Brecht in Asia and Africa 
 
 
the audience. The theater has to break the bondage of vulgar sociology. 
It has to truly reflect reality, reflect the great social incidences as well

as the changes and developments of man. More importantly, Brecht's 
suggestion that theater has to inspire the audience to think began to 
take root in the minds of many theater workers. People began to pay 
attention to audience response and took it as an object for study. Some 
playwrights took the act of inspiring people to think as the point of 
departure for their creative work. 2. The production of Life of Galileo 
enabled some of the theater workers to see Brechtian theater as a 
complete system, not as a theory of acting. Hence it was not easily 
dismissable or replaced by Stanislavsky's system. Over a long period 
of time, Stanislavsky's system had been one of the major forces 
resisting the introduction of Brechtian theater into China. One who 
introduced Brecht was one who opposed Stanislavsky. This was a 
widespread prejudice. The production of Life of Galileo disclosed to 
people that Brecht was in the first place a playwright. The establishment

of this fact reduced some of the resistance. 3. The production of Life of

Galileo had yet another accomplishment: it helped abolish the illusion of

life on stage. The use of the non-illusory stage by the Chinese Youth Art

Theater in producing Galileo ended the history of dominance by the 
illusory stage in Chinese theater. Platforms, backdrops and indicative 
settings in the play conveyed to the audience a sense of beauty and 
inspired them with imagination and thinking. The success of this 
experiment removed the strands of doubt in the conservatives. And the 
art of stage design in this play became the pioneer in reforming the 
Chinese theater. 
     The production of Life of Galileo by the Chinese Youth Art Theater 
aroused very strong social reactions. The reason that within a short 
time after the Cultural Revolution Brechtian theater could elicit such 
strong social responses with the production of just one play was 
naturally related to the search of the artists and the demand of the 
audience at that particular period. After the Cultural Revolution, people

in the literary and art world voiced different views concerning the 
function of the theater, the understanding of socialist realism as well as

a series of other issues. They had broadened their vision, examined the 
advanced experience of countries abroad and moved forward with the 
spirit of the times. Under such historical circumstances, Brecht's drama

found its particular niche in China. 
     In 1985, the opening of the first Brecht Symposium indicated the 
beginning of the third stage. This symposium, organized by non- 
government institutions, was held separately in Beijing and Shanghai. 
During the time of the Symposium, aside from discussions of seminar 
papers and exhibitions of related pictures, there were also 
performances. Beijing produced The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Good 
Person of Sezuan, Schweyk in the Second World War (segment). 
Shanghai produced The Petit-Bourgeois Wedding, Fear and Misery of 
the Third Reich (segment), and Mr. Puntila and his Man Matti (in 
collaboration with Pingtan). 
     Those who participated in this symposium included playwrights, 
directors, stage designers, Brecht scholars, university students, five 
 
 
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