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Cao Yu has amazed the Chinese theatre

After amazing the Chinese theatre with his trilogy in the 1930s, Cao ' Yu finished Total Mobilization (in collaboration with Song Zhidi), one-act play Thinking many-act plays Transformation and Beijing Man. In addition, he adapted Ba Jin's novel The Family into a drama.

Beijing Man marked the peak of Cao Yu's writing career Instead of a direct description of the resistance war, the play made a penetrating analysis of Chinese society through a declining bureaucratic family.(Fig.4-7)

Zeng Hao, the old master of the house, stuck to the vainglory of an important family in front of his children and grandchildren on one hand. On the other, he pretended to be old and lonely in order to make Sufang, (his wife's niece) wait on him forever without getting married. Sufang stayed on at the house not that she was gentle and tender but that she fell in love with Wenqing, son of Zeng Hao. However, Wenqing's wife Siyi was a cruel and green-eyed shrew, thus endangering their love. Sufang was careful and respectful while Wenqing left home. Wenqing was a man only good at writing verses, drawing, growing flowers and playing with birds. In addition, he was addicted to opium-taking. Therefore, he was good for nothing practical. At last, he went back home dejectedly. Disappointed with this, Sufang made a resolute adieu to the past and went away to look for a new life for herself.

The Zeng's were heavily in debt and the coffin that the old master cherished was taken away by a parvenu as a debt-payment. Wenqing, who dared not love nor hate, killed himself in despair

Beijing Man depicts the frailty of Zeng Hao and Wenqing while at the same praising Beijing man who was open-minded, veracious and effervescent through the eyes of an anthropologist. At the end of the play, a symbolic "Beijing Man", who was as strong and forthright as a simian, really appeared on the stage.

During this period, Cao Yu's writing techniques matured. His characterization and description of the characters' inner world were very natural with deep themes and Cultural connotation hidden beneath.