Hsiung Shih-I: The Legendary Life of Chinese Shakespeare

Today, we will talk about an inspirational scriptwriter who, alongside Lin Yutang, is renowned as one of the two best Chinese writers proficient in English writing during the first half of the 20th century. He was also the first Chinese stage director to make his mark on Broadway.

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Hsiung Shih-I: The Legendary Life of Chinese Shakespeare

Today, we will talk about an inspirational scriptwriter who, alongside Lin Yutang, is renowned as one of the two best Chinese writers proficient in English writing during the first half of the 20th century. He was also the first Chinese stage director to make his mark on Broadway.

On the evening of September 15, 1991, a small and slender elderly man passed away within the premises of Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Originally in Beijing to visit family, he unexpectedly met his end in the capital.

His name was Hsiung Shih-I (熊式一), one of the most renowned Chinese writers overseas in the 1930s, once dubbed “the Twin Stars of Lin and Hsiung” alongside the famous writer Lin Yutang. In 1934, Hsiung’s English play Wang Baochuan, or Lady Precious Stream gained global popularity, earning him the title of “Chinese Shakespeare” from The New York Times. His novel The Bridge of Heaven was also translated into multiple languages and sold well in America and various European countries.

For various reasons, this Chinese Shakespeare did not enjoy much fame in the Chinese mainland. It wasn’t until 2023, when Zheng Da, a professor of English at Suffolk University in Boston, published the biography Shih-I Hsiung: A Glorious Showman in the Chinese mainland, that his story reemerged for more Chinese readers. He was an important writer buried in the dust of history and an indispensable name in the history of modern Sino-foreign cultural exchanges.

On October 30, 1935, the cruise ship Berenice sailed from London to New York, carrying many famous film stars, dancers, and directors. Among them was a Chinese couple, elegantly dressed with a classical yet fashionable flair. Their fluent English and cheerful personalities left a deep impression on fellow passengers.

This was the pinnacle of Hsiung’s life. He was about to bring his play Lady Precious Stream, which he had written and directed, to Broadway, becoming the first Chinese stage director to do so.

In the US, Hsiung and his entourage stayed at the renowned Edison Hotel, with daily mentions of them in the society columns of New York City’s widely read newspapers. Sure to be a box-office hit, the American version of the play Lady Precious Stream was produced by the famous American theatrical producer Morris Gest and featured a veteran cast of Broadway actors. Also, the costumes were exquisitely crafted, having been tailored by the renowned Mei Lanfang, one of modern Chinese theater’s most famous Peking opera stars, thereby presenting unparalleled beauty.

Just three years prior to this, in 1932, the 30-year-old Hsiung went to the University of East London in the UK to pursue his PhD, where he quickly befriended long-admired British writers such as George Bernard Shaw and J.M. Barrie. At that time, a brief Chinese craze was sweeping across Europe’s cultural scene, and people were curious about works with Chinese elements. Shaw and Hsiung’s mentor, Allardyce Nicoll, suggested that Hsiung create original traditional Chinese dramas written in English. Nicoll even said that authentic Chinese plays were rarely staged in British theaters, and if done well, it could bring fame and fortune.

Encouraged by his mentor, Hsiung wrote the script for Lady Precious Stream adapted from the traditional opera Red Mane Fierce Horse. He understood that Lady Precious Stream as a play could not simply copy traditional Chinese opera but needed bold reforms in plot, form, and other aspects to make it more acceptable to Western audiences. He transformed the originally submissive female lead into a beautiful, clever woman. To help British audiences understand the plot, he incorporated exposition into the dialog – that is, he added explanatory text to provide context where necessary.

Lady Precious Stream initially faced difficulties, with no British theater willing to stage it because the Chinese craze was merely an exotic fantasy in the minds of foreign audiences who didn’t truly understand China. However, Hsiung continued to passionately introduce his work to theater companies and publishers.

