Roar, China!

Last updated

Roar, China! was an artistic theme and the title of various artistic works authored from the 1920s through the 1930s which expressed solidarity with China. Significant works include the poem and play by Soviet Futurist Sergei Tretyakov, Langston Hughes' poem of the same name, and a wood cut by Li Hua.

Contents

Roar, China! works

Sergei Treyakov poem and play

In 1924, Soviet futurist poet and playwright Sergei Tretyakov wrote a poem titled, Roar, China! [1] : 237  Shortly afterwards, he turned the poem into a play depicting fictional events similar to those which happened later in the 1926 Wanxian Incident, when the British military massacred hundreds of Chinese civilians. [1] : 237  In Tokyo, the Tsukiji Theatre performed Tretyakov's Roar, China! from 31 August to 4 September 1929, when authorities shut down the performances. [1] : 237 

Theatre Guild's 1930 production of Roar, China! was Broadway's first play with a majority Asian cast. [1] : 237  Chinese performers were recruited by the Chinese Benevolent and Dramatic Association. [1] : 237  The cast included economist Ji Chaoding. [1] : 237 

A British production of the play was banned by from being performed at the Cambridge Festival Theatre, but the play was later staged by The Unnamed Society in Manchester in November 1931. [1] : 238 

The play was also performed in Berlin, Vienna, and Frankfurt. [1] : 238 

Nikolai Bukharin described the global spread of the play as part of a historical process in which the throngs of workers would become revolutionaries. [1] : 238 

Tretyakov's Roar, China! poem and play also became popular in China, where they were translated multiple times. [1] : 238  In 1933, on the second anniversary of the Mukden incident, a production of Roar, China! was staged at the Hung King Theatre in Shanghai's French Concession. [1] : 238  Increasing pressure from the Japanese led authorities to censor the play, both in the foreign concessions and elsewhere in China. [1] : 239  A production which included Jiang Qing was among those banned by British authorities. [1] : 239 

Li Hua woodcut

In 1935, Li Hua produced the woodcut Roar, China! (怒吼吧中国). [2] : 467–468  The woodcut depicts the front view of a "taut, muscular, and naked male body, bound and blindfolded". [2] : 468  The incisions create dark and angular lines, which academic Xiaobing Tang describes as giving "the constrained body a translucent quality, suggesting a radiating force that charges and electrifies the physical body". [2] : 268 

Langston Hughes poem

On 29 August 1937, Langston Hughes wrote a poem titled Roar, China! which called for China's resistance to the full-scale invasion which Japan had launched less than two months earlier. [1] : 237  Hughes biographer and translator of his works into Chinese, Luo Xingqun, writes that Hughes was inspired to write the poem by his experiences in Shanghai and his encounters with Soong Ching-ling and Lu Xun. [1] : 290–291  Hughes used China as a metonym for the "global colour line." [3] According to academic Gao Yunxiang, Hughes' poem was integral to the global circulation of Roar, China! as an artistic theme. [1] : 237 

Hughes later wrote, but did not publish, a poem called China. [4] Academic Selina Lai-Henderson writes that the brief poem, which begins in medias res , may have been intended as a sequel to Hughes' Roar, China! [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicolás Guillén</span> Cuban poet, journalist and political activist (1902–1989)

Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista was a Cuban poet, journalist and political activist. He is best remembered as the national poet of Cuba.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexandre Benois</span> Russian painter (1870–1960)

Alexandre (Alexander) Nikolayevich Benois was a Russian artist, art critic, historian, preservationist and founding member of Mir iskusstva, an art movement and magazine. As a designer for the Ballets Russes under Sergei Diaghilev, Benois exerted what is considered a seminal influence on the modern ballet and stage design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sergei Tretyakov (writer)</span> Russian author, poet, playwright and journalist

Sergei Mikhailovich Tretyakov was a Soviet Russian constructivist writer, playwright, poet, and special correspondent for Pravda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theatre Guild</span> New York City theatrical society

The Theatre Guild is a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1918 by Lawrence Langner, Philip Moeller, Helen Westley and Theresa Helburn. Langner's wife, Armina Marshall, then served as a co-director. It evolved out of the work of the Washington Square Players.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cubo-Futurism</span> Russian art movement

Cubo-Futurism or Kubo-Futurizm was an art movement, developed within Russian Futurism, that arose in early 20th century Russian Empire, defined by its amalgamation of the artistic elements found in Italian Futurism and French Analytical Cubism. Cubo-Futurism was the main school of painting and sculpture practiced by the Russian Futurists. In 1913, the term "Cubo-Futurism" first came to describe works from members of the poetry group "Hylaeans", as they moved away from poetic Symbolism towards Futurism and zaum, the experimental "visual and sound poetry of Kruchenykh and Khlebninkov". Later in the same year the concept and style of "Cubo-Futurism" became synonymous with the works of artists within Ukrainian and Russian post-revolutionary avant-garde circles as they interrogated non-representational art through the fragmentation and displacement of traditional forms, lines, viewpoints, colours, and textures within their pieces. The impact of Cubo-Futurism was then felt within performance art societies, with Cubo-Futurist painters and poets collaborating on theatre, cinema, and ballet pieces that aimed to break theatre conventions through the use of nonsensical zaum poetry, emphasis on improvisation, and the encouragement of audience participation.

