The Night a Tiger
Was Captured
The Love Between Huang Dasha and LianGu
The “invasion” of
western culture has tremendously impacted the Chinese traditions since the opium
war. The transcendence of the western science, technology, political system and
values unprecedentedly shocked Chinese society. Although “the 100 days reform” driven
by those far-sighted scholars and ideologists, Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, and
Tan Sitong, ultimately failed, it urged this old nations once again to start reflecting
on its own traditions and culture. In the process of westernization and
globalization, at that time, emerged in large numbers of scholars and new ideas
and reached a peak during the “may forth movement” and “new culture movement”. They
were criticizing feudalism of ideological restraints, calling for freedom of
love and marriage, and chasing individualism and equality for this society. A
lot of new dramas, articles, newspapers boomed out at those interesting periods
and created a lot impressive stories. We have read a lot of those, such as Lu
xun’s Diary of a Madman, Slave mother, The Night a Tiger was Captured, etc. But the love tragedy of Lian
Gu and Huang Dasha is really interested me. The conflicts between the new ideas
and traditions described in this drama are very sharp. We not only can see the
seeds of “new ideas” vastly growing among the new generations, but also can
clearly feel that the Confucianism and other traditions still influence the
“youth”. It is beautiful to see this, as if watching and expecting butterflies
struggling breaking out of their cocoons.
In TianHan’s The Night a Tighter Was Captured, Hung
Dasha, the “youth”, beliefs the poetical and pure love between himself and
LianGu, which is all set on the spiritual level rather than utilitarian or material.
“I cannot forget Sister Lian. I cannot live without her.” He has almost nothing
but his love. No plans, no nothing. “One day you told me I should become a
tailor, but I refused, and after you beat me, I ran away. The next day you
demanded that I become a carpenter…”(26, TianHan) We see that Lian Gu’s father
was trying to persuade him to make a life, but he refused. The author might
want to express that the hunter represents the higher class in society and what
he actually demand is “go find a job and one day you will find the right girl.”
At the same time, we also can see that
Huang’s love is unrealistic. At this point, there is nothing about the “class”,
which is an interesting scene of the drama. In order to not separate with the
woman he loves, he is willing to living in the temple, begging for food, and stubbornly
following his feelings. “I would like slowly make my way to my place behind the
mountain and gaze at the firelight in this room, especially the firelight that
came through Sister Lian’s window.”(26, Tian Han) From the readings, I do feel
that the author is trying to describe how the new culture movement influences the
“youth”, which is becoming more open and honest to themselves and their loves, and
criticize the feudal marriage tradition. But meanwhile, I did not see any brave
and practically effective behaviors from the “youth”, in contrast to the other
characters’ hardworking and brave tradition, which totally makes him look like
a pathetic “freak” in the village. He failed, but not all because of the
marriage tradition.
By contrast, LianGu
seems has a plan, “I thought of running away—I’ve though of running away for a
long, long time.” She represents the “youth” as well. Confucianism instruction
to women is following fathers, following husbands, and following sons. She
breaks the rule and refuses to accept the arranged marriage offered by his
father, which rarely happened before in her village. The female character
touched me. She has the love to Huang Dasha as much as Huang’s to her, but she
is much braver than him and has an ideal plan to support it. “We’d have made
our plans to run away together. And where would you have run to? The city. What
would you have done there? The Chang’s eldest daughter promised to introduce me
at the mill so I could have gotten a job.” When I read here, I am wondering
that how’s the girl falling love with that “freak”. If we agree that Huang
Dasha is the perfect one in this drama to present the “youth”, then Lian Gu
seems still have the shadow of the traditions, which came from the living
environment.
Hung Dasha will
never been accepted by the rich Hunter and the village. The lower class status
decides his destiny of love. He has no choice. We also see that people living
in this village are all working hard and compromise to the environment even if
have to go into the mountain and fight with the beasts. Thus, I think Hung
Dasha “strange” behaviors and the week personality make a sense to be despised by the other villagers, except for Lian Gu.
From LianGu and
Huang Dasha’s love in this drama, we clearly see the achievements of “May Forth
Movement” and “ New Culture Movement”. This is, people start to chase the
freedom of love and women start to revolt the feudal ethical codes. However,
the movement has not completed changed the entire society. At that period, when
western values and culture impact the traditional values, people saw a colorful
world and imminently wanted to shake off the old rules and to free themselves. But
the feudalism has built for thousands years, it is hard to completely get rid
of its shadow. All the readings we have read so far has proved this.
Work cited
Tian Han; The Night a Tiger Was Captured (Huohu Zhi
yiye) Randy Barbara Kaplan, Asian Theatre Journal, Vol.11, No.1. spring 1994,
pp1-34
