Yang Funing and Li Youjun: On the Construction of an Aesthetic Community in Yan’an [1] Theatrical Production
Yan'an literature and art represent a critical turning point in the development of Chinese culture. This period’s close associations with politics, history, and geography were significant for constructing a brand-new form of Chinese art. Yan'an literature and art encompassed numerous artistic categories, including prose, poetry, fiction, woodcuts, fine arts, and dance. Among these, the theatrical activities of the Yan'an period deserve particular attention: "Drama was not only the most successful among Yan'an’s arts; it was the primary activity of the Yan'an cultural circles." During the Yan'an period, drama—as one of the most popular, prevalent, and rapidly disseminated art forms—was closely linked to the emotions, fate, and education of the broad masses of the people. It produced an array of outstanding works and formed a brand-new paradigm of theatrical production, which vigorously promoted the national drama and revolutionary movements. It made a monumental contribution to the liberation of the Chinese nation and helped usher in the "golden age" of modern Chinese drama.
The activities of theatrical production in Yan'an constructed a brand-new aesthetic community. This community took national liberation and universal equality as its ideal, the unification of the concepts of "politics" and "aesthetics" as its goal, and the participation of the entire people in the process of artistic production as its primary path. As the subjects and objects of aesthetic activity, drama workers and the masses actively committed themselves to the united front of artistic production for the great cause of national liberation. This realized a deep artistic integration between intellectuals and the masses of workers, peasants, and soldiers [1], opening up a new mode of theatrical production. It played a positive role in uniting the broad masses, advancing China’s New Democratic Revolution [2], and achieving the cause of national liberation.
I. Aesthetic Equality as the Foundation for Constructing the Aesthetic Community
During the Yan'an period, cultural workers—primarily intellectuals—rushed from all over the country to the Shaan-Gan-Ning Revolutionary Base Area [3]. The 解放日报 (Liberation Daily) once wrote in a proud tone: "With the successive fall of cultural hub cities since the beginning of the War of Resistance, and the rising tide of domestic political regression, the cultural positions in the Great Rear [4] have become desolate. Only Yan'an serves as the mainstay (中流砥柱) [5]—not only politically but culturally—becoming the active heart of the nation's culture." However, differences in life experiences and disparities in knowledge levels led to significant distinctions in the artistic aesthetics of cultural workers and the masses in the revolutionary base areas, resulting in an unequal aesthetic relationship between them.
This unequal relationship was primarily manifested in the estrangement between elite culture, represented by intellectuals, and folk culture, represented by the masses. Throughout Chinese history, elite culture always maintained a sense of class superiority over folk culture. Influenced by the May Fourth Movement [6], drama workers of the Yan'an period consciously assumed the historical responsibility of enlightenment and national salvation. They urgently hoped that through individual effort, they could transform the cognitive concepts of the citizenry, thereby awakening and educating the people. This required them to set aside their former sense of lofty superiority in artistic production and "bend down" to align with the aesthetic needs of the masses. To "become one" (打成一片) with the local people and achieve deep integration, drama workers proactively moved into earthen cave dwellings and ate millet rice. Yet, this "integration" in external form did not yield obvious results; most of their early creations remained confined to intellectual circles. In 1942, at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art, Mao Zedong pointed out that among cultural workers, there existed an overemphasis on studying the psychology of petty-bourgeois intellectuals and a lack of proximity to, or representation of, the worker-peasant-soldier masses. "Many comrades, because they themselves come from the petty bourgeoisie and are intellectuals, seek friends only in the ranks of intellectuals and focus their attention on studying and describing intellectuals."
On the other hand, due to the historical reverence for the cultured class in China and the extremely backward cultural level of the Northern Shaanxi region, the masses possessed a natural respect for the visiting cultural workers. However, respect did not equate to endorsement. Due to differences in aesthetic levels, the early relationship between the masses and drama workers was more one of alienation and exclusion. This alienation directly caused artistic production activities to be rejected by artistic consumption, leading to the phenomenon where theatrical production was not liked by the masses. This ultimately formed the unequal aesthetic relationship in early Yan'an theatrical production. In the revolutionary base areas, which advocated for "independence, freedom, and happiness," this aesthetic relationship directly hindered the development of New Democratic revolutionary literature and art.
To solve the problem of aesthetic inequality, one first had to transform the drama workers' perception of the masses. In his article "Cultural Workers Must Integrate with the Workers, Peasants, and Soldiers," Mao Zedong repeatedly emphasized the importance of the worker-peasant-soldier masses as the foundation of literary and artistic creation. To resolve the estrangement, an equal aesthetic relationship had to be established first. Cultural workers could not remain confined to petty-bourgeois aesthetic tastes; rather, they had to learn from the broad masses. Starting from the actual lives and realistic demands of the masses, they needed to create artistic works that truly aligned with the masses' logic of existence and ideal visions on the basis of an equal aesthetic relationship. Under the influence of the literary and artistic policy of "Serving the People," the status and discourse power between drama producers and the masses underwent a massive transformation. Theatrical production took on strong characteristics of "popularization" (大众化) and "nationalization" (民族化). A trend emerged where elite aesthetics catered to popular aesthetics, and a brand-new, equal relationship began to form between elite and folk culture.
