China and the West

William Shakespeare Festival in Shanghai und Beijing.
Li Ruru : For the first time in China, Shakespearean scholars, traditional operatic performers, orchestras, experts on foreign literature, and audiences of local operas were brought together in the theatre. The festival provided a forum for discussing not only the plays and their performances, but also the wider issues involved in bringing together Chinese and Western cultures. The four operatic productions of Shakespeare staged in Shanghai can be classified roughly into three types : those which emphasize the 'foreignness' of the plays, those which fully sinicize the plays, and those which synthesize Chinese and Western elements both textualy and theatrically. The audiences who attended the plays can also be divided roughly into two groups. On the one hand are those who think that this new approach to an old form is very interesting and compelling. Others feel that it is strange and awkward, lacking both the spirit and poetry of Shakespeare and the conventions and beauty of traditional Chinese theatre.
Traditional Chinese theatre's relationship with its audience coincides closely with Shakespeare's, because in both cases the prime consideration was to entertain the audience and cause playgoers to accept and 'enter into' what they were watching on the stage. It should also be pointed out that both Shakespeare's plays and traditional Chinese operas were originally performed in front of audiences made up not only of ranking officials and nobility who had fastidious tastes but of illiterate common people as well. All this constitutes another link between Shakespeare and traditional Chinese theatre.
Shakespeare's plays and traditional Chinese theatre nevertheless represent two disinct cultures. Despite the similarities, there are major differences. At a lively forum concerning their productions, the directors of four operas unanimously described their creative process as one of violent and painful collision. Whether between Shakespeare and 'kun qu' or 'yue ju' or 'huang mei xi', there are clashes and conflicts which inevitably have and impact on operatic traditions, and consequently lead to change and innovation in traditional Chinese theatre art.
Shakespeare has singing-and-dance scenes, and his language conforms to its own rhyme schemes, but these are different from Chinese stylized song, dance, and rhyme conventions. In the process of rehearsals and production, operatic conventions have been developed and changed, absorbing many realistic movements and gestures, which together with stagecraft, lighting, musical accompaniment, and costuming go beyond the traditional operatic framework. As a result, the performing techniques and skills of the opera have been greatly enriched, and this is one major achievement of the operatic adaptations of these Shakespearean plays.