The Greatest English Dramatist in the Largest Asian Country: A Complex Cross-Cultural Encounter

隨著西方文明的擴展，莎士比亞的著作已影響中國百年有餘；而中國也爲了某些目的，以不同的形式「化用」了莎士比亞的戲劇。最初，莎翁的名著不是以戲劇文學，而是以敘事文學的形式被譯介到中國；有趣的是，中國最早是依據這類敘事文學而非莎翁的原劇本排演莎劇的。莎翁原劇的翻譯始於新文化運動之後，大膽引進了西方思潮，也擴大了莎士比亞的影響，儘管當時在中國最有影響力的西方劇作家不是莎士比亞而是易卜生。一九四九年以後，莎士比亞在中國開始處於一種矛盾尷尬的境地。一方面，中國的莎學研究者們時常援引馬克斯和恩格斯對於莎士比亞的褒揚，另一方面，毛澤東的極端的階級鬥爭理論卻禁錮著莎劇的詮釋。此外，蘇俄的斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基體系也限制了莎劇的演出。「文革」結束以後，一九八零年代，中國出現了「莎士比亞熱」，莎學研究和莎劇演出蓬勃發展。總之，莎士比亞在中國一個多世紀的接受、傳播和「歸化」，既見證了中國現代政治、文學和文化的變遷，也顯示了西方文化對於中國這一亞洲最大國家的強勢影響。

關鍵字

莎士比亞；莎士比亞產業；中國戲劇；現代中國

並列摘要

Along the Expansion of Western civilization, Shakespeare's works have influenced China, the largest Asian country, for more than a century; on the other hand, Chinese also appropriated Shakespeare's plays for certain purposes. During the initial contacts, Shakespeare's works were translated only indirectly into Chinese as tales, rendered in classical Chinese, and such narrative literature served as sources for a number of stage productions. The translation of Shakespeare's plays started after the New Culture Movement, which aggressively introduced ideas from the West and had facilitated the spread of Shakespeare's influence in China, though Ibsen was promoted more fervently than Shakespeare then. The post-1949 Communist China manifested a contradictory vision about Shakespeare. While Chinese Shakespeareans upheld Marx's and Engels's positive appraisal of Shakespeare, Mao Zedong's utmost class ideology negatively confined the interpretation of Shakespeare's works; furthermore, Russia's Stanislavsky system strictly dictated the stage performance then. It was in China's contemporary era that Shakespeare enjoyed a golden age, when Shakespeare industry flourished both in study and extensive performance of various forms. Overall, while Shakespeare witnessed China's shifts of politics, literature and culture over the last century, the popularity of the greatest English dramatist in China signifies the penetration of Western influence in the largest Asian country.