“If you don’t know where you come from, you will not know where your potential is.”
-- Antonia Gramsci
 
It is indeed an onerous task looking at the issue of scriptwriting for the Malaysian Chinese Theatre. First of all, gathering information from a vast and disorderly pool of resources is a test of patience. Secondly, there is a lack of discussion and critique on this issue. Thus, one has to rely on a dialectical approach from the aesthetic point of view. Thirdly, a systematic framework is yet to be put in place to hold together differing viewpoints which otherwise tend to be dispersed, in order to serve as a future reference point.

Due to the limited information available, I am not able to conduct detailed discussion neither on any particular playwrights nor their plays. I can only attempt to look at the evolution of the Malaysian Chinese Theatre from an overall standpoint, using a two-prong approach based on my humble knowledge, as a way to share my thoughts with fellow theatre practitioners.

With language as the distinguishing denominator, the Malaysian Chinese Theatre or Chinese Drama basically refers to dramas or plays presented in the medium of Chinese (Mandarin) in Malaysia, with most of the participants and audience being the local Chinese^₁. As the scripts are the foundation of drama, delving into the scriptwriting becomes a conduit for us to understand the evolution and proliferation of the near century-old Chinese theatre in Malaysia.

Vertical Axis
First of all, let’s take a look at the evolutionary context of this aesthetic field based on two axes, the vertical axis and the horizontal axis. The vertical axis is concerned with the historical and the time orientation. Malaysian Chinese Theatre is an amalgamation of various sources, which explains why it is such a huge headache to organise the information into a systematic base. These sources include the influences of early forms of Chinese theatre from China, the trajectory of theatre in Singapore as distinct from the then-Malaya, and the adoption of Taiwanese theatre style, all of which have greatly impacted the evolution of the Malaysian Chinese Theatre.

According to Malaysian Chinese literary historian Fang Xiu², the early Chinese drama first took root in 1919 is now a widely accepted form. In essence, most of the early dramas were either directly inherited or modeled on renowned plays from China which are based on Chinese literature, such as “Spare your cane”, “Life of a waitress” ,“Heroic sons and daughters”, et cetera. During the period between the '60s and the '80s, the political upheaval in 1965 led to the separation of Singapore and Malaya, which resulted in the segregation of theatrical scripts as well as their scriptwriters into two distinct lands. Undeniably the national regulations at that time emphasised on economic development more than anything else, leaving theatrical activities to scramble along without direction. Then the Dramatic Art Society³ entered the scene, railing together heavyweights from the literary and broadcasting worlds for the sake of advancing the cause of Chinese theatre, displaying commendable fortitude in its stand to overcome the adversities. Apart from adapting from scripts written by the famous scriptwriter Cao Yu such as “The thunder rain”, “The field” and “Beijing people”, the Dramatic Art Society also promoted local works, giving no less exposure to the local production of the Malaysian Chinese scriptwriter Yao Tuo⁴, amongst which include Huan Yang, Golden Monk, Leisure Garden, among others.

In the '90s, the Drama Department of the Malaysian Institute of Art⁵,  produced quite a number of theatre practitioners, who brought with them a new departure in the Malaysian Chinese Theatre, as very few of them were exposed to the influence of the early-day dramas and pioneering work in this field in their growing-up years. This young generation is largely influenced by the form of little theatre of Taiwan, with some adopting collective devised representation, others focusing more on body language and voice projection. Due to the different emphases, a lack of script comprehension and cognisance between the script and the stage play crept up. This was compounded by scripts written solely for the sake of fulfilling the demand of some requested plays, which were being shelled right after the performance. Undoubtedly, the growth of creativity in playwriting was invariably stalled at this time.

Horizontal Axis
As culture is indispensably linked to daily life, the horizontal axis is concerned with location and spatial orientation. In Malaysia, this has deal with the unique social structure comprising the co-existence of three races. All these years, due to the constraints imposed by the language, the Malaysian Chinese Theatre has demarcated itself to be a class of its own, with activities confined to the Chinese community, unable to reach out to other races. The location and spatial orientation is thus reflected in the social culture embedded in the Chinese plays, as almost all Malaysian Chinese drama scripts are written in Mandarin or Chinese dialects such as Cantonese, Hokkien and Minnan (Taiwanese dialect), rarely interspersed with Malay, Tamil or English.