The establishment of this equal aesthetic relationship was manifested in the process of re-establishing the "subject" of theatrical production. Early Yan'an theatrical production was mainly carried out by art troupes, the most representative being the Chinese Literary Association (中国文艺协会) and the Northwest Front Service Corps (西战团). Plays performed by the drama group of the Chinese Literary Association, such as The Miners (Kuangzhong) and Secrets (Mimi), marked the beginning of Yan'an theatrical activities. Ding Ling [7], as the director of the Northwest Front Service Corps, produced stage plays like Reunion (Chongfeng) and Ichiro Kawauchi (Henei Yilang), which were significant achievements of the Corps at that time. These troupes were mostly composed of intellectuals who held an obvious dominant position in the aesthetic relationship of that stage. On May 12, 1938, in a speech at the Lu Xun Academy of Arts, Mao Zedong noted: "Our two literary and artistic armies—the army from the 'garrets' of Shanghai and the army from the mountains—have come together." This "convergence" of the "Shanghai garrets" and the "mountain army" signaled the beginning of the construction of an equal aesthetic relationship between drama workers and the masses. Thereafter, more and more of the masses joined in theatrical production activities, gradually forming a new aesthetic relationship based on equal reciprocity between drama workers and the people. Cultural groups represented by the "Shaan-Gan-Ning People’s Troup" (陕甘宁民众剧团) emerged, and a collective creation mode, where drama workers and the masses jointly produced art, was distilled.
The establishment of aesthetic equality was also reflected in the continuous enrichment and adjustment of theatrical forms. In an equal aesthetic relationship, the aesthetic needs of each party should be fully respected. The "Grand Opera" (大戏) wave in Yan'an from 1940 to 1941 was originally intended to raise the overall level of Yan'an drama. At the time, it did play a positive role in improving the artistic literacy of drama workers and the aesthetic abilities of the masses. However, "Grand Opera"—which primarily used the form of the spoken stage play (话剧)—unintentionally raised the requirements for the audience's cultural cultivation. It ignored the actual knowledge levels and aesthetic needs of the local masses in Yan'an, even causing the common people to keep a respectful distance (敬而远之) from some of these productions. Following the "Grand Opera" craze, Yan'an saw a high tide of the New Yangko Movement [8]. This art form, which the people loved to see and hear, quickly spread through every street and alley, producing a large number of works such as The Brother and Sister Clearing the Wasteland (Xiongmei Kaihuang) and The Husband and Wife Learning to Read (Fuqi Shizhi). Simultaneously, the reform movement of "old opera" (旧剧) was in full swing. Drama workers created a series of new repertoires reflecting the revolutionary life of the military and civilians in the Border Region, such as the newly arranged historical plays Driven to Join the Liangshan Rebels (Bi Shang Liangshan), Three Attacks on the Zhu Family Village (San Da Zhujiazhuang), and Qu Yuan; modern Qinqiang operas [9] like Checking Road Passes (Cha Ludiao) and A Blood and Tear Feud (Xuelei Chou); and Meihu operas [10] like Everyone is Happy (Dajia Xihuan) and Twelve Sickles (Shierba Lian Dao). Whether it was the New Yangko Movement or the reform of old opera, these were typical examples of drama workers moving toward the masses, proactively respecting the aesthetic needs of the people, and establishing an equal aesthetic relationship with them.
In the process of establishing new aesthetic relationships, Border Region drama workers used the art of drama to shed petty-bourgeois aesthetic tastes and became true "spokespersons" for the masses. Meanwhile, the masses, through the craze of watching and discussing plays, discovered the contradictions and struggles in their daily lives. Their ideological consciousness was awakened and educated, and they gradually improved their aesthetic abilities through theatrical activities. Every theatrical performance became an artistic site facilitating the deep integration of drama workers and the masses, serving as a vital opportunity to establish "aesthetic equality" and thereby laying the foundation for a new aesthetic community of drama.
Only when a "status of equality" is set among the members of the aesthetic community can a synchronized aesthetic focus be formed. This manifests as common emotional expressions, demands of destiny, and educational aspirations. These elements are distilled into the different facets of the Yan'an theatrical aesthetic community. Drama workers transmitted this aesthetic focus to the viewing masses in a more vivid and graphic way through theatrical performances. Drama became a powerful weapon for changing the masses' perception of the world and raising their realistic aesthetic level, ultimately influencing the entire landscape of revolutionary production during the Yan'an period.
II. Constructing an "Emotional Community" Between Drama Workers and the Masses
For Yan'an drama workers to establish an aesthetic community with the masses, they first had to establish an emotional community. In aesthetic activities, no participant is solitary. Through aesthetic activity, individuals generate a shared emotional experience. This shared experience encourages mutual care among individuals, which in turn forms a common understanding of certain objects and concepts, thus creating an emotional community.
Traditional Chinese opera originated from the people and was performed among the people. The reason it has flourished for eight hundred years without fading is that it is a product of writers integrating with the times and the people. Playwrights express the joys, angers, sorrows, and delights of the masses in their works, reflecting the emotional pursuits of the people through performance, thereby building a solid emotional community with the masses.
(1) Synesthesia and Empathy Between Drama Workers and the Masses
During the Yan'an period, the establishment of an emotional community required drama workers and the masses to experience emotional collision and fusion through shared productive labor. Only when they truly stood in the shoes of the people to feel their lives—and achieved synesthesia and empathy with the people based on shared living—could they better guide their artistic creation and allow artistic activities to truly "serve the people."
