Abstract
I did archival research at Harvard University in the summer of 2019 and found that there were eight letters between Hong Shen and his mentor, Professor George Pierce Baker, from 1920 to 1923. Moreover, a letter that Professor Baker wrote to a certain editor referred to Hong Shen. Most of these letters have never been mentioned in the literature, and those that were mentioned require further study. As these letters from a hundred years ago are valuable to research on Hong Shen, I have specially translated them into Chinese and have done a preliminary study. These letters not only reveal Hong Shen’s early experience of studying drama in the United States, his exploration and thinking expressed in these letters can also help scholars rebuild Hong Shen’s connections and relationships in the American drama circle. Facts uncovered in these letters have proven that Hong Shen was not an outsider to Broadway Theater in the 1920s in the United States, but rather an active and involved participant on the theater scene. The directors and actors mentioned in Hong Shen’s letters came not just from the United States but also from all over the world. They projected world culture onto the theater stage, and regarded theater as a world stage. Under the influence of such diverse cultures, Hong Shen’s vision was global and cross-cultural. Hong Shen’s early experiences at Harvard and New York had a profound impact on his future theater career in China.
First Page
25
Last Page
35
Recommended Citation
Zhao, Tingting. 2021. "Hong Shen’s Artistic Experience and Psychological Journey in the Early 1920s: A Study of Newly Discovered Correspondence Between Hong Shen and George Pierce Baker." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 41, (5): pp.25-35. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol41/iss5/9
