Chekhov's tradition in the literature of Lai Shengchuan

Li Syan PhD in Philology Postgraduate student, Department of History of Russian Literature, Moscow State University 119991, Russia, Moskovskaya Oblast' oblast', g. Moscow, ul. Leninskie Gory, 1 lisaxiang2021@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Lai Shengchuan (1954–), Chinese playwright, professor at Taipei University of Arts, founder of the Performance Workshop and the Shang Theater, as well as one of the initiators of the theater festival in Wuzhen (a village in Jiangsu Province, China), is known as one of the "leaders of Asian theater". Since 1986, he has created about 60 stage plays that have achieved success in Chinese-speaking areas.

Lai Shengchuan pays special attention to Chekhov's dramatic work and borrows his experience. He considers Chekhov as an educator in the field of drama and life ^{[13, p. 16]}. Chekhov's drama influences the creation of Lai Shengchuan's plays, and his understanding and acceptance of Chekhov also went through a process of constant deepening.

In 1987 Lai Shengchuan created the drama "Rural Life" inspired by Chekhov's work; in 1990, he led students of Taipei University of Arts to rehearsals of Chekhov's comedy in four acts "The Seagull"; in 1994, the play "Red Sky" (playwright-director–Lai Shengchuan) Chekhov appeared on stage with a static aesthetic style; in 2008, in his play "The Village of Taiwan Island", he considered the theme of the motherland with the concept of Chekhov's tragicomedy; in 2014, he remade Chekhov's "The Seagull" at the Beijing Baoli Theater... It can be said that Chekhov and Lai Shengchuan's dramatic editing and directing careers are closely linked.

Reading the works of the two playwrights, we find that the reflections of the Chekhov tradition, such as the static artistic features of the Chekhov drama, the expression of the philosophy of changeable life and the unique comic concept in Chekhov's plays, are specifically represented in some representative plays of Lai Shengchuan.

Firstly, the artistic features of Chekhov's static drama appear in the plays of Lai Shengchuan.

Since Chekhov's Chekhov drama has typical static aesthetic characteristics, Lai Shengchuan calls Chekhov's activity in the theater a "peaceful revolution" ^{[13, p. 15]}. The concept of "static drama" was first put forward by the Belgian playwright M. Maeterlinck in "The Tragedy of Everyday Life" ^[12]. Maeterlinck tries to create a drama without an external plot conflict, which shows only the static life of the characters – the inner life ^[12]. Further, Chekhov further expands the form of performance of static drama. Like Maeterlinck, he believes that drama should show tragedy in everyday life, but notes that it should not completely abandon the external plot and conflict, but simply try to weaken conflicts and reveal everyday life, and serve to fulfill the inner world of the characters. The static nature of Chekhov's drama is reflected in two aspects: from the external form, the author creates a calm and long static atmosphere with the help of various artistic techniques that weaken the plot conflict or delay the course of events; from the expression of internal connotation, the focus is on a deep experience of the inner world, but this focus is manifested by subtle and multilevel psychological activity. These two aspects naturally combine in Chekhov's plays, forming his unique static artistic characteristics.

Lai Shengchuan more or less borrows these techniques in his many dramatic works. We will consider its appeal and application to Chekhov's static dramatic features and artistic techniques in the following such plays by Lai Shengchuan as "Rural Life" and "Red Sky".

The inspiration of the play "Rural Life" comes from Lai Shengchuan's perception of Chekhov's dramatic art. After creating the work "Rural Life", Lai Shengchuan "understood Chekhov" ^{[15, p. 71]}. He noticed that in some seemingly flat scenes of everyday life, there are many subtle events happening at the same time, and most of these subtle events take place in the heart of the characters.

