Among the thousands of art lovers that flocked to the Edinburgh Festival last month was a British Council delegation of global creative tastemakers who are working to build international connections. Alex Lalak met one of them from China.
Dani Wu
The Edinburgh Festival is not just a showcase of international artists and companies, but it’s also a key opportunity to shine a spotlight on homegrown talent. For a British Council delegation of curators, creative entrepreneurs, producers and programmers from all over the world, it was an opportunity to discover the best new work coming out of the UK.
Ophelia Huang was part of the delegation. She is Director of International Projects at Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre, a major Chinese venue that both produces its own work and presents international work. Huang is also Programme Director for their annual Theatre Festival, so she is always on the lookout for opportunities to collaborate.
Although she has been to the Edinburgh Festival many times, this was her first visit since the pandemic. “I was very excited to be back after several years and to reconnect and to discover new artists coming up,” she says. “My impression of the festival this year is that the physical work is quite strong, and this made me really happy because I programme a lot of theatre and dance.”
Smaller festivals
Huang also practices as an artist, curator and dramaturg in China. She writes and publishes about theatre, performance and cultural policy and is a renowned panellist in international conferences focused on China’s performing arts sector.
Her background has enabled her to engage on multiple levels with the Edinburgh Festival. But bigger isn’t always better when it comes to the arts. Huang thinks smaller festivals are just as important for the development of the international arts scene and for the future of cross-cultural collaborations.
“It’s great to have big festivals like Edinburgh and the ones we have in China, but I think in the future smaller festivals are going to become more targeted and specialised and focus more on connections between the artists and local audiences, and different cultures,” she says. “I think this is really exciting and I’d love to see more of that happening both in China and the UK.”
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British Council delegation visiting the Edinburgh Fesival
Festival diversity
Huang was in Edinburgh at the invitation of the British Council Theatre and Dance team, who assembled this diverse delegation with the twin goals of supporting local artists and companies and creating opportunities for networking and cross-cultural collaborations.
Programmes like this are essential to support the global artistic community. For Huang, the diversity of the festival is a crucial part of building these networks.
“In my experience, festivals are sometimes more outward looking and curious about what’s happening in the international performing arts community and I’d like to encourage more of these connections,” she says.
The goal of delegations is to create connections through art and culture, boost the creative economy, support cultural responses to global challenges and, ultimately, facilitate the touring of UK artists and companies to countries like China.
Cross-cultural barriers
Differences in culture and ideologies can present barriers for international audiences, as can the assumed background knowledge of history or politics – often crucial to appreciating artworks.
Huang notes that even basic practicalities can be an issue: “The language barrier is a challenge, especially with text-based theatre. Of course, you can put subtitles, but the format can be limiting, especially when the text is dense, and a lot of things can get lost in translation.”
It’s important not to underestimate the differing perspectives of audiences from culturally different countries and their way of experiencing performances. “Audience habits can really make a difference,” Huang says. “Audiences in English-speaking countries are much less used to watching theatre with subtitles, so this can be challenging for productions not entirely in English.”
Despite this, Huang is optimistic about the future of collaborations between China and the UK and, after seeing a wide range of inspiring work in Edinburgh, she thinks the path ahead looks extremely promising.
“I’d love to see more co-creations between organisations in China and the UK,” she says. “If we’re talking about knowing each other or creating bridges through working together, having a real cultural exchange and artists getting to work together on creating something new, then I think that’s the most rewarding thing.”
Alex Lalak is a writer and journalist specialising in arts and culture.
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This article, sponsored and contributed by the British Council, is part of a series aimed at UK arts organisations and artists with an interest in working in mainland China.
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