In this month's issue of That's Beijing there is an interesting article about a Bejing interpretation and staging of The Diary of Anne Frank. It is playing 1-16 November in a local theatre.We are considering a community trip, tentatively for Wednesday, Nov. 12th. If you are interested in reserving a ticket and joining with members of the community to see it together, please send an email with your contact details to ....
About a Girl
Ji Pei finds inspiration in The Diary of Anne Frank
Gerald Mak Ji Pei stumbled upon a Chinese translation of the play based on The Diary of Anne Frank while she rifled through the library of the Central Academy of Drama. "I was moved by Anne's positive attitude in the face of a horrible event," says Ji, a second year graduate student at the Academy. "It was very appropriate because I found the script during the SARS period."
Though it may be preposterous to compare SARS to the Holocaust, Ji feels that Chinese people can still relate to the message conveyed in the story. "Chinese people associate the Holocaust with war and with both the fragility and the strength of life," Ji explains. In China, the Holocaust hasn't been characterised as the single most horrific atrocity in history the way it has been in the West. China certainly has had many atrocities befall her people during her history, and of course, WWII has different associations here. "We did a lot of research, but there may be some things that we canīt understand about the Jews," Ji admits. "Our actors are young and it was difficult for us to understand the characters."
Though Anne Frank's story has a long history rooted in the plight of the Jews in Europe, it would be short sighted to miss the universality of her story of hope over adversity and the senselessness of a vibrant life cut short. In the past, people have downplayed the Jewishness of Frank's writing when adapting it to a play. For example, Lillian Hellman, who produced the Pulitzer Prize winning version of the play, changed Anne's words, "Perhaps through Jewish suffering the world will learn good," to "Jews were not the only ones who suffered from the Nazis." These were attempts to make the story more palatable to a public not ready to accept or comprehend the Jewish experience but the changes offended many who rightfully believed that the Jews suffered more than anyone else at the hands of the Nazis.
So, how does this lack of understanding of Jewish culture and history affect this new production? China is certainly no stranger to atrocities and, of course, during WWII, China suffered brutally herself at the hands of the occupying Japanese forces. Perhaps, then, a lack of understanding of Jews may not be as limiting as it was in the US in the 1950s. Hopefully, the Chinese audience won't leave the theatre distracted by their lack of understanding of Jewish culture, but will instead realise that no nation and no culture is unfamiliar with suffering and senseless brutality. Nor is any human being unfamiliar with the insecurities, aspirations and hopes of youth. The tragedy of those very things being extinguished should translate in any language.
The Diary of Anne Frank will run Nov 1-16 at the Beijing North Theatre (6404 8021, 6406 0175)
Comments
is this good for a school play ?
Posted by: kaite | January 5, 2004 09:23 PM
why do you fuck ups think we need new info on ann frank.we dont hitler has spooken
Posted by: hitler | April 22, 2004 02:13 PM
dam right we dont
Posted by: its me | April 22, 2004 02:15 PM
i hate thoses dam jews
Posted by: kkk | April 22, 2004 02:16 PM
why do you guys post the coments you do.cant we all get along.ahhh whut the hell am i saying.we need a clenzing of all the gays and jews and blacks kill them all
Posted by: dont know | April 26, 2004 03:46 PM
whut the hell is wrong with you.we dont need your racsist coments.
Posted by: pill davis | April 26, 2004 03:51 PM
shut the fuck up pill i hate the dam jews
Posted by: hitler | April 27, 2004 03:53 PM
hitler u need so shut-up because if u were a jew would u want us to just kill u because of ur religion?
Oh yeah by the way here is a hint
HITLER SUCKS ASS
Posted by: Kayla | May 18, 2004 05:15 PM
HEY HITLER U HATE THE JEWS RIGHT
WELL WE ALL HATE U AND HITLER
Posted by: Kayla | May 18, 2004 05:18 PM
didu no hitlers dad had 3 wives o ya and hitler wanted 2 be a painter
Posted by: i no were u live | June 23, 2004 12:58 PM
i no alot about people more thanu thnik i o more about hitler
Posted by: i no were u live | June 23, 2004 12:58 PM
All you racist assholes, get over yourselves!
Posted by: grown up | June 29, 2004 02:22 AM
Can i know why ur all angry at each other over this? yes hitler was bad but some ppl lk him. and some ppl hate the jews. but thats thier choice!theres enough of hate and ppl dieing in iraq and russia in this world and ur all fighting over something that has passed i mean come on! think about it. and cut the swearing..ur not cool.