"For those of us cultural workers who come from an intellectual background, if we want our works to be welcomed by the masses, we must change and transform our thoughts and feelings. Without this change, without this transformation, nothing can be done well; everything will be out of place." During the Yan'an period, cultural workers stepped out of their own private "garrets" and into the vast world of the people's lives. They used the tide of the people's emotions to drive their creative inspiration, shaping a large number of theatrical characters full of the workers' own perceptions of and passion for life.
Taking the artistic production process of China's first "new opera," The White-Haired Girl (Baimaonü), as an example: the prototype of this story originated from the "Legend of the Hairy Woman," a piece of folklore from the Hebei region. The earliest verifiable record of the "Hairy Woman" is found in the Biographies of the Immortals (Liexian Zhuan) written by Liu Xiang during the Western Han Dynasty: "The Hairy Woman lives in the mountains of Huayin; mountain dwellers and hunters have seen her for generations. Her body is covered in hair. She claims to be a palace maid of the First Emperor of Qin. When the Qin fell, she fled into the mountains and ate pine needles; thus she felt no hunger or cold, and her body became as light as if she were flying." In the Tang Dynasty's Extensive Records of the Taiping Era (Taiping Guangji), it is recorded: "At the Yuntai Temple on Mount Hua there was a bondmaid named Yunu. At age forty-five, she fell gravely ill, her body covered in foul-smelling ulcers. Fearing she would pollute the temple, the residents sent her together to a remote mountain stream." During the Ming and Qing dynasties, legends of the "Hairy Woman" appeared in Chen Shangsheng’s Miscellaneous Sayings from the Zanxue Pavilion and Zhang Chao’s Record of the New Yu Chu. The "Hairy Woman" thus became a typical folk art figure—mysterious, tragic, and forced to break away from reality after enduring suffering.
In his Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art, Mao Zedong repeatedly emphasized that literary and artistic works must be "at one" with the masses in thought and feeling. The issue of grounding one's standpoint on the side of the people was prominently reflected in the creation of the opera The White-Haired Girl. Upon hearing the "Hairy Woman" legend circulating in the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region [11], drama workers deeply investigated the origins and dissemination of this folk tale. Through this, they experienced the tragic fate of the masses in the "old society," which generated a strong emotional resonance and inspired an intense desire to create for and speak out on behalf of the people. He Jingzhi, one of the play’s primary creators, recalled in his article "The Red Flag on the Shoulder, the Book in the Hand": "The love and hate, the sorrow and joy of the creators must be consistent with the vast oppressed people within the work, the audience, and life itself." They went deep into the lives of the masses, empathizing and sympathizing with them, and transformed these emotions into the driving force for theatrical production. By representing the sorrows and joys of the masses through drama, they refined the legend of the "Hairy Woman" into the grand revolutionary theme of "the old society turned humans into ghosts, while the new society turns ghosts back into humans," thus creating China's first new opera. Following its premiere, the play was widely welcomed by the masses and has remained popular for many years, becoming a classic of China’s "Red Drama." The prerequisite for its success was the formation of an emotional community between the artistic creators and the masses.
During the Yan'an period, the cultural level of the masses in the Northern Shaanxi region was relatively backward; many could not understand novels or poetry at all. In comparison, they preferred traditional folk literary and artistic forms. Northern Shaanxi Yangge [12] evolved from ancient sacrificial activities intended to entertain the gods. It is easy to see from its historical development that it served not only a literary and artistic function—entertaining both gods and people—but also precipitated a public, sacralized ritual symbolic body through its repeated performances in the fields and countryside, becoming an essential component of Northern Shaanxi regional culture. The people’s love for Yangge made it one of the most important art forms at the time. The Party Central Committee called upon the vast ranks of literary and art workers to go deep among the masses and seek new forms and sources of creation within the people's lives. As the work of "bringing literature and art to the countryside" intensified, Yangge became one of the vital forms of theatrical production in Yan'an. According to statistics, during the six years in Yan'an, approximately 302 Yangge plays were performed, covering the vast majority of Northern Shaanxi. From the Spring Festival of 1943 to the first half of 1944 alone, the Yan'an region created and performed over three hundred Yangge plays, reaching an audience of eight million person-times.
The Yangge play Brother and Sister Clearing the Wasteland (Xiongmei Kaifuang) was created during the early stages of the "Great Production Movement" [13] in Yan'an. The play depicts a scene of a brother and sister working, where the brother pretends to be lazy to tease his sister, provoking her to criticize him. It reproduces the bustling labor scenes of the revolutionary base areas, eulogizes the "new laborers" of the Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region, and greatly inspired the masses' enthusiasm for productive labor. Upon its performance, the play received a warm welcome from the people. The root of its success lay in the fact that the drama workers truly achieved emotional commonality with the masses during the artistic production process; "beginning with emotion, connecting through emotion" was the internal production mechanism of the play. Yangge is a folk art form that the people of Northern Shaanxi love to see and hear, but the advocacy of romance and the explicit erotic descriptions found in "old Yangge" were incompatible with the construction of a New Culture. Drama workers started from the people's affection for Yangge and transformed the original "flirtatiousness" (saoqing) between men and women into an optimistic and proactive bond between siblings. This preserved the humorous folk atmosphere while showcasing the image of healthy, lively "new peasants," becoming a key element in breaking through the aesthetic barrier between creators and the audience, truly achieving a "connection through emotion." The grand mission of labor production and the simple, cheerful folk narrative were organically fused, giving this Yangge play a moving aesthetic quality.
