Wenji: Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute, is a contemporary opera based on the true story of poet and musician Cai Wenji that will premiere at the Asia Society on January 31, 2002 and run through February 9, 2002. The opera tells the story of a scholar's daughter who becomes a prize of war and is torn between two worlds during the Han Dynasty. The piece is composed by Bun-Ching Lam, written by Xu Ying, and directed by Rinde Eckert. The opera is co-produced by the Hong Kong Arts Festival, where it will also be performed in March 2002.

Xu Ying was born in Hunan, China where he began his training in traditional opera. He is a playwright, director and actor, and holds both a B.A. from the Hunan art school and a second degree in script writing and Chinese opera theory from the China Traditional Opera Institute in Beijing. He was a leading actor with the Hunan Opera Company, and taught at the Hunan Art school for five years. Xu is currently the resident playwright with the China Opera and Dance Drama Theater company in Beijing. He has written numerous plays, operas, articles and a book on the current state of Chinese opera titled Beijing Opera’s Shock. He was the dramaturg for several recent contemporary theater works including The Bacchae, a joint production of the New York Greek drama company and Beijing National Opera company; and Empty Tradition/City of Peonies. He was a fellow at the UCLA Center for Intercultural Performance in 1996 and 1997 and is currently working with Academy Award winning composer Tan Dun on a libretto for a new opera entitled Tea.

AsiaSource spoke with the writer in the Asia Society's auditorium as Francis Hui of the Asia Society interpreted. For an interview with composer Bun-Ching Lam and director Rinde Eckert, read "Creating Wenji". For more information on Wenji: Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute, please visit the Wenji website.

Let’s begin with the origins of this project. How did you become involved?

It was Bun-Ching Lam’s idea first. We started working on it in 1997. Bun-Ching Lam first saw some of my work in Hong Kong and she really admired it and talked to me about the Wenji idea. I was very interested in this project from the beginning, because I really like Bun-Ching Lam as a composer. Also, Bun-Ching is very well-educated in Chinese literature. The story of Wenji has been alive for two thousand years and it has been adapted in many different theatrical renderings, but none of them have been satisfactory in my opinion. This particular project gives me an opportunity to express what I feel about the story of Wenji.

What are the other Wenji productions lacking that this one will have?

Other productions are burdened by a lot of other factors like politics, making the message of Wenji very political, and not about art. The part of her story where she returns to China is a very sensitive issue for other Chinese writers and they try to avoid addressing her return. My own understanding of Wenji’s return to China is very different. Other writers think that she returns to China because of something very political; "I’m Chinese, so I have to return to China." They make it seem very noble. But in my own understanding, it’s because of culture. She is returning because she loves that culture and it is her identity.

Very little historical information has been written about Wenji, actually. What has been recorded is that she went back to China to rewrite some of the books she had memorized that had been destroyed in her father's library. So people think that she goes back to China to do that, that that is her reason.

I think there are a lot of reasons why she returns. They are public reasons and there are personal reasons. The public reason is that the Chinese were coming with ransom to get her back and if they do not bring her back to China, there will be a war between these two countries. So for her, there is no choice, she has to go home.

Very little has been written about Wenji’s personal feelings while she was away. She wrote some poems and expressed in them that she longed for Chinese culture. Chinese culture is a lot more complex than the nomadic culture; I wouldn’t use the word civilized, but I would say complex.

What is the function of the storyteller character in the piece?

When I was writing this piece, it was only intended for three performers and it was very limiting. I created the storyteller character and this character does it all. He tells the story and he plays any necessary additional characters. There are a lot of story telling traditions in China. This one is not related to those specific traditions, but the principle is the same. It’s an expression with a lot of freedom. It comes from an understanding of theater. For this storyteller, he is creating an illusion for the audience. With the storyteller I have unlimited possibilities even though there are only three actors. It is very meaningful.

You incorporate ancient texts into the libretto. How did you balance the ancient and the contemporary points of view?

From the contemporary point of view, it is not understandable why Wenji would return to China. Her husband is in Xiongnu and her two children are there, too, but when I was writing this piece I was living in New York for three months and I could actually put myself into her position. How one misses ones own culture is something very mysterious. When I was in New York, I missed home and I would go to Chinatown and get the Chinese newspaper. I would read the whole entire newspaper from beginning to end, including the ads. The content meant nothing to me, it was just that I felt such strong connection with those Chinese words. The shape and the look of those words were very concrete to me. Language is a way of thinking. Culture is a way of living. The Chinese language and culture is really imprinted in Wenji’s being. From my point of view, what a person desires most is communication and connection. Wenji did not have that in a Xiongnu [nomadic] environment because she could not communicate fully with other people. It’s not about whether she is going to have a better fate staying or going back to China, it’s just that she needs to have a connection with other people and a language with which to communicate.

This is a bilingual production. What was it like writing in Chinese knowing it was going to be translated and how has this bilingual background aided this production?

It is a very meaningful experiment, actually. Within the script when you listen to Wenji, what she says is in a much more ancient and scholarly language. What the king says is in a colloquial language. When they communicate on stage, it’s a cultural exchange.

It’s sort of like a parallel. What you see on stage is Wenji and the king and they cannot really communicate, but they have come to understand each other. It’s the same with the creative team because everyone comes from a different background and has a different idea about the piece, but step by step they work together. It’s just like what happens on stage in the story.

What is it like for you working with an English-speaking director?

It’s been very valuable to work with Rinde. He is very intelligent and open to ideas. He doesn’t distinguish between “Chinese” and “western” ideas, he looks at it in a theatrical sense if it is a good or bad idea. It’s a universal story. For example, there is one scene in which an emperor orders books to be burned. This has happened many times in Chinese history. The first emperor of China even buried scholars alive. And this has happened in other cultures, during the Nazis, during the Cultural Revolution in China, and during the Taliban in Afghanistan. It can happen any time in history, anywhere and to anybody. It’s not just about China or a Chinese woman. The fate of Wenji can be the fate of anyone at any time. I don’t have to worry if the audience can understand. They don’t have to treat it as a Chinese story.

Yesterday when we were rehearsing the book burning scene, I saw how universal the opera is. I am very familiar with every word because I wrote the piece, but Rinde, who was staging the piece, was very touched, even though that scene was written in Chinese. He couldn’t understand exactly what they were saying, but he was also touched. It’s the same feeling, even if you don’t know the language or the story. Any audience can understand.

Interview conducted by Michelle Caswell, AsiaSource.