In sum, an overall perspective based on the vertical and horizontal axes has provided a platform to understand, organise and interpret the history of the Malaysian Chinese Theatre. On top of it, the wide-ranging discussion articles from the Malaysian Chinese literary world provided valuable references and an excellent foundation, such as discourses by Malaysian Chinese historians Fang Xiu and Yang Song Nian^₆, and by researchers in more recent times such as Huang Jin Shu, Zhang Jing Chong and Lim Jian Kok^₇.

However, from the evolutionary framework of the Malaysian Chinese Theatre, a drama script is an encapsulation of cultural creativity, which requires a comprehensive system as its support, including nurturing drama talents, providing avenue for stage plays, publications of playbooks and the like.

Nurturing talent starts with education and instilling of awareness. In fact, the theatre is a platform that full of multifarious artistic expression and glittering light. Therefore, people who are willing to pursue a quiet job like playwriting is very few. Although rewards through competitions can be a good motivation, but the connotation of this activity does not bode well with aspiring scriptwriters. Although there are creative writing competitions being held every year, those related to script writing are far and few in the between in the last 10 years, in fact downright sparse, except for the Creative Scriptwriting Competition held in conjunction with the Malaysian Chinese Literature Day in 1993 and the nationwide Short Drama Scriptwriting Competition organized by Johor Baru Chinese Association in 1999.

What we are looking at are: Apart from performing on stage, is there any other avenue to put a script to good use? Is there any chance of it being published in the newspapers or magazines? The fact is: The less exposure a script has, the less it will be known. When it is not known, it will not have much connection and elevation of in terms of artistic expression. In effect, the value of a script depends on how much connection it garners. The more connection a script has, the more expansive are its future prospects.

According to the statistics in the compilation work by Wu Tian Cai entitled Modern Chinese Literature in Malaysia: A classified bibliography of books in Chinese, there were about 66 scripts for Malaysian Chinese Theatre produced in the years from 1934 to 1975. Albeit not a great number, but compared to the period after 1975 whereby, discounting those of Yao Tuo which gathered over 20 publishing scripts listing on his own effort, only 27 scripts were produced under the joint edition with the Malaysian Chinese literature series such as the collection entitled The Series of Malaysian Chinese Literature – Drama (1965 – 1996) in 2004, the scarcity of production in this field over a span of 30 years is indeed apparent. 

A comprehensive framework also contends with the concerns on scholarly research and drama critiques. By right, theatrical theories and scriptwriting are complementary. With dialogues and exchanges between the two geared towards greater analysis and differentiation on the aestheticism of the theatrical dramas, an appreciation as well as the orally reading of the scripts would take form, which then pushes the theatrical art to a professional height. Unfortunately, this was not the case in the last few decades. There was a serious lack of discourse probing as well as development, while theatre participants who dedicate themselves in this field were rare. 

Think about it, with no cognisance on the theatrical background and no reference in the theoretical framework, the plays were put on merely to jog the fragmentary memories of a smattering individuals or events, seriously failing in establishing any kind of common link with the public. Only when a proper framework is established, will all the nuts and bolts have their rightful place. The plays will have a sense of connection and a common link with the public, which is an important factor that ensures perpetuation and further evolvement. In this way, the survival of the theatre will not be over-dependent on the horizontal transfer and will be able to stand on its own two feet.

In recently years, the script/play reading that are popular overseas have reached our shores, adding weight to the emphasis on the scripts, injecting a new breadth of life into the evolution of scriptwriting, delivering three effects: (1) presentation of script; (2) discussion on script after reading; and (3) circulation of the scripts.

With the perspective of the two-prong axes above, I would like to put together the outline of phases of the development of the Malaysian Chinese Theatre, as divided by theatre practitioner Soon Choon Mee, to overview the evolution of the Malaysian Chinese Playwriting.

The first phase saw the flourishing of the theatrical development during the antiwar period, which focused on portraying the hardships and appeals of the common people. The theatre was their conduit of vocalising and expression, highlighting themes of antiwar, anti-colonisation as the basis of the scripts at that time.  