(2) Emotional Interaction between the Masses and Drama Workers
Emotional connection between drama and the people is not a one-way path, but an interactive process of artistic production and consumption. Guided by the policy of "inheriting all excellent literary and artistic legacies and critically absorbing all useful elements therein, to serve as a reference when we create works using the raw materials of literature and art from the lives of the people in this time and place," theatrical production in the Yan'an period absorbed and drew upon the creative tradition of traditional opera, which shares the "joys and sorrows" (xiuqi yugong) of the masses. This tradition was expanded to the entirety of theatrical creation, beginning a new period of drama production carried by historical accumulation and a sense of mission for the New Era. Drama workers used theatrical works to express their emotional experiences and accepted the appreciation and criticism of the people; the masses, in turn, gave positive responses to these emotional expressions and injected their own emotions into theatrical production, becoming a continuous source of creation for the drama workers.
After the performance of the new opera The White-Haired Girl, the masses expressed their feelings and opinions through face-to-face exchanges with the creators and by writing letters. Even peasants from Qiaozhen Township in Yan'an and cooks from the Lu Xun Academy of Arts (Lu Yi) actively provided suggestions for the play's revision. The Lu Yi even produced a "wall newspaper" specifically for "picking bones" (finding faults) and offering suggestions for The White-Haired Girl. Driven by a massive wave of emotion after viewing the play, the broad masses joined in the theatrical production process. They gave feedback to the drama workers' artistic production by sharing their viewing experiences and participating in creative activities, transforming from purely aesthetic consumers into the dual identity of aesthetic producers and consumers. The White-Haired Girl was widely acclaimed, and the script quickly spread from Yan'an to the whole country. It underwent multiple revisions across different periods and regions; the revisions in the Yan'an version, the Northeast version, and the Beijing version were the most significant. These three revisions embodied the simple emotions of the masses. Through the drama, they triggered the love, hate, and pain hidden beneath the complexities of daily life and sublimated them into revolutionary sentiment. When the common people saw the performance of The White-Haired Girl, they remarked: "This is all the truth! We all lived through the old society. Seeing that girl's miserable state, who wouldn't shed tears?" Their suppressed emotions from a life of suffering found recognition and release, and their revolutionary enthusiasm was ignited: "Even the children on the street know the name of Huang Shiren [the antagonist]. After you capture those [enemy] prisoners, you don't need to give them political lessons or force them; just let them watch The White-Haired Girl once, and they will consciously follow our Old Eighth Route Army soldiers to strike the enemy, and they will do so regardless of safety, unafraid of sacrifice."
The masses actively participated in theatrical production, while drama workers sincerely listened to their opinions and revised scripts accordingly, forming a positive cycle of emotion between the two. "Valuing drama and offering enthusiastic criticism was a major characteristic of cultural life in Yan'an. This was true for both cadres and the masses." Drama workers sat among the audience to watch the plays together, feeling the sincere emotions generated during the viewing and listening to evaluations on-site. After the performances, they extensively collected opinions through interviews and letters, truly achieving empathy and "heart-to-heart" communication with the people. This flow of emotion greatly stimulated the masses' enthusiasm for theatrical activities and closed the gap between traditional drama production and the aesthetic demands of the people.
III. Constructing a Community of National Destiny between Drama Workers and the Masses
For theatrical art to trigger the people and educate them, relying solely on emotional commonality is insufficient. The construction of an aesthetic community during the Yan'an period required reconstructing the social strata and distribution order from a political perspective, as well as reconstructing presently perceptible experiences from an aesthetic perspective. Within these two types of reconstruction, an internal identity between "politics" and "aesthetics" was formed, providing the foundation for dissolving the boundary between the two. Thus, constructing an aesthetic community within literary and artistic production and political activities became a practical possibility.
The concept of "nation" is an "imagined political community." At historical moments of life-and-death stakes, this community of the "nation" plays a massive role in sparking political mobilization and awakening the masses. Through the "nation," a trans-regional universal identity can be linked. People living in different regions transcend their ancestral homes to form a universal sense of belonging, which can be achieved through the activities of a few specific groups. When the national destiny is linked to individual destiny, forming a community of national destiny, everyone within this community can be called upon to resist and struggle for their common fate. "Politics" and "aesthetics" achieved integration through the epochal theme of "national liberation." Politics was endowed with aesthetic meaning through theatrical aesthetic activities, while aesthetic activities became a powerful political weapon for resisting aggression and oppression and striving for freedom and liberation.
In his speech at the opening ceremony of Yan'an University, Mao Zedong pointed out: "All our work has only one goal, which is to overthrow Japanese imperialism and drive Japanese imperialism out of China." The anti-Japanese movement required uniting the broadest possible masses of the people. Literature and art had to "unite" with the masses, and through this "union," form a community of national destiny, allowing everyone to invest themselves in the struggle against imperialism and aggression as members of that community. This was the process of "Sinicization" in the construction of an imagined national community. The convening of the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art and the clarification of the guidelines for the drama movement allowed drama workers to deeply experience the bitter fate of the masses during the process of "bringing culture to the countryside." This generated a spiritual demand to "share the sorrows and destiny" of the people, thereby helping them more profoundly recognize their important historical mission: using drama to solidify the hearts of the people and construct a community of national destiny.
