China marches on : a play in three acts

36 Pages·1938·5.168 MB·English

by  H. T. Tsiang

ºng nº DR. C. T. WANG
CHINESE EMBASSY Washington D.C.
º º º
THE DRAMAA
O
ACHINES: Dºtſºlf Smal
| |
ººººº
AUTHOR OF “POEMS OF THE CHINESE REVOLUTION". “THE HANGING ON UNION 50UARE"
“AND CHINA HAS HANDS". E. C.
oxº
China Marches On
(A play in three acts)
EY H. T. TSIANG
THE CHARACTERS
MAMA CHUNG . . . . . . . . . Mother
PAPA CHUNG . . . . . . . . . . Father
MU-LAN CHUNG . . . . . . . . Daughter of the Chungs NIKOCHI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adopted son of Mama Chung JOHNNIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adopted son of Papa Chung MISS DRINKWATER . . . . . The foster mother of Mu-Lan Chung CAPTAIN LEE . . . . . . .
. . . . Superior of Mu-Lan Chung MR. LIFE
MR. DEATH
Soldiers and other auxiliary characters.
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR Address: - ... H.T. IsiaNG Box 65, Station D. New York City
To L.
:
--
Copyright 1938 by H. T. TSIANG. All Rights Reserved.
First Printing, August, 1938
> _* º Ce- {}_ ( …
Gºſſ |-. C. Goec(, ; c (v 6.1% (, º
ºr C 92 |
** C. º
º
6
C º 3.
Caution: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that this play, China Marches On, being fully protected under the Copyright Laws of the United States of America, the British Empire, including the Dominion of Canada, and all other countries of the Copyright
Union, is subject to royalty. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio broadcasting, and the rights of translation into foreign languages are strictly reserved. Particular emphasis is laid the question of readings,
permission for which must be secured from the author in writing.
Address: H. T. Tsiang Box 66, Station D, New York City
Printed in the United States of Ameria
: º34; ;": " : ". . . . ... : : - CT • . * * * * * * > . . . . . . . . - - - - - - - -- - - - - - *
- * * * - - - - - - - - - - *
* * * * * * * * * * - * * * ... • * * * * - - - - * - - - - - -
- - :
§ CHINA MARCHES ON
5
.
ACT I SCENE I In a Chinese farmhouse. TIME 1915. AT RISE Mama Chung, a Chinese farm house
MAMA CHUNG:
PAPA CHUNG: MAMA CHUNG
PAPA CHUNG
MAMA CHUNG
PAPA CHUNG
MAMA CHUNG:
PAPA CHUNG
MAMA CHUNG
PAPA CHUNG
MAMA CHUNG:
PAPA CHUNG:
MAMA CHUNG:
PAPA CHUNG
MAMA CHUNG
wife; Papa Chung, the husband; and their baby of about two years of age in the cradle.
The beasts are coming, go! Where?.
(Lifts the baby up from the cradle and looks at her): Why don't you die?
(Looks at the baby): Why did you come into this world? And come at this time?
(Looks at the baby): Why don't you die? (Pushes the baby to the ground.)
(Picks the baby up and puts her back into the cradle and them runs to the Kitchen God and prays): God save us!
God save us!
(Weeps): What shall we do?
(Looks at her husband):
Men are all of no use! (She runs for a kitchen knife and comes back to the baby): -
I must kill you!
(Takes the knife away from his wife): God save us!
The Kitchen God is of no more use now ! Let us ask the Foreign God to help us. (She takes up a needle and pierces the skin of the back of the baby's right hand, rubs some black ink into the tat º letterings, and then wipes the wound with a piece of cloth): I give you a
new name, Mu-Lan, the name of a Chinese girl soldier in ancient times. Grow up! Be a soldier! (The baby cries.)
Oh, Mu-Lan, do not cry!
Now the mark will stay with you all your life! Grow up, remember 1 (She then takes the kitchen knife and runs back and looks at the baby.)
(Runs to stop his wife): Do not kill her. God save us!
(Uses the knife to cut a piece of white cloth from her own sleeve and then bites into her finger and with the blood writes on it): This is my last will. Keep it with you all your lifel (She puts the piece of cloth into the baby's shirt.)
4 CHINA MARCHES ON
PAPA CHUNG:
MAMA CHUNG:
PAPA CHUNG:
MAMA CHUNG:
PAPA CHUNG:
MAMA CHUNG:
PAPA CHUNG:
MAMA CHUNG:
PAPA CHUNG:
MAMA CHUNG:
PAPA CHUNG:
MAMA CHUNG:
PAPA CHUNG:
FIRST JAP SOLDIER:
SECOND JAP SOLDIER:
THIRD JAP SOLDIER:
FOURTH JAP SOLDIER:
FIFTH JAP SOLDIER:
MAMA SHUNG:
The Japanese are fighting against the Germans in our land. But why should the Japanese come to attack us Chinese? Chinese and Japanese have the same yellow face. The beasts | They are coming ! I heard that the whole village near the neighboring town was rooted
out by the Japanese soldiers. What shall I do? I am a woman. Let them have their lust. But you are a man. You are of no use to them. Go, not to be killed ! Run for your life! Live and take revenge! My dear, how could I leave you? When would I ever see you again?
