutionary subject. In her first guise, Dou E is a virtuous widow who remains loyal to her deceased husband and provides for Mother Cai. Rather than living peacefully, the mother and daughter-in-law are under the double threats of a debtor (the ruthless quack, Sai Luyi) and voyeurs (Zhang Lü’er and his father). The film suggests that without the presence of a male in the household, women in the past could be easily victimized by men. The first Dou E is thus presented as a suffering female body that ultimately dies to protect Mother Cai. The second Dou E appears as a ghost, reminding audiences of her suffering during a meeting with her father, Dou Tianzhang. Though able to speak up for herself, this ghost Dou E still needs to make a sobbing plea to secure the assistance of male authority to right a wrong. In comparison, the end of the film showcases a smiling Dou E who appears robust in socialist attire and is presented alone. The transformation of Dou E from an oppressed widow, to a suffering ghost, and to a positive, forward-looking socialist woman in the final scene implies that women and people at large, were sufferers in the past, but could be empowered by the socialist revolution to regain their subjectivity as human beings.

An oppressed and virtuous Dou E in “feudal” society (1:07:34-1:12:40)

Click to Expand/Collapse Translation Notes

Chinese Captions	CTC Translation
监斩官：呔、窦娥！小小女子將人藥死，今日死在頭上，我問你悔也不悔？	Execution Overseer: Damn it, Dou E! Such an insignificant woman poisoned someone to death. You will die for it today. I ask you, do you regret it or not?
窦娥：大人，小女子今日一死，質得天地，問得鬼神。臨死之前還有三樁誓願。	Dou E: Your Honor, may heaven and earth and the spirits answer for my [unjust] death work. Before I die, I have three requests.
监斩官：哪三樁？你且講來！	Execution Supervisor: Which three? Tell us!
窦娥：今日代俺窦娥，取來淨席一領，讓我站立。再將丈二白練，掛在旗槍之上。	Dou E speaks: Today, bring a clean mat for me and let me stand on it. Then take two measures of plain silk and hang them on the flagpole.
窦娥：刀過頭落，一腔熱血，都飛在白練之上。	Dou E speaks: When the guillotine falls, all my blood will fly up onto that white cloth.
窦娥：（唱）非是我窦娥罰下这无头愿，只因冤情重大口难言。	Dou E Sings: I would rather not make a last request, but it is hard to give voice to my great grievances.
窦娥：我不讓半星碧血紅塵染，定要飞濺素練感皇天、感皇天。	Dou E sings: I will not let a drop of my blue blood spill onto the red dust of the ground—it will fly onto the plain silk cloth and move heaven, and move heaven.
监斩官：哼，臨死之人，就依你這兒。劊子手！	Execution Supervisor: Hmph, someone on the verge of death! I give you my permission for that. Executioners!
刽子手：在！	Executioners: Yes!
监斩官：鋪席懸練。	Execution Supervisor: Spread out a mat and hang a plain silk cloth.
刽子手：好！	Executioners: Done!
监斩官：我問你，第二樁…	Execution Supervisor: Your second wish?
窦娥：如是我着實冤枉，如今三伏時節，瑞雪紛飛，掩蓋我窦娥屍體尸体。	Dou E speaks: If I am indeed wrongly executed, may it snow during the three hottest ten-day periods of the hot season so that snow can cover my body.
窦娥：（唱）昔日飞霜因邹衍，而今窦娥更屈冤。	Dou E sings: It snowed in the summer before for the sake of Zou Yan, but Dou E [referring to herself in the third person] suffers even more.
窦娥：（唱）定要冰花滚滚，冰花滚滚把尸掩。方免清白尸骸暴荒原。	Dou E sings: I must have floating flakes fall, have them fall, to bury my corpse, thus sparing my pure bones from exposure on the desolate plains.
监斩官：我問你這第三樁。	Execution Supervisor: Tell me your third wish.
窦娥：如是我着實冤枉，讓這楚州地麵亢旱三年。	Dou E speaks: If I am wrongly executed indeed, may there be a drought in Chuzhou for three years.
窦娥：（唱）窦娥女含悲憤裂眦碎胆，飞霜雪染素練心犹未甘。	Dou E Sings: Dou E, full of sorrow and indignation, her eyes wide and her heart shattered—she is dissatisfied even as it snows in the summer and blood falls up onto the white cloth.
窦娥：（唱）恨深似海冤重如山。天哪！定要，定要，这….楚州地，亢旱三年。	Dou E sings: Dou E’s hatred is as deep as the seas, and her grievance is as heavy as mountains. Heaven! Dou E insists, Dou E insists, that the region of Chuzhou shall endure a drought for three years (gazes afar with determination).