Specifically in theatrical production, the dramatic work itself carries a characteristic directed toward communal life. It brings aesthetic pleasure to the people while simultaneously undertaking the mission of making our political life healthier. Drama workers used their works to express the current suffering of the masses and to excavate the grand theme of the people’s struggle to change their fate; the masses, through these works, sensed the tide of epochal change and developed a revolutionary desire to "transform heaven and earth," thereby forming a community of national destiny between the drama workers and the masses.
Taking the production of modern Qinqiang [14] opera during the Yan'an period as an example: Northern Shaanxi belongs to the "Qin" region, and Qinqiang was very popular locally. The "Qin" regional culture nurtured a tradition of historical storytelling. After the Tang and Song dynasties, a trend of "popularizing formal history" (zhengshi sugjiang) gradually formed. Qinqiang originated in the Guanzhong area of Shaanxi around the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty. In the late Ming, it spread to Northern Shaanxi through military activities; the rebel army of Li Zicheng once used Qinqiang as military music. Besides military dissemination, merchants from Shanxi and Shaanxi were also a major force in spreading Qinqiang—the trade routes were also the "drama routes." Opera relied on the migration of merchants to spread. In the late Ming and early Qing, the rise of Shaanxi merchants allowed Qinqiang to better propagate in Northern Shaanxi, where it was generally welcomed by the locals. "The Qinqiang of the Northwest is a relatively complete folk opera of the Northwest capable of expressing complex content." Qinqiang is adept at expressing simple emotions in a rugged and unconstrained manner; sorrow, pathos, poignancy, and solemnity became its most prominent vocal characteristics. Influenced by the "Qin" culture, especially the "Guan Academic School" [15], Qinqiang differs from southern operas that emphasize entertainment. It focuses more on plain and heavy historical anxieties, praises impassioned patriotism, and addresses individual fates involving loyalty, filial piety, integrity, and righteousness. A series of traditional plays such as Sacrificing to the Soul (Ji Ling), Wailing at the Ancestral Temple (Ku Zumiao), and Third Sister Educates the Son (Sanniang Jiaozi) enjoyed a broad mass base in Northern Shaanxi.
During the Yan'an period, theater troupes—epitomized by the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Troupe—deeply excavated the profound artistic heritage of Qinqiang [16], attempting to infuse it with a modern spirit and revolutionary ideology. From this process, modern Qinqiang opera emerged. In 2022, the author conducted an interview with Miao Baoping, a National First-Class Actor, director of the Shaanxi Theater Association, chairman of the Yan’an Theater Association, and head of the Yan’an People’s Theater Troupe. According to him: "Before liberation, Qinqiang was beloved by the common people in Northern Shaanxi. Prior to 1938, every county and village had small troupes performing Qinqiang. In thirteen counties, including Huangling, Yijun, Luochuan, Fuxian, Yanchang, Zichang, and Yanchuan, Qinqiang was the primary form of song. During holidays, weddings, and funerals, these troupes would take the stage; the locals loved to watch, listen, and sing. Chairman Mao said to Ke Zhongping of the People’s Theater Troupe that we should organize these rural troupes to serve our Communist Party propaganda. He told them not to just sing 'ancient plays' (historical dramas), but to sing 'modern plays' and perform 'present-day history.' Only then did Ke Zhongping organize these troupes into the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia People’s Theater Troupe and began large-scale creation and performance of Qinqiang." Under Mao Zedong’s guidance, Qinqiang transformed from a traditional folk opera into a vital literary and artistic force driving the cause of the proletarian revolution.
According to statistics, nearly 20 modern Qinqiang plays were staged in the Yan’an area between 1938 and 1947. The Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region People’s Theater Troupe fully utilized local theatrical resources to produce outstanding works such as The Little Cowherd, Twelve Sickles, The Feud of Blood and Tears, Everyone is Happy, The Poor Man's Hatred, and The Soul of China. These new plays borrowed forms from old dramas like Qinqiang and Meihu [17] to propagate the logic of resisting Japan and saving the nation to the masses, receiving a warm welcome from the public. Ma Jianling, a member of the troupe, was awarded the honorary title of "People’s Artist" [18] of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region for his outstanding contributions to modern Qinqiang. His representative work from the Yan’an period, The Feud of Blood and Tears, was produced during the late stages of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. At that time, the Kuomintang (KMT), in an attempt to seize the fruits of victory, treated the Liberated Areas as their primary target. They increased grain levies and taxes in the KMT-controlled areas and forcibly conscripted able-bodied men, making life unbearable for the people. Within this historical context, Ma Jianling’s The Feud of Blood and Tears tells the tragic story of a Henan peasant named Wang Renhou. After suffering a series of blows in the KMT-controlled area—his son was conscripted, and both his daughter-in-law and wife committed suicide after being violated—Wang fled to the Border Region with his daughter and grandson to begin a bright new life. Later, Wang’s son, Wang Dongcai, under KMT coercion and enticement, sneaked into the Liberated Area to plant poison, only to nearly poison his own son, Gouwa. Upon learning the truth, Wang Dongcai confessed his crimes, and with the help of the Border Region government, the family was finally reunited.
