CAO Yu's "Thunder Storm" is regarded as one of the most important works in the history of modern Chinese drama, yet few know who introduced it to audiences in Shanghai for the first time. It was in 1935 that the Fudan Drama Group staged the play in Shanghai for the first time, after which the play gradually won acceptance from local audiences.

Although the group was originally established by drama-lovers from Fudan University - Wu Faxiang, Bian Fengnian, Yuan Renlun and other students - the participation of outstanding playwriter Hong Shen changed this amateur group into a workshop that profoundly influenced modern drama in China - also changing the lives of many of those involved.

Early success

The Fudan Drama Group was founded in 1925. At first, as in traditional Peking opera, there were no actresses in the group - all the male members had to play both male and female roles. Nevertheless, with Hong's help the group was very successful. Popular comedies, such as Ding Xilin's "A Bumblebee" or Xiong Foxi's "The Sadness of the Youth" - works by the best known playwrights of the time - earned the group renown. Hong not only directed the plays, sometimes he acted in them as well.

The group's first actress, Chen Yin, from the Chinese Department, joined the group in its first year. She was a talented actress as well as a talented playwright. The group put on "A Night at the Cafe" as their second public performance. The success of this play made them decide to change the group's name to the AI Workshop, named after their idol - The Forty-seventh Workshop of Harvard University - in the following year.

The next milestone for the group was passed in 1930, when Hong and his fellow students decided to adapt French comic writer Edmond Rostand's "Cyrano de Bergerac" and stage it. The debut of the comedy at the New Shanghai Central Theatre was well received. From then on, the reputation of the Fudan Drama Group was secure.

Wider influence

Chinese modern drama is not the only field that affected by this influential group. Geng Baosheng, actor and current leader of the group, said the group has inspired generations of university students.

Wang Pei is one of the oldest group members still alive. He graduated from the Foreign Languages Department of Fudan University in 1947. Because his supervisor was Hong and he was the only student to study Western dramas in his department, he joined the group and soon became part of its core. In the same year he directed a play to protest a worker's death from Kuomintang police abuse. The play was praised by famous playwrights such as Tian Han, Yang Hanshen and Chen Baichen, who attended the premiere.

After graduating from the department, Wang turned towards drama studies. "My experiences in the group made me decide to pursue anything connected with drama," he said. After 1976, he became the editor-in-chief of New Drama at the Shanghai Arts Institute. Now as a retired playwright and critic, he is a member of both the Chinese Dramatists Association and the Chinese Writers Association. He has published many academic works on drama.

Zhang Zhao is another representative drama-lover whose life was changed by the group. He was enrolled in the Fudan Computer Science Department in 1980. Soon afterward, he became a member of the group. "Maybe I am the person who spent the most time with the group. During those four years, I rarely visited my dormitory but spent my days and nights with the group," he said.

Once Zhang's enthusiasm for drama was ignited by the group, it never dimmed. "Two years after graduating I tried to return to Fudan as a post-graduate student in the Philosophy Department, due to my love for the group." But that was only the beginning of Zhang's new direction. Several years after he received his master's degree in philosophy from Fudan University, he moved to New York University to continue his study and received a MFA degree jointly issued by NYU and Temple University. As an independent film producer in the United States in the following years, he became the first Chinese to win the Student Academic Award. He has returned to China and has been appointed chief creative officer of Enlight Media.

"The keynote of my life and career was set by teachers in the group. When I performed on the stage for the first time, I knew nothing about drama and was very awkward. But my teacher and director Liu Tongbiao told me that all the experiences I had in the group would benefit me. Now I believe it," Zhang said.

As time goes by, the glory of the past is subjected to the impact of the modern. Ge Liang, a student in the Fudan Chinese Department, is the leading actor in today's Fudan Drama Group. As the hero of "To Hold Up the Sun of Tomorrow", he was praised by the former chief of the Ministry of Education. But he confessed that compared with group members of previous generations, members had less zest and starry eyes today. "It's not a good time to stick to our own ideals. We are disturbed by all kinds of shallow ideas. In the past, the group's achievements were painted in the colour of idealism, but now, the colour is becoming weak," he said.

Yet Ge still has an optimistic view of his future career in drama. "I loved it when I was a child, and I still love it. Maybe it will not be my career, but definitely it will be my hobby," he said.