Dou E, wronged by Tao Wu, the corrupt official who took Zhang Lü’er’s bribe, decides to die to prevent the further suffering of Mother Cai. This clip occurs during the play’s well-known execution scene when Dou E utters her three prophesies. Dou E is presented as a righteous person awaiting a just verdict. The camera work emphasizes her determination as a martyr with close-ups of her face: shedding tears occasionally, Dou E gazes afar instead of looking at the execution overseer. Notably, after the camera tracks Dou E’s eyesight to feature the sky where thunderbolts appear, Dou E is given an extreme close-up shot as she stands up from her previous kneeling position, and says “Heaven! Dou E insists, Dou E insists, that the region of Chuzhou shall endure a drought for three years.” The shot-reverse-shot between the sky (representing heaven) and Dou E creates a conversation between the two, and further emphasizes Dou E’s only resort is heaven rather than the corrupting and incompetent feudal government (represented by the execution overseer). The extreme close-up shot of Dou E also gives out a sense of despair and loss of control: as the camera focuses on Dou E solely, it brings the audience a feeling of being squeezed into a small space of the camera frame with no depth of field. Together with other close-ups in this clip, the camerawork transfers the injustice suffered by Dou E effectively and indicates that Dou E deserves a brighter future with her gaze. At this point, Dou E represents virtuous yet oppressed women and people at large, who deserve a better life, which could not attain it under feudal rule.

The female ghost as an extension of the earthly Dou E’s suffering (1:21:40-1:31:29)

