1879, Ibsen completed a doll's house. Nora, called "bird" and "little squirrel" by her husband, ran away from home after seeing her husband's selfish and hypocritical true face and her "doll" identity. He Chengzhou, a professor at the School of Foreign Languages of Nanjing University and deputy director of the Center for European Studies, thinks that Nora is the "first actress to run away" in the play. "She is unusual, incompatible with society and subverts the traditional concept of society". When Nora finally left her husband and children after hesitation, the ending was unexpected and shocking. Soon, the name "Nora" became a household name in Europe. But when people began to praise Ibsen's contribution to feminism, the stubborn Ibsen said "no" again: "None of my plays were written consciously to promote my thoughts. ..... In fact, I don't even know what the feminist movement is. I think this is a question of "people" in a broader sense ... my job is to "describe people".
"Ibsen's Modern Drama"
19 19 years, Hu Shi wrote a life event. This is China's first modern drama, and it is also an impressive work of a doll's house. Tian Yamei, the heroine in the play, left a note that "the child's lifelong event is up to him", pursuing the freedom of love and leaving with his lover Mr. Chen. The script is very short, "more like an essay promoting women's liberation." He Chengzhou said.
Under the influence of Hu Shi, a large number of Nora-type dramas were born, such as Ou Yangyuqian's Bitch, Guo Moruo's Wang Zhaojun and Zhang Wentian's Song of Youth. The transformed Nora is a symbol of individualism. They emphasize personal freedom and safeguard personal dignity and women's rights. But these women who left their parents for "love" are obviously different from Nora who left her family and children for "personal freedom". He Chengzhou believes that this is related to the reality of China at that time. "Perhaps freedom of marriage was the most critical issue of that era."
Most of China people's understanding of the doll's house began with Lu Xun's What happened after Nora left. "So for Nora, in an elegant way, money is economy, which is the most important thing." The New Culture Movement's understanding of A Doll's House was blind, so Lu Xun discussed it from the perspective of social reality and thought that Nora had no choice but to "fall or come back" after she left.
China's process of accepting Ibsen was obviously pragmatic. Around 1933, Mao Dun put forward the viewpoint of "Nora Doctrine", which linked the personal happiness of young Nora with the national happiness under the background of war. "At that time, there were great social contradictions. Mao Dun believes that it is useless for women to only liberate individuals and pursue personal freedom. Women must serve the public, fight side by side with men and fight for the future of the country and the nation. " He Chengzhou mentioned Mao Dun's novel Rainbow. The protagonist Mei, Mao Dun's Nora, came to Shanghai to join the revolutionary ranks.
The times are changing and the context is changing. From 65438 to 0996, A Doll's House, performed by Wu Xiaojiang in the Central Experimental Theatre, turned from the topic of feminism to the collision and difference between Chinese and Western cultures. Nora in the play is a foreigner. When she married a man from China and came to China, she was frustrated by the collision of different cultures and finally left her husband. After the reform and opening up, foreign-related marriages have gradually increased, and Wu Xiaojiang's A Doll's House is the realistic version of Nora.
Now people's understanding of Nora is no longer the symbolic and faceless Nora in the 1920s and 1930s when the Enlightenment was raging, or in the 1940s when the war was raging. Chien Sun said that Nora is no longer "a weak image, a simple doll at the mercy of others" as we used to understand. She lent money behind her father's back to treat her husband's illness and let him sit down and discuss it well, which shows that she has her own ideas and opinions. She is like a female knight, showing a positive and enterprising spirit in some aspects.
In the list of "China Ibsen Graduate Network" hosted by He Chengzhou, 70% or 80% of Ibsen's plays in China are "Dolls' Houses". Different directors give it different forms and connotations. At the end of April, 2006, Lin Zhaohua directed Nora's Children, and in May, the Wheat Field Drama Club of Fudan University will stage A Doll's House. Chien Sun said that the Fudan version of Dollhouse basically kept its original understanding. Lin Zhaohua, on the other hand, added more modern factors to the play. Nora's children have all grown up, and they "recall the day when their mother left from their own perspective".