By contrasting the living conditions of Wang Renhou's family in the KMT areas versus the Liberated Area, the play "vividly and profoundly expresses the historic choice of the Chinese people between two destinies and two futures—rejecting the darkness to walk toward the light and toward the Border Region." It depicted the choice of two destinies facing the Chinese people at a critical historical juncture, calling upon the people in KMT areas to abandon darkness for light. Ma Jianling moved the masses through the tragic experiences of Wang Renhou's family and inspired them through the happy life of the people in the Liberated Area. Zhou Yang [19] once praised this script alongside The White-Haired Girl, stating that it "brought forward the theme of class struggle and endowed this theme with a powerful romanticism." By modeling a typical artistic image that concentrated the common fate of the suffering masses, the protagonist became a role model for the spectators' own struggle against their destiny. Wang Renhou's experiences in the KMT area mobilized millions of other "Wang Renhous," who spontaneously connected themselves to him, projecting their own fates onto him. The individual was no longer a lonely unit but a member of a collective resisting fate—a revolutionary fighting for the destiny of the nation. Within this "community of national destiny," the value of the individual was realized as never before; every person’s struggle was endowed with a new meaning of driving history and "changing heaven and earth" (gaitian huandi) [20]. The simple, individual resistance of the masses shifted toward the great mission of national rejuvenation, thereby forming a brand-new community of national destiny.
The Feud of Blood and Tears was immensely popular upon its release. After watching it, Wang Zhen [21] wrote specifically to Ma Jianling: "The audience was stirred by the plot, filled with intense hatred for the enemies of the people and profound sympathy for the heavily oppressed people." He noted that "a soldier of Chiang Kai-shek's army who had just laid down his arms cried for two whole days after watching The Feud of Blood and Tears and Defending Peace; he wouldn't eat or drink, but just buried his head in digging trenches, swearing to fight to the death against Chiang Kai-shek and Hu Zongnan [22]." From the production and dissemination of The Feud of Blood and Tears, it is evident that the community of destiny established between theater workers and the masses played a positive role in the actual struggle. Through theater, the masses closely linked their own fates with the fates of the characters and the era, with each individual becoming a vital force promoting the great cause of class struggle.
IV. Constructing an Educational Community Between Yan'an Theater Workers and the Masses
In Chinese history, theater has performed the dual roles of entertainment and moral edification (jiaohua). Theatrical activities had a broad grassroots foundation in rural areas. Due to China's history of centralized rule, administrative and social structures usually terminated at the county magistrate level; "the top-down single track was built only as far as the county yamen [23] and stopped there, never reaching the front door or the inside of individual households." Throughout history, theater in a certain sense took on the responsibility of organizing the public space and public life of the people below the county level. This organizational form gave theater the social function of "edification from the high stage" (gaotai jiaohua). On the folk stage, theater producers attracted audiences through narrative and performance; by watching the play, the audience entered another life, experiencing the vicissitudes of fate alongside the characters and establishing a shared cognitive system. Thus, watching a play was not only a rare moment of leisure in a peasant's busy life but a crucial opportunity for them to understand the world and establish values.
Luo Dunrong wrote in A Memoir of the Boxer Rebellion: "The performers drew from novels like Investiture of the Gods and Journey to the West, splashing on divine authority to create splendor and avoid misfortune; after a century of immersion, this surged into folk custom, and the ignorant people were educated by theater until the year of Gengzi [24]." In September 1904, Chen Duxiu [25] wrote in the opening of his article "On Drama" in the Anhui Common Talk Paper: "There is one thing that no one in the world dislikes; regardless of men, women, the elderly or the young, everyone follows its lessons with a sincere and happy heart. It can be considered the world's greatest educator. But if I say it, some of you might not believe me. What is it? It is singing opera... The theater is a university for the masses, and the actors are the teachers of the masses." This served as a rehabilitation of theater, which had been marginalized by orthodox culture since the Ming and Qing dynasties, and officially pushed this traditional art form to the forefront of the Enlightenment movement.
In his 1926 article "The National Revolution and the Peasant Movement," Mao Zedong pointed out that "the peasant problem is the central problem of the national revolution." After the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army arrived in Northern Shaanxi in October 1935 following the 25,000-li Long March, mobilizing the masses in the Yan'an base and Northern Shaanxi to join the revolutionary ranks became an urgent historical task. In May 1942, at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art, Mao Zedong explicitly stated the need to establish a cultural united front, to create literature and art that serves the workers, peasants, and soldiers, and to mobilize writers and artists to go among the masses. They were to inherit and learn from excellent traditional culture, using "new literature and art" to educate and raise the level of the masses: "Literature and art should become a component part of the whole revolutionary machine... a powerful weapon for uniting and educating the people and for attacking and destroying the enemy, helping the people fight the enemy with one heart and one mind."
Under the guidance of the Talks [26], theater workers utilized the powerful folk resources and propaganda potential of theatrical art to refine an "educational community" that the masses welcomed and that could lead them toward higher consciousness. At that time, there were many "loafers" (erliu zi) [27] in Yan'an. According to 1943 statistics, among the roughly 1.5 million people in ten counties under the Border Region, there were 9,500 loafers. These "loafers" had a very negative impact on the development of the Yan'an area, yet they were also members of the masses living on this impoverished land; they too had aspirations for life and were members of the worker-peasant masses who could be reformed.
