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Produced by Sam Group and jointly created by well-known playwright Meng Bing and famous director Wang Yansong, "Man in the Mirror", the first multimedia play in description of anti-corruption in China, was put on stage on 6th to 9th June of 2015 in PLA opera house successfully.
There is no doubt that this play is innovated one from the perspective of literary creation, and it has reached very high level; from the perspective of direction method, it also conducted some exploration and made remarkable achievement. The production and marketing of this play are innovated as well.
During the first 12 performances, there have been around 8,000 spectators including government officers, representatives from enterprises of varied sectors, drama experts and college students and teachers who gave good comments after watching.
In the afternoon on 15 June 2015, experts commenced a seminar in VIP lounge of China Federation of Literary and Art Circles in discussion of "Man in the Mirror" and raised expectation on its achievement and development direction.
Chairperson of seminar:
Ouyang Yibing, former director of China National Theater for Children, playwright, drama critics;
Expert Representative:
Zhong Chengxiang, officer of Central Research Institute of Culture and History chairman of China Literature and Art Critics Association
Tong Daoming, researcher of Institute of Foreign Languages of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, doctoral tutor, Russian literature experts, drama theorist, commentator, playwright;
Qi Zhixiang, former director of liaison department of China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, playwright;
Zhao Chen, deputy editor-in-chief of Chinese Culture News
Li Longyin, former deputy general manager of Beijing Performance & Arts Group, playwright;
Geng Xuhua, chief editor of Chinese Theatre, drama critics;
Gao Yin, deputy director of Institute of Culture of Beijing Academy of Social Sciences;
Zheng Rongjian, senior journalist China Art News, young drama critic.
Zhou Bin, production supervisor of Voice of Literature and Arts of China National Radio;
Crew and producer:
Meng Bing, vice chairman of China Theatre Association, famous playwright, scriptwriter of "Man in the Mirror";
Wang Yansong, famous director and artist, director of "Man in the Mirror";
Li Qiong, President of Sam Group, executive producer of "Man in the Mirror";
Liu Jun Lai, secretary of chairman of Sam Group, producer of "Man in the Mirror";
Hou Qincong, vice president of Sam Group, project director of "Man in the Mirror";
The expert seminar was commenced in warm atmosphere and the delegates had accurate, unique and sincere analysis from both micro perspective and micro perspective. They gave high praise to the production team and their works, and at the same time gave suggestions and expectations.
Li Longyin: Drama "Man in the Mirror" plays a pioneering role in anti-corruption within the literary and art circles. We have to be steady and grasp the scale; Performers are very good and most of leading roles are played by performers from Beijing People’s Art Theatre. Multimedia application is very good to amplify performance effect by which performers could act with special expressions and actions that was impossible to achieve on stage.
Geng Xuhua: Drama "Man in the Mirror" describes the modern life in a stable, accurate and vivid way. " Man in the Mirror " shows how people have an internal dialogue with themselves and how we can observe the world. In fact, no one in the world can beat anyone. All the people who really fails actually have surrendered to themselves. It’s a matter of fighting with oneself instead of a matter of defeat or not. No one can defeat you and even if you fall, you could stand up with your strong mind.
Tong Daoming: This play has taken an in-depth look at people’s mind. It’s stimulating our nerve as we are now living right in an age of drama, an age filled with fantasy, illusion and tension. Ordinary people dare not touch the society from inside but playwright do with connotation out of social conscience. Playwright Meng Bing, who often win award created this play out of social responsibility rather than claiming award. Director Wang Yansong is a director with deep mind who had sympathetic consideration on social phenomenon and all characters of this play.
Qi Zhixiang: Congratulations and thanks to the playwright, director, actor, and Sam Group. They did something worthy of our respect, and at the same time created a good story for us. "Man in the Mirror" give us a shock with the story. In addition to the incisive and soul-stirring story, we could also feel the warmth and a gleam of sunshine from the darkness which are power of human nature.