In time of war, no one knows about tomorrow ! (She puts the baby in a basket): Leave the baby at the door of the foreign mission house. Since those people have white faces and blue eyes and they are Americans—come from the land of the Flower Flag—the Japs
will not dare to touch them, and our baby might be saved through them.
Why couldn't we go in there all together? The mission was filled up three days ago. more room there. I cannot leave you. Let us die together! We must save the baby. This is the only way to save the baby.
And you! Die?
I will not die!
I will live to wait and to see revenge. If I die, the baby shall live to take revenge for us.
Go!
There is no
Go! (She laughs. She cries.) Beasts 1 Japs
(Mama Chung brandishes the knife at her husband to chase him away. He flees. The bugle is now heard clearly. Jap anese soldiers approach. One soldier knocks her down and her head hits the ground. He laughs. The second soldier takes a drink. The third soldier
marches up with a Ger ºman soldier—his prisoner carrying spoils for his Jap cap tor. The Japanese soldier speaks):
Let us have our lust, Or you will be dust!
What are we fighting for? Here we have reached shore!
I shall park my gun And have a little fun!
As we are not disciples of a jealous god, I'll watch for you with my drawn sword.
Let us remember: better be a hen, Or be dogs, but no Chinamen!
My dear daughter, Mu-Lan Chung, Live! Revenge!
BLACKOUT
CHINA MARCHES ON 5
SCENE II In the bedroom of an American mis sion house, China. TIME 1927. AT RISE Mu-Lan Chung is pacing the floor.
MU-LAN CHUNG
MISS DRINKWATER
MU-LAN CHUNG: MISS DRINKWATER:
MU-LAN CHUNG: MISS DRINKWATER: MU-LAN CHUNG: MISS DRINKWATER:
MU-LAN CHUNG: MISS DRINKWATER:
MU-LAN CHUNG: MISS DRINKWATER:
(A Chinese girl of about 16 years of age):
I kiss your forehead For you have a brain. I kiss your breast For you have a heart. I kiss your lips To cure my pain.
(Comes from the outer room. The church bell rings ten):
My family name, Drinkwater, gives me a good motto:—
If one drinks too much milk, one might become too fat.
If one drinks too much liquor, one might go crazy.
Drink water! Drink water |
There will be no excitement.
But there will be no repentance either!
That is the way God wants us to live;
And it can not be better!
Oh, God!
What is the matter?
Why do you look so sad, tonight?
Nothing . . .
did you have a fight again with your boy friend, Ai-Kuo?
No-o-o!
What a nice boy!
He is so intelligent, so sincere,
So polite, so artistic,
And so brave!
I can not understand why you should fight with him all
the time?
Tell me, what is the matter?
Nothing . . .
Ai-Kuo is such an orator!
When he mounts the platform,
He can sway the audience from right to left.
He is a magician:
Whenever he tries to get contributions,
He empties the listeners' pockets.
Tell me, what is the matter?
Nothing . . .
'Then why should you look so sad?
In the old days, Chinese marriage depended upon the selec tion of the parents.
And they themselves put their children’s future in the hands
Of the blind men—their fortune-tellers
In modern China, the parents let their children love,
According to their own tastes. -
Haven’t I let you have your love in your own way, Mu-Lan?
I was so glad to see you enjoy life!
You were as happy as the fishes
CHINA MARCHES ON
MU-LAN CHUNG:
MISS DRINKWATER:
MU-LAN CHUNG
MISS DRINKWATER:
MU-LAN CHUNG:
MISS DRINKWATER:
MU-LAN CHUNG:
MISS DRINKWATER:
MU-LAN CHUNG:
MISS DRINKWATER:
MU-LAN CHUNG:
MISS DRINKWATER:
MU-LAN CHUNG:
MISS DRINKWATER:
MU-LAN CHUNG:
MISS DRINKWATER:
Roaming around in the water, Enjoying your happiness. And I was as happy as the fishes, When I was peeping Far , far away ! Tell me; you must tell me: Have you had a fight with Ai-Kuo?
Every note I sent to him he put in his album.
He valued them as precious stones.
Sometimes I was angry and tried to take the letters back.
He fought to keep them,
And whenever I grabbed one,
And tore it in little bits,
He would take the strips back and carefully piece them together.
Once there was a fire in his house.
He ran back to his room against the smoke,
Just to save the few letters I had written him.
