Reception of Anton Chekhov's play "Uncle Vanya" in China

Tsui Yunyun PhD in Philology Postgraduate student, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia 117198, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, Miklukho-Maklaya str., 17 1042205286@pfur.ru Other publications by this author

In 1920, the magazine Liberation and Creativity (volume 2, No. 12) published a translation of Chekhov's one-act play "The Proposal", performed by the Chinese translator Geng Zizhi. This is the earliest translation of Chekhov's work, which is found in China ^{[1, 37]}. Since then, Chekhov's plays have been translated constantly. "Uncle Vanya" is one of Chekhov's best theatrical works, and it also quickly got to China.

Russian Russian Literature Series was compiled in 1921 by the national scientific institution Open Scientific Society, in which the play "Uncle Vanya" was placed in the section "Collection of Russian Dramas", translated directly from Russian by the famous translator Geng Shizhi (Geng Zizhi's younger brother). This was the first translation of this play in China.

In 1930, Zhu Zhancheng (a theatrical figure and one of the founders of modern Chinese drama) translated Uncle Vanya, based on the Chinese translation by Geng Shizhi and the English translation by Constance Garnett. It is worth noting that in the same year Zhu and his drama club "Xinyu" staged this play, which became the premiere of Chekhov's multi-act drama in China. To facilitate the understanding of the Chinese audience, Zhu "changed the Russian names in the play to those familiar to the Chinese" ^{[2, 2]}.

Unfortunately, the Chinese viewers weren't keen enough on the plot. Mainly because in Chekhov's plays there are practically no events and obvious external conflicts, only the course of life. According to the playwright's own expression, "in life, people don't shoot themselves every minute, hang themselves, and declare their love... They eat more, drink more, drag themselves around, and talk nonsense. And now it is necessary that this be seen on stage" ^[3]. This violated almost all theatrical traditions of that time, and threw a kind of challenge to the established habits of the audience.

Translations of this play did not stop during the war with Japan. In July 1940, the Shanghai World Book Publishing House published a translation of Uncle Vanya by the playwright and translator Fan Xin. The play was also translated by Lini (writer and translator) and published by Chongqing Culture and Life Publishing House in September 1944. Subsequently, the same play was re-published in November 1946 and republished in February 1949 by the Shanghai publishing house Culture and Life.

In the 1950s, translations of Chekhov's plays were almost always reprints or accompanying editions of previous versions. In 1950, the Haiyan Bookstore republished a version of Fan Xin's Uncle Vanya. In November 1954, Lini's translation of Uncle Vanya was selected for the Chekhov Drama Collection, published by the publishing house Narodnaya Literatura.

During this period, Jiao Juyin (Chinese playwright and translator, one of the founders of the Beijing People's Art Theater) made an important contribution to the dissemination of Chekhov's theatrical works in China. He translated several famous Chekhov plays: "Ivanov", "The Seagull", "Uncle Vanya", "Three Sisters" and "The Cherry Orchard", which were published in 1954 under the title "Collection of Chekhov's Plays". It was re-published by the publishing house "New Literature and Art" in January 1955 and republished in 1956.

In July 1957, the Beijing Zhongliu Publishing house published Jiao's translation in one volume. Jiao's translations are of high quality and are suitable for stage productions, since they meet the general requirements for the theatrical language, which determines their demand by directors today. As proof, we can cite the fact that the famous Chinese writer Ba Jin viewed Jiao's translation when he watched "Uncle Vanya" at the Moscow Art Theater in 1954. Thanks to this, the Chinese audience understood the plot very well and was able to perceive the words sounding from the stage ^{[4, 38]}.

In the 1960s and 1970s, due to political factors (the Cultural Revolution), the translation and study of Chekhov's works were interrupted, and after reforms and openness in the 1980s, they gradually recovered and achieved new successes. In the new period, the play "Uncle Vanya" was translated by two new translators in addition to those who had already worked on it: translator Zhu Lung and translator and theater critic Tong Daoming.

