It’s been a hard week for Hong Kong artists since the pro-Chinese government media and legislators have been attacking the Arts Development Council and various art groups and artists. This reminds me of two great German theatre artists in the last century: Bertolt Brecht and Heiner Muller. We might share some affinity with their stories. Here, I will share the story of Brecht first.

Brecht was born in 1898, and so his life had been spanned across World War 1, the Nazi’s rise to power, World War 2, and the Cold War. Every time when we say our life is really harsh, I would think about the generation of Brecht. The 20th century was even harder. Brecht was undoubtedly a master rarely seen in theatre history since he had great achievements in various scopes as a director, playwright, theatre theorist and poet. He had a groundbreaking invention: the ‘V effect’ (also known as the Alienation effect). In his play, he would ask actors to speak directly to the audience in order to break the illusion of reality – he wanted to remind the audience that they were watching a play. It’s rooted in his firm belief in Communism. He wanted the audience to reflect on the problems of Capitalism, but not only by indulging in the illusion.

While Nazi Party came to power, not surprisingly, he kept criticizing the Nazi Party. Finally, he left Germany in 1933 just right after Hitler took power. He first exiled to Scandinavia, and then to the USA. He didn’t like the U.S. much owing to being a Communist. However, it’s not the only reason. He once said no one welcomed immigrants since they were the ‘messengers of misfortune’ (citation from one of his poems ‘Landscape of exile’). Immigrants just brought the bad news to your door, and Brecht found himself dislocated in the US.

Therefore, he chose to live in East Germany after World War 2. But, since then, his plays were not as successful as his previous works. Hannah Arendt, a Jewish philosopher, said Brecht had not even written a good poem after he moved to live in East Germany. Some of his friends were persecuted by the USSR. Brecht almost remained silent. He couldn’t keep on being as critical as he did during the Nazi regime.

I am curious about how he felt after moving to Germany. Jacques-Pierre Amette, a French writer, wrote a novel titled ‘Brecht mistress’. Jacques-Pierre had done a lot of research on Brecht, including studying his diary. The writer imagined a beautiful lady Maria as the protagonist of the novel. Maria was assigned by the East German Government to spy on Brecht and became his mistress. The novel is intriguing and reimagined Brecht’s final years. Still, there are questions that remained unanswered: Did he feel being trapped? Did he feel regret? Brecht was undoubtedly a clever man. Why did he choose East Germany?

We are not sure about the answer. I like many of his plays, and also some of his poems. Here, I share his ‘In the second year of my flight’ which was written in 1934-36:

‘In the second year of my flight

I read in a paper, in a foreign language

That I had lost my citizenship.

I was not sad and not pleased

When I read my name among many others

Both good and bad.

The plight of those who had fled seemed no worse to me than

The plight of those who stayed.’

(Pat To Yan, Active in Hong Kong and German Theatre. Playwright, Director, Lecturer. Elected Council Member and the Chairman of the committee of Literary Art of Hong Kong Arts Development Council.)

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