Word: tsao
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...PLAYWRIGHT. "We are beginning to have real freedom of speech in China." That remark by Tsao Yu, 70, the head of the Chinese Dramatists' Association and one of the country's best-known playwrights, is an exaggeration. There is still considerable supervision of what is written and published in China. But Chinese dramatists have been persistently bold since the Western-style art form was restored in 1979. In the past two years, dozens of plays have criticized China's shortcomings, stressed the personal hardships caused by political turmoil and savagely lampooned leaders who were corrupt or incompetent...
...Tsao is a gracious host as he welcomes his guests to the living room of his simple but comfortable apartment in the western part of Peking. He has an international reputation and has traveled widely (he went to New York last spring for a revival at Columbia University of his 1940 play Peking Man). So he brings a sophisticated perspective to his assessment of artistic freedom in China. "There is still too much control exercised over films," says Tsao. The 200 new plays performed or published each year fare considerably better. Says he: "There is hardly any interference from...
...Tsao, like most writers, was made a laborer during the Cultural Revolution "We now call that period the 'Ten Years of Catastrophe,' " he says. "Maybe the younger generation was spared, but we suffered terribly. We were deeply mired in a feudal mentality. People took what their superiors said for granted. Everything got reduced to a test of loyalty, and one man's word became law. Still, they couldn't stop us from asking why China was reduced to such a state and what we should do to prevent this from ever happening again...