Zhu Lung began translating Chekhov's works in the 1950s, and by 1973 he had already translated six million words, which is nine tenths of the total number of Chekhov's works. At first he translated mostly short stories, but later he also translated Chekhov's plays and letters into Chinese. From 1980 to 1999. The Shanghai Translation Publishing House published the "Collected Works of Chekhov" in 16 volumes translated by Zhu Long, of which volumes 11 and 12 are theatrical works, and "Uncle Vanya" was included in the 12th volume. Also in 1998, the Anhui Literary Publishing House published Chekhov's Plays, which included five dramatic works, including Uncle Vanya. Zhu's translation is deeply loved by readers. Since "the translation language is smooth, accessible and artistic, it conveys the style of the original work well. It is interesting to read it and never gets boring" ^{[5, 364]}.

 Tong Daoming is an authoritative researcher and translator of Chekhov's works, who made a special contribution to the development of perception and understanding of Chekhov's plays in China. He not only translated and studied Chekhov's works, works related to Chekhov, but also wrote several plays on the subject of the personality and creativity of the Russian classic. In 2004, with the support of his friend Li Liuyi (a famous director, in 2015 he directed the drama "Uncle Vanya") Tong translated the work "Uncle Vanya", which was included in the book "Three Plays", released by the Chinese Federation of Publishers of Literature and Art. This translation experience prompted him to write an essay entitled "To have a Spirit is to be Rich." Tun really liked the words of doctor Astrov, uttered by the hero in the first act: "when I pass by the peasant forests that I saved from logging, or when I hear the noise of my young forest planted by my hands, I realize that the climate is a little in my power, and that if a thousand years from now a person will be happy, then I will be a little to blame for it"^{[6, 73]}. Thun noted that in this expression, a person overcomes the self, transforms the ego into a higher self and confidently fits his own existence and creation into the time and space of history. This can be considered as the exalted "third spiritual sphere" of man ^{[7, 3-4]}.

Although Chekhov's plays have appeared in China since the 1920s, for a long time there has been very little research on these works. The reason for this, in addition to the lyrical and psychological features of Chekhov's plays, which made it difficult for viewers and playwrights to understand them, is that drama is a new art form for China. At the end of the XIX – beginning of the XX century, Western theater flooded into China. This art form was constantly absorbed, borrowed and adapted by the Chinese, eventually forming a theatrical form with Chinese characteristics, which is called huaqiu in Chinese.

During the inception of huaciu in the 1920s, playwrights were greatly influenced by the socio-realistic drama of the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Until the 1930s and 1940s, the cruel and gloomy social reality forced most playwrights to pay more attention to the outside world and real problems. In Chekhov's plays, Chinese scientists saw a struggle with gloomy reality and a desire for a new life, so they paid more attention to it ^{[1, 67-68]}.

 In 1954, China celebrated the 50th anniversary of Chekhov's death. In addition to numerous reviews and memorable articles published in newspapers and magazines, republications of Chekhov's translations, the Chinese Youth Art Theater, under the leadership of Soviet specialists, conducted a three-month rehearsal and, based on the original text and two Chinese translations (translated by Lini and Fan Xin, respectively), staged the play "Uncle Vanya" with Sun Weishi as director and Jin Shan in the title role. This increased the interest of scientists of that time in the play, and several studies appeared. But under the influence of the director's understanding of the play as a conflict and struggle between the working people and the hedonistic bourgeoisie, these essays also had a pronounced socialist ideological character and mainly consisted of reflections on the play, the rehearsal process and the analysis of the actors' play, for example, "On the rehearsal of the play "Uncle Vanya" (1955), "Do not forget to show emotions" (1978). One of the most typical studies is the article "The Charm of Uncle Vanya's Image" (1955), authored by Wang Yifang, an expert in the field of dramatic studies. In the article, the researcher not only talked about the features of Chekhov's drama, but also analyzed in detail the image of Uncle Vanya's character and the idea of the work.

