Yanyan Holding a Cane
1 media/Zhanizi_2016_RecordedPerf_1_thumb.jpg 2024-12-29T19:29:00+00:00 Julia Keblinska 8a3e8d98762f87c0579d0d96f52acf9bb4742f98 1 7 Fig. 1: Yanyan (Wang Yumei 王玉梅) holding a cane asking the Lady of the House to beat her. Screenshot image from 2016 Chuanju川剧 (Sichuan Drama) adaptation Yanyan燕燕 produced by Emei Film Studio Audio and Video Publishing House 峨眉电影制片厂音像出版社. plain 2025-06-25T17:09:51+00:00 Screenshot image from the 2016 Chuanju 川剧 (Sichuan Drama) adaptation Yanyan 燕燕 produced by Emei Film Studio Audio and Video Publishing House 峨眉电影制片厂音像出版社. The film on QQ.Credit: Screenshot by author. Jason Wang d86f87879d5d86129032e80721c14eb51cf319fb
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2024-11-15T05:33:43+00:00
Yanyan
燕燕 (2016) 88 plain 2025-06-25T17:08:56+00:00Live Performance
LINKS TO THE PERFORMANCE
The Chuanju High-Pitch Adaptation Yanyan 川剧高腔 《燕燕》is available on Tencent’s 腾讯 streaming service QQ in four parts with simplified Chinese subtitles:INFORMATION
- Production: Sichuan Drama Theater in Chengdu 成都市川剧院
- Publisher: Emei Film Studio Audio and Video Publishing House 峨眉电影制片厂音像出版社
- Title: Yanyan 燕燕
- Year: 2016
- Script: Xu Fen 徐棻, Zhang Yujun 张羽军
- Director: Li Zenglin 李增林
- Style: Chuanju 川剧高腔 (High-Pitch Sichuan Opera)
- Cast: Wang Yumei 王玉梅 (as Yanyan 燕燕); Wang Chao 王超 (as Li Weide 李维德); Luo Fang 罗芳 (as Yingying 莺莺); Ma Li 马丽(as Lady of the House 夫人); Peng Ling 彭凌 (as Wang Si 王四, the servant of the Lady of the House); Li Qingjun 李清君 (as Mei Hua 梅花, Yingying’s servant).
- Duration: 136 min
INTRODUCTION
By the time of the Qing emperor Qianlong (r. 1736-1795), Chuanju 川剧 (lit. “Sichuan Opera”) and its schools had already become popular and spread across Sichuan and neighboring regions (Guizhou, Hubei, and Tibet). Chuanju merges different aspects of traditional performances such as singing, shadow plays, lantern plays, puppets as well as plays from the repertoire of earlier zaju and chuanqi drama. From the end of the Qing dynasty and through the Republican Era, Chuanju underwent a series of changes in response to the movement to reform Chinese society. Chuanju embraced the conventions of the “new drama in modern costumes” (shizhuang xinxi 时装新戏), a term designating modernization not just in terms of costumes, but also stories, stage conventions, character creation, and troupes. By the the 1950s and 1960s, Sichuan Opera was propelled onto the national and international stage. In 1959, Chuanju plays were performed at the Huairen Hall 怀仁堂 in Beijng before Chairman Mao Zedong 毛泽东 (1893-1976) and Prime Minister Zhou Enlai 周恩来 (1898-1976) and later also before visiting dignitaries from Eastern Europe. As part of China's cultural diplomacy, Chuanju troupes toured Eastern European countries such as Poland and the German Democratic Republic. During these two decades, the performance conventions of Chuanju underwent further changes. The figure of the troupe director became more established, vocal accompaniment for the high pitch show, traditionally sung by men, were now sung by women, and parts that could be considered reactionary, obscene, or vulgar were removed from the repertoire. After the hiatus of the Cultural Revolution, in 1980s and 1990s Chuanju’s popularity grew once more. In 2006, Chuanju was entered into the national register of “Intangible Cultural Heritage” (Zhongguo fei wuzhi wenhua yichan 中国非物质文化遗产) of the People’s Republic of China.
Chuanju scripts generally have an open structure where from beginning to end, the audience is fully aware of the development of the plot without anything being hidden. As for stage arrangements, Chuanju follows the conventions of “one table two chairs” (yi zhuo er yi 一桌二椅) indicating a rather minimalist mise-en-scène that allows the performers to move freely on the stage. Musically performances of Chuanju make use of a variety of percussion, wind, and string instruments to create a vibrant and lively atmosphere (renao 热闹). The 2016 version of Yanyan is conventional in this respect, featuring a selection of stringed instruments, including different types of lutes in addition to wind instruments such as suona, flutes, bowed instruments such as violoncello as well as multiple types of clappers.