Click to Expand/Collapse Translation Notes

Chinese Captions	CTC Translation
窦娥：叩見爹爹。	[Dou E’s ghost enters Dou Tianzhang’s study. The fabric is see-through to show her ghostly? identity] Dou E: I kneel down to greet you, my father.
窦天章：你是哪個？	Dou Tianzhang: Who are you?
窦娥：我是你的女兒，窦娥。	Dou E: I am your daughter, Dou E.
窦天章：我女名叫窦端雲。	Dou Tianzhang: My daughter’s name is Dou Duanyun.
窦娥：你將兒送到蔡家，才改名窦娥的。	Dou E: You sent me to the Cai household, and they renamed me Dou E.
窦天章：既是我兒，深更半夜，官衙禁地，你是如何得到此地的？	Dou Tianzhang: Given that you are my daughter, how did you enter the restricted area of a government office at midnight?
窦娥：爹爹，兒已經不在人世了。	Dou E: Father, I am not human anymore.
窦天章：兒啊！	Dou Tianzhang: My child (tries to hug Dou E, who dodges)!
窦天章：【唱】晴空霹靂一声响，犹如万箭断我肠。	Dou Tianzhang: (sings) Your death is like a clap of thunder in a clear sky. Your death is like ten thousand arrows piercing my heart.
窦天章：【唱】帝京常把儿盼望，誰知归来丧无常。	Dou Tianzhang: (sings) I always looked forward to seeing you when I was in the capital, but who knew that I would return only to find out that you were dead.
窦天章：【唱】一坯黄土山阳葬，长者犹存少者亡。	Dou Tianzhang: (sings) Buried under the yellow earth of Shanyang county, the elder survives while the younger has perished.
窦天章：你是怎樣得死，快給爲父講來。	Dou Tianzhang: What happened? Tell me quickly.
窦娥：兒是被人誣告，藥殺公公而死。	Dou E: I was falsely accused of having poisoned my father-in-law.
窦天章：啊，莫非這狀子上麵的窦娥，就你是來？	Dou Tianzhang: Ah, so you are the Dou E recorded in this written compliant?
窦娥：是孩兒。	Dou E: It is me.
窦天章：蠢丫头！爲父想你，哭得眼也花了，愁得頭也白了。	Dou Tianzhang: Stupid girl! I have been missing you—weeping blurred my eyes and worrying whitened my hair.
窦天章：指望你秉承父訓，三從四德，誰知你竟犯下十噁大罪，實我竇家三世無犯法之男，五世無載悔之女。	Dou Tianzhang: I expected you to follow my teaching and abide by the “three obediences and four virtues.” Who knew that you have committed such a hideous crime! Before your time, the Dou family boasted a clean record—there was no man breaking the law and no guilty woman for a long time.
窦天章：爲父今日，官居省颱，來到此地，審修法捲，剃查貪官污吏。	Dou Tianzhang: Look, your father, already a provincial official, came to this place to examine files, investigate cases, and check on corruption.
窦天章：你是我的親生之女，豈不辱我祖宗世德，連累我的清白了！	Dou Tianzhang: My daughter, don’t you disgrace the Dou family, don’t you implicate my good name (tosses his left sleeve at Dou E)!
窦天章：【唱】指望你和姑携鸾凤，三从四德要秉承，你今犯下十恶罪，势剑金牌不能容。	Dou Tianzhang: (sings) I expected you to live harmoniously with your mother-in-law and abide by the “three obediences and four virtues.” You now committed the most hideous crime, even the imperial sword and golden plaque cannot pardon you (pointing at Dou E).
窦娥：爹爹，請先息怒。我來問你，你送孩兒去到蔡家，有何公公？	Dou E: Daddy, calm down please. Let me ask you. When you sent me to the Cai household, was there a father-in-law?
窦天章：哦… 無有啊！	Dou Tianzhang: Oh! No father-in-law.
窦娥：既然無有，害死哪個公公？	Dou E: Since there was not one, whom did I poison?
窦天章：哦！如此説來，爲父我錯怪了你了。兒啊，你是怎樣含冤而死，快快與爲父我講來。	Dou E: Oh! So I blamed the wrong person. My child, tell me how you died without being vindicated.
窦娥：【唱】爹爹！春闱开你进京女失严訓, 到蔡門侍婆母箕帚殷勤。	Dou E: (sings) Daddy! You traveled to the capital when the spring examinations began, leaving me without strict guidance. I was sent to the Cai household where I served my mother-in-law, cleaned the house with a broom and dustpan, and finished other chores diligently.
窦娥：【唱】时不久与丈夫結成秦晉，天不幸他忽然暴病丧身。	Dou E: (sings) My husband and I formed a marital bond not long after, but unfortunately, he suddenly passed away of a violent illness.
窦娥：【唱】婆媳們度日月时运不順，賽卢医怀毒計起了歹心，欠银錢不肯还转借投奔，到荒郊用麻繩勒我娘亲。	Dou E: (sings) Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law thus lived together through unlucky days. Sai Luyi, with malicious intentions, devised a sinister plot. He refused to repay money that he owed us and instead fled to the wilderness, strangling mother-in-law with a hemp rope.
窦娥：【唱】张馿儿与他爹中途相遇，救婆母感恩情引囘家門。	Dou E: (sings) Zhang Lü’er and his father chanced upon this situation halfway through. They saved mother-in-law, who brought them back home out of gratitude.
窦娥：【唱】誰知晓二恶棍心腸更狠，出狂言胁婆媳出堂招亲。	Dou E: (sings) Who would have known the two villains’ hearts were even more ruthless—they went on a wild rant, threatening us to force us both to marry them.
窦天章：你從下了無有？	Dou Tianzhang: (pointing at Dou E) Did you agree?
窦娥：【唱】儿不从要与他人前理論，张馿儿因此上怀恨在心。	Dou E: (sings) I refused and argued with them, so Zhang Lü’er harbored a deep resentment.
窦娥：【唱】买毒藥害婆母他爹命尽，反誣儿藥公公刑鎖加身。	Dou E: (sings) He bought poison, intending to murder mother-in-law, but killed his father. He thus framed me for poisoning my “father-in-law” and intended to throw me in prison.
窦娥：【唱】张馿儿通官府狼狽私徇，恨桃杌贪賄银有冤难伸。	Dou E: (sings) Zhang Lü’er bribed Tao Wu, who tortured mother-in-law.
窦娥：【唱】拷婆母儿不忍負屈招認，在法場罰誓愿一命归陰。	Dou E: (sings) I could not stand seeing this, and I admitted that I was the murderer. I made three vows before my execution and returned to the netherworld.
窦天章：【唱】苦命儿啊！孩儿对我講一遍，我把你狗賍官。	Dou Tianzhang: (sings) What a bitter fate, my child! You told me everything. Tao Wu, you damn corrupt dog of an official.
窦天章：【唱】儿啊！心疼如扭泪如泉。	Dou Tianzhang: (sings) Child, twisted in knots, my heart hurts and my tears run like a spring.
窦天章：【唱】狗官贪財不公断，草菅人命罪滔天。	Dou Tianzhang: (sings) Damn corrupt dogs of officials, greedy for money and partial in adjudicating cases, treating human life as if it were worthless. Their crimes appall the Heavens.
窦天章：【唱】官居省台掌刑宪，定要为女儿辩屈冤。	Dou Tianzhang: (sings) A provincial official now, I must right a wrong for my daughter.
窦天章：兒啊，但等天明，爲父下得一張金牌，欠我的仁義，向貪官污吏，作噁的刁民，一起拿來正法。	Dou Tianzhang: My child, by daybreak, your father will issue a golden plaque to claim the justice owed to me from greedy officials, unscrupulous clerks and wicked commoners, and I will have them executed.
窦娥：爹爹，孩兒還有兩件事情告畢。	Dou E: Daddy, I have two other matters to bring up.
窦天章：哪兩件事？	Dou Tianzhang: Which two?
窦娥：一要爹爹將孩兒的文捲改正明白。	Dou E: The first is to correct my case.
窦天章：二一件呢？	Dou Tianzhang: The second one?
窦娥：俺婆母，年紀高大，無人侍奉，還請爹爹恩養。	Dou E: My mother-in-law is of old age with no one tending to her. I beg you to look after her (kneels down).
窦天章：二一件呢？	Dou Tianzhang: Oh (sits to embrace Dou E)! What a worthy and filial child! I promise you I will act on these two matters.