First, Wang Yifang talked about how "Uncle Vanya" is full of lyrical features in accordance with Chekhov's style, as well as how difficult it is to interpret the numerous pauses and subtexts in the play: "The play "Uncle Vanya" consists of large monologues and long static scenes, how difficult it was to express such richness between them! Actor Jin Shan deeply explores the significance of the huge amount of subtext characteristic of Chekhov's play, so that the inner activities of the characters are presented clearly and reasonably" ^{[8, 17]}.

Secondly, the researcher believes that Uncle Vanya is a kind and cheerful person who is not decadent and misanthropic and wants to do something meaningful. And although in the end Uncle Vanya finds himself in the same place and life goes on as usual, in fact his character has changed. Now he is burdened with severe difficulties and works humiliatingly, not for the professor, but for something else - "for Sonya, for the happy people of the future" ^{[8, 19]}. Wang Yifang saw the acute social conflicts of life in the play: how beautiful but suffering people are dissatisfied with the evil social system, how they passionately crave and strive for a new life. In his opinion, this is "the essence of the image in which Chekhov's fantasy and his optimism are revealed" ^{[8, 14]}. After all, Wang notes that the social root of Uncle Vanya's tragedy was the exploitation and deception of rulers who destroyed the beauty created by intellectuals.

The significance of "Uncle Vanya" in China at that time was that today, when we "build the best socialist and communist society for humanity with our own hands" ^{[8, 19]}, we no longer regret that Vanya's desire to use his labor for the benefit of all mankind is impossible, that the new reality, which he dreams of is unattainable, and therefore we must "love our new life even more and apply all our talents even more diligently to the cause of socialist construction" ^{[8, 19]}. From this it can be seen that this interpretation is filled with the imprint of time and carries a certain ideological meaning.

After the "reforms and openness" (1978), an ideological liberation movement took place in China in the ideological sphere, which spread from the political level to the cultural level. The demand for theater has shifted from the catharsis of political feelings to the satisfaction of artistic needs. Since 1982, the study of Chekhov's dramaturgy has gradually deepened, its unique artistic and aesthetic value and modern understanding have been increasingly appreciated and attracted attention. Individual studies devoted to "Uncle Vanya" began to multiply.

In 1987, the first collection of articles by Chinese scientists "The Study of Chekhov" was published. The book consists of four parts, in which the stories, plays, aesthetic ideas and other valuable materials related to Chekhov are presented in detail. In the section on Chekhov's dramaturgy there is an article by Lai Chun "On Chekhov's psychological drama Uncle Vanya", which describes in detail the artistic features of this work.

Lai Chun noted that Chekhov inherited the tradition of Russian psychological drama and used the principle of psychological portrait to depict the consciousness of ordinary intellectuals oppressed by a monstrous society and trying to rebel against it, which "gave the play a deeply psychological artistic character" ^{[9, 214]}. Further, the author expressed his opinion about the ending of the play: "This ending seems circular in shape, but in fact it is open" ^{[9, 216]}. Uncle Vanya hopes for a better life, but can only compromise with the reality of life, which makes us feel the sharpness of the contradiction between a socially limited person and the social environment. It seems that everything is returning to its former life, but "the indefinite, foreseeable great tragedy of the main character has already been revealed" ^{[9, 217]}. Uncle Vanya is the central character, and doctor Astrov also plays an important role, in which Chekhov's aesthetic principles are embodied. "In Chekhov," the interpreter writes, "the theme of aesthetics is primarily moral, and at the same time social" ^{[9, 218]}.

The scientist also analyzed Chekhov's principle of creativity – the dialectic of character, i.e. "he did not bring out a single villain, not a single angel" ^{[10, 138]}. Thus, Chekhov used intermediate colors to depict the characters, objectively conveying the inner variability of their personalities. In the end, the author pointed to Chekhov's techniques for showing the inner plot of the play, such as pauses and various sounds used to convey or complement the inner experience of the characters and "random" actions ^{[9, 222]}, i.e. unrelated replicas or actions that show the psychological characteristics of the characters.