The Chuanju repertoire includes a wide variety of stories adapted from the traditional repertoire as well as, more recently, stories from western dramas and operas. Shows range from historical romances to legendary plays, farces, comedies, and tragedies. One of the most famous and frequently represented chuanju plays is the Legend of the White Snake (Baishe zhuan 白蛇传), a traditional cautionary folktale that exists in different versions and forms (a modern Chuanju adaptation). Starting from the 1980s, the Chuanju repertoire was enhanced by the artistic styles from abroad. A dramatist that deserves special mention is Xu Fen 徐棻 (b. 1933), who has been an active scriptwriter since the early 1960s. Her scripts adhere to the idea of the minimalist stage placing an emphasis on the simplicity of stage arrangements. Thematically, Xu Fen’s scripts range from classics such as A Dream of Red Mansions (Honglou meng 红楼梦) to Lady Macbeth as well as the story of this module, Yanyan. While the latter might not have been among her most popular works initially, starting from 2011, a number of Chuanju troupes have revived the play and staged it in Sichuan and in cities across China.PLOT SUMMARY
Dramatist Xu Fen adapted Guan Hanqing’s play and named it after the main character Yanyan 燕燕 (Swallow). Xu’s adaptation for the Chuanju stage transformed the plot of the play in major ways. Contrary to the zaju play, which is set in a Jurchen household, the Chuanju version only features Han Chinese characters. Before the main narrative begins, we learn that the father of the handsome and wealthy male protagonist named Li Weide 李维德 was convicted of a crime. On his way to see his father, the young man asked to stop at the unknown household. In the present, Li Weide stops at the household again after his father has been cleared of all charges and promoted to the post of an imperial censor. This time, the Lady of the House is happy to host him. The play opens with the lady of the house asking her maid Yanyan whether she wants to be married off as a concubine to a certain official Shi, who is still childless. Yanyan, however, is adamant in her rejection of marriage in general. Li Weide meanwhile, pursues both Yanyan (as a sexual conquest), and Yingying, the daughter of the family (as a potential wife).
Other sections of the plot are comparatively similar to the zaju in that Li Weide promises Yanyan marriage and the maid accepts after some hesitation only to discover he aims to marry Yingying. What is different in the Chuanju adaptation is Yingying’s way of accepting the marriage proposal from Li Weide. Yingying pretends to heed Yanyan’s warning not to marry Li and writes him a letter. Yanyan, who is not able to read, brings the letter to Li Weide in the conviction that Yingying is going to reject him. However, not only did Yingying write in the letter that she accepted the marriage proposal, but she also added that the maid Yanyan tried to prevent her from marrying him through discrediting Li Weide. Once the Lady of the House becomes aware of this subterfuge, she resolves to marry Yanyan off to the official from the Shi family as a low-ranking concubine. Yanyan, burdened by heartbreak, shame, and humiliation, decides to take on her own life on the day of the wedding between Li Weide and Yingying.
Xu Fen scripted the Chuanju play at the beginning of the 1960s after the foundation of the People’s Republic of China and half a century after the fall of the Qing empire. Thanks to state-sponsored campaigns to emancipate women from polygamous marriage patterns, by the 1960s, traditional marriage norms had changed and paved the way for different social structures centered around monogamy. Xu Fen stated that she could not tolerate Yanyan being given away as a concubine as implied in Guan Hanqing’s original script. Xu's new ending of the main protagonist's suicide is a striking departure from the original denoument. Unlike in imperial China, in Xu's rendition, such a suicide did not measure the ethical behavior of a woman, but represented a defiant and vengeful heroine, who challenges the old society and its patriarchal norms. The play's ending focused solely on the maid, traditionally a marginal figure now viewed as a victim of class oppression and an agent of resistance. During the National Xiqu Work Conference (Quanguo xiqu gongzuo huiyi 全国戏曲中国会议) held in Beijing in late 1950, a new mission for theater was drawn out. Theater became a means to educate the masses for the sake of serving the socialist state. Thus, a formerly marginal character such as a maid is converted into a proletarian heroine who challenges the patriarchy and the old society. The maid’s final suicide, therefore, symbolizes a point of no-return from old beliefs and norms that were thought to oppress the lower social classes.THEME: The Physicality of Emotions on the Opera Stage
The contemporary Chuanju staging of Yanyan stems from a 1962 adaptation by the dramatist Xu Fen and her characterization of the maid Yanyan. Like in the original zaju, the 1962 adaptation keeps the focus on the maid from the beginning to end. The play casts Wang Yumei as Yanyan. In 2011, Wang Yumei, the current deputy director of the Sichuan Opera Theatre of Chengdu, won the prestigious “Plum Performance Award” (Zhongguo xiju meihua jiang 中国戏剧梅花奖) for her role of Yanyan.
