For a long time, College of Foreign Languages has attached a great importance on the education of foreign drama, regarding education through foreign drama as a significant component of talent cultivation. Since 2020, the college has taken the lead in including foreign drama into the plan of talent cultivation and constantly explored effective methods and long-term mechanism of foreign drama curriculum construction.
Over the past year, the Foreign Drama Course in nine languages has been furthered as the pilot project in the College of Foreign Languages. This two-credit selective course adopts teaching and practice, two track curriculum model, promoting the going out of Chinese drama. The course is co-instructed by professional teachers whose research direction is drama studies, foreign teachers and full-time league cadres and organizes teachers and students to adapt, translate, study and perform classical Chinese plays, such as The Thunderstorm together with the joint performance as the end. This course breaks the former course model which attach great importance on the theory but neglect the practice, guide teachers and students to build up the cultural confidence and enhance the national cultural heritage of drama. So far, majors, such as English, translation, Portuguese, Italian and Russian major has established this course. And more than 120 students have enrolled on the course which has gained great popularity and high opinions.
In order to provide the development of foreign drama with sufficient financial safeguard, the college set up the “Fisher Drama Fund” which specifically supports the development of foreign drama. In addition, with leaders in the college taking the lead, the college established a teaching team, which included professional teachers whose research direction is drama studies, foreign teachers, full-time league cadres and drama experts in the university and off-campus, adopted various methods, for instance, teaching in class, lectures with specific topics and performance practice guidance, and instructed students in all directions, such as, editing and translation of scripts, interpretation of plays, character presenting, scene setting and costume and prop. In order to help teachers and students further understand The Thunderstorm and drama performance, the college successively invited guest like Professor Li Xilong, Director of Cao Yu and Chinese Drama Research Center in Nankai University, Wen Liqin, a national first-class performer and a young actor, Liu Yiyue to deliver lectures, comprehensively interpreting and instructing the performance of The Thunderstorm from the aspects of theory and practice.
For the sake of setting up more platforms for students’ drama performance, the college holds regular second-class activities, such as, drama festival for new students, English drama festival, Russian festival each year, guiding more students to take part in script creation and drama performance and greatly invigorate the atmosphere of drama culture in the college. Besides, the college actively supported the development of student association, namely, the foreign drama association and equipped the it with professional teachers and full-time league cadres as instructors to help association members edit and translate the script and conduct special performance. It also related the performance of foreign drama association to the credit of Teaching Practice course, which further motivated the vigor of association.
It is reported that, the foreign drama association which was established by College of Foreign Languages in 1980 has brought outstanding works of the older generation of playwrights, such as The Thunderstorm and Rickshaw Boy to dozens of stages in American colleges and universities, The Thunderstorm of Japanese version has also gone to Japan and made a huge splash. Stepping into the new area, College of Foreign Languages would carry forward fine drama traditions and the drama culture of Nankai University, sparing no effort in promoting Chinese drama culture going global.