Posted by: Oh come on! | September 26, 2004 11:04 AM
ya
Posted by: Anonymous | November 2, 2004 01:44 PM
Ok!! God made all of us to be our own person. To believe in what we want. To do what we want. Its not right to dislike someone because of their skin color or their religous beliefs. Cause in the end, God wont care why you disliked someone, he is going to ask you if you got to get to know that person. All of you peaole who are agreeing with what Hitler did, you just need to put yourself in thoes Jewish peoples shoes and see how you feel.All of you need to take back everything you said about black people, gay people Jewish people. cause one day everything you say is going to come back to you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Brandon James | November 18, 2004 10:31 AM
I am a teacher of Cherokee and German heritage. I just finished covering a unit on the atrocities which were commited against the Jewish people during W.W.II, and judging by some of the narrow-minded comments from
peons visiting this site, would still love to have this semitism against humanity continue-enough is enough! Your ignorism is blatant and your spelling sucks!
Posted by: Billiea Swacker | December 9, 2004 11:58 AM
Go ahead and judge others its ok you will only go to HELL and it wont hurt cause you'll be burned FOREVER,&EVER!! so its ok go ahed talke mess but GOD is waching
For God so loved theWORLD that he gave his only begotton son.... God even died for hitlare he dont care about the past but he cares 4 you. And who you are inside and not out
Posted by: priscilla | December 9, 2004 12:34 PM
yall all suck so shut up fuckers.
Posted by: 12yearold | January 10, 2005 12:44 PM
http://shihruchen.blogspot.com
is a website in English about "the Anne Frank of Taiwan"
Posted by: Dan Bloom | January 13, 2005 09:30 AM
Have some respect, you know what this website is based on?
Posted by: xXxHelixXx | February 2, 2005 04:24 PM
priscilla ur the gayist person i ever heard.i guess that retards don't understand.
Posted by: pimp_21 | February 4, 2005 02:29 PM
why can't we just keep our racist comments to ourselves? I know that everyone has a lot to say about hitler and the nazis, but if they are imature and can hurt someone then it isn't right for you to say. Children are going on this website, and your comments are unnecessary.
Posted by: Disappointed | February 10, 2005 08:45 AM
What the hell is wrong with you hitler lovers? Do you know what those jews had to go through? The women,children,and men all killed because of their religion. If there was something wrong with them I don't think god would put them on this earth. You should be able to enjoy every minute of life knowing you won't die because of your race or religion. I hope all of you people that think it was right will one day grow up and see what this did to the world! Why don't you people go research information about it....well that is if you have any consience.
Posted by: someone | April 14, 2005 05:43 PM
What does it matter now??? Hitler is DEAD !!!And so is Anne Frank!
Posted by: jemrock | April 27, 2005 01:13 PM
oh my gosh you guys are friggin fighting over this dumb shit ya'll need to shut the fuc up a stop trying to b cool cause u aint hitler was a very bad man and some of you need to read the book ann frank she didnt do shit and look wut he did all ya'll r so friggin stupid . and pimp 21 if you think priscilla is gay b/c she believes in god i can't fucin wait till you die bitch u'll b burning in hell then u can b wit ur little dumb fuc hitler we'll c how much he likes you then huh!
Posted by: Ashlie | May 9, 2005 01:31 PM
Hitler was the worst fucker to ever walk the planet. Did u know that the people that were attracted to him were all drunk in a bar, or a bunch of complete losers and nerds. People who didn't hate themselves and didn't jack off every 5 seconds were not Hitler supporters. So to all the people who think Hitler was a cool, guy, FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!! IF YOU WANT TO BE LIKE HITLER, BECOME THE BIGGEST LOSER IN YOUR STATE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Anonymous | September 20, 2005 10:29 PM
Y du u people hate jews so much? What did they do to you?
Posted by: Anonymous | September 20, 2005 10:31 PM
U ALL SUCK MAJOR BALLS! JEWS BLOW! AND SO DO UR MOMS!! I WOULD KNOW! CAUSXE I HAVE EM ALL IN LINE SUCKING MY COCK! DICK HEADS!!!
Posted by: RICHIE!!!!! | October 11, 2005 01:25 PM
what did those "great people" the jews did?
Al tell u wat they did.
They killed 1000s of Russian Christains, Arabs, finaced the salve trade and lie non stop. They make fun of Chrisianity and are crazy with money.They lied about Hilter and made there owen dam nation and made it look as if it was Americas falt for all the crap jews do.
O ya, they have huge noses.
Posted by: dragon lord | November 25, 2005 12:39 PM
ur all so stupid this all happened a long friggin time ago, so suck it up assholes
Posted by: Me | November 26, 2005 08:15 PM
you are one fucked up asshole! wish you lived next door to me butt head!