You love him and he loves you; Then why should you become so worried and sad? Has he got a new girl friend? Tell me something ! Say something ! (Becomes hysterical): Mother Ai-Kuo is killed ! What? Killed? The police fired at us. And a bullet pierced his heart.
Horrible !
How did it happen?
We were in the demonstration, the police tried to stop us. I thought you were at the movies! He was at the head of the column. He had a banner in his hand. The police attacked us. He used the bamboo stick of the flag to hit back. Then he threw away the stick, And
dived forward,
He staked his life.
A policeman ran,
Ai-Kuo followed him.
I ran after. The policeman hit him with the gun butt. I rushed to shield Ai-Kuo. The police fired upon us. He shielded me with his body. I escaped, but he was killed. Oh, Mother, he really died for me! Horrible!
He died for me?— No! He died for his country! Why should Chinese police kill a Chinese patriot? Aren’t they all Chinese? The general is the tool of the Japanese. The policeman was nothing but a hangman For four dollars a month. Mu-Lan Chung, be sad no more!
Where there is happiness, There must be an end.
It is God’s will.
I loved him,
And now he is dead.
Horrible !
CHINA MARCHES ON 7
MU-LAN CHUNG:
MISS DRINKWATER
MU-LAN CHUNG
MISS DRINKWATER
MU-LAN CHUNG:
MISS DRINKWATER:
MU-LAN CHUNG:
MISS DRINKWATER:
MU-LAN. CHUNG:
MISS DRINKWATER:
MU-LAN CHUNG
MISS DRINKWATER
MU-LAN CHUNG:
MISS DRINKWATER:
MU-LAN CHUNG
The Japanese tools killed my Ai-Kuo!
My love, my darling !
(Patting Mu-Lan's back):
What has happened, has happened.
Go to sleep.
(Goes to bed):
They killed my love! But he shall be avenged 1
The revolutionary army is coming to this city'
(Sighs, then opens a drawer of the chiffonier and takes out
o blood-stained cloth, and sighs to herself):
Poor girl | Her lover is dead.
And her parents? Where are they now?
Those Japanese soldiers! They must have killed them in 1915.
(She puts back the cloth quickly into the chest.)
Mother, Mother,
What did you say?
Japanese soldiers killed my parents?
I said nothing of the sort.
I heard you.
I was in Shantung. Later I moved to Nanking.
I heard you say something about my parents.
I know nothing about them.
(Gives way to a suspicious smile, followed by a penetrat ing look at the chest. She then turns on her side ready to sleep):
It is midnight. Let us both go to sleep.
(Goes to her bed, turns the lights out eaccept for one very small ome):
Yes, it's time for bed.
Mother, good-night.
Good-night, Mu-Lan.
(Miss Drinkwater falls asleep immediately. She snores.)
(Looks at Miss Drinkwater. She then slowly, and quietly leaves her bed, and, step by step, approaches the chiffonier. She searches in the drawer and finds the blood-stained cloth. She moves nearer the light. At first, she looks at it eacultingly, them begins to read it.
Suddenly, she throws the cloth on the floor and raises her hands in horror. Then she picks it up and reads it again. She holds it in one hand and, with the other, pulls her hair nervously. Again she throws the cloth on the floor. She takes the flower vase and is about to
hurl it to the floor. Suddenly she realizes that she might wake her mother. She looks at Miss Drink water. Then she quietly and quickly picks up the blood stained cloth from the floor, runs to the open drawer, and quietly puts it back, and closes it slowly. Again she
looks at Miss Drinkwater. Then she glides swiftly to snatch the flower out of the vase. She holds the flower, them lifts it high to have a far-off view of it. Holding the flower-stem in one hand, she crushes the petals with the other, while the small light is gradually going
out, and she screams):
I kiss your forehead For you have a brain. I kiss your breast For you have a heart. I kiss your lips To cure my pain.
BLACKOUT
CHINA MARCHES ON
------------
SCENE III An empty stage. TIME 1931-1937. AT RISE A sign with a background display
ing the date in white letters slowly moves from the right of stage to the left.
An announcer backstage calls out the date in the same rhythm as the movement of the sign, while the drum is beating.
The sign: 1931
The voice from backstage: 1931
Japanese army occupies Manchuria.
The sign: 1931
The voice from backstage: 1931
Japanese army attacks Shanghai. (The sign moves faster and the voice sounds faster
and louder.) The sign: - 1932 The voice from backstage: 1932 - Japan slices off four Chinese Northern Provinces. (The sign moves faster and the voice sounds faster and louder.) The sign: 1937 The voice from backstage: 1937 War I War I Japanese army attacks
Peiping! War I War I
Japanese army attacks Shanghai!
(The sign moves much faster, and the voice sounds much faster and much louder. As the curtain slowly falls the drum thunders.)
CURTAIN