In 1986, Lai Shengchuan led students of the Drama Department of Taipei University of the Arts to create a four-act drama "Rural Life" in the form of collective improvisation, representing the daily life of four families in Taipei apartments. For the performance of the play, Lai emphasized: "in the performance, we must try to maintain a rich but parallel simultaneous form of action, so that the focus is diverse, but concentrated, like life" ^{[8, p. 215]}. As in Chekhov's plays, in the play "Rural Life" there are dramatic conflicts and events in the ordinary everyday life of four families, but Lai Shengchuan uses Chekhov's dramatic technique for artistic processing – "to hide all the climaxes in the story, leaving light traces of life" ^{[13, p. 15]}. For example, Mr. Gui recognized a tumor in his lung after a physical examination, which would be a serious blow and a turning point for three generations of his family. However, the drama does not have a dramatic attitude to this event, but gradually shows complex and tortuous changes in his inner experience through changes in the details of everyday life. Before the examination result, Gui first did not allow his family to do a second examination with him, which reflected his inner fear; then, after the diagnosis, he angrily treated his family and expressed his inner resentment and anger; finally, he bought gifts to his family to express his warmth, which shows that he should I had to accept the fact and try to compensate my family after a strong internal dispute of psychological transformation. The play also has a story about the murder of an economic criminal at home, it should be full of dramatic conflicts, but its plots about conflicts are put behind the scenes to weaken them. Lai did not suit this hero, but expressed the complex side of human nature through the deep affection and love of two daughters for their father, so that the terrible case could be scattered in the warm memories of everyday life. There are also various events in the other two apartments, such as the conflict caused by the abortion of spouses who do not want to have children; the storm caused by the ghost of Zhong in another apartment as a casino. Eventually they are covered or forgotten with the restoration of the world of everyday life. This method of weakening the dramatic conflict is very similar to the technique in Chekhov's work "Uncle Vanya". The main character in the play has an acute conflict with the professor and even shoot him, but finally he continues to devote himself from personal happiness to the service of Serebryakov, as before. In appearance, there are no obvious changes in the life of the main character, but in his soul there is a painful transition from full of hope to anger and despair. Hence it is noticeable that "the conflict in Chekhov's play is finally solved in a unique way – nothing is really solved, and each person retains his original appearance" ^{[5, p. 59]}. Beneath the seeming calmness and absence of the ups and downs of life, what makes up the contrast is actually the complex, subtle and dramatic changes experienced in the deep heart of the characters. The play "Rural Life" contains Chekhov's way of solving the plot conflict, which not only left the viewer more thinking, but also made this work of Lai Shengchuan one of his plays with the Chekhov style.

In addition to weakening the external plot conflict, Chekhov also uses various artistic techniques, such as silence, pause or memories and fantasies of the characters, etc., to create a frozen and static picture on stage to shade the psychological actions of the characters.

The play "Red Sky" by Lai Shengchuan is another static drama. There are few external actions in the play, but they increasingly show the living condition of elderly people through fragments of everyday life. Most of the old people in the play have already lost the ability to act, so the action of this drama took place more inside than outside.

In this dramatic work, Lai Shengchuan often uses the techniques of talking to himself and self-expression of the characters, pauses, calm state, etc., to present all kinds of potential complex in the depths of the characters' souls. Elderly people in a nursing home often talk to themselves when they have dialogues. For example, in the sixth act, Grandfather Jin and Grandmother Li chatted in the sun, but gradually their dialogues turned into their own monologues. On the one hand, Grandmother Li recalled meetings with Grandfather Li; and on the other hand, Grandfather Jin recounted the separation from his wife during the war. And their words intersected in parallel, but never met. This kind of barrier to dialogue and communication is a common Chekhov technique. The characters in his plays often talk about their own affairs and have no real communication. Lai Shengchuan believes: "Chekhov's way of writing dialogue is very special... This is not one sentence from you, one sentence from me, maybe, but this: one sentence from you, my answer is three pages of words. In fact, life is such that people do not necessarily communicate with each other. Chekhov's heroes live in their own world, and few of them really talk" ^[8].

In addition, the movements of old people on stage often go into a static state, which leads to a stagnant stage effect. For example, in the ninth act on a sunny day, "the old people are gradually static in their places, as if stagnation in life for no reason. ... They look differently and immerse themselves in their own states" ^{[9, p. 56]}. In the 15th act on a rainy day, as in the ninth act on a sunny day, "all people peacefully and quietly look at the right sky. For a long time" ^{[9, p. 82]}.

In this special atmosphere, although there is no external action on the stage, the internal psychological action of each character does not stop. In fact, the moment of calm state contains a lot of rich emotional experience and psychological activity, so this calm state is a special form of continuation of psychological action.

Moreover, Chekhov often blocks the development of a dramatic plot through the characters' memories of the past or fantasies about the future, which causes it to continuously slow down and weaken, and also creates a static effect – as if time has stopped. The characters of the play often remain in memory for a certain moment, and time seems to stagnate in order to highlight the potential complex in the depths of the heroes' souls. For example, Shamraev "Seagulls" always remembers and shows some fragments of past experience in the theater, and Firs "Cherry Orchard", plunges into past memories of the estate, lamenting the passage of time. And people who long for the future, such as Astrov, the doctor in the play "Uncle Vanya", etc., are not waiting for tomorrow or the next year of their personal life, but hundreds of years later of human life. This kind of fantasy about the future, as well as the memory of the past, not only temporarily interrupts the course of the current plot, but also unites the past, present and future in the sense of time. In the eternal and slowly flowing time, it negates the sharp turn and change of the event, creates an aesthetic static effect, as well as a calm, long-lasting static atmosphere. According to Lai, in a static drama, "the atmosphere created by various events in memory is important. Thus, after a while the viewer can free himself from the development of the plot" ^{[11, p. 86]}.