The staging of the revised script places emphasis on the physicality of emotions and how they affect the physical body of the female protagonist on the stage. The physicality of emotions emerges from specific signs that include facial expressions, bodily movements, the lyrics of the arias, and the music. The peculiar mise-en-scène of the show provides a space for the maid to feel and share feelings with the audience. As is customary in Chuanju, the stage is minimally appointed. Throughout the whole play the setting mainly adheres to the conventional “one table two chairs” setting, except for the final scene. It is in the final scene that a specific space, namely the wedding chamber for the bride and groom, becomes the site that the maid chooses for her suicide. This setting therefore acquires a symbolic value that affects all the characters on the stage and imbues Yanyan with a defining power over the other characters even after her death and for the story as a whole. Spatiality as a term that imbues states and emotions with a spatial dimension is a key concept for the performance of the show with specific emphasis on how the performance affects the audience. The clips below will show how distinct aspects of the mise-en-scène, the lyrics, and the movements tie to a precise emotion. The idea of spatiality is what binds together the stage and its performers with those emotions and feelings that affect and cause a reaction in the audience.
The variety of instruments creates a dramatic tension that enhances the affective charge of the performance as the audience follows the emotional ups and downs of the main protagonist. The play starts with Yanyan disappointed with romance, as well as utterly dismissive of the conventional idea of marriage for the sake of social security and etiquette. It then delves into the joy and happiness that the feeling of love stirs up in Yanyan toward the young Li Weide. Once the truth about Li Weide’s arranged match is out, the play narrows its focus to sadness, anger, and, finally, despair. The character of Yanyan clashes with traditions and social conventions. At the same time, strong emotions take hold of her own body and make her mind waver until she resolves to take her own life. The play discusses whether the characters choose the right or wrong course of action or are treated fairly or unfairly, while structuring the performance around Yanyan’s emotions as well as her compliance with and defiance of traditional social norms.Clip 1. Rather Die than Get Married: A Defiant Maid Rejecting Social Norms
The play opens with a dialogue between the Lady of the House and Yanyan. The Lady of the House tells Yanyan that she has arranged for her to become a concubine in a very wealthy household. Yanyan is, however, adamant in her rejection of marriage. Such defiance is conveyed through the words of the maid as well as her expressions and movements on the stage. What contributes to the amazement of the Lady of the House is Yanyan’s repetition of her preference to be a maid for eternity by the Lady of the House’s side. The more the Lady of the House insists on the marriage proposal, the more worried Yanyan gets. The Lady of the House grabs Yanyan by her hand in the attempt to persuade her of the advantages of becoming a concubine in a rich household, but Yanyan almost immediately drops her hand and steps back signaling distance. Yanyan's expression of polite bashfulness hides a sense of unease in rejecting the Lady’s proposal without providing any explanation. Yanyan gets down on her knees and begs to the Lady of the House to let her be her maid forever. Once she sees that she is not going to obtain what she wants, she immediately gets up, turns her back to the Lady and says: “Then, then I’d rather die.” Such a blunt expression of rejection of the Lady’s order is exemplary of Yanyan’s defiance. The apex of her defiance, though, manifests when Yanyan puts a cane over her head signaling that she is willing to be beaten up due to her disobedience as the image shows (Fig. 1). In doing so, the maid expresses her complete rejection of traditional social norm that defines unmarried for a woman as a lack of fulfillment in life. Yanyan’s rejection of married life is open to a variety of interpretations since her speech is rather vague as to why she is so obstinate. On the one hand, the maid could be rejecting any marriage proposal because of the constraints that married life would entail. On the other, she could be rejecting the match arranged by the Lady of the House in the hope of finding a more fulfilling union.Click to Expand/Collapse Translation Notes
