Xia Yan (playwright)

Xia entered Zhejiang Industrial School ({{zh|t=浙江甲種工業學校|s=|hp=|labels=no}} , a technical school of Zhejiang University) in 1915, five years before being sent to study in Japan. He was forced to return in 1927,{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/650784/Xia-Yan|title=Xia Yan (Chinese author)|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=13 June 2014}} two years after graduating with an engineering degree.

On Xia's return in 1927 {{mdash}} expelled by Japanese authorities for his political activity {{mdash}} he joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and rose to become a cultural chief in the Shanghai municipality, and then Deputy Minister of Culture in 1954.

In 1961, Xia wrote an essay called "Raise Our Country's Film Art to a New Level". The essay, implicitly critical of the Great Leap Forward, called for greater autonomy for artists and more diversity within Chinese cinema. The implementation of his directives is said to have led to the achievement of a "tremendous diversity" which lasted until the Cultural Revolution.{{cite book |last=Kuoshu |first=Harry H. |url=https://archive.org/details/celluloidchinaci0000kuos |title=Celluloid China: Cinematic Encounters with Culture and Society |publisher=SIU Press |year=2002 |isbn=9780809324569 |page=49}}

Xia is credited with introducing Soviet cinema to China, and helped to establish a realist tradition that emphasized active engagement with national issues, leaving a strong legacy that continued into the post-Mao era.{{cite book|last=Ying|first=Li-hua|title=Historical Dictionary of Modern Chinese Literature|publisher=Scarecrow Press|year=2009|isbn=9780810870819|page=215}}

Xia's political career ended in 1965, when he was removed from office and spent eight years in prison during the Cultural Revolution.

Xia's wrote a seven act play, Sai Jinhua, which became a major example of the national defense drama genre after its publication in 1936.{{Rp|page=64}} It tells the story of Sai Jinhua, a late Qing era courtesan, who used her romance with German military official Alfred von Waldersee to assist China during the Boxer Rebellion.{{Rp|page=64}} The play was a popular success.{{Rp|page=64}} It also raised controversy because audiences understood the play as alluding to the Nationalist government's yielding to Japan.{{Rp|page=64}}

Xia's 1936 play The Spirit of Freedom depicts the story of Qiu Jin.{{Cite book |last=Wang |first=Xian |title=Gendered Memories: An Imaginary Museum for Ding Ling and Chinese Female Revolutionary Martyrs |date=2025 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-0-472-05719-1 |series=China Understandings Today series |location=Ann Arbor}}{{Rp|page=62}} Xia wrote the play during a three month period when he secluded himself in a Shanghai apartment as a result of his contact Yuan Shu, a CCP intelligence agent who also worked with Soviet intelligence, being exposed in connection with the strange Westerner incident.{{Rp|page=69}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last = Shen|first = Vivian |year = 2013 |title = The Origins of Leftwing Cinema in China, 1932-37 |publisher = Routledge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XGnbRobrEukC |isbn = 9781135874100}}
• {{cite book |last = Wang |first = Zheng |year = 2017 |title = Finding Women in the State: A Socialist Feminist Revolution in the People's Republic of China, 1949-1964 |publisher = University of California Press| location = Oakland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J6wwDwAAQBAJ |isbn = 9780520292291}}.
• {{cite encyclopedia| first=Yan| last = Xia |translator = George Hayden | chapter = Under Shanghai Eaves (1937)| pages =283–333| title = The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Drama | editor-last = Chen, Xiaomei | location = New York | publisher =Columbia University Press | year =2014 | doi = 10.7312/chen16502 | isbn = 9780231535540|jstor=10.7312/chen16502.11 |ref = nne}}

• [http://www.chinesemovies.com.fr/Scenaristes_Xia_Yan.htm Feature on Xia Yan in Chinese Movies]
• [https://www.trip.com/travel-guide/hangzhou/hangzhou-former-residence-of-xia-yan-13656571/ Hangzhou Former Residence of Xia Yan]

{{Mingxing}}

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Category:1900 births

Category:1995 deaths

Category:Chinese dramatists and playwrights

Category:Screenwriters from Zhejiang

Category:People's Republic of China politicians from Zhejiang

Category:Zhejiang University alumni

Category:Academic staff of Zhejiang University

Category:Writers from Hangzhou

Category:Politicians from Hangzhou

Category:Victims of the Cultural Revolution

Category:20th-century Chinese translators

Category:20th-century Chinese dramatists and playwrights

Category:20th-century Chinese screenwriters

Category:Vice Ministers of the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China