悲旦起源于一個多世紀前的新劇,呈現為逆來順受、楚楚可憐的女性形象,折射了男性精英喪失主體性身份的焦慮,隱喻當時落后的國家形象。在京劇中,悲旦的國族寓意進一步得到強化。因五四新文化運動對女性解放的推動,女演員飾演的電影悲旦具有了新女性的意味。抗戰爆發以后,文藝界彌漫著濃厚的悲情意識,越劇女演員通過悲旦藝術的變革,在舞臺上下展現了女性的主體性成長。社會主義建設"十七年"期間,由于國家力量的深度介入,越劇悲旦既體現女性的自我言說,又具有反封建的政治寓意。

Originated from xinju more than a century ago,the tragic dan was presented as submissive,delicate,and pitiful female characters.It reflected the anxiety of male elites who were losing their subjectivity,and it was a metaphor for the backward nation at that time.The implication of the tragic dan as the image of the nation was further strengthened in jingju.Because of the promotion of women’s liberation by the May Fourth and New Culture Movement,the tragic dan played by actresses in films showed some of the features of new women.After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War,the literary and art circles were filled with grief.By revolutionizing the art of performing the tragic dan,yueju actresses showed the development of women’s subjectivity on the stage.During the “seventeen years” of socialist construction,with the intervention of the state,the tragic dan in yueju not only embodied the self-expression of women,but also has the political implication of anti-feudalism.