Therefore, Lai Shengchuan also often delays or interrupts the development of the plot, immersing the characters in memories or fantasies. This creates a static atmosphere. For example, in "Red Sky" Grandfather Jin misses his deceased wife and does not forget her, and Grandfather Mai is immersed in memories of his past youth. Grandma Deng spends her time in the fantasies of the artist-star Yan Jun.

In a word, the main goal of the two playwrights with the help of the characters' memories or fantasy is to melt the conflicts between the events and the characters of the drama in the slowly passing time, to deepen the subtle and multilevel expression of the inner world of the characters, to achieve a static aesthetic effect.

Secondly, we see the peculiarity of Chekhov's expression of the philosophy of impermanent life in the plays of Lai Shengchuan.

In 2014 Lai Shengchuan in an interview noted: "The most touching thing is that Chekhov can transfer "life" directly to the stage. No playwright's work is more like life... This has a significant and profound impact on my next creation, which makes me strive to create a sense of current life on stage, as he did" ^{[13, p. 15]}. It can be seen that Lai Shengchuan pays more attention to the vital noumenal world, which Chekhov expresses in the drama. In Chekhov's plays we often meet with his reconstruction of the inner spiritual pain of the characters, his expression of the nature of impermanence during life in everyday fragments. All this is close and similar to the expression of the philosophy of life in Buddhism. According to Buddhism, life is full of impermanence. Impermanence means suffering and change. Everything in the universe does not exist in an independent, permanent and pure state. Everything depends on each other, so everything will change and will not be completely under our control. Lai Shengchuan has been living faithfully in Buddhism for almost 40 years, and the philosophy of the impermanence of life in Buddhism has already penetrated into his writings. According to Lai Shengchuan, Chekhov's life feelings expressed in his plays are very similar to the philosophy of life in Buddhism, so he said in an interview: "There is another type of people who may not have heard of Buddhism in their lives, but what he does and believes is actually philosophy in Buddhism, to which, I think, S. Beckett and even A.P. Chekhov belong" ^{[13, p. 15]}.

As for the philosophy of life in Buddhism, Lai Shengchuan has his own unique understanding: "If you really understand it, you will find that it is not a religion at all. This is an attitude to life and a desire for life. This is the way. The end of the path is a real understanding of life" ^{[2, p. 24]}.

In fact, Chekhov's belief between "there is God" and "there is no God" is close to what G. Simmel calls "religiosity". According to G. Simmel, "every religiosity contains a peculiar mixture of selfless dedication and eudaemonic lust, humility and elevation, sensual spontaneity and insensitive abstraction" ^[6]. It is an instinctive talent in every person and gives people inner peace. Of course, this religiosity does not contradict philosophy in Buddhism.

The following we analyze a similar philosophy of life in the dramatic works of Chekhov and Lai Shengchuan.

According to Lai Shengchuan, Chekhov's drama is based on the sadness of life and the dilemma of the spirit ^{[13, p. 16]}. In Chekhov's plays, happiness is what people say the most, but get the least. It is just an individual and accidental phenomenon, and pain has an eternal and inevitable law. For example, the main characters of "The Seagull" are all involved in love, but none of them can get the true love of two hearts; Uncle Vanya is eager to continue his new life; and three sisters are eager to return to Moscow to start a wonderful life. However, these ideals and aspirations are forced to compromise in the harsh reality. Therefore, most of the characters in Chekhov's plays sing the melody of everyday suffering: "I drag my life like an endless train..." ^[18]. The general painful feeling of the heroes of the play comes from Chekhov's own experience of survival. This feeling ("life is suffering and pain") is consistent with Schopenhauer's pessimistic philosophy of life, which is influenced by Buddhism. Lai Shengchuan always reveals the states of "life, old age and death" in the drama, and the inspiration of his work lies in the fact that "as long as you live, see more people and feel more of their life sufferings, inspiration will naturally come out" ^{[2, p. 24]}. For example, the play "Red Sky" focuses on the sufferings of old people's lives; the work "Dream like a Dream" directly encounters the sufferings of a dying life; "A Grain of Sand on that Distant Planet" is created to help Lai Shengchuan's girlfriend get out of the pain of her husband's death. It can be said that it is the concern for life's sadness and life's suffering that makes the two playwrights agree and resonate in their life values.

In addition, the impermanence of life is reflected by Chekhov and Lai Shengchuan in the plays.

Impermanence means that everything will change, and this kind of change is not completely under our control. The impermanence of life reflects in the dramas of Chekhov and Lai Shengchuan a sense of time and the flow of life, as well as the ignorance and incompetence of people in front of the environment and time.