In 1934, before Lady Precious Stream premiered on stage, the script was successfully published and received widespread acclaim. That same year, British theater director John Boynton Priestley was attracted to the play and staged over a hundred performances. Within that time, nearly all members of the British royal family watched the play at least once, with Queen Mary attending more than eight times. Subsequently, the play’s popularity extended from London all the way to Broadway. From January 27, 1936, Lady Precious Stream ran continuously for over three months in the US, with a total of 105 performances. The wife of US President Roosevelt also watched the play, describing it as “charming, entertaining, subtle, and eye-opening for Westerners.”

Zheng Da, the author of Hsiung’s biography, argues in the preface that: “It’s hard to imagine that at that time, Hsiung Shih-I had entered the Western spotlight with such resonance. Some people say his success was accidental, just changing a Chinese play a bit, and that’s it. It’s not like that at all.”

Also, professor Chen Zishan of East China Normal University wrote in the preface of Hsiung’s biography that: “We have neglected Hsiung Shih-I for too long, and we owe him too much.” 

When Hsiung passed away in 1991, it went unnoticed. His name was absent from the Chinese Modern Writers Dictionary of that year. When it came to Chinese writers who wrote in English overseas, people only knew Lin Yutang, not Hsiung Shih-I. It took about 15 more years for his major works to gradually emerge in the mainland, and there are still many gaps in the research on his works.

Hsiung had six children and several grandchildren, and even these grandchildren were unaware of their grandfather’s works for a long time. One of his grandsons, Hsiung Wei, only discovered his grandfather’s works, Lady Precious Stream and The Bridge of Heaven in the library of Beijing Foreign Studies University. 

An important reason why Hsiung’s works did not spread in the mainland was that he spent most of the first half of his life writing in English, thus creating a language barrier that hindered widespread dissemination. Zheng Da analyzed that from Hsiung’s study abroad in the 1930s to his time in Hong Kong in the mid-1950s, he hardly published any Chinese works.

However, Hsiung’s de facto disappearance from the Chinese literary scene was not intentional. He may, in fact, have wished to develop in the Chinese writing circle. In the 1930s, the vernacular movement in China had matured, with various literary factions such as the “Revolutionary Left Wing,” “Beijing School,” and “Shanghai School.” There were also many exchanges within the world’s literary circles.

At that time, Hsiung had started translating and writing. Before going abroad, he had already been part of the literary scene in Beijing and Shanghai, translated novels by Western authors for the Commercial Press, and published translations in magazines like Novel Monthly. He maintained connections with scholarly seniors, including writers such as Hu Shi and Liang Shiqiu, translator Lin Shu, and historian Chen Yinque. 

Around 1930, while teaching in Beijing, Hsiung heard that Hu Shi had the opportunity to publish works by the British playwright J.M. Barrie. He submitted translations of over a dozen Barrie plays along with his own script The God of Wealth to Hu Shi. However, Hu Shi did not value or appreciate them and kept them at home.

It wasn’t until Xu Zhimo, a famous poet, read these manuscripts at Hu Shi’s home that things took a turn. Xu Zhimo greatly appreciated Hsiung, and Chen Yuan, then the dean of the School of Literature at Wuhan University, invited Hsiung to teach Western drama at the university. However, according to the regulations of the Ministry of Education at that time, since Hsiung did not have overseas study experience, he couldn’t teach relevant subjects. He ultimately couldn’t become a professor at Wuhan University. He later decided to leave China to pursue his PhD in the UK. At that time, he was already the father of five children, and his wife, Cai Daimei, was still studying at a university in Beijing.

After the success of Lady Precious Stream, Hsiung temporarily set aside his quest to obtain a PhD in order to focus on the play’s performances worldwide. But then, external circumstances further influenced his choices. In 1935, Lady Precious Stream was staged in Shanghai, and some criticized such scripts as simply a means to please foreigners. In 1937, with the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Hsiung, who was trapped while visiting relatives in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, eventually returned to England with his wife and three of his children to settle down. From then on, the Chinese literary scene he once longed for became merely a remote possibility in some parallel dimension.

