Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) was a famous German dramatist. He was the third foreign dramatist after Ibsen and Stanislavski who had significant influence on Chinese drama reform since May the Fourth Movement. He combined the art reform with social reform, advocating that social life and problems of historical and social significance should be put onto stage to edify the audience. This theory greatly affected several generations of Chinese dramatists grew up in May the Fourth Movement and the New Culture Movement.
Brecht's works and theories not only provided modern Chinese drama with a new concept, which sparked dramatists' re-pondering of traditional drama, but also expanded dramatists' vision and injected new vitality into Chinese drama. Though there are still many disagreements over Bertolt's drama opinions, theories and practice, no one can deny that he was among the greatest dramatists in the 20th century and made unique contribution to the culture of drama. As to the Chinese people, Brecht's theory about modernism, modern art and sense of modern social responsibility, as well as his probes of some important modern social problems were exactly what Chinese scholars and artists should pay full attention to.
However, because of the poverty and formulism of Chinese modern drama, introducing Brecht's concept of epic theatre without restraint, to some extent, adversely affected the criticism of historical lessons and abased the effect to renew the traditional drama. Overwhelmed by the impulsion to renew the concept of drama and catch up with the western modern drama, Brecht's theories, which were quite fashionable then, were misunderstood or even abused. That is the hidden reason why Chinese modern drama lost so many audiences during the radical drama revolution.
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