Presenter: Soldiers’ Art Troupe of the Political Department of Beijing Military Region
Lead Cast: Wang Xufeng, Hong Tao, Peng Peng, Wu Lanhui, Zhang Zaixin, etc.
Venue: National Centre for the Performing Arts – Theatre
Dates: September 21 – 22, 2009 19:30
Price: VIP 400 300 200 120 80 RMB
Programme Introduction
Red Star over China is not only a drama marked with strong color of idealism and romanticism but also a drama about ambition and faith. The faith for Communism is its soul and Edgar Snow is its eye.
Through the sober perspective of a foreigner, by via of the refined dramatic structure and philosophical and poetic dramatic words, this drama passionately displays that young Chinese Communist Party and young Communists always keep their unique quality of being optimistic and vigorous, even in hard times.
The large-scale drama Red Star over China, produced by the Soldiers’ Art Troupe of the Political Department of Beijing Military Region, takes the true story of the famous international friend Edgar Snow visiting Yan An as its basic clue. Through a foreigner’s perspective, by via of a unique conception, philosophical thoughts and a poetic atmosphere, it vividly and objectively restores the heroic and unyielding revolutionary spirit of the Chinese Communists, Chairman Mao being as their representative, displays the deep meaning that without Communists there would have never been a new China, and gives people strong shock and deep inspiration. This drama to be staged on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, in particular, attaches great importance to the education of patriotism and revolutionary tradition.
Liu Bin, leader of the Soldiers’ Art Troupe of the Political Department of Beijing Military Region, is the artistic director of the drama, Lan Xiaolong is the playwright, Peng Peng is the director and this drama is also the first that he directs, and such outstanding actors as Wang Xufeng, Hong Tao, Gao Zhiqiang, Feng Guoqing, Wu Lanhui, Zhang Zaixin are the main actors of the drama. In order to offer spectators an excellent drama and give a wonderful gift to the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of People’s Republic of China, all the members of the Troupe made great effort and paid great attention to the stage effect, artistic conception and the spectators’ aesthetic sentiment. During the rehearsing process, they took practice as their experience, performed the drama for many official units, troops and local people, and received good reputation. The young soldiers and the local youth, in particular, praised it as a vivid teaching material for the education of the core value of the contemporary soldiers.
Synopsis
In 1928, Edgar Snow, who was just 23 years old but dreamed of becoming a poet and travelling round the world, came to China and became a temporary journalist of the Millard’s Review of the Far East (later the name was changed to The China Weekly Review). When interviewing in Inner Mongol he witnessed the grave sufferings that the local famine and plague brought to people. However, the corrupt national government did not care about the public, which caused the widespread of the plague. Two Communists, Su Hang and Si Feng, at the risk of death did their best to save the victims. Later Su Hang was infected by the plague, and before his death he gave Edgar Snow a match box on which were printed a sickle and a hammer and the characters “Made in Ruijin, Jiangxi”. This little match box arose Edgar’s curiosity and admiration for Communists.
In 1932, the nineteenth Troop of the Nationalist Party helplessly resisted against Japanese invaders. Due to the indifference of the international society and the national government’s corruption, Edgar Snow could not speak out his words to the international society in the name of a journalist, he could only witnessed that the Nineteenth Troop was driven to the last ditch. All these scenes made this American more curious for searching for the legendary so-called red bandits.
With the arrangement of Soong Ch’ing-ling, Edgar Snow broke through many blockades and came to the North-Shaanxi revolutionary base of the Red Army—Yan An. Through the contact and communication with such leaders of the Communist Party as Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai as well as quite a lot of other Red Army leaders, soldiers, farmers, workers and intellectuals, Edgar Snow got a deep and full understanding of the true situation of the politics, military affairs, economics, culture and life of the revolutionary base. He wrote down all he had seen in Yan An into a book—Red Star over China. This book correctly and vividly displays the achievements of the Communist Party and the Red Army, attracted great attention from both Chinese and international readers, attracted the American President Roosevelt’s attention and made him understand that a brand new China led by the Communist Party would soon be established.
On February 15, 1972, Edgar Snow died of cancer in Geneva, Switzerland. His will was “I love China, and I would like to leave half of my remaining there, just as if I am still alive.”
Soldiers’ Art Troupe of the Political Department of Beijing Military Region
The Soldiers’ Art Troupe of the Political Department of Beijing Military Region was established in 1937, during the War of Resistance against Japan. Previously it was a theatrical troupe of the Political Department of Jinchaji Military Region. It is one of the earliest army art troupes.
The Troupe produced and performed great and far-reaching works, such as the dramas Huaishu Village, Growing Up in Battle, the songs Being quite Happy, Learning from Lei Feng, China’s New Visage, Horse, Please Walk More Slowly, the dances On the Marching Way, A Woman Soldier on the Grassland, Walk, Run and Jump, etc. The large-scale vocal divertimento A Collection of Songs for Long March is famous popular in the world and praised as the 20th-century Chinese’s musical classic. A great many prestigious and outstanding artists appeared, such as Hu Ke, Hu Peng, Zhang Fei, Chen Geng, Tang He, Sheng Mao, Tang Jiang, Liu Wei, Hong Yuan, Shi Xiang, Ma Yutao, Ma Guoguang, Jia Shijun, Gao Yuanjun, Zhang Zhenfu, Geng Lianfeng, Ye Shaolan, etc., who helped the Troupe become famous for its outstanding artistic achievements in the world and develop into a top-ranking art troupe.
In the new period, the Troupe produced more great works. It produced a great many influential works that reflect the real life of the troops and received praise from the leaders of the country and the army. The song Being as a Soldier, which was sung by Liu Bin, received many awards, such as PLA’s Art Award, Award for Soldiers’ Most Favorite Song, etc. The songs Soldiers from All over China, Glorious Soldiers, the Peking Opera Tears for Hong Kong, the TV series The Red Badge, Mustering Troops on the Sand Ground and Our Troops received in succession the Award of Five Firsts, Ministry of Culture’s Wenhua Award and PLA’s Art Award, the dance Being outstanding in the Army and Song for Graduation received the First Prize in the CCTV National Dance Competition, and the song Ode to Olympics received the Award for Excellent Songs given by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 29th Olympic Games, which made new contributions to developing advanced culture and carrying forward the main theme.
(Source: ebeijing.gov.cn)