How China uses Shakespeare to promote its own bard

LIKE many countries, China had a busy schedule of Shakespeare-themed celebrations in 2016, 400 years after his death. There were plays, lectures and even plans announced for the rebuilding of his hometown, Stratford-upon-Avon, at Sanweng-upon-Min in Jiangxi province. But as many organisers saw it, Shakespeare was just an excuse. Their main aim was to use the English bard to promote one of their own: Tang Xianzu. Whatever the West can do, their message was, China can do at least as well.

Tang is well known in China, though even in his home country he does not enjoy anything like the literary status of his English counterpart—he wrote far fewer works (four plays, compared with Shakespeare’s 37), and is not as quotable. But no matter. The timing was perfect. Tang died in 1616, the same year as Shashibiya, as Shakespeare is called in Chinese. President Xi Jinping described Tang as the “Shakespeare of the East” during a state visit to Britain in 2015. The Ministry of Culture later organised a Tang-themed exhibition, comparing his life and works to those of Shakespeare. It has shown this in more than 20 countries, from Mexico to France.