来源：环球时报 2013年4月15日
标题：The story of Lu Xunf is doomed everyman re-imagined as a piece of physical theater
By Hu Bei
In the early 1920s many Chinese men still wore a pigtail, or queue. IAnd it was at this time that the writer Lu Xun (1881-1936) created an image of such a man, Ah Q, in his novella, The
True Story of Ah Q.
It was said that the reason Lu called the character Ah Q is because the letter “Q”physically resembles the round facof man with a small queue.
"Today, Chinese men no longer wearthis hairstyle but Ah Q is still everywhere. He is like an invisible pigtail that follows every one of us,"said Tang Jianwei, a teacher from the Xiejin Film
and Television Art College of Shanghai Normal University.
Character revealing
That is why Tang decided to retell the story of Ah Q, and to do it by adapting Luf is original novella into a piece of physical theater.
“Physical theater is very appealing and accessible to audiences. I believe that facial expressions are a key way to revealing Ah Q is character and also to how other people treat him,” said Tang.“And we are not going up to use anymake-up on the actorsf‘faces, so their interpretations of the roles will entirely depend on their performances,”he added.
Ah Q will be staged at the Ke Center for the Contemporary Arts on Kaixuan Road in
Changning district from April 24 to 29. And the actors in the play are all Tangf's undergraduate students from Shanghai Normal University.
In the original novella, Ah Q is from the rural peasant class, has little educa-tion and noixed occupation. Yet he always maintains a countenance of self-contentment in public, despite the fact that he is regularly beaten and bullied by other people.
The novella contains a famous comment on this. Every time Ah Q is beaten, he doesnf’t resist or hit back, but simply says to himself, f°it is like the son beating his father.f± The act of a son beating his own father isconsidered one of the most serious transgressions against the Chinese ethical and moral code.
"However, Ah Q is obviously not an idiot,f± added Tang. f°If bullies overhear him talking about sons beating fathers and threatened to beat him even more for his insolence, he will quickly change his tune and talk disparagingly of himself as an animal or insect that is being
beaten. He was just a typical man of his time, if slightly exaggerated as you would expect in a literary work."
Resisting tormentors
In Tangf's opinion, past adaptations of the story, especially the ilm version of 1981, have tended to portray Ah Q as something of an idiot without even the intelligence to resist his tormentors.
"But I donfˉt think he is an idiotg. There must be a reason for him to behave the way he does,"Tang added."When the novella was irst published in the Beijing Morning News supple-
ment as a serial from 1921 to 1922, many readers could instantly recognize this character in the men they knew at the time."
Tang has tried to shape Ah Q as a person who would have originally m resisted his
oppressors, but gradually lost the will to do so as he got older. "And I want to show the process of this change,"he said
So in Tangf's work, when Ah Q is beaten for the very irst time, he doesnf't utter his famous line as in the book, but rather stands up to his adversaries with threatening gestures,
even though he ultimately doesnf't retaliate. "I think itf's importa he steps back from an act of his own violence because otherwise it would be straying too far from the authorf'soriginal intention.f"
Radical statements
Tang told the Global Times that he compares the story to society today when many people go through a period of being a fenqing (a Chinese slang term for youth who show their anger and discontentment towards society and the government). "We publish radical statements online, and some of us even hold, or take part in, protest demonstra-tions. But when we realize that it is all
in vain and nothing will change, all of us turn into Ah Q at last,"Tang said
Ah Qf's life ends tragically when he is executed after being framed for a crime he is innocent of. And even on the point of death, he attempts to entertain the watching crowds by of-
fering to sing snatches of some traditional Chi.nese operas. However, his indecision about what to perform means he is once again thwarted in his wishes.
Tang said his physical play tries to recreate this efect of tragicomedy that permeates the story of Ah Q. "Ah Q may have died, but as the character himself says f(R)you cannot kill Ah Q. Because countless Ah Qs will rise up again and again,"he said
Date: April 24 to 29, 7:30 pm
Venue: Ke Center for the Contemporary
Arts
可当代艺术中心
Address: 613 Kaixuan Road613
凯旋路613号
Tickets: 100, 120 and 180 yuan
Call 6131-3080 for details
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