Theater Needs a Lifeline

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of modern Chinese drama. For a century, after the efforts of generations of artists, local drama has grown to become an art form with Chinese characteristics and an important part of China's stage performances.       More...

The Dramatic Story of Drama   By TANG YUANKAI

Once a tool for social reform, then a popular art form, now China's modern theater is under threat from market forces

A group of students deadlocked over how to stage a play about Chinese actors a hundred years ago, pondered the ideas of three different directors, and ended up lost in the essence of drama. That is the story told in Xunzhao Chunliushe, or Finding The Spring Willow Drama Club, a play staged recently to mark the centennial birthday of Chinese modern drama, which "originated from the West, but has developed into something with vigorous Chinese characteristics," according to Wang Weiguo, a researcher on the art form. More...

Cultural Fusion on Stage   By TANG YUANKAI

The localization of foreign plays has proved popular with Chinese audiences

"For a long time plays have been a window for Chinese people to breathe into different cultural atmospheres," said Yu Qiuyu, a famous writer and former head of the Shanghai Theater Academy. Plays have played a remarkable role in China in the last 100 years as the harbingers of cultural fusion between Chinese and Western culture, according to Yu.        More...

Crazy for Plays

Sour-sweet feelings of famous directors and actors about Chinese plays

ACTOR'S PARADISE: Capital Theater, affiliated to the Beijing People's Art Theater group, has been operating since 1955 and continues to attract audiences. It is also a venue where the Theater's repertoire including Teahouse and Thunderstorm is performed.         More...

Director Scoops Top Film Award

Chinese film director Tian Zhuangzhuang walked away with the best director award at the 10th Shanghai International Film Festival that concluded on June 24.   More...