China and the West

William Shakespeare's Dramen in China.
Yanna Sun : Chinese performances of William Shakespeare can be assigned to one of three categories : the first contains those stagings that preserve the original Shakespearean spirit ; the second are those that sinicize the plays by transplanting Shakespeare into the Chinese culture and society, adopting the traditional Chinese operatic styles ; the third group comprises those that synthesize both Chinese and Western elements in terms of textual interpretations and theatrical techniques, a hybrid of the Western and the Chinese style.
Lu Gusun : When seeing an actor wearing an ancient Chinese costume perform Shakespeare's plays some people feel that it looks like a square peg in a round hole. Actually, to wear different costumes is merely a matter of form. If English actors, when performing Shakespeare's plays, can wear Cossack uniforms and modern German steel helmets, if American players can wear Indian clothes and the Canadian performers Eskimo clothes, why can't Chinese performers put on ancient Chinese costumes ? There can be no doubt that so long as we preserve the Shakespearean spirit, the adaptation of Shakespeare's plays into traditional Chinese drama will further prove the universal appeal of Shakespeare and add extraordinary splendor to the Shakespearean theater of the world.