8 September 2018
To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the conclusion of the China-Japanese Peace and Friendship Treaty, the 120th anniversary of Mr Tian Han's birthday and the 50th anniversary of his death, the National Theatre of China (NTCC) and the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA) have jointly produced the drama "Hurricane", which will be invited to perform at the Setagaya Theatre in Tokyo on 6 and 7 October 2018.
On September 5, the premiere media conference of the drama “Hurricane” and the forum of "Tian Han and the Age of Literature and Art Association" were held in the School of Literature of the Waseda University. "Hurricane", a biographical drama, was wrote and created by Ms Tian Qinxin, director of NTCC, professor of STA’s Acting Department and artistic director of the STA Youth Theatre Company, in 2001 and was re-produced in 2016.
Tian Han was a well-known playwright, lyric writer and drama activist in China. He studied in Japan in his early years and attended Tokyo Normal University. He was enlightened by Japanese aestheticism drama. Later, he joined the Communist Party of China and participated in the CPC leadership for literary and artistic work, and he the author of the lyric of the Chinese National Anthem "March of the Volunteers". "Hurricane" takes Tian Han's personal works and emotions as the main clues, and connects Tian Han's five dramatic works with the "drama in drama" approach. The re-produced version uses eight cameras on the stage for real-time shooting, real-time editing, real-time projection, and is a semi-cinematic drama creation that features the perfect combination of the actor's delicate performance and the use of technologies. Previous performances in Beijing, Shanghai, Wuzhen and other Chinese cities were all enthusiastically received, and the tickets were hard to get.
More than 20 important media, such as the People's Network Japan Channel and Japan’s Asahi Shimbun, attended the media conference in the morning. Nearly 100 people attended the forum that followed, including Huang Changyong, President of STA, Professor Tian Qinxin, director of the play, Mr Jin Shijia who plays the role of Tian Han, Ms Tian Wei, Tian Han's niece and head of the Oriental Culture and Art Troupe, and Chinese and Japanese experts and scholars. The promotional video for the performance of "Hurricane" in Japan was shown during the seminar, and the Japanese scholars all expressed their expectations for this upcoming wonderful stage performance in Japan.
Finally, the experts at the seminar jointly expressed the hope for the bright future of China-Japan friendship and cultural exchange in drama.
