Drama and the Conflict Between Morality and Art in May Fourth Era China: The Controversy over the Performance of "Confucius Saw Nanzi" in 1929

• In Event: Second Looks: Adapting History, Myth, and Icon on the Sinophone Stage

Abstract

Examined here are social and cultural boundaries as sites of struggle. In 1929 a national “uproar” erupted over the “Confucius Saw Nanzi Case” ("Zi jian Nanzi" an). It was sparked by Confucius’ meeting Nanzi, the Duchess of Wei, on stage in the June 28, 1929 student performance of Lin Yutang’s “one-act tragicomedy” "Confucius Saw Nanzi" at the Second Normal College at Qufu, Shandong Province, the birthplace of Confucius. Nanzi, a woman damned, vilified and pushed to the margins of history, now shared center stage with Confucius, the Supreme Sage and Teacher. “The conflict between morality and art” (lijiao yu yishu zhi chongtu) as it was articulated by intellectuals at the time is the focus here in an analysis of both the “tragicomedy” and the “uproar” over the modern creative project in which the questions of “art” and “woman” in 20th-century China loomed large. Also examined are the social pressures that shaped the work and its reception outside the text in a controversy that sparked nationwide press coverage, ministerial investigations, the expulsion of students and factional maneuverings in the Kuomintang up to its very highest levels.

Author

• Diran John Sohigian, Shih Chien University Kaohsiung Campus