To educate the loafers and transform them into laboring people, theater workers produced a large number of plays on this theme. Among the most influential were the modern Meihu play Everyone is Happy, the Yangge [28] Ju Zhong Wancai Makes His Fortune (by the Military Law Department Yangge Troupe), and The Transformation of Liu Shenghai (by the Northwest Party School Yangge Troupe). Ma Jianling’s Meihu play Everyone is Happy depicts a loafer named Wang Sanbao who is lazy, loves to eat, smokes [opium], and gambles. The village head and Aunt Feng advise him many times to improve his ways, but the shiftless Wang refuses to repent. To reform him, they have his wife take the children to her parents' home to participate in labor, while the village head takes Wang Sanbao up the mountain to reclaim wasteland. Driven by the collective, he gradually kicks his smoking habit and becomes a new man who loves labor, leading to a "happy ending for all." During its performances, Everyone is Happy motivated a large number of loafers to consciously accept reform and become proactive "new-style peasants." The play's success lay in its creation of the "loafer" as a new dramatic archetype. The audience saw Wang Sanbao’s physical agony when his addiction kicked in, his theft and abuse of his wife and kids to get money for smoke, and his lonely frustration when, having decided to quit, he found himself too weak to lift a hoe. Finally, with everyone's help, he successfully quits and becomes a true laborer. Zhong Wancai Makes His Fortune was based on a true story. Zhong Wancai was a local loafer addicted to "foreign smoke" (opium) who did no work; with the help of the village head, he eventually transformed into a self-reliant laborer. When the play depicted Zhong's transformation, the loafers in the audience would be pointed at by others saying, "Look at him, what about you?" The masses saw the protagonist in the play and the real loafers in their midst; theater truly functioned to unite and educate the people.
In addition to the reform of loafers, theater workers produced works focused on resisting Japan and defending the nation (e.g., The Soul of China, Take a Long-Term View), class struggle (e.g., Zhou Zishan), and women's liberation (e.g., The Virtuous Sister-in-Law). It can be said that theater works of the Yan'an period were, at their core, educational. This was the inevitable result of combining the theories of "popularization" and "raising standards" with artistic production as mentioned in the Talks. It was also an effective measure to fulfill the artistic mission of "edification from the high stage" during a special period to awaken and educate the people. The common people warmly welcomed these new plays, and local cadres remarked: "You singing opera for three days does more for us than three to five months of propaganda and education work."
Mao Zedong placed great importance on folk literature and art, considering it a cultural heritage created by the people that should be protected and developed. He emphasized that folk art was the spiritual wealth of the new society, forged in the struggle for national survival and the people's freedom and happiness. In the process of constructing this educational community, artists who were well-versed in folk arts were a unique group. On one hand, they had a natural, close relationship with the masses and were themselves part of the people in need of education. On the other hand, they possessed extensive experience in artistic production; their long careers in folk theater helped them accumulate a wealth of performance experience. They were essential members of the theater community with irreplaceable advantages.
During the Yan'an period, tens of thousands of intellectuals brought in diverse and brand-new ways of producing theater. Folk artists were both unfamiliar with and intimidated by these new methods; they intentionally stayed away from the stage, watching from the periphery. After the Talks, intellectuals took the initiative to invite folk artists to join the new theater creation teams, affirming their artistic achievements and learning folk expressions from them. The folk artists accepted the invitation, changed their previous attitudes toward life and creation, and actively participated in theatrical production. They became a major force in Yan'an theater, thus forming an educational community between intellectuals and folk artists.
The mission of the Folk Troupe of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region was to "adopt the method of old forms with new content to improve various folk arts, in order to promote the strength of the War of Resistance and advocate for healthy entertainment." Regarding its personnel composition, the famous poet Ke Zhongping served as the director, Liu Keli as the deputy director, and Zhang Jichun and Ma Jianling as heads of theatrical affairs. The head of educational affairs was Mo Yiping, while instructors included Liu Baiyu, Yang Jie, Fang Ji, Liu Qing, and Li Lilian. To better utilize local folk resources and produce theatrical works that the masses loved and were familiar with, Ke Zhongping and Ma Jianling took the initiative in 1940 to recruit the folk artist Li Bu, hiring him as the troupe's vocal coach and stage director. Later, they recruited other folk singers such as Yu Lian, Wang Shoushan, and Liao Chunhua. In 1943, "the Northwest Bureau instructed the Shaanxi underground Party to mobilize a Qinqiang [29] opera troupe from Guanzhong, composed mainly of young actors—the Yumin Drama Society—to bolster the strength of the Folk Troupe." Through the collaborative efforts of theatrical workers and folk artists like Li Bu, the Folk Troupe became a model for the construction of a theatrical educational community during the Yan'an period.
Taking Li Bu of the Folk Troupe as an example, he was born into a poor peasant family. He had been a carpenter's apprentice, but he loved folk opera, especially Meihu [30] opera, and eventually became a renowned chou [31] (clown) role performer active in southern Shanxi and northern Shaanxi. In 1940, when the Folk Troupe performed in Fu County, Li Bu watched from the audience; he felt the troupe's plays were good, but their singing style and gongfu (stage craft) were lacking. Consequently, Ke Zhongping invited him to the troupe as a vocal coach and stage director. This folk artist, who had been forced by the hardships of the "old society" to abandon his passion for opera, received revolutionary education through his interactions with comrades in the troupe. He resolved to dedicate all his skills to theatrical work in the "new period." He composed the Meihu opera Peach Blossom Village and later directed plays such as Twelve Sickles and Everyone is Happy. With his help, the ancient genre of Meihu achieved a rebirth.