Chinese Captions CTC Translation 燕燕：夫人 Yanyan: Lady. 夫人：燕燕。 史家这门亲你究竟愿不愿意？ Lady of the House: Yanyan. Have you decided whether you want to marry into the Shi household? 燕燕：夫人 我不愿。求宽宥 ，望垂怜。 Yanyan: Lady, I don’t wish to do so. I beg for your forgiveness; I am hoping for your compassion. 夫人：回绝史家恩如山。你这丫头年长的你不嫁，年轻的也不嫁，有钱无钱都不嫁。未必然你想一辈子守在我身边当个老丫头。 Lady of the House: You’re rejecting such an enormous favor from the Shi household. You, this servant, will marry neither older men nor younger men. Regardless of whether they have money or not, you won’t get married and instead you think of staying with me until you are an old maid. 燕燕：燕燕就是要报答夫人的恩典。就想一辈子守在夫人的身边，做个老丫头。 Yanyan: Indeed, I want to repay your Ladyship’s favor. I truly think that I would rather spend my whole life by your side as a maid. 夫人：胡说。哪个丫头大了不嫁人。燕燕 我为你挑挑拣拣。好不容易选上这个，又富贵又年轻的史衙内。虽说他已有三房妻妾，可至今无儿无女。你要是为他生个一男半子，那万贯家财就是你燕燕的了。 Lady of the House: Nonsense, Yanyan! What kind of maid gets old but does not get a husband? Yanyan, I have gone to some length to pick and choose somebody for you. It was not easy to get that family. Official Shi is both rich and young. Even though he already has a wife and two concubines, he’s still childless. If you could only give him a son, then his vast fortune would be yours! 燕燕：我要万贯家财做啥。 Yanyan: Why would I want his vast fortune? 夫人：要万贯家财做啥。算啰算啰 懒得给你多说。总之史家这门亲我已经允了。 Lady of the House: Why would you want his vast fortune? Whatever! I am tired of wasting my breath. I have already consented to your marriage into the Shi family. 燕燕：夫人 求夫人让我伺候你一辈子。燕燕情愿伺候夫人一辈子。 Yanyan: Lady! I beg you! Let me stay with you my whole life. I want to be your maid forever. 夫人：我不要你伺候一辈子。史家这门亲，你不愿意也得嫁，愿意也得嫁。 Lady of the House: I don’t want you to be my maid forever. Whether you are willing or not, you are going to be married into the Shi household. 燕燕：那 那我就宁死不从。 Yanyan: Then, then I’d rather die! Clip 2. A Heart in Turmoil: Yanyan’s Romantic Passions
In this scene, Yanyan is ordered to bring a quilt to Li Weide. While moving on the stage and wavering over whether she should give into Weide’s romantic flirtations, the maid holds two props, the quilt and a lamp. During this singing sequence, Yanyan keeps the quilt on her left arm while occasionally shifting her lamp between the two hands. Both props remind the maid of the physicality of the space she is moving around and more precisely of the silent study where Li Weide lodges. While the quilt will not be featured in subsequent scenes, the lamp will play an important role as a prop throughout the whole play. As a flexible symbol of light and darkness, the lamp can highlight whatever emotion needs to be conveyed. The music and the singing of the aria guide the maid through her unstable steps as her movements show how undecided she is regarding Li Weide’s hints at a potential union between the two. Awash in a complete absence of noise, the quietude of the household creates a daunting environment for a maid in distress. She is by herself with her own worries in a place that looks almost alien to her. Regardless of her physical vacillations, the lyrics show that her heart is enticed by romantic passions. Lyrics in this excerpt draw images from the corpus of traditional Chinese poetry. Just like the willow and the water on the lotus pond can’t keep still when it’s windy or rainy, Yanyan is doubtful and uncertain, feelings that are underscored by her movements on the stage. The lyrics create a spatiality that affects the movement of the maid on the stage. Together with the physical props, the quilt and the lamp, the lyrics and the movements on the stage externalize Yanyan’s mental turmoil.Click to Expand/Collapse Translation Notes
