On June 10th, a special performance commemorating the 100th anniversary of foreign language drama of Nankai University was staged at the Oriental Art Center of Balitai Campus.
Teachers and students from the College of Foreign Languages of Nankai University performed a drama called Thunderstorm in English, Portuguese, and Italian.
On the stage, there is light in the eyes of the students; behind the scenes, tears are welling up in the eyes of the teachers.
This is not a drama performance in the usual sense, but a final exam for a course.
A seed: the Drama Tradition aiming to educate students
Last year, the College of Foreign Languages of Nankai University offered the courses of foreign language drama for the first time in nine languages. Affected by the epidemic, teachers and students can merely take part in the final performance in the form of an online meeting. This year, when the teaching results of a whole semester were presented on the stage, Yan Guodong, Dean of the College of Foreign Languages, seemed to witness that seed germinating.
The seed refers to the drama tradition of Nankai University that has been over a hundred years. At the end of 1908, the principal Zhang Boling went to Europe and the United States as a visiting scholar and returned with a determination to introduce dramas into the education system of new-style schools. And in early 1909, he brought the self-written, self-directed and self-acted three-act play What He Has Learned Has Nothing To Do With The Job He Takes on the stage. In 1914, when Nankai School was founded, Nankai New Opera Troupe was established. Since then, Nankai drama has become a fantastic symbol in the history of Nankai University. It has not only left a great tale in the history of Chinese drama, but also cultivated excellent talents such as Zhang Pengchun and Cao Yu who have a profound influence on the history of Chinese drama.
The drama of Nankai University has its original aim to educate people, which is its most unique feature. Yan Guodong said that drama in foreign languages is a significant part of drama of Nankai University and has always played a unique role in the cultivation of foreign language talents and discipline construction.
According to Anals of Nankai Drama (1909-2019) (edited by Cui Guoliang), the first foreign drama XunAn (translated from Russian dramatist Gogol's Imperial Envoy) was staged in 1921. It was premiered by the Nankai New Opera Troupe to commemorate the 17th anniversary of the founding of Nankai School. The English drama Christmas Story was performed in Nankai University for the first time in 1923, and was then performed in public in the next year. As a result, foreign language drama of Nankai School has opened a new chapter. On the one hand, excellent foreign scripts were compiled and translated, and on the other hand, foreign language dramas were performed to the public with a global vision.
In the 1980s, foreign language dramas of Nankai school were the pioneers——American foreign teachers, Fisher and his wife, came to Nankai school to teach, instructed students to perform Chinese dramas such as Thunderstorm and Rickshaw Boy in English, and led the students to perform in Stanford University of the United States, nine universities in Minnesota, and ten universities in the middle of the United States, which created a precedent for Chinese college students to perform Chinese dramas in English abroad.
Based on the initial aspirations and glorious history of drama of Nankai University, we want to use the course of Foreign Language Drama to explore a kind of educational measures that carry forward the tradition and meet the needs of the times.
Yan Guodong said that foreign language talents in the new era need to possess a broad international perspective, rich humanities, professional foreign language skills and firm cultural confidence, and they must stand on the world stage to tell Chinese stories in the future. Then, let's start with the stage in front of you.”
For a comprehensive university, offering drama courses for foreign language majors is an innovation as well as a challenge.
In order to do a good job in curriculum construction from the beginning, the College of Foreign Languages of Nankai University guided the establishment of a teaching team to be responsible for top-level design and overall resource planning, and set up a Fischer Drama Fund to provide special financial support.
Drama is a kind of comprehensive art. In the class, the students learn the scripts; After class, the extracurricular activity is a dialogue exercise; On the stage, it is a drama and has a social impact. Yan Guodong said that the college has high hopes for course of Foreign Language Drama and hopes to explore the new mode of training foreign language talents through the interaction between the first classroom and the second classroom, and then develops a new approach of ideological and political education.
As a 2-credit optional course of foreign language majors, Foreign Language Drama is mainly for freshmen of English majors and sophomores majoring in minority languages. It adopts a dual-track curriculum model of teaching and practice. In the classroom, professional teachers in the field of drama research instruct the students to comprehend drama, study scripts, and rehearse plays; outside the classroom, full-time league cadres and student cadres are responsible for drama organization and performance.
Our college also invites theater experts inside and outside the university to deliver special lectures and provide performance guidance to the teachers and students, and they also offer guidance in aspects such as the interpretation of scripts, character presentation, scene setting, costume props, etc. from the perspective of drama, which has enlivened the atmosphere of theater culture.
Full-time teachers, counselors, and students all jointly promote the construction of drama course and the drama culture, which can be described as a professional, ideological and political education model. Everyone cooperates and interacts with each other for a same goal, which has promoted the organic integration of the college's education in three comprehensive aspects and education in five approaches. The construction of the course has begun to take shape. Yan Guodong said that the next goal is to explore the classic dramas, and integrate the national culture and the spirit of the times into the drama education in order to make the drama course not only a professional course, but also a front-line educating platform for ideological and political courses.
