FUZHOU, Jiangxi Province, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -
- Four hundred years ago, when WilliamShakespeare was writing his sonnets with a quill, Tang Xianzu was recording verses with abrush nearly 6,000 kilometers away.
Four hundred years later,to commemorate these literary giants from east and west, playsby both have been staged together in eastern China's Fuzhou city, Tang's hometown.
"They were in the same contemporary period," said Juliet Short, mayor of Shakespeare'shometown Stratford-upon-Avon. "They are very similar, in different aspects, even thoughthey lived in totally different cultures."
This year marks the 400th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare and Tang. China andBritain have been hosting a series of events to commemorate the anniversaries.
On Saturday, Tang's date of birth, a three-day festival was launched in Jiangxi Province,where people can pay tribute to Tang, open a memorial for him, put on dramaperformances and hold seminars.
UP AND DOWN IN CHINA
Tang was born in 1550 during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), a period where he sawmuch corruption and restrictions on women. His masterpiece, the "Peony Pavilion," tells ofa romance between an official's daughter and a poor scholar, as they pursued love andfreedom.
In the 1950s, the local government constructed a building close to Tang's tomb and namedit after "Peony Pavilion," but it was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76).
Much Chinese culture was under threat at this time, but Tang Tingshui, a 13th generationdescendant of the playwright, managed to preserve the book of his family tree by buryingit in cattle dung.
The study of Shakespeare in China was almost halted during the same period.
Shakespeare's name first appeared in Chinese books in 1839. Scholar Zhou Sheng was thefirst Chinese translator of Shakespeare's 31 plays, before he died in 1944, and the completeworks of Shakespeare in Chinese was published in 1978.
Today Shakespeare is arguably the most influential western playwright in China, and anexcerpt from "The Merchant of Venice" is used in middle school textbooks today.
GOING GLOBAL
Steve Ansell has his theory about how Shakespeare gained popularity around the world.
"He was English at a time when we had an empire. We ambled around the entire worldtaking Shakespeare with us. ... Everybody in the world knows William Shakespeare. That'snever going to change," said Ansell, artistic director of stage@leeds in the UK.
In comparison, Tang is less known. In China, Tang is ranked as one of the three masterswho died in the same year, along with Shakespeare and Spanish writer Cervantes.
Susan Adams, chair of Stratford-upon-Avon Council, said that she hadn't heard of Tanguntil last year.
Ansell first got to know about Tang two years ago, when he became artistic director ofTang's play "Dreaming under the Southern Bough."
It is a traditional play depicting a man who dreamed of entering an ant kingdom, beforemarrying a princess and gaining status, and then being expelled.
In Ansell's version, the hero is a western soldier returning from the Iraqwar. The maincharacters wore western costumes.
"We modernized the story," Ansell said. "It is about now, but it's the same story that Tangtells. I hope it is more appealing to the younger generation."
The play premiered in Leeds in July. The response was tremendous and the show wasstaged eight times at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, according to Ansell.
"This sort of project will start to open the flood gates," Ansell said. "China and the rest ofthe world are becoming closer."
Ansell believes that as China's status in the world grows, so does knowledge of its culture,art, cooking and philosophy.
"Great [Chinese] writers and artists will start to spread across the world," Ansell said. "It'sgreat art, but we just don't know about it."
This is a view shared by Zhou Yude, former president of the National Academy of ChineseTheater Art.
"One hundred years ago, such cultural exchange was beyond the imagination," Zhou said.
At that time, China was controlled by warlords, while large areas of Chinese territory wereseized by foreign countries as concessions. In spite of its 5,000-year culture, the countrylagged behind western countries in economy, military, science and technology.
"In contrast, China is now world's second largest economy, and has dialogue with westerncountries on an equal footing," Zhou said.
Today, more than 10 versions of "Peony Pavilion" have been performed around the world. "Starting from 1998, the opera 'Peony Pavilion' was put on stage in Vienna, Paris, Rome,London and San Francisco," said Zou Yuanjiang, vice president of Tang Xianzu studies atthe Chinese Opera Society.
Ansell and Leeds University students who starred in the adaption had a rehearsal inFuzhou, in a park dedicated to commemorating the author, on Saturday. Local people, whohave seldom see westerners in drama, stood to watch, some with babies in their arms,others filming with smart phones.
He told Xinhua that he loved Tang's works. But before doing this project, he found theplays "inaccessible" because of the language.
According to his schoolmate Jonathan Dowsett, language was not the only difficulty.
"In a [U.K.] contemporary theater, people are more used to something avant-garde,"Dowsett said. "People can use the audience as part of the performance, while in Chinesetheater it is very important to retain the traditional cultural experience."
While he suggests finding a balance to popularize traditional Chinese plays, Ansell said thatcultural confidence was necessary.
"Is Tang Xianzu 'China's Shakespeare'? The answer is no," Ansell said. "But it's a veryuseful connection to make if only to show that it wasn't just Shakespeare who was makinggreat art.
"The key point is that Tang is not Shakespeare. He doesn't need to be. He is the ChineseTang. That's good enough."
"I think the Chinese need to be proud of the fact that they have Tang."
Britain and China have got a good basis of cultural exchanges, said Susan Adams. "China isopening up. Schools (in UK) now teach Mandarin, and we have lots of exchange visits."
Zou Zizhen, a professor with the Minjiang University, believed that it is equally, if notmore, necessary to popularize the plays domestically.
"If we want to have our culture spread across the globe, we must spread it within Chinafirst," he said.