Chinese Captions CTC Translation 燕燕：步出花厅，欲行难行。 Yanyan: [offstage singing] I step out of the reception room. I want to walk but it’s difficult. 燕燕：奉主命送衾绸御寒御冷。 Yanyan: I have been ordered to bring him a silk quilt to shield him from the winter cold. 燕燕：好教我进退难怨天怨人。 Yanyan: This makes me waver and unable to bear resentment toward heaven and people. 燕燕：步回廊突惧这漏静人静。 Yanyan: As I walk down the winding corridor, I suddenly fear the quietude of the clepsydra and the absence of others. 燕燕：去书斋猛叫我心惊意惊。 Yanyan: Going to his study suddenly causes my heart and mind to be alarmed. 燕燕：柳枝柔带春雨似定非定。 Yanyan: The willow branch is tender, when it carries the spring rain, does it look stable or unstable? 燕燕：荷池水春风吹欲平难平。 Yanyan: When the spring wind blows over the lotus pond, is the water peaceful or agitated? 燕燕：半天空春雷声时来时隐。 Yanyan: During the day, the sound of spring thunder at times is audible, at times distant. 燕燕：手儿内红纱灯忽暗忽明。 Yanyan: The red gauze lamp in my hand suddenly goes dark and then turns bright again. 燕燕：意彷徨自思自忖。 Yanyan: My mind wanders back and forth, I am wavering and undecided. 燕燕：心缭乱。 Yanyan: My heart is in complete turmoil. 燕燕：心缭乱且走且停。 Yanyan: My heart is in complete turmoil. I walk and then stop. Clip 3. Fear and Worry: Seduction
This scene is almost completely devoid of sung or spoken lines. Instead it focuses on how the music of various instruments orchestrates the movements of Li Weide’s chase of Yanyan. Chuanju makes extensive use of percussion instruments such as drums, clappers, cymbals, and gongs. The dominant emotions of the scene--alarm and fear--are determined by the different rhythm, tempo, and variety of instruments used for the sequence. Yanyan fears being captivated by Li Weide’s words, status, and looks as well as being swept up into a romantic whirlwind that she has never experienced before. Her attempts to evade Li Weide turn into movements on the stage, which emphasize a sense of unease and worry. In the end, Li Weide is able to snatch the apron of the maid, a symbol of her lower social status. Meanwhile, the robes on the chair and the sound of thunder and rain at the end of the scene can be interpreted as symbols of lovemaking.Click to Expand/Collapse Translation Notes
Chinese Captions CTC Translation 李维德：燕燕 燕燕 Li Weide: Yanyan! Yanyan! Clip 4. Pain and Anger: Heartbreak
This clip showcases the somatic components of emotions on the stage and illustrates how they affect the bodily movement of the characters. Once Yanyan has excused herself from the company of the Lady of the House and has agreed to act as a matchmaker between Li Weide and Yingying, she is once again on her own on the stage. The stage suddenly turns dark, as if reflecting Yanyan’s anger against Li Weide. Yanyan’s words and expressions hint at an imminent act of revenge against Li Weide. Yanyan impulsively decides to attempt to break up the match between Li Weide and Yingying, without even considering how that might endanger her. In the first part of the scene, Yanyan does not sing any verses but only utters lines, indicating that her feelings of anger and physical pain have completely taken over her mind and body. The few lyrics she sings are extremely fast-paced and accompanied by the quick rhythm of the clappers. As the lyrics suggest, Li Weide’s reneging of his marriage vow causes Yanyan physical pain. Yanyan remarks that she feels belittled due to her status as a maid. The detailed description of Yanyan's state of mind and the physical violence that her heart is subjected to emphasize the excruciating pain she experiences. In this sequence the idea of “heartbreak” acquires an immediate and direct connotation. The final line uttered by the maid points to a plot twist bound to create a dangerous dramatic tension.Click to Expand/Collapse Translation Notes
Chinese Captions CTC Translation 燕燕：我去 我去 Yanyan: I’ll go! I’ll go! 夫人：那就好 就即刻到贾府提亲去。 Lady of the House: All right then! Go immediately to the Jia household to inquire about the marriage proposal. 燕燕：贼子可恶。狗贼欺人。 Yanyan: You awful scoundrel! You horrible swindler! 燕燕：贼子明知我肠断心碎，却不肯善罢干休。 Yanyan: The scoundrel knew that my heart would have been shattered into pieces. 燕燕：反令我前去说媒，把我活生生一个人当作草芥，将我血淋淋一颗心任意践踏。 Yanyan: What’s more he did not even leave it there.