It can be said that Lai Chun's work represents the academic level of Chinese Czech studies and research on "Uncle Wang" in the 1980s.

It should also be noted the work "Rereading Uncle Vanya – on Chekhov's theatrical aesthetics" (Li Chenmin, 1998). The article analyzes the characters' images in depth. In the image of Vanya, according to the literary critic, the problem of the crisis of faith of the intelligentsia is embodied. Having suffered spiritual losses and futile resistance, he was forced to face an absurd reality. Professor Serebryakov is not actually educated, and his relationship with Uncle Vanya reflects an intriguing social phenomenon that existed in Russia at that time: the question of who supports whom. Thus, Serebryakov is a symbolic and epochal image. Astrov can be considered the most thoughtful, dynamic character in the play. With regard to Elena, the author comes to the conclusion that she is an unhappy woman with her own grievances and ailments. As for Sonya, the researcher does not agree with the excessive exaltation of her image, and, in his opinion, "Sonya's faith in life is not because she understands the true meaning of life, but because she is religiously hardy" ^{[11, 28]}.

In addition, quoting L. N. Tolstoy's comment on Chekhov's play "what is it, the play is stomping in one place..." ^{[12, 873]}, the Chinese scientist noted the "circular structure" of the play. Of course, although the plot of the finale has not changed much compared to the beginning, it is actually different. The second structural feature is the polyphonic structure, in which the plot is devoid of coherence, and individuals reflect on their personal concerns. At the same time, while the characters are making sounds, other sounds accompanying them are heard on and off stage.

Further, the author explained the play in terms of its comic and tragic elements and came to the conclusion that "Uncle Vanya" is not a tragedy or a comedy, but a "philosophical play" ^{[11, 30]}, full of life truths.

This study helps the Chinese reader to better understand the characters of the characters of the play, and the analysis of Chekhov's dramatic and aesthetic characteristics presented in it is of great importance for understanding the dramatic essence of the play.

In connection with the production of the play, reviews and analyses of theatrical productions have appeared, among which relatively valuable are, for example, "The Uneven Beijing folk art version of Uncle Wang" (Xu Shipi, 2015) and "Emotional content that cannot be lost – a review of the drama Uncle Wang" (Cao Xuemen, 2015).

There are also articles in which various literary theories are used to analyze this work. Article "Environmental responsibility and moral mission: The new interpretation of "Uncle Vanya" ^[13] begins with the formulation of an ecocritical vision position, assumes the presence of rich natural metaphors and environmental values in the text, reveals the problem of criticism of the destruction of nature by man and the underlying socio-ecological imbalance, and also analyzes from the point of view of ecology the problem of human spirituality, which has always existed in Chekhov's dramas.

In the work "Window, forest, urban and rural impressions: interpretation of the spatial poetics of Uncle Vanya" ^[14], based on the theory of spatial poetics, the metaphorical meaning of window, forest, urban and rural areas in the play is analyzed, the tension of space in the drama is deciphered and at the same time Chekhov's concern and reflections on the space of human destiny are revealed.

The play "Uncle Vanya" has existed in the Chinese context for a hundred years. In the relationship between translation and its study after the 1980s, the focus was on research, and before that, on translation. This play has been translated by at least eight Chinese scholars, of whom translations by Jiao Juyin and Tong Daoming have often been reprinted or cited for research.

As for the research of works, there is a flourishing of various directions: from just basic research devoted to the discussion of dramatic comedy and tragedy, methods of transmitting pauses and stylistics of the work, to comprehensive research analyzing the work from different points of view, studying the richest subtext and values of the play using various theories of literature and art and interpreting a sample of Chekhov's work in the light of modern ideas.

 However, both the translation and the study of the play are inseparable from the specific context of the time and are closely related to the political and social environment of China. When Chinese researchers interpret "Uncle Vanya", they necessarily take into account their own social and cultural psychology and aesthetic interests, so that the play in their understanding acquires more diverse meanings.