Chinese Heroines in War, directed by Li Liuyi, is one of the highlights of the Europalia China Art Festival, Brussels.
A workshop of the Asia-Europe Meeting in Vietnam demonstrated the growing international importance of contemporary and classical Chinese culture.
At a recent international cultural workshop held in Vietnam, almost all participants, ranging from officials to NGO workers, from artists to cultural experts, found themselves engaged in projects related to China.
"Chinese art and culture are becoming more and more fashionable. There is great interest in China on all levels," says Airan Berg, former artistic director for the performing arts of the European cultural capital, Linz, Austria 2009.
Berg was one of the participants of the workshop, organized by the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) to discuss how to foster multi-lateral cooperation through culture in the ASEM framework. The workshop recommendations will be submitted to the 4th ASEM Culture Ministers' Meeting in September in Poland and the 8th ASEM Summit in October in Belgium.
The workshop attracted delegates and participants from nearly 20 countries and regions, and the topics ranged from cultural diplomacy to the role of associations and NGOs in cultural dialogue.
Berg shared the experience of Linz, the European Capital of Culture 2009, a one-year cultural project that helped attract tourism and boost the economy of the city during the world financial crisis.
The program included a new rendition of the operetta The Land of Smiles, directed by China's director Li Liuyi and including some Chinese performers.
The short opera, which premiered in 1929 in Berlin, tells the story of the relationship between a Chinese man and an Austrian woman. In his new production, Li fused contemporary theater with traditional Chinese operatic styles and addressed intercultural relationships from a Chinese angle. The production was sold out for all performances, and is still running at Landestheater Linz regularly.
"The scenes in China in the original play were an Austrian vision of China from a time of which we knew very little. Having this work about China performed and directed by Chinese gives its great reality and poetry," Berg says.
