#208 ​Lao She’s Teahouse

Left: photo of the author Lao She. Right: scene from the 2010 CCTV production of Teahouse (茶馆)

Background: Lao She (老舍, 1899-1966)

• We get a nice synopsis about the author before the excerpts begin.
• Here are two fascinating additions about his literary legacy from writer Paul French in the Los Angeles Review of Books:
  • “Set in the first half of the 20th century, his work describes the lives of dispossessed Chinese: Mr Ma and Son, his London novel, describes the experiences of being a Chinese in a Yellow Peril-obsessed Britain of the 1920s; Crescent Moon describes a family’s impoverishment and descent into prostitution; Rickshaw Boy, perhaps his most important and enduring novel, tells the futile and desperate story of a Beijing rickshaw puller; and Teahouse is a sprawling social commentary of one Chinese family from the late 19th century to the cataclysmic year of 1949. Along the way he produced numerous short stories, plays, and even an early Chinese science-fiction novel, Cat Country, which imagined a Chinese astronaut stranded on a Mars populated by debauched and decadent drug-addicted cats. His readers understood his commentaries on contemporary China, but the godfathers of China’s literary establishment didn’t always appreciate his modernist critiques and vernacular style—especially after the revolution, when Lao She fell foul of Mao’s Red Guards.”
  • “And still Lao She is censored, remade in the image of the Party, the only image allowed in China, then and now. In 2010, CCTV, China’s state broadcaster, screened a 39-episode adaptation of Teahouse with the requisite ‘official’ ending of a joyous ‘liberation’ in 1949 added; in recent theatrical adaptations of Lao She’s final work Beneath the Red Banner, a semi-autobiographical novel of the dying days of the Manchu Dynasty, mention is never officially made of the fact that the book remains unfinished, as the author was instructed by the Red Guards that all art and literature had to describe life since 1949. Still control is denied him, futility forced upon him. At his former home in Beijing his writing desk has been preserved as it was on his final day. The calendar turned to August 24, 1966. Keen, seemingly enthusiastic young student volunteers offer to answer any questions foreign visitors may have about Lao She. So let’s begin at the end and ask them what happened on that day? They turn away, embarrassed, giggle nervously, see the person asking the question as a problem, not even attempting a shilly-shally answer.”

Performance and analysis

• We will divide the class into three groups covering pages 1-6 (A), 7-11 (B), and 12-18 (C), respectively.
• Choose one short passage within the pages assigned to your group.
  • Prepare a short script for a narrator to describe the scene. If the audience could transport themselves into the scene, what would they see, hear, and smell? Are there any other important contextual details of note? (Feel free to sketch an image if you would like).
  • Perform your short selection (as written) for the class.
  • Prepare a short post-reading analysis. Among your observations, be sure to include:
    • How does this passage reflect the political, social, and economic conditions of Beijing—and China, more broadly—in 1922?  
    • What are some of the different philosophies and strategies employed by the characters to navigate the social changes of this period?

Discussion

• What are some of the major concerns raised by the characters?
• How might the characters in the play compare to the other figures we have encountered this unit: Liang Qichao, Sun Zhongshan, Chen Duxiu, Lu Xun (and his “madman”), He Zhen, Hu Shi, Li Dazhao, Mao Zedong, Deng Yingchao, and even Edward Hume. What similarities do you note? Differences?
• This play unfolds during several the overlapping periods and movements: the nationalism of the May Fourth Movement, the intellectual foment and literary experimentation of the New Culture Movement, the instability of Warlordism, not to mention the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP, in July 1921) and the increasing intensity of Christian missionary efforts. How do you see this play intersecting with these movements? And, how do the movements connect with and inform one another?