Staging China 台上中华
Staging China 台上中华 is an international practice-led research network with its hub in Leeds. It aims to
- bring academics, research students and practitioners together;
- examine how China is staged in different genres, areas and in different languages;
- deepen the understanding of China, its present and past, and its related social, cultural and political issues through the lens of performance;
- reinvigorate Chinese theatre as a practice-led and cross-disciplinary subject of Chinese, Cultural and Performance Studies;
- help establish collaboration between academics and practitioners, and between theatre companies in and outside of China.
Why do we need this project?
Since China’s open door policy began, Chinese economy, politics and society have fascinated outside researchers. Yet Chinese theatre as a discipline is perceived as daunting in the complexities of Western-inspired spoken and indigenous song-dance forms, the latter including over 300 indigenous codified operas. The tightly-knit theatrical world is very hard for outsiders to enter. Chinese scholars and practitioners find it difficult to collaborate with international colleagues. There is a lack of electronic resources i.e. recorded performances. This project seeks to remedy these problems.
Main project activities – First Phase (October 2010 – April 2012)
- A devised stage production
- Workshops and seminars
- International symposium
Production
The Sun Is Not for Us, which is based on 4-5 plays by Cao Yu, the canonical Chinese playwright. Created by David Jiang, a professional theatre director collaborated with cross-disciplinary Leeds students of Performance, English and Theatre and Chinese Studies, the production will be presented at the Edinburgh Fringe (August 2012) and the Shanghai International Contemporary Theatre Festival (November 2012).
Workshops and seminars (organized around The Sun)
Workshops
- Leeds - Open rehearsal of The Sun. Devised creative work demonstrates the importance of research-based teaching (March 2012).
- Edinburgh – Students from Leeds, Zhejiang, Nanjing, Harvard with tutors in knowledge exchange (August 2012).
- Shanghai, Qianjiang (Hubei province) and possibly Chengdu – Following performances of The Sun, focusing on devising, an unfamiliar approach in China (November 2012).
Seminars:
- (Parallel Workshop 2): Cross-culturalism: International Experimental Theatre.
- (Parallel Workshop 3): Devised Theatre invoking the deep entanglement of canon and experiment, tradition and modernity, people, society and culture in contemporary China.
International symposium
Performing China on the Global Stage: People, Society and Culture, March 2013.
Future proposal
Establish an electronic repository for stage productions, annotated in both Chinese and English.