I have been tasked with the role of matchmaker. He just treated me, a living person, as a trifle, he made my heart drip blood and deliberately stepped on it.燕燕：他以为如此便可使那莺莺到手，又可使我燕燕低头。 Yanyan: He thought that just like that he could get Yingying into his hands and also make me to lower my head. 燕燕：李维德， 狗贼， 你想错了! Yanyan: Li Weide, you scoundrel, how wrong you are! Clip 5. Unspeakable Sadness: The Symbol of the Moth
This clip delves into the sadness of the maid. On top of being abandoned by Li Weide, she is also being framed as a scheming backstabber by Yingying. In Yingying’s letter to Li Weide, the young lady from the noble household revealed that Yanyan tried to break the match by saying that Li Weide had made a promise to her. As soon as Li Weide and the Lady of the House become aware of Li and Yanyan’s previous relationship, Yanyan is told that she will have to leave the household and become a concubine in Official Shi’s household. In this section, Yanyan likens herself to a moth that she notices on the table. The moth is getting closer to the candle on the table and is bound for its own destruction just for the sake of briefly basking in the light. Guan Hanqing’s original play also features a moth, though at an earlier stage of the story when the maid is trying to recover from her romantic disappointment. In the zaju play, Yanyan saves the moth by hanging up the lantern, foreshadowing a rather positive ending for herself. By contrast, the Chuanju play relies on lyrics, props, and lighting, as well as musical instruments, to create a spatiality of sadness. Yanyan’s facial expression represents sadness and despair.
Moreover, Yanyan’s movements on the stage show not only how shaken she is, but anticipate her unhappy ending. Just like a moth who, unaware of the danger, flies toward its own annihilation, unbeknownst to her, Yanyan has fallen into a maelstrom of consuming and uncontrollable emotions. The slow pace of the singing coincides with Yanyan’s difficulty in keeping still and standing up, overwhelmed as she is by her own feelings.Click to Expand/Collapse Translation Notes
Chinese Captions CTC Translation 燕燕：灯蛾。见灯蛾扑向火焰。 Yanyan: A moth! I can see a moth flying upward to the flame. 燕燕：顿化作一缕青烟。 Yanyan: It will suddenly turn into a wisp of black smoke. 燕燕：可怜你恰似燕燕。 Yanyan: It’s so sad that you just look like me. 燕燕：力微博性情痴憨。 Yanyan: My power is getting weaker and my mind is getting more foolish. 燕燕：你为这亮堂堂灯火闪闪。 Yanyan: You because of that bright flame that is sparkling. 燕燕：我为那儿女情恩爱绵绵。 Yanyan: I, because of that lady’s feelings of love that are unbroken. 燕燕：浮光一点 幻影半片。 Yanyan: The two of us will be a spot of light flickering, a shadow split into two parts. 燕燕：诱得咱灵魂儿游丝飘悬。 Yanyan: We were misled to the point that our souls will wander around just like silk floss fluttering in the air. Clip 6. Yanyan’s Ultimate Defiance: Suicide
Dignified, defiant, and vengeful are the adjectives that can be used to describe Yanyan’s tragic suicide. The scene opens with all the other characters on the stage, including the servant Wang Si, cast in a typically clownish role. In an effort to provide comic relief, Wang Si rushes onto the stage to notify the Lady of the House that Yanyan has disappeared. The final scene’s unconventional mise-en-scène features Yingying and Li Weide’s conjugal bed. It has been stained by the suicide of the protagonist, a maid who has been wronged and exploited because of her social status. Once Mei Hua, Yingying’s servant, opens the curtains of the bed and thus reveals Yanyan hanging from the canopy of the nuptial bed, the stage, previously lit in red, turns dark with flashes of light that illuminate the corpse of the maid. The scene is especially peculiar because Yingying’s hanging corpse (or ghost) appears to stand upright with an expression of defiance. The bed physically moves forward on the stage, to the surprise and terror of the other characters. The only character who seems to react with compassion is Yingying’s servant, Mei Hua, who cries over Yanyan’s death. In the traditional literary repertoire, female suicide was often styled as the most expressive form of female virtue, but in this modern rendition, suicide is meant to be a rebuke to all the hardships that the “old society” foisted upon young and vulnerable women.Click to Expand/Collapse Translation Notes
Chinese Captions CTC Translation 王四：夫人！夫人 史衙内小轿来接燕燕，可是燕燕不见了。 Wang Si: Lady! Lady! The palanquin from the Shi household has come to pick Yanyan, but Yanyan has disappeared. 夫人：不见了！叫人前院后院各处寻找。找到了拖上轿去。 Lady of the House: She has disappeared! Call and look for her in the front yard, back yard, everywhere! 王四：是。 Wang Si: Sure! 夫人：梅花 怎不将帐帘挂起。 Lady of the House: Mei Hua, why don’t you raise those curtains up! 梅花： 是。燕燕姐！ Mei Hua: Sure! Yanyan! WORKS CONSULTED CLICK TO EXPAND/COLLAPSE
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AUTHOR
Francesco Papani
