Han Hongying, Wang Zijiao
Sichuan Drama. 2025, 0(6): 69-74.
The China Travel Troupe was a prominent professional theatrical group during the 1930s and 1940s, achieving significant success due to a combination of its own efforts and various external factors. Among these, its collaboration with the media played an undeniably crucial role. The media's engagement with the troupe was multifaceted, encompassing publicity, commentary, skepticism, and criticism, which ensures that the troupe remained a focal point of public attention. The media sparked considerable debate over the troupe's commercialization strategy, emphasizing the inherent tension in commercial theater between maintaining artistic integrity and maximizing box office revenue. Amidst the national crisis, the media consistently reinforced the troupe's "left-wing" identity, to which the troupe, however, seldom responded and often remained silent. In the face of these contradictions, the troupe's future development encountered significant challenges. Nevertheless, as a pioneering force in professional Chinese theater, the China Travel Troupe played a pivotal role in laying the foundation for the subsequent professionalization of the dramatic arts in China.