In the second classroom, the College of Foreign Languages of Nankai University has provided more drama performance platforms for students, and guided more students to devote themselves to script creation and drama performance by organizing drama festival for freshmen, English drama festival, Russian drama festival and other activities. In addition, it also actively supports the development of student associations——Drama Club of Foreign Languages with professional teachers and full-time league cadres as instructors who can help the members to compile scripts and give special performances, and incorporate the drama performance of the club into the Teaching Practice course credits , which further stimulates the vitality of the club.
Influenced by the drama culture of the College of Foreign Languages, Liu Jingling, a 2019 PhD student majoring in Russian at Nankai University, has begun to study Russian drama. Under the guidance of Professor Wang Lidan, the head of the Russian Department, she is considering the research direction of Contemporary Russian Monologue. Recently, the college opened the course of Foreign Language Drama and invited experts to give lectures. My instructor and I also took part in the course. drama actors’ interpretation from the perspective of performance inspired me to think in a different way.
Drama offers students a lot of room for creativity! Qu Ruolin, head of Drama Club of Foreign Languages in Nankai University and an undergraduate of the Russian program at the College of Foreign Languages, also learned a lot after attending the drama lecture. She talked about the yearning of the members for dramas. Through the rehearsal of The Merchant of Venice, Hamilton and other English dramas, the students employed their creativity and imagination together to appreciate the beauty of drama and the insights of life.
According to Qu Ruolin, with the support of the college, the Drama Club recently performed an original patriotic drama called Memories in Southwest China, recreating the experience of students from Southwestern Union University in 1938 in fighting against the invaders, and commemorating one centenary anniversary of the Communist Party of China. The script was written by the head of the drama club himself, and we collected a large amount of relevant materials on the patriotic movements of the students during that period and adapted them.
We experienced the history when we rehearsed; and the patriotic spirit of firm, courage, stability and salience was engraved in our mind. Qu Ruolin said.
One stage: a platform where teachers and students learn from each other
Thunderstorm is a well-known drama in China which was created by Cao Yu, the well-known playwright and alumnus of Nankai University in the 1930s. It is a classic Chinese drama that is often performed on the stage.
In the course of Foreign Language Drama, Thunderstorm is also used as the course material and repertory.
Professor Li Li of the English Department of the College of Foreign Languages has been engaged in the study of British and American drama for many years. She has taught the course of Foreign Language Drama for two consecutive spring semesters. In her view, opening this kind of course with the aim of educating people represents a professional attitude.
“Last year, the English major was selected as the first batch of national first-class undergraduate majors, and I updated the syllabus accordingly. As for the teaching materials, I chose the classic English translations jointly translated by Mr. Wang Zuoliang and Barnes.” Li Li said that her primary purpose is to allow students to improve their comprehensive English ability through studying and rehearsing the English version of the works; secondly, her aim is to make the students master the basic knowledge of drama criticism theory and cultivate students’ drama appreciation and performance skills. Moreover, I hope some students can start to study dramas in the future.
Although Huang Ruiye, an undergraduate English major, has not yet started drama research, he has already found a topic for participating in the Undergraduate Innovative Scientific Research Program of Nankai University through the course. Under the guidance of Professor Li Li, she and four other partners are carrying out a research project on the Effects of English Drama Teaching on English Majors towards the English discipline-Taking the College of Foreign Languages of Nankai University as an example.
“Most of our team members are classmates who took part in the courses together when they were freshmen. Everyone is very interested in this course. We find out that there are relatively few studies on English drama education in China, and the colleges and universities have not generally promoted English drama courses. We want to explore the impact of English drama as a teaching method on English learning. Huang Ruiye said that their project has been successfully established and the first round of questionnaires has been distributed and preliminary data has been collected.
Le Xiaoyue, a foreign teacher from the Italian Department, encountered an unexpected situation when he opened the course of Foreign Language Drama—— There existed no Italian translation of Thunderstorm.
So, she translated a version herself during the winter vacation, and in the class, she compiled, translated, learned and acted the drama together with her classmates. Thunderstorm is so interesting! This is a story that happened in China, and it is also a world-wide story. I believe that if it is stage in Italy, everyone will be attracted.
For students who haven’t learned minority languages, Le Xiaoyue concentrates on the aim of cross-cultural communication.
Performing classic Chinese dramas in foreign languages allows students to learn about foreign languages, learn to understand and introduce their own culture, and become communicators of Chinese culture. We can use this script and performance to help Italians understand Chinese culture. Le Xiaoyue's deep understanding of the curriculum also inspired the enthusiasm of the students.
It was very challenging at the beginning because many words in the script were unfamiliar. After one semester of the course, the pronunciation and language skills of Italian have been greatly improved. If I have the opportunity to be an exchange student in Italy in the future, I hope to be able to perform Thunderstorm for Italian audiences, and just introducing it to them can be meaningful. Zhang Tongkai, an undergraduate student majoring in Italian, has high expectations.
A course and a stage have planted the seed of a dream in the future.
