The 2023 Shanghai University League’s International Forum for Young Scholars (Theatre Studies), hosted by the Shanghai Theatre Academy and conducted by the Department of Dramatic Literature of Shanghai Theatre Academy, was held on 10-12 November 2023 at the Huashan Road Campus of Shanghai Theatre Academy. The theme of this year's forum was "Chinese and Foreign Mutual Learning, Intergenerational Changes and Local Construction of Theatre Theory".
The Shanghai University League’s International Forum for Young Scholars is an important initiative for Shanghai to gather talents from home and abroad, which also provides an opportunity to build an international exchange platform for key disciplines in Shanghai universities.
This year's forum was attended by more than 100 experts and young scholars from nearly 60 universities at home and abroad (including 9 foreign universities). Many senior experts and editors-in-chief and editors of many core academic journals on theatre were invited to make the academic summaries for the forum and provide comments at the sub-forums, thereby evaluating commenting on the young scholars' thesis, and giving them suggestions for their academic development.
The opening session of the forum was presided over by Liu Qing, Vice President of the Shanghai Theatre Academy. Tobias Biancone, Director General of the International Theatre Institute, Wang Qingyu, Director of the Talent Work Department of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Working Committee for Education and Health, and Xie Wei, Party Secretary of the Shanghai Theatre Academy, delivered speeches at the opening ceremony.
This year's forum was divided into six sub-forums, namely, the "Studies of the Basic Theory of Theatre" Sub-forum, the "Chinese Opera Studies" Sub-forum A, the "Chinese Opera Studies" Sub-forum B, the "Chinese Drama Studies", the "International Theatre Studies" and the "Intercultural Theatre Studies". The methods, materials and perspectives of studies of the young scholars were generally new, indicating a promising future of theatre studies that could be well expected.
This year's forum is the home ground of young scholars, and it was truly a "big party" for young scholars from different areas and directions of theatre studies. It is only through this kind of sincere communication that the academic community will be developed more deeply.
The successful holding of this year’s forum was attributed to the leadership of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Working Committee for Education and Health and the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, to the support of a number of academic institutions including the International Theatre Institute Shanghai Representative Office, the International Association of Theatre Critics China Branch, the Chinese Society of Ancient Opera, the Chinese Society for Theoretical and Historical Studies of Drama, the Chinese Institute of Advanced Studies of Shanghai Theatre Academy , to the assistance of the three CSSCI journals on theatre, namely “Theatre Arts”, “Theatre” and “Chinese Opera Art”, and to the active participation of young scholars from countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, Singapore and China.
