《Our hutong, a cross-cultural campus drama addressing here and US》

Name：Li Jun
University：University of International Business and Economics

Jurat （居来提）is a boy from Turpan in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, who studies Labour and Social Security in his third year at the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE). Zhou Tongyue（周同悦）is a girl of Xibe (Sibo), who studies Finance in her fourth year at the same university. Together with seventeen other students from different places , nationalities , years , and majors , they were both enrolled in a course named European and American Drama taught by Professor Li Jun in the spring semester of 2023.

Jurat and Tongyue had never fancied ‘falling in love’ with each other and making friends with all the other classmates before they took this drama course. But such fantastic things really happened in Our Hutong (alley) (《我们的胡同》), a theatrical production concertedly accomplished by all the students in this class.

In this Sinified adaptation of Our Town (《我们的小镇》), the 1938 Pulitzer-winner by the renowned American playwright Thornton Wilder. Jurat and Tongyue play the roles of Ji Xiangdong（季向东）and Zhang Xiaoyuan （张晓园）respectively, in place of George and Emily in the original play. The small town Grover’s Corners in New Hampshire created by Thornton is relocated in China, in a Beijing alley named xiaoyangjuan hutong (小羊圈胡同) (as called in Lao She’s magnum opus Four Generations Under One Roof). The same as the original play, the adaptation also revolves around the two families, the Ji’s (Gibb’s) and the Zhang’s (Webb’s) and comprises three acts: “daily life”, “love and marriage”, and “death”. But unlike the original play that depicts a small town in the early twentieth century in America, Our Hutong is concerned with people’s life in more recent decades between the 1980s and 2010s in Beijing, covering a time span that witnessed some extraordinary events, including the 1990 Asian Games, the 2000 flood-fighting campaign, and the 2008 Olympics, and numerous ordinary things that local people in Beijing are familiar with, Beibingyang soda, Baxi ice-cream, pigeon whistle, Yongjiu bike, wedding candies, to mention a few.

Such a large-to-small double perspective and vivid reflection of reality is attributed to one key script adapter Meng Anrui （孟安睿）, a year-3 student majoring in Business Administration. Since he is a native Beijinger, the mission of recontextualizing the original play in his beloved hometown gave him enormous pride and passion. He did a lot of research and even spent time discussing the script with his family. To his delight and relief, his work paid off. Two special guests in the audience, Ms. Xiang Jie （项洁）, party branch secretary of the School of International Studies, and the retired English professor Xian Xibiao （羡希彪）are both Beijing natives. They were deeply involved in this localized theatrical production and amazed by their students’ successful cross-cultural creation. In the post-performance talk, Ms. Xiang and Prof. Xian appreciated the play for refreshing their memories of Beijing over the past decades and extended their heartfelt congratulations to the crew on their achievement.

For all the students engaged in this dramatic work, the bold attempt to adapt Thornton Wilder’s masterpiece by transplanting it in an alley in Beijing and setting it in contemporary time not only gave them an unusual opportunity to release their imagination and creativity, but also helped them make a more personal and profound comprehension of the theme this great dramatic work was intended to reveal to us: “to find a value above all prices for the smallest events in our daily life.” The relevance created by the adaptation, the things concerning HERE and US, makes the original drama more enlightening and inspiring. He Wensi (贺文思), a year-4 English major and co-director of this play, says, “Our Hutong teaches me to understand the truth of ordinary life and it consolidates my faith in the beautiful life.” Sun Mingxuan （孙铭萱）, a year-3 finance major, adds, “Wensi xuejie (elder sister) said she realized her dream of directing a drama in college through this play, and my dream of a rich and dynamic collegiate life was also fulfilled in this experience.” Gongsang Deji（贡桑德吉）, a year-3 Tibetan girl majoring in Administrative Management, also shares her feelings: “Our Hutong is the most unforgettable group work I’ve participated in…I believe we will keep positive and live every day earnestly in this seemingly ordinary yet actually extraordinary life, just as people inspired us in Our Hutong.”