Textual Classification And Study About "Fan Cuiting Collection"

FAN Cuiting, born on February24th,1906at Suiping county, Henan province, is among the firstgraduates of Henan University and the first Master of Arts in Literature Department of Education of thisuniversity as well. He consciously shoulders the task of reform the Henan Clapper and, experiencing twistsand turns and hardships, dedicates a lifetime of hard work and wisdom to direct and spread the HenanClapper. He is one of the forefathers during the modernization of Henan Clapper, and is “the founder ofmodern Henan Clapper” in name and in fact. For more than forty years, Fan Cuiting creates and adaptsabout eighty Henan Operas (also called Yu Operas) and directs hundreds of traditional and modern operas.He is worthy of the first and also by far the most outstanding dramatist and director of Henan opera duringthe past three centuries. He feels a "major responsible person" himself, and throws himself totally intowriting, directing Henan Opera and its education. His continuous efforts have made Henan Opera the mostpopular and influential regional opera in China with the widest cover.Based on full possession of abundant materials and systematic exploration into them, the author has arelatively clear and accurate knowledge of FAN Cuitng’s operas and dramatic reform theory. Thisdissertation is a case study of Fan Cuiting and his works based on six volumes of the "Fan CuitingCollection", and also a playback for collecting process of the Collection, especially for the discriminationand generalization of different versions’ emendation during the process. Meanwhile, the whole compilationscheme will be systematically reviewed. Even after the collection published, the ways and methods alsohave a strong and long-term significance for cultural values. It not only provides a more detailed textprotection way and inheritance path among the wide variety of Henan local operas, but also providesreference for studies of other kind of local operas.A question involves in the collecting process of "Fan Cuiting Collection”, which is the definition for"Fan’s Operas", since only by a clear definition can we ultimately determine what can be included in theCollection. Thus, the author, after reviewing previous scholars’ opinions and views, tries to define "Fan’sOperas" as according to two aspects, namely the theoretical and practical aspects. As for the former aspect,all the operas collected including adaptations, creations and directing ones reflect Fan’s talent; while for the latter aspect, this is a hard statistical task for Fan’s operas covering hundreds of different lists and versions.Therefore, the author conservatively classifies about87operas into "Fan’s Operas" including his51writingscripts and36adapted screenplays, for a cautious attitude and respect for copyright, as well as to ensure thequality of research.Among all the above materials, the question of FAN Cuiting’s birth date is varied. Considering hisforefather status and our respect to him, and especially out of scholars’ responsibility, this question shouldbe investigated rigorously. After comparing previous materials and consulting Fan Qi, the son of Mr. FanCuiting, the author finally confirms that his exact birth date must be February24th,1906. In addition, thereasons why Fan reforms Henan Opera are also controversial. Most people emphasize Fan’s devotion toHenan Opera, in a way the author also endorses this view. In fact, the power resources for Fan’s dramaticreform, after the retrospective of Fan’s historical background and development course of Henan Clapper,are the impact of dramatic improvement trend of Sichuan Opera represented by Kang and Liang, the driveof other regional operas’ reform represented by Sichuan opera, Pingju Opera, Shanxi opera, etc., theintrinsic necessity of Henan Clapper’s survival and development, and Fan’s consciousness and faith inopera. Beside, there are other influencing elements for his reform, such as social media, career development,family factors and personal feelings. It should be said that the reasons why Fan engages in the HenanOpera’s reform are complicated. It is not only a sense of responsibility and mission of intellectuals causedby the national crisis and an inherent developing demand of Henan Clapper, but also Fan’s ardently love foropera and consciousness of national salvation. He therefore takes up the dual responsibility of dramaticreform and improvement of the community without hesitation.Fan Cuiting is an artist of writer, director, manager and educator at the same time, which is seldomseen in Chinese dramatic history. Both his vigorous dramatic reform movements and his large number ofclassic operas show his helmsman role and guidance played in Henan Clapper development. In a word, it ishim who leads Henan Clapper to the dramatic modernization process via three decades of dedication todramatic creation and reform, but it is a pity that there is no systematic dramatic theories and academicwritings left like the famous scholar Qi Rushan after Fan died. Thus, the theories scattered in his dramaticpractices are of crucial need to explore and refine. His distinctive dramatic concepts and principles, andcreative skills like shining pearls scattered in his works, we have a responsibility and obligation to find out them and make them into a pearl necklace. In order to serve the current operatic reform better, the authorconducts a rational analysis and summary of Fan’s concepts and principles of dramatic from the theoreticalaspect based on his67operas in order to further uncover the secret of Fan’s success in this field. At thesame time, the core belief of his operas are to cherish of Henan Opera and artists, his dramatic concepts toenlighten the people, to open theoretical framework, and his artistic concepts to suit both refined andpopular tastes. Fan’s concepts and principles of opera have played a potential role in guiding his creation,and will also provide practical and reliable guidance for the current dramatic reform.This dissertation specifically discusses the connections between Fan Cuiting’s dramatic ideology andchanges of his dramatic style, and analyses the relationship between the outside pressure that era imposedon him and his creations as well. The result shows that the playwright can not get