page_title: Put Down Your Whip
section_title: Later development
hierarchical_section_title: Put Down Your Whip / Plot / Later development
caption_attribution_description: English: Cui Wei and Zhang Ruifang performing Put Down Your Whip
context_page_description: Put Down Your Whip, also translated as Lay Down Your Whip, is a 1931 Chinese street play written by Chen Liting during the Republican era, who drew inspiration from the earlier play Meiniang by Tian Han.
  Originally an anti-government play, it was adapted to take on an anti-Japanese theme after growing Japanese aggression against China. It became the most influential street play during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and was performed countless times throughout China, and even in the White House for President Roosevelt by the actress Wang Ying. The future Madame Mao was also among its many performers.
  Wang Ying's performance of Put Down Your Whip inspired Xu Beihong's eponymous painting, which in 2007 set an auction price record for Chinese paintings.
context_section_description: After increasing Japanese encroachment into north China, and especially the December 9th Movement of 1935, the play was adapted to take on an anti-imperialist and anti-Japanese theme. Instead of escaping from government oppression and flood, Fragrance and her father now escape the brutal Japanese occupation of Manchuria; and instead of appealing to the audience to fight against the government, the young man urges his compatriots to unite and defend the country against Japanese invasion, or "we will soon meet the same fate as our countrymen in Manchuria." The theme song was also changed to the "September Eighteenth Melody" lamenting the September 18 Incident of 1931 when Japan invaded and occupied Manchuria.  Other patriotic songs including the "March of the Volunteers", which later became the national anthem of the People's Republic of China, were also used.  The location of Fragrance's hometown kept changing as new places became devastated by the Japanese invaders.  After the 1937 Nanking Massacre, the fallen Chinese capital Nanking would become her hometown.
caption: Zhang Ruifang and Cui Wei performing the play.
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