Censorship in Taiwan was in effect when the government exercised strict media control during the martial law period in Taiwan from 1949 to 1987, carried over from the Nationalists which governed mainland China prior to retreating to Taiwan in 1949. Under martial law, the Kuomintang-ruled government engaged in censorship to prevent criticism of it, as part of its opposition to certain cultural products, and as a feature of anti-communist campaigns against the Chinese Communist Party. Media control was greatly relaxed when the state moved away from authoritarianism in 1987.

<i>Looking for Langston</i> 1989 film directed by Isaac Julien

Looking for Langston is a 1989 British black-and-white film, directed by Isaac Julien and produced by Sankofa Film & Video Productions. It combines authentic archival newsreel footage of Harlem in the 1920s with scripted scenes to produce a non-linear impressionistic storyline celebrating black gay identity and desire during the artistic and cultural period known as the Harlem Renaissance in New York. The film has a runtime of about 42 minutes.

<i>LEF</i> (journal)

LEF ("ЛЕФ") was the journal of the Left Front of the Arts, a widely ranging association of avant-garde writers, photographers, critics and designers in the Soviet Union. It had two runs, one from 1923 to 1925 as LEF, and later from 1927 to 1929 as Novy LEF. The journal's objective, as set out in one of its first issues, was to "re-examine the ideology and practices of so-called leftist art, and to abandon individualism to increase art's value for developing communism."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Futurism (music)</span> 20th-century movement in music

Futurism was an early 20th-century art movement which encompassed painting, sculpture, poetry, theatre, music, architecture, cinema and gastronomy. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti initiated the movement with his Manifesto of Futurism, published in February 1909. Futurist music rejected tradition and introduced experimental sounds inspired by machinery, and influenced several 20th-century composers. According to Rodney Payton, "early in the movement, the term ‘Futurism’ was misused to loosely define any sort of avant-garde effort; in English, the term was used to label a composer whose music was considered ‘difficult.’"

"Note on Commercial Theatre" is a poem by Langston Hughes written in 1940 and republished in 2008.

Li Hua March 6, 1907 − May 5, 1994), was a Chinese woodcut artist and communist known for his participation in left-wing activities, was born in Panyu, Guangdong.

<i>Mule Bone</i> 1930 play by Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston

Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life is a 1930 play by American authors Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. The process of writing the play led Hughes and Hurston, who had been close friends, to sever their relationship. Mule Bone was not staged until 1991, when it was produced in New York City by the Lincoln Center Theater.

The International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians is the junior section of the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition, and it is the largest competition for junior performers up to 17 years of age. The competition was established in 1992 on the initiative of the Association of Tchaikovsky Competition Stars and is held in the sections of piano, violin, and cello.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Langston Hughes</span> American writer and social activist (1901–1967)

James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He famously wrote about the period that "the Negro was in vogue", which was later paraphrased as "when Harlem was in vogue."

<i>Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man</i>

Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man is a five-act comedy by Aleksandr Ostrovsky. The play offers a satirical treatment of bigotry and charts the rise of a double-dealer who manipulates other people's vanities. It is Ostrovsky's best-known comedy in the West.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ateneum Theatre</span> Theatre in Warsaw, Poland

The Ateneum Theatre in Warsaw is a Polish dramatic theatre founded in 1928. It resides in a building erected a year earlier in the interwar Poland as headquarters for the Professional Union of PKP Railway Workers with offices upstairs. After World War II, the severely damaged structure was restored to its former glory with public funds. The state-run theatre reopened in 1951; named after its first and already famous prewar director Stefan Jaracz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loni Berry</span> American theatre educator

Loni Berry is a theatre educator/artist. He has taught at numerous universities and is Artistic Director of Culture Collective Studio, a theatre production company in Bangkok, Thailand.

Kasyan Yaroslavich Goleizovsky was a Russian choreographer and dancer. He was a pioneer in the Moscow avant-garde ballet scene in the 1920s. His innovative and acrobatic routines heavily influenced artists like George Balanchine.

Si-Lan Chen, also known as Sylvia Si-Lan Chen Leyda, Chen Xuelan, or Chen Xilan, was a dancer, choreographer, and activist of Chinese and Afro-Caribbean descent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Novy LEF</span> Soviet-era literary-critical periodical

The Novyi LEF or New LEF journal was a literary-critical periodical published by the State Publishing House “Gosizdat” in 1927-28 in Moscow, RFSFR. Futurist poet Vladimir Mayakovsky served as editor-in-chief, with Sergei Tretyakov replacing him in August 1928. Under both editors, a single issue totaled between 40-50 pages. Novyi LEF was a 22-issue revival of the original LEF journal, which was published in seven issues in 1923-25. Both LEF and Novyi LEF emerged from the LEF literary group, composed of Futurist and Formalist writers, theorists, and artists committed to a revolutionary transformation of Soviet culture. Novyi LEF consistently showcased photography, literary theory and criticism, poetry, editorials, and occasionally creative prose.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Gao, Yunxiang (2021). Arise, Africa! Roar, China! Black and Chinese Citizens of the World in the Twentieth Century. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN   9781469664606.
  2. 1 2 3 Tang, Xiaobing (2006). "Echoes of Roar, China! On Vision and Voice in Modern Chinese Art". Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique. 14 (2): 467–494. ISSN   1527-8271.
  3. ↑ Huang, Kun (2024-07-25). "Afro-Asian Parallax: The Harlem Renaissance, Literary Blackness, and Chinese Left-Wing Translations". Made in China Journal. Retrieved 2024-08-06.
  4. 1 2 "A Closer Look: Langston Hughes's "China"". The Yale Review. Retrieved 2024-08-06.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.