Play about China's Sun Yat Sen submitted for Pulitzer

by Tom Uribes

An original play written by Fresno State professor Ed EmanuEl, which will open Dec. 3 on campus, has been submitted for a Pulitzer Prize by the World Journal newspaper and is drawing top Chinese and Taiwanese officials to two opening nights.

"Sun Yat Sen: In the Mouth of the Dragon" runs through Dec. 11 in the John Wright Theatre. If a formal nomination is made by the Pulitzer drama jury in March, it would be the first nomination in the 50-year history of the Fresno State Theatre Arts Department and the first by the San Francisco newspaper, EmanuEl said.

The play dramatizes 12 days in the life of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the revolutionary Chinese political leader who is revered as the father of Chinese democracy by citizens of both the Peoples Republic of China, based in Beijing, and the Republic of China in Taiwan.

"He is the man who overthrew the last emperor of China in 1911, ending the centuries-old domination of the Manchu emperors who ruled the Chinese population with iron hands," said EmanuEl, who was granted a Fulbright to research the project in the Republic of China.

As a member of the radical political group Young China, which sought to establish democratic reform in China, Sun Yat Sen was branded a traitor by the Manchu government and marked for death.

The play begins Oct. 10, 1896, when the 30-year-old activist was kidnapped off the streets of London, imprisoned and tortured by the Manchus.

"It is during these 12 days that Sun Yat Sen becomes a great revolutionary leader," EmanuEl said. "Trial by fire is the story of this play."

The Chinese hero was educated in Hawaii, where he was exposed to the writings of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. He earned a medical degree in Hong Kong.

In the World Journal's nomination letter, Editor-in-Chief Yu-Ru Chen said, "This important work is a powerful testimony to the influence of Jeffersonian democracy and the American educational system on Dr. Sun Yat Sen's most important democratic contribution to the world, Three Principles of the People."

The World Journal is one of the leading Chinese-language newspapers in the nation and is an affiliate of the Daily News, a major newspaper in Taiwan.

Pulitzer Prizes are awarded from nominations by media companies or from productions that held press openings. Pulitzer juries determine the formal nominations and forward the finalists to the Pulitzer Prize Board, which makes its recommendations to Columbia University. Columbia will announce winners and nominees on April 10, 2000.

On the play's opening night, Dec. 3, Fresno State President John D. Welty will host Yasha Ke, cultural counselor from the People's Republic of China's Consulate General office in San Francisco.

On Dec. 4, the play will be presented in Chinese for the local Mandarin-speaking community ­ another Theatre Arts Department first. Alice Huang, cultural director of the Taipei Political and Economic Council of the Republic of China (Taiwan) will attend.