Work Text:
ACT 1
[A nondescript courtyard. YEUNG LEI and CHENG HOI have cracked open a gate, in the middle of an inaudible conversation with someone unseen, until… Enter JING BAI, stage right.]
YEUNG LEI: Yes, yes, aren’t we a sorry bunch of old youths. How long has it been?
JING BAI: I think at least a war ago, but I don’t care about the generals’ squabbles. You two, stay with me a few days—I won’t ask what you’ve been doing, but won’t you get some rest? You look exhausted!
YEUNG LEI: Thank you. Do you have room for a few bodies?
[JING BAI crosses her arms.]
JING BAI: … I already have my troupe, where would I have room for coffins?
CHENG HOI: But we don’t need coffins, they're not dead yet.
Beijing Literary Quarterly, 1935
… Though the dramatists Tian Han and Cao Yu are deservedly lauded, earlier, cruder works such as The Gravediggers should not be discarded entirely, for they have their merits. Written in 1926 by the pseudonymous author Xiao Niu, The Gravediggers is less a proper play than it is ill-judged mixture of spoken drama and traditional opera presented in alternating acts—an inferior union of the two forms when compared to Ouyang Yuqian’s Pan Jinlian. Its few stage productions have taken a wholly huaju approach sans song and facial makeup, and incorporate the author’s assigned colors to characters into the play through the actors’ clothing rather than masks. Thus the impetuous, trigger-happy Cheng Hoi may sport a green scarf, while the mastermind Yeung Lei wears a military uniform with red and purple adornments. (Curiously, no color is specified for the protagonist Jing Bai, though—contrary to the name—presumably it would not be white.) And so the apparent farce proceeds. Indeed, the final act features a cameo appearance by the gambling Dogmeat General, who is directed to sing, not speak, about what he doesn’t need to know; in turn, Jing Bai must gamble on an impromptu, crass sing-off to hold his attention and distract from Yeung Lei and Cheng Hoi’s escapade and tentative triumph.
But the saving grace of The Gravediggers is its raw content, not its style. It is kind to its characters, though their actions are outrageous; it is satire, not sneer. Xiao Niu makes clear to the audience that the characters, though infrequent acquaintances, share a bond. The composure and verbal references with which Jing Bai addresses the mass fake death campaign spearheaded by Yeung Lei and Cheng Hoi indicates a similar experience in the past; how this reflects on the spiritual continuity of rule from Yuan Shikai to the Beiyang government is a fumbled but acknowledged matter. And for all the madcap absurdity, the initial ending allows a respite, a moment of peace, when the final act takes Jing Bai back to the place where her troupe is housed and getting ready for its final performance of Liang Hongyu. I specify “initial” here for clarity, though the epilogue is of questionable authorship; published with an alternate version, it has oft been omitted due to its incongruous tone and absence of Jing Bai, and so has not widely been considered the real end…
EPILOGUE
[YEUNG LEI and CHENG HOI are being pursued; the sound of the chase is growing louder, closer.]
YEUNG LEI: You must be mistaken. On my calendar I have no deaths planned in the future.
[CHENG HOI grins as he looks behind them, with gun in hand.]
CHENG HOI: What, did you forget the prisoners whose corpses we faked?
YEUNG LEI: No real deaths planned in the future—and remember, that goes for both you and me.
CHENG HOI: But which calendar, the old or the new?
[EXEUNT LEFT, pursued by a posse. CURTAIN.]