Lady Precious Stream gained popularity in the United States not long before the outbreak of World War II. During the war, theaters were temporarily closed, and the publishing industry faced restrictions. Additionally, the emergence of alternative forms of entertainment such as television and movies also impacted people’s interest in live theatrical performances, thus setting the stage for later difficulties in Hsiung’s life.

In 1944, Hsiung, unaware of these upcoming challenges, was enjoying success with Lady Precious Stream and had published the bestselling novel The Bridge of Heaven. He moved his family to Oxford for the education of his children. Soon, his home became a gathering place for cultural celebrities in the Chinese community, including Hu Shi, poet Bian Zhilin, and mathematician Hua Luogeng. Little did he know that, as a socialite at this time, he was about to enter the challenging second half of his life.

In the UK, subsequent publishing contracts were not completed on time, which caused his income to become unstable, leading the Hsiung family to gradually struggle financially. In 1954, with the establishment of Nanyang University, now Nanyang Technological University in Singapore where Lin Yutang was appointed as the president, Hsiung Shih-I was invited to be the dean of the School of Literature. This was a stable job that could solve his financial problems, so he moved to Singapore. However, due to complicated academic and personnel issues, both Lin and Hsiung eventually resigned.

At that time, cultural talents from around the world gathered in Hong Kong. Hsiung also saw potential in Hong Kong’s development and chose to make a living there, preparing for the Chinese film version of Lady Precious Stream. However, his era had passed, and the film version of Lady Precious Stream did not replicate his former successes.

Nevertheless, he stayed in Hong Kong, and over the next thirty-plus years, Hsiung began writing in Chinese. He enthusiastically promoted Chinese culture and established campuses of Tsinghua College in both Hong Kong and Taiwan.

In his later years, Hsiung organized his life and work meticulously, but his life stage had shifted from grand theater to a small quiet stage. Since moving to Singapore, he had been separated from his wife and children, with his wife Cai Daimei remaining in the UK, some of his children returning to the mainland, and others staying abroad. Old friends gradually aged and passed away, and his loneliness increased day by day.

But Hsiung’s personality remained unchanged. Biographer Zheng Da shares two stories that illustrate this point: In 1945, when Hu Shi went to the University of Oxford to receive a doctoral degree and couldn’t find a doctoral gown due to post-war shortages, he sought help from Hsiung. Hsiung didn’t hold a grudge for Hu Shi’s earlier neglect of his works and quickly helped him find one. In Hsiung’s later years, playwright Yang Shipeng became a good friend. The first time they met, Hsiung wore two valuable watches on his wrist, displaying the time in two different time zones. He immediately took one off and gave it to Yang Shipeng.

This type of personality, which illuminated Hsiung’s brilliance in smooth times, intensified his loneliness in challenging times. Determined to be strong, he hid his loneliness and continued to present himself in the cheerful lively manner of the past.

He attempted to find a place to spend his later years better and planned to write and teach for a living, continuing to tell the stories of the Chinese people. His presence was felt in various places, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, the mainland, and the United States.

The drifting of his later years did not end with the end of his life. After his death, Hsiung’s ashes remained overseas until 2011, when finally, his descendants buried them alongside those of his eldest daughter Hsiung Delan and eldest son Hsiung Dewei in Beijing.

China’s capital had been the place where he pursued education, the starting point of his literary dreams, and the home for many of his relatives. In the end, Hsiung Shih-I, who had traveled around the world throughout his life, perhaps also experienced the warmth of returning home.

Well, that’s the end of our podcast. Our theme music is by the famous film score composer Roc Chen. We want to thank our writer Qiu Guangyu, translator Du Guodong, and copy editor Pu Ren. And thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, please tell a friend so they, too, can understand The Context.