Though Chinese novelist Gao Xiaosheng passed away in 1999, his status as a household name remains intact, thanks to the novellas that he started to write from 1979. His creation Chen Huansheng, a simple and honest Chinese farmer, has been given a new lease of life by the Changzhou Farce Troupe from east China's Jiangsu, Gao's home province, highlighting the theme of change and development in the rural areas in the past decades.

Priority pursuit

Gao lived in rural areas for more than 20 years, mingling with farmers and coming to know their daily life and way of thinking intimately. The Chen Huansheng novellas focus on villagers' life and fate during the economic reforms in the 1980s. Chen became a household name and a symbol of the impoverished farmers who never had enough to eat or any savings before the reform and opening up.

In late 2018, the troupe began to stage a tragicomedy, Chen Huansheng's Struggle to Feed His Family, reviving the memory of Gao's farmer. The plot, however, is not based on Gao's novellas. It spans the period from the early 1970s to 2018, while the novellas chronicle the period around 1980, after China started implementing the reform and opening-up policy.

Wang Hong, author of the play, explained that the Chen Huansheng series is a literary landmark recording the transition China's vast rural areas went through around 1980.

Chen is the symbol of that particular time and his experience is the experience of numerous Chinese farmers, Wang told Beijing Review. Chen's name has more impact than any other modern literary character for highlighting the theme of change and development in the rural areas.

In the play, every single important event in Chen's life revolves around grain and land. When the play opens, Chen is at the terminal stage of throat cancer and begins to look back on his hard and starving days.

Unable to get enough food to feed a family, Chen is forced to stay a bachelor for years. When he finally marries, his wife suffers from a mental disease. She marries him only because he can offer her a bowl of rice every day. Moreover, she does not come alone, but brings her three children from her previous marriages, making it harder for Chen to find enough food to feed all of them.

Even the three children's names are related to grain: Liang (meaning one 20th of a kilogram), Jin (half a kilogram), and Dun (a ton).

When the economic reform policy comes into effect and hybrid rice is planted extensively, the family finally has enough to eat. But his wife dies after devouring too much raw rice and then drinking too much water.

On her deathbed, she exhorts Chen to do his best to feed her three children, no matter what happens, even going out to beg for food if necessary, just as she used to do.

In the following years, the rural areas and farmers go through a series of reforms, like the canceling of agricultural taxes, and the family finally begins to see prosperity. When Chen's children have all grown up and they can afford whatever they want to eat,Chen is diagnosed of throat cancer and can actually swallow nothing.

Wang Hong, author of the play, talks to Beijing Review in Beijing on June 14 (ZHAO PIAO)

The primary demand

Having enough food to eat, the theme of the play, stems from the Chinese saying that food is the first thing for people. Although the Chinese have been enjoying a life with food security, the importance of grain, or food, can never be downplayed. Without enough food to feed China's huge population, all megaprojects will be reduced to meaninglessness, as the author sees it.

Food security should always be regarded as the priority, Wang emphasized, be it in eras of food shortage or be it today. "This is what this comedy means to convey to the audience through Chen's stories. We should always stay alert," he said.

Besides shining a light on Chen's pursuit of enough food for the family, the play also stresses his strong attachment to land. No matter how far society advances, Chinese farmers' feeling about land and grain has remained the same, Wang said.

Zhang Yi, head of the troupe who also plays Chen, gave his interpretation. "Chen, timid and conservative to the point of being stubborn, decides to give the younger generations the green light to try another way of life, which means his mind catches up with the times finally."

Since the play's debut last year, the troupe toured cities in Jiangsu and nearby before they staged it at the National Theater of China in Beijing in mid-June. Winner of several awards, the tragicomedy is listed as one of this year's key art plays by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

While watching it, the audience is torn between laughter and tears.

Zhang's favorite scene is the one where the village chief, in order to cover up the starving reality of Chen's family and display his good governance, orders the villagers to give their food to Chen's family and then tells higher-level officials that the family eats good food every day.

The scene causes the audience to chuckle at first but the next minute, when the reality is revealed and Chen begins to sob and talk about the deep poverty of his family, they are plunged into sadness. Some even begin to weep. Such scenes run through the whole play.

Zhang thought his play would find takers in those who have experienced the times Chinese people did not have enough food. But to the troupe's surprise, it has also been well received by the young.

"In universities, college students rush to tell us how much they loved the play. We know the young generation never pretends to like something they don't and will leave within minutes if they find they don't like the play. But this has never happened to us during our performance in so many universities. Instead, even the aisles are crowded," Zhang said.

To appeal to the young, the play is studded with the young generation's language. For example, in one scene, a popular food delivery app is mentioned.

"The 1970s happened much before me and I don't have any personal experience of that time. But still I could not help weeping. I never expected to be moved to tears by a comedy," said a Nanjing University student who gave only her surname Xu.

"I forgot I was watching a play. I never thought of leaving during the two-hour performance," said another student from Nanjing University, identifying herself only by her family name Fang.

Geng Xuhua, a drama critic and former editor-in-chief of Chinese Theater, a monthly magazine, said the comedy cleverly depicts the miracle of providing about 1.4 billion people with enough food in the past four decades in a vivid, humorous and sometimes tear-jerking manner.

On the surface, it is about food security, but actually, it goes far beyond. It not only touches the hearts of the audience but also draws people's attention to Chinese farmers and the vast rural areas of China.

Copyedited by Sudeshna Sarkar

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