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Culture
Print Edition> Culture
UPDATED: March 15, 2007 NO.12 MAR.22, 2007
DRAMA: Lasting Love for ‘Peach Blossom Land’
The classic Chinese drama Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land wins international acclaim in performances on the mainland, Singapore and the United States
By ZAN JIFANG
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Combining two tales

The drama actually involves two stories---“Secret Love” and “Peach Blossom Land.” The former, a modern tragedy, is about a man named Jiang Binliu (played by Huang) who meets and is separated from his lover Yun Zhifan (played by Yuan) during wartime in Shanghai. Unbeknownst to the other, each flees to Taiwan. Four decades later, Jiang is an old man lying on his deathbed in a hospital room in Taipei. He recalls the past, desperate to see his lover before he dies.

The second piece, a farce played in period costume, is a comic interpretation of Tao’s Peach Blossom Shangri-La. It is about a fisherman (played by Yu Tai’en) who stumbles into a utopian land filled with blossoming peach trees where people live in harmony but without any historical memory.

The first people he meets in the Peach Blossom Land looks exactly like his wife (played by Xie) and her lover (played by He). When he goes home after spending some happy moments in the utopian land, the fisherman finds that his wife has married her lover and they have a child. Finally, the fisherman decides to return to the Peach Blossom Land.

Forced to share the same stage, the directors and casts of “Secret Love” and “Peach Blossom Land” argue over who needs the rehearsal space more, critique each other's performances, remove each other’s props and ultimately divide the stage in half and perform at the same time.

The two productions merge in a comic clash of contrasting dialogue and styles. As tragic scenes of an old man yearning for a lost love and farcical episodes of a fisherman who, having departed the secret paradise, cannot find his way back there again, knit together, a surprising and complex new dialogue emerges from the chaos. Beneath the tears and laughter throbs a bittersweet yearning.

Lai always likes to juxtapose two different situations, and Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land is a typical work of that style. “Secret Love” and “Peach Blossom Land” respectively reflect the reality of Taiwan and the history of China.

According to Lai, the play’s success lies in the fact that it meets certain potential needs of the Taiwanese public, which is to seek order in chaos and interference. “You will get accustomed to unharmonious things together if you watch them for a long time,” said Lai.

When the play was first performed in Taiwan, the island’s contact with the mainland had just been reestablished after nearly 40 years of separation. It was a highly emotional era, as many Taiwanese sought to find their friends and relatives on the mainland. Lai’s work springs from and reflects that era.

The work has been reproduced six times, including five drama versions and one film, and each remake has been a success. For 20 years, this production has touched the heartstrings of audiences everywhere. The classic theatrical work remains fresh and relevant today, poignant in all its layers of meaning.

Lai attributed the play’s lasting popularity to people’s dream of a utopian land. “I would attribute its long vitality to Peach Blossom Land,” said Lai. “Peach Blossom Land is a common dream of the Chinese and even humanity. Everybody has his own Peach Blossom Land in his or her heart.”

As one of the most prominent and influential voices in the Chinese language theater, Stan Lai is also noted for his award-winning films, as well as his long career as an arts educator.

His 23 original plays have premiered through either the theater group Performance Workshop, of which he is the artistic director, or Taipei National University of the Arts, where he is a professor of theater and founding Dean of the College of Theater.

Lai’s plays have been performed throughout the Chinese-speaking world. His famous crosstalk series has helped to create a large audience base for his critically acclaimed theatrical work. His epic seven-hour work A Dream Like A Dream received top awards at the 2003 Hong Kong Drama Awards ceremony, and has drawn comparisons to Peter Brook’s Mahabharata. He is also an accomplished scenic designer and often designs the sets for his own plays.

Lai holds a Ph.D. in Dramatic Art from the University of California at Berkeley. Among his numerous awards, he has received Taiwan’s National Arts Award twice. 

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