Influential writer's work lives long in memory

Fang, 53, who graduated from the directing department at the Central Academy of Drama, started adapting Lao She's works in 2011. His first attempt, a one-man show based on the writer's novel The Life of Mine, tells the sad story of a lowly-ranked policeman in Beijing in the early 20th century. It was a big success when it premiered at the academy.

"I still clearly remember that after the first performance, a cleaner at the theater came up to me and said that she had enjoyed watching the play. She told me that she saw herself in the production," Fang said. "That really touched me. It made me realize the magic of Lao She's language, which transcends time and space."

Since then, Fang has adapted Lao She's novels Divorce and Cat Country into plays.

In 2012, he also performed in one of acclaimed director Lin Zhaohua's plays, Five Acts of Life, a combination of five short stories by Lao She depicting the tragedy and comedy in ordinary people's lives in Beijing in the early 1900s.

Like Lao She, Fang grew up in a courtyard in a populated hutong in Beijing, which makes him feel connected to the writer's work.

"The characters in his works remind me of my neighbors in the hutong when I was a child. They are so ordinary, vivid and real, which is fascinating to me," he said.

In 2016, Fang directed another stage production, Mr Ma and Son, based on the novel of the same title, which draws largely on Lao She's experience when he taught Mandarin at the University of London from 1924 to 1929. The novel gives a unique view of what life was like for Chinese in 1920s London by telling the story of Ma Zeren and his son Ma Wei, who run an antiques shop near St Paul's Cathedral.

Mr Ma and Son was adapted as a TV drama in 1999, starring actors Chen Daoming and Liang Guanhua. It was published in English by Penguin Classics in 2013.

Fang's latest production is the play Lao She's Six Stories, based on six short stories. Written in 1934 and 1935, they look at the lives and struggles of ordinary people, such as a young couple who live a hand-to-mouth existence. The stories also examine the relationships between neighbors.