Research On Chen Yan's Drama Theory

Chen Yan is an influential drama writer in contemporary China.His modern opera The Late Blossoming Rose,The Big Tree Transplanted to the West,and The Story of XiJing have been called the “XiJing Trilogy” in the theatrical circle.His works have won many major theatrical awards.Chen Yan also attaches great importance to the theoretical study of modern opera in addition to his drama writing.Chen Yan wrote and published a great number of theoretical articles on opera,essays and notes on modern opera.In connection with his own creative writing,Chen Yan puts forward his view on operas,with “writing for the people” as its core,emphasizing constant value and contemporary significance.This thesis consists of the introduction,the main body,and the conclusion.The first part is the introduction.On the basis of sorting out Chen Yan's operas and his research on operas,the author of this thesis points out that under the background of“revitalizing opera”,the starting point of Chen Yan's opera research is to promote the development of opera.The research methods and significance of the current study is elaborated in this part.Based on the literature review,the first chapter discusses the main contents of Chen Yan's theory of opera creation,including opera and life,the theme of modern opera,and his view about “focus on ordinary people”,“focus on ordinary life”,and the “constant value” in the theme of the opera.The second chapter analyzes Chen Yan's drama axiology.The distinctive feature of his drama axiology is the emphasis on the “writing for the people”principle and the “devotion to the family and nation” spirit.This chapter particularly analyzes the reason of the formation of Chen Yan's “writing for the people” concept.The third chapter deals with Chen Yan's theory of opera innovation,and analyzes Chen Yan's viewpoint on strengthening the activity of opera and the ability to have its voice heard through innovation,and explains Chen Yan's innovative concept from three aspects: “CHANG”,“DAO” and“HENG”.The fourth chapter analyses Chen Yan's basic viewpoint on the literaturization of opera,especially his viewpoint on the status of opera literature: “Literature is the soul of drama”.The fifth chapter analyses the culturological significance and enlightenment of Chen Yan's theory of the “constant value”.An important feature of Chen Yan's drama theory is the theory of “constant value” that he puts forward on the selection of the theme.From the culturological point of view,the concept of “constant value” is mainly understood as the long-lasting vitality of Chinese traditional culture,which is dominated by Confucianism.Since the new era,a major trend of changes and developments in the field of culture is that traditional culture has no longer been blindly disapproved,but critically inherited.Chen Yan's thought of“constant value” could be considered as a part of this cultural trend of thought.At the same time,Chen Yan further developed the connotation of this concept.Chen Yan's advocacy of“constant value” is a rational voice in the theatrical circles,which echoes this trend of thought in the culturological field and has his own special opinions.Chen Yan's point of view is of great enlightening significance for us to further understand the cultural education function of opera and the characteristics of the cultural responsibility of the main body of opera creation.The last part is the conclusion,which summarizes the main value of Chen Yan's opera theory.Starting from the basic problems in the development of opera,this thesis puts forward that in building socialist market economy in China since the reform and opening up,with the rapid urbanization of the society,the media system has undergone dramatic changes.When the mass culture becomes commercial culture,the opera should adapt itself to the development of urbanization.Therefore,it is necessary to integrate opera into the urban culture.Because the combination of “education” and “communication” is an important guarantee for modern opera to exert its aesthetic education function,the modern opera need further reform and should try to attract the attention of the members of the society,especially the youngsters.