22 April 2019
On the afternoon of 21 April, at the invitation of the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA), Liu Zhenyun, a famous writer, gave a wonderful lecture entitled “Literature and Drama: The Power of Structure” for the students of STA. The event was organized by STA Department of Theatrical Literature and chaired by Vice President of STA Yang Yang. Also attending the event from STA were Yi Tianfu, Dean of the Department of Stage Design, Bao Lifeng, Deputy Director of the Publicity Department, Xu Yu, Vice Dean of the Department of Theatrical Literature, and Wan Chuanfa, teacher of the Department of Theatrical Literature.
In his lecture, Liu Zhenyun believed that although there are differences between fiction, drama and film, more attention should be paid to their commonalities, i.e. whether it is fiction, drama or film, the most important thing is the structure - story structure and character structure. The structure is the pattern. Whether a work or a writer is great or not depends most on his ability to structure, his understanding of philosophy and his ability to penetrate philosophy. Pure philosophy is to clearly state the facts and reasons, while the philosophy of literature, on the contrary, is to tell those things that are indefinable, so literature is not the reflection of life, but the place where life stops.
Liu Zhenyun's lecture was warmly welcomed by the students of STA. Many students expressed that they have benefited a lot of listening to Liu Zhenyun's lecture which is worthy of earnest study and comprehension.
