CAO YU

born Sept. 24, 1910, Tientsin, Hupeh province, China died Dec. 13, 1996, Peking Wade-Giles Ts'au Y, pseudonym of Wan Jiabao (Wan Chia-pao) Chinese playwright who was a pioneer in hua-ch (word drama), a genre that was influenced by Western theatre rather than traditional Chinese drama (which is usually sung). Cao Yu was interested in theatre as a boy. Having studied for a time at Nankai University in Tientsin and Ch'ing-hua University in Peking, where he studied contemporary Chinese literature and both classical and modern Western drama, Cao Yu taught in Pao-ting and Tientsin and at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Nanking. In 1934 his first play, Lei-y (Thunderstorm; later adapted for film and as a dance-drama ), was published. Cao Yu's next works were Jih-ch'u (1936; Sunrise; adapted as an opera and for film [1938 and 1985]) and Yan-yeh (1937, rev. ed., 1982; The Wilderness), a story of love and revenge that clearly reflects the influence of American playwright Eugene O'Neill. Most Chinese critics declared Yan-yeh a failure on its first appearance, but the revised play received critical acclaim in the 1980s. After the outbreak of the war against Japan, Cao Yu moved with the drama school to Chungking and later to Chiang-an, where he wrote T'ui-pien (1940; Metamorphosis), a patriotic work in which he expressed the hope that China would throw off the constraints of the old ways and embrace the new. He followed with Pei-ching-jen (1941; rev. ed., 1947; Peking Man), thought by many to be the best of his dramas, powerful in both characterization and its use of symbols and one of the masterpieces of modern Chinese drama. He also wrote a screenplay and historical plays.