rid of the diplexinterference of external environment and the era background, so does Fan Cuiting, whose experience statesclearly the outside influence on individuals and individuals’ inside active role. Fan’s works in differentperiods shows obvious variation under the multiple subjective and objective impacts including historicalbackground, social and political condition, writer’s circumstance and consciousness, and so on. Thus, theauthor classifies Fan’s opera into four periods roughly: the period of development, maturity, transition,sublimation. In fact, there are two major events profoundly impact him, since1934FAN Cuiting took overofficially the Yu Shen Theater. First, Chen Suzhen, the leading light of Yu Shen Theater, left the theater in1942and this trapped Fan into both hard career and painful emotion situation because of their closerelationship, and undoubtedly affected his creative style. He restrains himself from the convergence ofpatriotism shine in early age, and then reexamines humanity and individual emotion, which results in alarge number of myth plays achieving the impossible human emotions by means of force or the surrealpower. Secondly, the establishment of new China in1949makes Fan Cuiting once perplexed heart begin tohave a new sustenance. He looks forward to the new China. With expectations of the new vision for a newlife in China, he gleefully joins in the dramatic reform activities advocated by the new government. Hethinks more calmly about the essential rules of opera, and explores the issues of modernization and reformof it. The focus of his creation also changes from reforming of creative ideology to exploring and practicingmeans of creation.Fan’s Operas reflect the distinctive artistry and ideology. For in-depth study, the author roughly divides his operas into five types depending on the nature and content of the main conflicts in the operas’themes: the historical opera, social opera, marriage opera, God opera, and current affairs opera. In thehistorical opera, the playwright shows a strong sense of responsibility and righteous spirit, trying to achievethe hope of serving the country through the literary creation, which shows a strong focus on the currentsituation of the country and sincere appeal for the heroism. He creates a super model that the hero loves thebeauty and country at the same time, which is beyond the minor model of "loving the country more than thebeauty". He, who likes the street drummer, is a real “patriotic playwright” for motivating people to resistJapanese through thrilling operas to increase people’s national self-confidence. He creates several socialoperas with a clear sense of the tragedy in the hope of treating social ills and saving the common people. Inmarriage operas, there has been many ideal marriage paradigms that beyond family status and finally cometo a happy couple after experiencing a series of hardships. The heroines in his works boldly pursue love farbeyond the extent of that era even some bearing the characteristics of modern society, and they reflect thedifferent levels of female consciousness and convey female’s decisive and staunch personality in socialtransformation. He also focuses his attention to the contemporary society, and myths and legends torecreate them, which reflect his dedication to the writing of reality. All in all, Fan’s Operas, like abarometer that holistically refracts the characteristics of his era, are worthy of "the vivid opera epic in theevolution of modern Chinese History".Fan’s Operas have the distinctive artistic features and abundant subject materials. He integrates themodern thoughts and zeitgeist into his works. Meanwhile, he creatively uses the advanced methods andunique skills in the traditional themes for abiding by the traditional structure in the plot development butalso not following the beaten back. Foreign invasion background determines his focus on the multipleconflicts among characters and between characters and the environment. He is also good at nurturing thechanging characteristics of characters to push the plot development. In his operas, there usually exist twoclues of characters and plot, which bring out the best in each other. He also masters the opera’s essentialcharacteristics and has superior ability to control the language. Thus, after his working with care andprecision, the language of Henan Clapper has shifted from the vulgar taste to the style admired by scholarand layman alike, which provides a remarkable template for the subsequent dramatic creation. As for thispoint, the famous playwright Wu Zuguang writes an inscription on the twentieth anniversary of Fan’s memorial meeting, the words goes like this:“Words forever hung as the sun and moon in the sky, the namewidely spreads all over the land and sea”. It is noticeable that Fan’s dramatic creations and reforms havebeen fully recognized by future generations.Among the talented four aces in local dramatic reform movement, namely Cheng Zhaocai of PingjuOpera, Huang Jian of Sichuan Opera, Fanzi Dong of Shaanxi Opera, and Fan Cuiting of Henan Opera, FanCuiting, despite later debut, whose contribution to the local opera development is as great as the others.Owning to his later debut, he is able to absorb the others’ experiences and lessons. In addition, Fan Cuiting,as the first Master of Zhongzhou University, has advanced insight and superb opera theoretical level, whichare far beyond the others. Beside, he ends the history of no opera script in Henan Opera, reshapes the stageimage of Henan Opera, and establishes the first modern Henan Clapper stage, the first modern educationalinstitution of Henan Opera, and the first formal dramatic theater of Henan Opera, which in turn settle thepersonnel training mode and writing and directing ideas of Henan Opera. It can be said that Fan Cuiting isthe forefather of Henan Clapper, the founder and guide in the modernization of Henan Opera. He setsplaywright, theater educator, and director in one, makes dramatic creation and practice, tune refining,performing arts, theater management, personnel training, theory construction and other aspects born again.Therefore, Fan Cuiting is worthy of the epitomizer of local dramatic reforms. As the dramatic theorist andeducator Mr. Zhang Geng praises,"Fan Cuiting is the innovator and educator of Henan Opera”.