Soft power and heavy metal
- By Tim Collard
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E-mail China.org.cn, August 23, 2013
I live in Edinburgh, Scotland, and for me the star turn at this year's Edinburgh International Festival was the Beijing People's Art Theatre's production of Shakespeare's "Coriolanus." This was Chinese “soft power” at its best.
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Actors from Beijing People's Art Theatre present British audience Shakespeare's "The Tragedy of Coriolanus." [Edinburgh International Festival] |
The play was well chosen. Strangely, for a play written four hundred years ago when England was still an absolute monarchy, "Coriolanus" is a critique of democracy, set in ancient republican Rome, as England had never experienced such a thing. A military hero stands for popular election, and fails because he is not prepared to flatter the people. He is then banished from Rome and joins the enemy forces attacking it. The adaptation by former Culture Minister Ying Ruocheng contains no added element of Chinese anti-democratic propaganda; that is not necessary, the message of Shakespeare's drama stands for itself. The complexity of the relationship between democracy and the requirements of state is, of course, still a live issue, and one that China is particularly concerned about. This was a contribution to a hugely contemporary debate.
Most interesting was the way in which this production illustrated the changing ways in which China is presenting itself to the world. Until recently Chinese cultural activities abroad were characterized by great formality and emphasis on uniquely Chinese aesthetic traditions; the solemn and awesome dance spectaculars demonstrating the discipline of highly trained artists were characteristic, as were the precisely orchestrated acrobatic displays. But the traditional shows offered no compromise or interaction with the world outside; we are China, the message read, we are a very ancient and mysterious people, there are an awful lot of us, and we are extremely disciplined. Language played a part in this; no foreigner could possibly be expected to understand the Chinese language, nor to fully grasp the essence of Chinese culture.
The change in the Chinese approach was clear in the great spectacle of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The opening ceremony showed the spectacular side of Chinese ceremonial culture. The closing ceremony, designed by the great classical dancer/choreographer Gan Lu, combined a celebration of the traditional approach with forward-looking elements pointing towards the forthcoming London Olympics of 2012. But the Beijing Olympics remained, naturally, very Chinese.
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