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During the Song Dynasty (960-1279), Wenzhou was an important trading port with a large population. Though it was not as prosperous and bustling as the cities in northern China, it enjoyed more freedom, since it was far away from the central government. When the internal and external conditions were ripe, a fully developed Chinese theater sprang to life, in the form of the Southern Drama.

A scene from “Zhu Wen and the Taping Coins” performed by the Pear Garden Opera Troupe of Fujian Province

The Southern Drama combines singing, dancing, spoken parts of a Chinese opera, and Kefan to perform a complete story. Due to relatively labyrinthian plots, Southern Dramas are usually feature-length. A Southern Drama may have more than 50 scenes at the longest, and as much as 20 to 30 scenes at the shortest.

The Southern Drama was also known as Yongjia Zaju or Yongjia Drama, as it was born in Yongjia (present-day Wenzhou). To distinguish Yongjia Zaju from the Zaju of northern China, the local people named it Southern Drama. The earliest Southern Dramas included Zhao Zhennu and Wang Kui. The scripts of these two dramas have been lost, but we know from other sources that they described how poor scholars abandoned their wives and married the daughters of high officials after they passed the highest imperial examination and became officials themselves.

During the 200 years from the Song to the Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties, there must have been a large number of such dramas. However, as these dramas were created and performed by ordinary people, not scholars, they were not written down; only fragments remain.

In the Southern Drama there were five stereotyped characters: Sheng (male characters), Dan (female characters), Jing (or Fujing, painted face), Mo (or Fumo) and Chou (male clowns). The Jing and Mo, which originated in the ancient Canjun and Canggu, were comedy roles, together with the Chou). The five main roles — Sheng Dan, Jing, Mo and Chou (in the Southern Drama were inherited by later Chinese theatrical arts. The other two roles in Chinese opera are Waisheng (minor male characters) and Tiedan (minor female roles). In general, a story unfolded with the Sheng and Dan characters at the core to carry the main plot. The subject matter of the Southern Drama was usually serious, and performances were done very earnestly. As compared with the performances of former ages, focusing on comic gestures and remarks, the Southern Drama marked great artistic progress, with impromptu comic gestures and remarks by the Chou, Jing and Mo being used for defusing tension.

The Southern Drama not only affirmed, but also abided by the principle of Chinese theater of exaggeration and symbolism based on illusion. A major drama required the presentation of a large number of places and long periods of time, which taxed the resources of the simple stage and the skills of the performers. When performing Southern Dramas, actors brought into full play their imaginations to display flexible and shifting time and space on the stage. For instance, in Top Scholar Zhang Xie, when Zhang Xie and other young scholars leave home for the capital to take part in the imperial examination, they need to make a long and arduous journey. This is done very simply on the stage, with the actors taking turns to sing, “We have covered one li after another.” In a word, since the birth of drama in China, neither actors nor audiences have ever required vivid realism.

（Source: chinaculture.org）

请不要称外国人为老外，尤其是别当面这样叫。这个词让人感到像个局外人，甚至是不受欢迎的，意味着隔离和不可逾越的差异，扩大当时已经存在的差距。

Please refrain from calling a foreigner a foreigner especially in his face. The word makes people feel like an outsider, and even unwelcome, suggesting separation and insurmountable differences, widening an already existing gap in the situation.

(Source: wwenglish.com)

The story in The Romance of the Western Chamber by Wang Shifu of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) directly came from the prose romance The Story of Yingying by Yuan Shen of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The Story of Yingying is a tragedy about the love, union and separation between Zhang Sheng and Cui Yingying in the first year of the Zhenyuan reign in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Several episodes in the story have certain influence on The Romance of the Western Chamber in terms of subject matter, dramatis personae and plots as well.

The Romance of the Western Chamber tells that a young scholar Zhang Sheng went to the capital city to take the highest imperial examination. When he stayed in a temple, he met Cui Yingying, daughter of the then Prime Minister and fell in love with her. At that time, a group of robbers besieged them. Yingying’s mother declared that she would marry her daughter to whomever could save them. Zhang Sheng managed to do that with his friend’s help. But her mother refused to keep her words because he was poor. However, Yingying and Zhang Sheng loved each other very much. With the help of Hong Niang, Yingying’s maid, they broke the traditional barrier.

Since the appearance of this play in the thirteenth century, it has enjoyed unparalleled popularity. The play has given rise to innumerable sequels, parodies, and rewritings; it has influenced countless later plays, short stories, and novels and has played a crucial role in the development of drama criticism.

The theme of the drama is an attack on feudal mores, supporting the longing of young people in those days for freedom of marriage, although it follows the timeworn pattern of a gifted scholar and a beautiful lady falling in love at first sight. According to the orthodox viewpoint of feudal society, love was not supposed to be a basis for marriage, as most marriages were arranged by the parents of the couples, but the happy ending of The Romance of the Western Chamber embodies the aspirations of people for more meaningful and happier lives.

Thus, the biggest difference between The Story of Yingying and The Romance of the Western Chamber lies in their endings — the former has a sad ending while the latter has a happy ending. What’s more, The Romance of the Western Chamber carries a more profound meaning in its clou, and directly suggests to may all lovers in the world be settled down in a family union, with a more sharp-cut theme of attacking feudal mores and feudal marriage system.

（Source: chinaculture.org）