Tian Han
(1898–1968), modern Chinese playwright. Tian Han, one of the founders of modern Chinese drama, was born in Hunan Province and studied science in Japan from 1916 to 1922, but his interest was in literature, drama, and movies. Beginning in the 1920s, he wrote a number of plays and became one of the most important modern Chinese playwrights.
Tian Han was a romantic dramatist. All his works were rich in poetic flavor, and his early works showed a style of both sentimentalism and aestheticism, especially Return to the South and Sound of the Deep Pool. His favorite themes were art and love. In 1929, his style changed, and he wrote his representative work, The Noted Actor's Death, with realism. This drama showed the conflict between art and money and between good and evil and portrayed an actor with dignity. It has become a classic in Chinese literature. During the second Sino-Japanese conflict (1937–1945), Tian Han devoted himself to the anti-Japanese drama movement. He wrote the drama Lugou Bridge to reflect the war. After the war, he wrote his famous work The Beauties. Besides dramas, Tian Han wrote many scenarios and many song lyrics. The Chinese national anthem "March of the Warriors" was written by Tian in the 1930s.
Further Reading
Pan Xulan. (1993) Dictionary of New China's Literature. Nanjing, China: Jiangsu Literary Publishing House.
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