This clip depicts the second version of Dou E. A ghost now, Dou E visits the human world where her father, Dou Tianzhang, resides. Dou E is in a different dress code from her earthly counterpart. Dou E appears as a beautiful yet powerless ghost with a see-through white gauze dress and a white hair band decorated with shiny stones and tied to a thin white veil. Notably, Dou Tianzhang does not realize that Dou E’s case was improperly administered in the first place, hence upon learning of her conviction, he reproaches Dou E for staining the family record. Dou E, at this point, shows off her excellent reasoning by asking her father if there should have been a father-in-law to kill in the first place, thus alerting him to the improper handling of her case. Though she is smarter than Dou Tianzhang, Dou E still has to rely on Dou Tianzhang’s power status to correct her verdict. As an extension of the suffering earthly Dou E, the ghost resorts to a tearful description of her experiences, effectively evoking sympathy and empathy from audiences for a second time (given that they have just seen her execution scene). Most significantly, Dou E begs Dou Tianzhang to provide for her mother-in-law, further demonstrating her virtue again as a filial woman. The fact that the good suffer and the bad survive shows an unjust past, which pushes audiences to reflect upon, believe in, and appreciate a socialist present, in which such a miscarriage of justice is said to be impossible. Most importantly, in this new era, widowed women can hope to be no longer victimized by male oppressors, be they opportunists or officials.

Successful transformation of Dou E as a socialist revolutionary subject (1:38:11-1:38:45)

The smiling Dou E in the red shirt serves as a comparison with Dou E in the “feudal” society, where she can only attain justice as a ghost.

