A drama based on the life of the merchant Hu Xueyan, who played a prominent public role during the late Qing Dynasty, opens in HK next week. Evelyn Yu reports.

Playwright Paul Poon says the merchant Hu Xueyan (1823-1885), who used his wealth toward the modernization of Chinese economy in late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), is very similar in spirit to the character of Gatsby, created by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. Both characters had larger-than-life dreams, which they pursued quite single-mindedly.

Hu was popularly known as the red top hat-wearing merchant. A red top hat status was on a par with a rank held by a second-grade officer in the Qing imperial court. Hu was the only one from the business class to have received such an honor. Yet the two-hour-long play, Hu Xueyan, My Dear, directed by Roy Szeto, does not go to lengths about Hu's meteoric rise from being a poor bank apprentice to the owner of a business empire, dealing in tea, silk, weapons and ammunitions besides running pawnshops.

History has been made to take a backseat in this production. Instead Hu's poetic and heroic sides have been played up. The show is more about the dramatic ups and downs in his life. It traces how Hu, who had taken on the responsibility to steer the people of China toward a peaceful and prosperous society in times of major political upheavals due to foreign invasion and internal uprising, ultimately became a victim of circumstances and met with a sorry end.

"Nowadays it is a rarity to have a dream, in the first place and there are even fewer people who would actually pursue a dream even if they did have one," remarks Poon. "The intensity with which Hu went after his dreams and managed to catch them makes him appear invincible at times. I hope I can bring the charisma Hu Xueyan seemed to have possessed to my play." Hu had a near philosophical approach to doing business. He did not make money at the expense of others. Rather what he earned would be distributed among those in need. While he was extremely ambitious in trying to build a business empire, the thought of leading the suffering population of his battered country toward a better life never left his mind.

He was quick to spot talent and had a knack for gathering capable people - be it traders, officials or gangsters - around him. Hu borrowed 500 taels of silver secretly to sponsor his friend, the salt magnate Wang Youling, to buy an official position in court. He had withdrawn the money in bank drafts and when this was revealed Hu was summarily fired from the bank where he was an apprentice. When Wang became the governor of Zhejiang province, Hu rallied with Wang, supplying weapons and military support to help put down the Taiping Rebellion.

He was somewhere between a greedy merchant and a selfless philanthropist. The wealth he acquired was entirely due to his own endeavor. At one point in the show Hu, played by the actor Poon Chan-leung, says he "opens banks to store the profits made by the rich, and pawnshops to help poor people get through days of difficulty".

Hu was under great pressure by foreign traders to lower the price of tea at a time he held the major share of the export market. In the play, Hu climbs atop a tea chest to give an impassioned speech to tackle the situation. He recalls a scene from his younger days, spent in the tea mountains in Fujian province, gazing at the vast expanse of the plantations, watching farmers painstakingly pick tea leaves through the mist. He decides the sweat and toil of tea farmers should not go in vain. He also remarks since the British traders were so adamant about refusing to bring down the price of opium, Chinese traders too could well follow their example and take a firm stand on the price of the tea they exported.

Poon, the actor, will play the lead character at different ages, beginning at 20 and going right up to the 60s. He thinks Hu as a businessman "enriched not just himself but also a lot of others, which is certainly worth looking into now".

Elements from different performing art forms have been incorporated into the play, often to surreal effects. Certain monologues by Hu are delivered in rhymes, even as tai chi is being performed in the backdrop. The production also makes use of Chinese traditional opera and shadow puppetry.

Hu's dream of playing a role in helping China to become a powerful nation collapsed with the fall of his business empire. Li Hongzhang, a top-ranking general in Qing imperial court, wanted to get rid of his rival Zuo Zongtang, who happened to be Hu's political patron. It is believed Li's aides spread rumors about an imminent recession - prompting Hu to sell his stocks of raw silk at an abysmally cheap rate - and at the same time incited creditors to withdraw their deposits with different branches of Hu's banks across the nation. Hu went bankrupt in no time. It was a typical example of a battle where no blood is drawn and yet people get killed.

Toward the end of the play we see Hu standing in the dark. He liked to think of himself as akin to a deer, an animal that does not figure in the Chinese zodiac - the sort that would instinctively run toward a broadening horizon. Now struck by misfortune, Hu feels more like a sacrificial animal. The man who had often caught hold of his dreams and turned them into reality watches helplessly as his dreams now run away and disappear into the wilderness.

Contact the writer at

evelyn@chinadailyhk.com

Poon Chan-leung essays the lead role of Hu Xueyan, playing the character at different ages, from 20 to 60. Photos provided to China Daily

(HK Edition 10/07/2016 page4)