China makes mark at Edinburgh festival
LONDON — As a longtime participant at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, China has brought over 20 stage performances this year.
More than 3,000 performances are being staged at the festival by more than 50,000 presenters from 62 countries and regions over three weeks in August.
China Goes Pop!, a coproduction by China Arts and Entertainment Group and Broadway Asia International, combines staggering traditional Chinese acrobatic feats with a cheery Western aesthetic, blaring pop music and art, and a cutesy love story.
This show tells the story in Broadway style, and the cast includes an acrobatic troupe from Shandong province, some members of which are Cirque du Soleil alumni. With costumes by a Tony Awardwinning designer, the show creates a joyful and theatrical carnival that the audience can understand and enjoy regardless of age or language.
Elisa Dew came to the producer after watching the hourlong show at Assembly Hall.
“My grandma wants me to tell you that this is the best show she has ever seen,” the 15-year-old said. “It’s also my favorite one on the Fringe.”
The show has sold out every day since its premiere. If we say the popularity of Chinese acrobatics is partly because it has no language barriers, then the success of a modern Chinese drama, The Dreamer, undoubtedly reflects the advantage of Eastern and Western cultural communication.
Inspired by William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer
Night’s Dream and The Peony Pavilion by his Chinese contemporary, Tang Xianzu, The Dreamer is a collaboration between the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre and the British theatrical company Gecko. The production blends various elements of storytelling to bring a new twist to these classic texts, performed by a Chinese cast.
Helena, the heroine, becomes an unhappy, unassertive and romantically unattached drone toiling at a corporate office, pining for her indifferent boss Demetrius but completely overshadowed by the glamorous and popular Hermia. The scenario taps into a modern-day Chinese social context in which pressure is still often applied to unmarried young women.
Tang Xianzu’s tale, which is less familiar to Western audiences, is more lightly referenced as a book Helena is reading. The audience sees fragments of the book as shadow play.
Executive producer Tang Shi told Xinhua that preparations started two years ago.
“We saw the Gecko troupe’s performance at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival a few years ago and decided to invite them to Shanghai for cooperation.”
Although the actors speak Chinese, the story is told in a Western way, which makes it understandable to foreign audiences.
Greek Amalia Bennett said: “I do not understand Mandarin, but I fully understand the expression, gesture and emotion of the characters. It is a story about love, jealousy and freedom.”
China Goes Pop! and The Dreamer are among the seven outstanding shows presented under the framework of China Focus.
Chinese performers have been participating in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for years to bring Chinese culture to the famous Western-style arts festival that dates back to 1947. This is the first time that China has tried to promote Chinese culture and performances in an integrated way.
China Focus, a collective program supported by the Ministry of Culture and the Shanghai Administration of Culture, Radio, Film and TV, is expected to act as a better platform for Chinese art and culture display.
Starting this year, this event will be launched annually during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It will select high-level programs to enhance the influence of Chinese arts in the festival.