Zhao Chen: As far as I am concerned, this play is brave in expression since it is beyond our imagination which set disciplinary cadre with corrupted officials together. It is in obvious contrast that they have so close relations but then they develop a different life. The positive role knows the other one has been corrupted though he hopes it’s not. He has to arrest the corrupted but he doesn’t want him to be dead. To lift him up, he has to knock him down first. I am thinking, if only people from different walks of life in China could have this IQ and EQ, then China could be saved. That is not to say this play is perfect or satisfying in every respect. It’s been a long time that many culture products are just too boosting, decorated and hollow rather than this touching. Like in this play, it mentions that this nation would be over if without awakening and turning back. It gives hope and we could identify the awakening of political system from the fighting between discipline inspection commission and corrupted officials. In fact, the system avails the corrupted of loopholes. Hopefully this conscious play could receive success in market so that we could do more things which benefit the country and the nation.
Zhong Chengxiang: This play gives a lot of general experience on literature and arts creation. The most amazing part of this play is the lines presented by scriptwriter and director on drama stage which is like interrogating soul of the time. How come the corruption occurs? System should be part of the reasons, but human mind and human nature could be another as well as emotion. To live is no better than to die without belief. Political system and law system could be optimized to regulate people’s behavior and nobody dare or could commit corruption. But literature and art is to educate people themselves unwilling to commit corruption. I have got a lot of feeling after watching this play, and I would like to extend my respect to creation team and Sam Group.
Gao Yin: Images of the play, the two roles and their reflections in the mirror, have great impact on us. That is because this story is refined from real life. Hopefully this play could be further purified and refined before longer stay on stage as a classic one.
Zheng Rongjian: This play is explicit, open and straightforward in expression, adhering to its own realistic approach to describe the theme. At the same time, it doesn’t avoid touching taboo area and keep doing it with its own way. This is a good example from which we not only get the practical significance of anti-corruption, most importantly, but also we can understand the changes of life and unpredictability of human nature. Universality of human being is shown as the dominant power in this play, which is also what "Man in the Mirror" intend to tell.
Ouyang Yibing: Firstly, since we often talk about cultural consciousness and cultural confidence, then how can we reflect the cultural consciousness and cultural confidence? The production of "Man in the Mirror" itself is the reflection of cultural consciousness. Nobody give order to set anti-corruption as the theme. What are Chinese people concerned about most in China? That is anti-corruption. What are the whole world observing China? Everyone is waiting to see the result of China’s anti-corruption. People from around the world are surprised by our anti-corruption and they pay attention to it. Meng Bing, Wang Yansong and Li Qiong produce this play since they understand 1.3 billion Chinese citizens’ demand. Listening to the call of the time and people and working on their concerns are exactly cultural consciousness. The generation of this play itself is worthy to be studied and praised. This is cultural consciousness and cultural confidence.
Secondly, I don’t consider this play as complete or pure anti-corruption theme play. By using this theme, it is to raise warning on human nature in this period when human nature could be distorted. Scriptwriter and director have an in-depth view on how human nature could be distorted, and come to conclusion that it is inevitable.
Thirdly, it describes human nature through anti-corruption and sound a warning on critical change of human nature for people of the time, so it’s valuable.
There is peaceful moment as well as dangerous one in life. Keep cool and we could show this kind of sympathy before raising this warning, which in return make this play stand out as the product of the time. As far as we are concerned, this play give lessons we deserve because they express wishes of the people. In the next 30, 40 or 50 years, we are going to read brightest page of modern play which is generated by "Man in the Mirror". I believe so.
The success of the first round of the show and the success of the expert seminar both have great practical significance and far-reaching historical significance. After the first round of meeting between production team and the main creative team in which varied viewpoints from all respects were collected, better plan will be studied and developed on script and performance rendering including stage design. More progress of this play will be made. Please follow us and thanks for your support.