In 1944, Li Bu attended the Cultural and Educational Conference of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and was honored as a "First-Class Model Worker." At the conference, he remarked: "In the past, we performers were conservative about our art, but now I only fear I cannot teach others enough. If I teach others and they go on to educate the common people, my 'old stock' becomes something new and useful through them. This is 'weeding through the old to bring forth the new' [32]; this is the inheritance and development of art." Through his own experience, he empirically demonstrated the process of constructing an educational community between theatrical workers and folk artists, proving the advanced nature of the new society. "A folk artist, cast aside by the old society but cherished in the new, attained a conscious understanding of his artistic skills and the meaning of his humanity... This can only be described as a great miracle... It could only be the new society, fighting for national survival and the freedom and happiness of the people, that could discover and cherish Li Bu." Conversely, the theatrical workers, represented by intellectuals, also received education from folk artists. "Inviting Li Bu was like [Liu Bei] inviting Zhuge Liang [33]. We slaughtered the sheep sent by the masses and held a banquet for him. We treated him incredibly well, honoring him as a master. Getting Li Bu was like an army gaining a great general; our enthusiasm set him ablaze." Ke Zhongping’s attitude toward Li Bu represented the practical action of intellectuals "turning their eyes downward" to learn from the masses. They learned folk art from Li Bu and then used that art to educate the common people, thereby constructing a broader educational community with theatrical workers and folk artists as the primary creators and the broad masses as the subjects of artistic consumption.
V. Conclusion
The theatrical aesthetic community of the Yan'an period was based on the historical context of constructing the United Front for the New Democratic Revolution. Adhering to the principle of people-centered literary and artistic creation, it relied on theater to place the broad masses within a shared aesthetic situation, thereby forming identification and connections among the people of the Border Region and the entire nation. History has proven that the construction of Yan'an's theatrical aesthetic community was successful. Under the synergy of theatrical workers and the masses, Yan'an's theatrical production achieved brilliant successes. The works produced were widely loved at the time and made immense contributions to the cause of the Chinese nation's resistance against Japan and class liberation. Even now, classic plays such as The White-Haired Girl and Blood and Tears Feud maintain vigorous artistic vitality.
Based on a people-centered creative orientation, equal aesthetic relations were formed in Yan'an's theatrical production, which is the fundamental difference between socialist literature and art and other historical forms of art. Yan'an theatrical production elevated the people to an aesthetic position equal to that of the producers, ensuring that the masses entered the same aesthetic community through theatrical activities. This achieved the widest possible identification and connection within the ranks of the people and laid the foundation for the formation of a theatrical aesthetic community. Although members of this community might not know one another, they recognized the existence of others through the aesthetic relationship of theater, gaining a sense of belonging and value through this mutual connection.
Aesthetic and emotion, aesthetic and "carrying the Dao" [34], and aesthetic and education defined the specific connotations and forms of Yan'an's theatrical aesthetic community from different perspectives. When the masses stood before a theatrical stage that was completely equal to them, their past life experiences and sorrows were externalized through theatrical stories. Xi'er’s joys and sorrows became the shared emotions of the audience; Wang Renhou’s fate connected the political choices of the common people; and Wang Sanbao’s story transformed the public's concept of labor. Only such theater truly possesses the artistic quality and social function of "winning hearts, rallying the people, and forming an alliance with them." Only then is it a living aesthetic community with powerful vitality and appeal. History proves that it was precisely on the basis of constructing such an aesthetic community that Yan'an theatrical production truly became a powerful weapon for uniting and educating the people.
Since the 21st century, the digital age has opened new entertainment forms and aesthetic paradigms for the populace. Under the pressure of these new technologies, the development of theatrical art faces a major historical test. The famous drama scholar Wei Minglun even believes that the golden age of Chinese theater has passed forever. How to revitalize Chinese theater is a key issue for every artist. In 2014, Xi Jinping emphasized in his "Speech at the Symposium on Literature and Art" that we must adhere to a people-centered creative orientation: "Whether one can produce excellent works depends fundamentally on whether one writes for the people, expresses emotions for the people, and conveys the aspirations of the people." In the context of the New Era, literary and artistic works must still describe the shared destiny of the people, express their sincere emotions, and reflect their ideals and beliefs. The core remains to unite closely with the people and construct an aesthetic community where joys and sorrows are shared, prioritizing the emotional and existential needs of the masses.
Reviewing the logic of constructing the Yan'an theatrical aesthetic community in this context—exploring its trajectory of artistic production under the people-centered mission and excavating its aesthetic experience in the process of uniting the masses—is of great value for re-evaluating the path of Yan'an theater. It provides explicit enlightenment for contemporary mainstream theatrical creation and serves as a positive reference for the future development of Chinese theater and the construction of a theatrical aesthetic community with Chinese characteristics in the New Era. Furthermore, it provides valuable literary-theoretical interpretation and support for our country’s construction of a "community with a shared future for humanity."