Love is all around us

With another St. Valentine's Day approaching, there's much to talk about on the subject of love, some serious, some less so.

One person taking the subject sort of seriously is celebrated young Chinese playwright Tian Youliang who returns to the Beijing stage with a new trademark play, Love is the Best Medicine running at the Bei Ju Chang (Northern Theatre) through February.

 "My current play is about how to discover love and truly appreciate it" says Tian.

Love is the Best Medicine tells the story of the trials and tribulations of six young Chinese. The play is already being favourably dubbed a Chinese "Friends," after the popular American television sitcom of the same name.

The play, Tian's third, focuses on the challenges faced by Chinese young people who routinely trade traditional values and personal dreams for the greater prizes offered by economic success.

"You chose to sacrifice love for wealth, glamour, fame or political ambition, happiness will surely come quickly. When the happiness is over, it is inevitable grief and suffering will follow."

The six person-cast include Chinese singing star Mao Ning and model-turned-actress Qu Ying.

Originally from Harbin in Northern China, Tian is one of a number of high-profile graduates of the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing, where he studied with classmate and good friend Gong Li, the acclaimed actress and Chinese beauty. 

Making the move from drama teacher to playwright and director in 2001 brought

Tian considerable success. He is now an established name of the popular theatre circuit.

Motivated to address the needs of others in his work, Tian says "Being an artist is not about oneself but about other people. It's a social responsibility, especially in today's China."

With 10 years experience teaching drama, Tian believes the major influence driving contemporary Chinese theatre is this concern for ordinary people.

"A truly good play is designed to represent the man on the street." 

With his own experience to go on, Tian is outspoken about the current needs of contemporary theatre education.

"In the 50-year history of the Central Academy of Drama there have been few changes to the way students are taught."

One of the Academy's shortcomings, he says, is that it still teaches traditional theory, rarely changing or developing new ideas. 

"To this day, no Chinese person has developed an ethos that we can follow in our studies of drama." 

In spite of this, Tian became one of the first Chinese playwrights to produce popular contemporary theatre, emerging in 2000 with the hit "Cui Hua, Bring the (Chinese) Sauerkraut, please."  This was followed by "If you'd like to eat fried dough twist, let me twist some for you first."

"I was the first truly successful playwright writing comedy plays, with one of my "hallmark plays" being performed during the Chinese New Year festivities. "

There were two things that made this success remarkable.

First, this was the first kind of theatre in China not to receive government subsidies. It found funding from independent sources and thus marked the beginning of an economically viable and competitive theatre market.

Tian explained: "In China after the 1970s there was basically one kind of dramatic genre in Chinese theatre.  All theatres and theatre troupes performed plays that were either political in nature, concerning issues of the day, or were historical. The dramatic form was considered a sort of assignment or "mission" in the service of the nation."

Occasionally some of these dramatic assignments would be literary and Shakespeare or Lao She's works were performed.

In those days, regardless of theme, theatres and troupes were all subsidized. No theatre had the goal of making money and few tickets were sold. This was also because there was a lack of interest in the play's content.

"The "work unit," (danwei) would normally supply tickets to its employees. This was how contemporary Chinese theatre operated until about 10 years ago."

This play was also remarkable for its content.

In the 1990s, contemporary Chinese theatre achieved a breakthrough when young artists performing experimental theatre on contemporary issues attracted the attention of university students and white-collar professionals. 

"This was an important turning point. Contemporary Chinese theatre soon became popular." 

In contrast to the theatre of the 1970s, this new popular theatre was not characterized by political themes or high culture.

"Common themes emerged.  In large numbers, ordinary people started buying tickets to my plays, not only enjoying a story they could to relate to but feeling recognised."

Now positioned as one of the voices of his generation, Tian feels no discomfort with the label. His plays are not political or overly complex.  They consist of ordinary people involved in the detail of their everyday lives, details that audiences can easily identify with. 

"China is more artistically open than it was, say, 10 or 20 years ago, with access to the Internet allowing ever more voices to be heard. 

"My goal is to be as honest as I can in my artistic expression and to figure out how to do this without overstepping cultural boundaries. As long as we do not overstep these boundaries, we can continue to produce our art."

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Love is the Best Medicine runs at the "Bei Ju Chang" (Northern Theater), close to the Central Academy of Drama, until February 20, 2005. Further dates will be added.