Part of the Identities and Cultures in East Asia strand, the Staging China project (formerly Performing China on the Global Stage) continues to use Chinese theatre as a 'cultural bridge' to build dialogue and mutual understanding of cultural heritages, languages, narratives, values, beliefs and histories. The main focus of the project in the period 2014-16 is the creation of a ground-breaking digital library of theatre and performance in China. A link to the digital library will be added in due course. Led by Dr Ruru Li and Susan Daniels, Staging China brings together academics, research students and theatre practitioners to reinvigorate Chinese theatre as a practice-led/cross-disciplinary subject. It aims to influence academic institutions and individual researchers; and to impact on performing industries and the general public. The network extends across Europe, North America and Australasia, as well as China, Japan and Taiwan. WREAC's work in Chinese theatre and performance has been stimulated by the Leeds-led European Cultural Co-operation Project (2008-10) which focused on the creative processes and social roles of opera in higher education, professional practice and cultural industries, and the Leeds-led Cao Yu centenary exhibition, film production and lecture programme. External impact has been achieved through workshops and seminars and two major student performance tours of a devised stage work The Sun is Not for Us, based on the female characters from four of Cao Yu's plays. Postgraduate students and early career researchers have attended events, several of whom were supported by network bursaries. Their critiques will be posted on the network website. In addition, the project funded a study tour by PhD student Lawrence Meng-chian Lee to Beijing, Nanjing, and Shanghai, China and Taipei, Taiwan, and will support language training in China for a PhD student in 2015. The project has also provided an opportunity for postgraduate students to work closely with leading academics and practitioners through two research internship engagements. Activities within the Staging China project include:
The project's external website is http://www.stagingchina.leeds.ac.uk/. |