戲劇社會教育之功效及藝術本質之思辨──民國初年戲劇改良劇作家韓補庵的戲劇觀及其編劇理論: Discernment of the nature of theater art—The theatrical Views of Early Republican Playwright Han Buan and His Playwriting Theory

Abstract

The drama reform movement in the late Qing and early Republican era put emphasis on the didactic function of drama, with the hope of using it to enlighten the people’s mind and to transform social customs. Subsequently, various organizations sprang up with related activities even though none persisted for long, with the result that the reform movement did not produce any concrete effect. After the establishment of the Republic, the government set up offices one by one and laid down regulations to manage and monitor the drama profession to incorporate it in organizations of social education and popular education, attempting in the meantime to turn the ideas of drama reform to policies to be implemented by educational organizations. The Opera Reform Society and Opera Research Society were organizations that promoted drama reform. Han Bu’an (1877-1947), a dramatist of the early Republican years, was the director of Drama Reform Society. He also served as the editor-in-chief of Social Education Weekly, the official publication of the Office of Social Education. His position and experience allowed him to see drama as a way of putting social education in effect, where the emphasis was put on practical implementation. He was the writer of many newly scripted opera. In 1921, he wrote the theoretical treatise “Superfluous Remarks on Opera Writing” and in 1924, published a study of drama, Bu’an on Drama. He was one of the few dramatists in early Republican years who combined theoretic discussion and on-hand creation. His active years saw the intersection between the rise and fall of the new drama forms and the new cultural movement of the May Fourth. Without giving up the traditional drama forms, he dedicated himself to exploring how to reform the traditional art of drama by adopting a hybrid performing style of “half new and half old” and by putting forward a clearly enunciated view of drama and a practical script-writing theory. The progress of his efforts has a special historical significance.