1、1The Extraordinary Life of Ying RuochengFor most Chinese of a certain age, Ying Ruocheng should be familiar. Their first connection to him might be his role in Lao Shes classic play Teahouse at the Beijing Peoples Art Theater. He played Liu Mazi (Pockmarked Face), a bad guy who sold a young girl to
2、the eunuch Pang. His impressive acting stirred up intense hatred for the character he played. But Yings talent was never confined to acting; he was also a brilliant translator. Born into a well-educated elite, Yings mastery of English was unprecedented. He was invited by famous U.S. comedian Bob Hop
3、e to be the on-the-spot interpreter for his show in China. There was ceaseless laughter erupting from the audiences and Hope was stunned with admiration because no one had ever achieved such effects while translating his gags. The U.S. playwright Arthur Miller also invited Ying to help with translat
4、ion while he was directing his play Death of a Salesman in China. Miller was marveled at Yings facility, saying, “With him beside me I forgot altogether that I dont understand Chinese.” Ying not only helped stage the play at the Beijing Peoples Art Theater, but also did a laudable 2portrayal of the
5、salesman Willy Loman. What might be the crowning achievement in translation is when he directed and staged the Kunqu Opera Fifteen Strings of Cash while lecturing at the University of Missouri, an opera considered to be difficult to understand even for Chinese audience. Ying took the post of Vice-Mi
6、nister of Culture for nearly four years during the late 1980s, overseeing all the entities dealing with the performance and fine arts, supervising art colleges and the general development of Chinas cultural market. Despite the heavy schedule, he still squeezed in time for guest performances in some
7、films and TV dramas, such as portraying the prison governor in the movie The Last Emperor and Kublai Khan in the TV series Marco Polo, a Chinese-Italian co-production. Ying admits acting gives him a lot of satisfaction though he finds it tiring work. Yings extraordinary life is recounted in Voices C
8、arry: Behind Bars and Backstage during Chinas Revolution and Reform. The autobiography differs greatly from others in the genre in terms of writing and publishing. It is a collaboration between Ying Ruocheng and Claire Conceison, professor of Theater Studies at the Duke University (US). Claire spent
9、 three years (2001-2003) at Yings bedside as he was too ill to write 3himself, and recorded his recollections about his family, career, friends and life. With over 100 hours on 41 tapes, she then spent another seven years in related research and compiled and edited the transcripts into a book. It wa
10、s first published in the U.S. to favorable reviews. Now the Chinese version, translated by Claires good friend Zhang Fang, has been published by China CITIC Press under the title Shui Liu Yun Zai, which imply that although Ying had passed away, he would live as long as his stories were narrated and
11、spirit was conveyed through the book. As a collaborative autobiographer, Claire states in the introduction that she is neither an invisible ghostwriter nor full author of the book, although her participation in the collaboration was rigorous and far-reaching. “I was aware from the outset that the cr
12、oss-cultural, cross-gender, cross-generational nature of our partnership made ours an unlikely yet dynamic collaboration. The benefits to Ying of collaborating with me were of course benefits to me as well. Listening to his familys history and his own personal encounters during Chinas turbulent 20th
13、 century added a rich dimension to my knowledge of the political events,” quotes Claires introduction. 4Claire believes that the book is selective and piecemeal rather than comprehensive. It presents Yings life story as he chose to tell it, through which people will get to know and understand this c
14、ompelling person whose life was devoted to his motherland, and the promotion of international dialogue and understanding through the theatrical arts and communities. Ying chose not to “begin at the beginning,” but rather to start his narrative with what he himself regarded as the most influential mo
15、ment of his life ?C his incarceration during the “cultural revolution” (1966-1976). His prison account is anecdotal rather than exhaustive, and unexpectedly witty.Ying was from a family of the privileged class and attended famous Tsinghua University where he was deeply influenced by the patriotic st
16、udent movements before the founding of the Peoples Republic of China. However, during the “cultural revolution” he was falsely accused and sent to prison for three years. His wife Wu Shiliang was also arrested under suspicion of being a spy for foreign powers. They were convicted and imprisoned with
17、 no evidence, just because they had many foreign acquaintances, they were Catholics, and Yings father had run a school in Taiwan. In terms of his survival, the reader will note that Ying had always been 5optimistic throughout his prison sentence. To him, the time he spent incarcerated taught him mor
18、e about Chinas true state of affairs than he ever learned during the rest of his life. After being released, Ying recognized what a challenge it would be to rejuvenate Chinas stagnant theatrical arts under the depressing social conditions. He decided to throw himself into another field instead ?C in
19、troducing China to the world. In 1975, he joined China Reconstructs (now China Today) magazine which was founded by Soong Ching Ling, and where he, as an articulate and gifted storyteller, published a series of marvelous articles about China and its people. It was not until the “cultural revolution”
20、 ended that he resumed his theatrical career. Claire points out that this unique quality of his ?C cheerfulness ?C meant he chided those who despaired and made an example of embracing hope and finding humor and dignity in even the most disgraceful and undignified circumstances ?C behind bars in a pr
21、ison, and backstage both literally and figuratively during the most turbulent moments of Chinas recent political history. The preface of the autobiographys Chinese version was written by Ying Da, son of Ying Ruocheng. He admitted candidly 6at the start: “It is a very special honor for me to write th
22、e preface for my fathers autobiography,” but felt reading it is an even more special experience. “My father who has left me forever seems to come back again. He is telling me his stories, what he lived through and what he witnessed, with that voice that I am so familiar with! The details in the book
23、 gave me a real blast from the past and also the opportunity to consider the events of the past from my fathers perspective.” The historian Jonathan Spence commented: “Yings autobiography offers us a special glimpse into 20th-century China from a brand new angle.” The famous Beijing Peoples Art Theaters actor Pu Cunxin, also a colleague of Ying Ruocheng, says he feels that Yings soul lives on in his autobiography. “The book represents Yings spirit; he is forever alive in the peoples hearts.” ZHANG YAN is a veteran journalist and former first deputy editor-in-chief of China Today.