The second phase was represented by the Dramatic Art Society in Kuala Lumpur, which propelled the theatrical development towards social education at the time when theatre scene was confounded. Emphasizing scripts as the foundation of theatre, it not only showcased various renowned dramas from China, but also highlighted a lot of scriptwriting effort. However, due to the heavy influence of the Chinese dramas from China, the theatre format tended to tilt towards realism, with most of the scriptwriting themes revolving around practical understanding of life as a means of portraying social problems at that time.   

The third phase was a period of exploration by the new generation, represented by the drama department of the Malaysian Institute of Art. They amalgamated diverse ideologies and injected a variety of experimental methodologies, thus resulting in a profusion of script creativity based on wide-ranging themes, such as life philosophy, status quo, homosexuality, femininity, eroticism, etc. In contrast, the scripts were not the only requisite for the theatre. In fact, the scripts were frequently in want of collectors and were being shelled right after being staged, rarely to be seen in public again. Hence, the circulation of the scripts was limited to internal participation, rather than reaching out to the general readers and audiences. 

Last but not least, in my opinion, each of the points above should be further developed, discussed and examined, even modified. By delving into the context, it is hoped that we would be able to arrive at an overall discourse in the future. On the other hand, by delving into the framework, it is hoped that we would be able to construct a structural framework for the years to come. A discourse requires the support of a structural framework to take form, while a structural framework requires discourse to give it substance. Complementary to each other, they offer great room for further expansion.

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Footnotes:

1.  On the use of language medium such as Cantonese and Hakka, relevant information is direly lacking. However, there have been quite a few dramas staged in Cantonese in recent years, of which are grouped under Malaysian Chinese Theatre or Chinese Drama.

2 Renowned Malaysian-Singaporean Chinese literary historian. His contributions are in the research of the history of the Chinese literature in Malaysia & Singapore. Many related books had been published. According to his edition “The Series of Malaysian Chinese-drama,” the Malaysian Chinese drama first took root in 1919.

3 A society for stage drama formed in 1963, with its members predominantly coming from the cultural, broadcasting, television and education fields. In the 70s, it organized drama festival and offered drama art study classes, with the aim of nurturing stage talents. In 2003, it established the D.A. Theater at the UE3 shopping mall, actively expanding stage performance into the society.

4 Renowned Malaysian Chinese author, editor and publisher, who is also the advisor to the Dramatic Art Society.

5 Established in 1988, this is the first Drama Department in the colleges in Malaysia which uses Mandarin as its teaching medium. The main proponent for Chinese drama, Mr. Leong Chi Sin, who became the head of the department, together with the deputy head of the department, Ms. Soon Choon Mee, unfurled a new drama format that took the drama industry by storm. Unfortunately in 2000, the internal strife amongst the college management members caused the department to a premature closure.

6 Full-time Professor of the Literature Faculty at the Fo Guang University in Taiwan, who has dedicated his life in the research works for the Chinese literature in South East Asia, and who has published a few well-known publications on the literature research in Malaysia and Singapore.

7 These three are the new age literature critiques who traveled Taiwan, who broke new grounds with their viewpoints sharply departing from those of their pioneers, looking at research with a new angle and observation. They strived to formulate a framework for the Malaysian Chinese literature history and discourse, time and time again inspiring new waves of estheticism into the Malaysian literature world.

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Koh Choon Eiow, Malaysia born Chinese, a professional theatre worker. He received his Diploma degree from Malaysian Institute of Art, Drama Department in 1994. He obtained Master of Fine Arts degree from Chinese Culture University Theater Arts Department, Taiwan in 2008, where he majoring in playwright and directorship. Throughout his theatre career; he has received some key awards and honors for his work. He received 2nd price in 3rd Malaysian-Chinese Drama Script Writing Competition, 1st price for 28th Gen Xing Literature Prize drama scripts short script “She, and she”, and 1st price for 28th Gen Xing Literature Prize short novel “Strawberry pancake”. His recent theatre works are adaptor and actor for “I am Samurai Musashi – Q! Q! Q!”(2005), Director and actor for “Hometown”(2006), Director and adaptor for “Anger” (Solo)(2007) ,Playwright for “The Passage”(2007), and Text for “Aurora”(2008).