Once the case is corrected by Dou Tianzhang, the end of the film shows a Dou E of a totally different status—no longer her old human self or a ghostly apparition. Dou E appears here in a red shirt, typical female garb of the 1950s, nodding and smiling at the camera. In sharp contrast with the previous Dou E, who constantly suffers and recounts her experiences in a tearful voice, Dou E, at this final stage, demonstrates a positive outlook. Her hair, two neat braids, is not evocative of a traditional woman in a feudal society, rather, it brings to mind a robust modern figure ready to participate in the socialist revolution. Her image resonates with women figures in propaganda posters during the 1950s. For instance, in the poster produced in February 1959, a healthy-looking and smiling woman in a similar red shirt to that of Dou E attaches the double happiness character, an auspicious symbol usually used in weddings, to a dual-purpose washing machine produced by the March Eighth Agricultural Tools Factory. Behind the main figure, countless women are working in the background, fulfilling the demand of the slogans in the upper left corner: “Study hard to become capable and dexterous” and “Revolutionary technologies enable great ambition and talent.” By showing female laborers happily working at the March Eighth Agricultural Tools Factory, the poster delivers an optimistic message about women in the socialist period. Their revolutionary joy is epitomized in their able bodies and fulfilling careers in the service of revolution.

As in the poster, Dou E’s red shirt obviously resonates with the red iconography of communist revolution. Like the flag of the People’s Republic, often described as being stained by the blood of revolutionary martyrs, it can also be interpreted as a callback to Dou E’s bloody execution. The color may melodramatically evoke martyrdom, but here, it is also a strong and vibrant symbol of the new future that awaits the Chinese people. Presented in this garb, Dou E reincarnates as a revolutionary, a socialist subject who emerges victoriously from a dark past. She is nodding and smiling, doing so for the first time in the film, confirming that the socialist present is just and good. By breaking the fourth wall and looking right at viewers in this shot, the revolutionary Dou E also recognizes audiences as fellow socialist revolutionary subjects. The “socialist gaze,” an iconic element of the socialist realist style, refers to figures in socialist art who are pictured looking out past the frame of an image, gazing at the bright future ahead. Dou E’s final look is not directed off screen, but this shot nevertheless evokes the same logic. She gazes confidently into the faces of her audiences, and into their bright future. Thus here, the film that has so far relied on medium close-ups to showcase operatic performance, dramatically deploys such close framing to a different end. This Dou E is no longer a tragic heroine or performer of traditional opera, but an altogether new type of person.

WORKS CONSULTED: CLICK TO EXPAND/COLLAPSE

Bao, Weihong. “The Politics of Remediation: Mise-en-scène and the Subjunctive Body in Chinese Opera Film.” The Opera Quarterly 26, no.2-3 (2010), 256-290. Chinese Posters, accessed October 26, 2024, https://chineseposters.net/.

Harris, Kristine. “Re-makes/Re-models: The Red Detachment of Women between Stage and Screen.” The Opera Quarterly 26, no, 2-3 (2010), 316-342.

Li Xiaogang 李小刚. “Xiying yanran—xinban puju dianying Dou E yuan shenmei tanwei" 戏影晏然—新版蒲剧电影《窦娥冤》审美探微 (The Tranquility of Theatrical Shadows: Aesthetic Insights into the New Version of the Pu Opera Film Dou E Yuan). Beifang gongye daxue xuebao 34, no. 5 (2022), 133-139.

Sun, Susanna. “Becoming Awakened: Four Yue Opera Segments in Xie Jin’s Two Stage Sisters.” CHINOPERL: Journal of Chinese Oral and Performing Literature 42, no. 2 (2023), 130-164.

Yang, Bingyu 颜丙玉. “Manhua Yan Fengchun chuangshi maochi gong" 漫话闫逢春创始帽翅功 (A Discussion on Yan Fengchun’s Founding of Flapping Hat Wing). Xiqu yishu, no. 4 (1983), 59-60.

You, Ziying. “Entertaining Deities and Humans with Performances of Puju (Puzhou Opera) at a Temple Fair in Yangxie Village, Southwestern Shanxi, May 29-June 2, 2013.” CHINOPERL: Journal of Chinese Oral and Performing Literature 34, no. 2 (2015), 139-161. Accessed May 21, 2024. https://openworks.wooster.edu/facpub/411.

Zeitlin, Judith. “Operatic Ghosts on Screen: The Case of A Test of Love (1958).” The Opera Quarterly 26, no, 2-3 (2010), 220-255.

AUTHOR

Xiaoqiao Xu

Note from the author: Xiaoqiao wishes to thank Dr. Julia Keblinska and Dr. Patricia Sieber for their helpful comments, patient edits, and invaluable advice on this piece and beyond!