Posted by: joe mamma | January 27, 2006 10:29 AM
Yall some fuckin assholes why do u have to be so racist who ever said they hate blacks come to chicago and say that shit and these blacks will whoop yo white ass stupid ass bith and it aint nothin wrong with jews im cool with whites but yo dumb ass jus made me wanna hate them
Posted by: Someone | January 29, 2006 03:42 PM
thats right i am black mofo and come to mia 305 and say that shit u will get fuck up and jews straight white people staight to but i will be fucking crackers if i see another cacker say some shit like that again
sharpshotter
Posted by: Anonymous | March 11, 2006 07:51 PM
god shut the fuck up you friggin dumbasses, whats the big deal with jewish people?? WHO EVEN CARES?! Hitler was a gay fag who obviously was wound a little to tight, so quit being gay you idiots. You have no idea how many people you are hurting by saying stuff about jewish people. Im not jewish. But it doesnt matter, there is no difference, just a matter of what you believe in, and seriously, I believe that you need to get over yourselves. Jewish people are jewish people, gay people are gay people, blacks are blacks, whites are whites. Theres no changing them. And maybe you should realize that and grow up before you find yourself the next victim. GR0W UP
Posted by: Anonymous | March 14, 2006 06:06 PM
why is every 1 swearing??? u r tryin 2 be hard with all ur swearin but its just not workin it really shows u up for the silly imature people u are yes we all have our opinions but u put ur self in their shoes HOW WOULD U LIKE IT ? nd u will probs say i dnt care nd all dat but at the end of the dat Hitler was an evil man and if u believe that it did the world good then u are evil too!!!
Posted by: Anonymous | April 11, 2006 09:36 AM
I feel so bad for the jewish people! hitler is a retarded piece of crap and im glad he killed him self!!read the diary of ann frank its great!
Posted by: callie | June 2, 2006 10:08 PM
It's tragic. People who forget history are condemed to repeat it...I used to think that was a strange saying, however some of these postings prove the youth of today's world has already forgotten...and sadly only the fourth generation from this tradgity shows it has learned nothing.If you do not arm yourselves with knowledge it very well could be your generation that repeats it...hummm...wonder what group will have the targets on their backs...maybe just being a man will be enough reason to kill men...maybe having dimples when you smile will cause your death...maybe having black hair will have you stripped naked then lead into a shower room where instead of water waiting you will be killed with posionous gas...maybe having brown eyes will mean you will be burnt alive...Maybe crooked teeth will mean you will starve todeath...All because a group of people decide you are not worthy of the life you were given. it will obviously be something you could not hide about yourself...I wonder how long it will be...how many of you posting pro-hitler comments will wet yourselves when the target falls on you for no reason...how brave will you be then? Who will protect you...Those who rise to your aide may be the very people you write so ill about now...I wonder how you would feel about them then...See I think they have already survived it once, I'm pretty sure they would not abandon someone to suffer the same fate... I am truly amazed at your postings. What a world legacy you seem to be living.
Posted by: what a legacy for the world | August 2, 2006 01:25 AM
if you would like an education from a survivor who died in 2002 go here http://www.holocaustsurvivors.org/
Posted by: what a legacy for the world | August 2, 2006 01:43 AM
i hate you if you hate jews fuck you
Posted by: lina | March 4, 2007 10:52 PM
yall are some dumb people
Posted by: Dez | March 19, 2007 10:15 AM
what the fuck is worng with yall dumd asses, shittttttttttt!
Posted by: desi | March 22, 2007 11:28 AM
heyy fellas who ever hate jew yall some races ppl
Posted by: i love alfred dis his gurll heyyy | March 22, 2007 11:30 AM
guess what i love my boo!
Posted by: bubbles cheer!!hah | March 22, 2007 11:33 AM
this sum dumb shit
Posted by: ann | March 22, 2007 11:35 AM
yall some piece of shittt she tried to do everything she could to save herself! okay kk
Posted by: cocoa | March 22, 2007 11:36 AM
heyyy yall wazzzzz good ppls, this shit is funny yal yellin at each other yall crazyy but yea il hit this thing up lata see ya
Posted by: desi | March 22, 2007 11:38 AM
yo what up with that you so stuped and I hate you all so shut the fuck up
Posted by: dan | March 22, 2007 11:39 AM
Funny, all anti-semites have such a low level of self esteem. I wonder if any of them would be willing to meet up with me and have their ass kicked in a mind altering way? All commers welcome. Or you can just sit and post and wack your self off, as you were.
Posted by: mussa | April 3, 2007 06:48 AM