Tian Han, formerly romanized as T'ien Han, was a Chinese drama activist, playwright, a leader of revolutionary music and films, as well as a translator and poet. He emerged at the time of the New Culture Movement of the early 20th century and continued to be active until the Cultural Revolution, when he was attacked and died in jail before being posthumously rehabilitated by the Chinese authorities in 1979. He is considered by drama historians as one of the three founders of Chinese spoken drama, together with Ouyang Yuqian and Hong Shen. His most famous legacy may be the lyrics he wrote for "March of the Volunteers" in 1934, which were later adopted as the national anthem of the People's Republic of China.
Biography
During the May Fourth Movement in 1919, Tian became famous for the vigorous anti-imperialist and anti-feudalist activities in the circle of artists and intellectuals he gathered. Tian was educated at Tokyo Higher Normal School in Japan. Returning from Japan in 1921, Tian established the Creation Society together with Guo Moruo. The Southern China Society, also headed by Tian, played a leading role in promoting dramatic performances in southern China. In 1927, Tian taught at the Department of Literature of Shanghai Art University. Later, he joined The League of Chinese Left-Wing Dramatists. In 1934, he collaborated with the activist Liu Liangmo on the patriotic anthem, March of the Volunteers. Tian used various aliases and pen names including his courtesy name Tián Shòuchāng, Bóhóng, Chén Yú, Shùrén, and Hànxiān. Tian, then Chairman of the Union of Chinese Drama Workers and Vice-Chairman of the All China's Federation of Literary and Art Circles, was attacked in 1966 for his historical play Xie Yaohuan, regarded as an attack on Chairman Mao's policies and the CCP leadership. Criticism of this play, along with two other historical plays, were the opening salvos of the Cultural Revolution. Tian was denounced in a 1 February 1966 People's Daily article entitled "Xie Yaohuan is a Big Poisonous Weed". The Jiefang Daily called Xie Yaohuan a "political manifesto". Guilty, among other things, of "wholesale inheritance of China's theatrical legacy and promoting traditional plays", "disparaging revolutionary modern plays" and "promoting bourgeois class liberalism and obfuscating the direction for the workers, peasants and soldiers", Tian was incarcerated as a "counterrevolutionary" in a prison run personally by Kang Sheng, and died there in 1968. After the end of the Cultural Revolution, he and Xie Yaohuan were rehabilitated posthumously in 1979.
Works
Although a proponent of western style theater in China, Tian also produced a number of works with historical themes.
Tian Han was the prototype for the figure of "Kuang Wentao" in the 1959 biopicNie Er, which retold the story of the composition of the Chinese National Anthem on the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic. For the 50th anniversary in 1999, he was represented directly in the film The National Anthem, played by He Zhengjun. His story was also told in The National Anthem, a 27-episode television series, and in the play Torrent, produced in Beijing in the year 2000. In the 2009 film The Founding of a Republic, he was portrayed by Donnie Yen.
