How to Write Revolutionary China?: Modes of Seeing and the Chinese Landscape in Tret’iakov’s Roar, China!

Abstract

Abstract: In the 1920s, Soviet theatre frequently turned to Chinese themes, often blending exoticist imagination with revolutionary rhetoric to align with contemporary political concerns. By contrast, Sergei Tret’iakov’s Roar, China! (1926) presented a strikingly distinctive vision of China. Rather than settle for surface-level exotic representation, Tret’iakov sought to grasp the factual truth of China by means of detailed depictions of lived realities that touched both experience and emotion. He further staged a new “attraction” for the theatre by layering visual and auditory registers, reshaping how spectators perceived and felt. Finally, by adopting a productivist perspective, he represented emblematic moments of social development and the collective conditions of national existence, in pursuit of a proletarian form of thought and spectatorship. Through both its performative strategies and its mobilizing power, Roar, China! resonated with the experiments of China’s new drama and left a lasting mark on leftist cultural practices devoted to national salvation.

Key words: Sergei Tret’iakov, Roar, China!, factography, montage of attractions, proletarian perspectives

摘要： 20世纪20年代,苏联戏剧人热衷于创作与中国题材相关的戏剧作品,其中多糅合异域想象与革命叙事来迎合时局热点。相比之下,左翼作家谢尔盖·特列季亚科夫的剧作《怒吼吧,中国！》（1926）却塑造了独树一帜的中国风景。首先,他并未停留在表层的异域再现,而是借由对生活事实的细致描绘,在经验与情感上触及中国的事实真相;其次,通过多重视觉与听觉手段建构戏剧“吸引力”,引导并更新观众的感知方式与情感流动;最后,以生产性的视角展现社会进程中的代表性瞬间与全民性生存状态,以求一种无产阶级的思想形式与观看视野。《怒吼吧,中国！》在观演形式与民众动员等方面与中国的新剧实验皆有呼应,深度影响了中国左翼文艺救亡图存的探索与实践。

关键词: 特列季亚科夫, 《怒吼吧，中国！》, 事实文学, 吸引力蒙太奇, 无产阶级视野

Yao Xuesong. How to Write Revolutionary China?: Modes of Seeing and the Chinese Landscape in Tret’iakov’s Roar, China![J]. Comparative Literature in China, 2026, 0(3): 87-104.

姚学松. 如何书写革命中国?——特列季亚科夫《怒吼吧,中国！》中的观看方式与中国风景[J]. 中国比较文学, 2026, 0(3): 87-104.

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