In the height of summer in July, the sixth Cambridge-China Education Forum, themed "Educational Paradigms in the Digital Era - Interdisciplinary Research and Globalization Trends", was held at Cambridge University. Over 160 participants from China and the UK attended the forum in person, while more than a thousand viewers participated online.
The Cambridge-China Education Forum, initiated in 2018, aims to build a bridge for dialogue and communication between Chinese education and the world, sharing information of cutting-edge research and practice in the field of education. Through this academic exchange platform, meaningful dialogues are conducted on the challenges and opportunities faced by education in the context of internationalization, diversification and digitalization.
This year's forum included two keynote speech forums, two roundtable forums, four main sub-forums, sixteen young scholar forums, two poster presentations and a finale theatrical performance.
Professor Shen Liang, Dean of the Graduate School and Director of Academic Affairs at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, delivered a keynote speech at the forum. Doctoral students Zhao Rui, He Yuting, Li Kaidi, and master's student Pang Chaohui were shortlisted for the sixth Cambridge-China Education Forum, participating in forum presentations and poster display activities.
The Cambridge-China Education Forum specially invited faculty and students from the Shanghai Theatre Academy to jointly present an educational theatre production related to the forum's theme: i Human. The play was performed on the evening of 26 July 26, UK time, at the Cambridge Junction J2 Theatre at Cambridge University. It tells the story of a single mother, HE, who is busy with work and uses AI RAY, developed by her company, to accompany her 16-year-old daughter, Katy. However, she faces challenges in relating to her daughter and addressing her daughter's mental health issues. Meanwhile, RAY, in the AI-generated "Pantheon," searches for answers to ultimate human questions.
The content of i Human is highly aligned with the forum's theme: in the AI era of information explosion, artificial intelligence is an unstoppable wave, rapidly changing our lives, work and even ways of thinking at an unprecedented speed. It is both a beacon of the future and a source of challenges. What is the relationship between artificial intelligence and humans? What is the future direction of AI development? In an era of explosive AI growth, born as humans, how should we position ourselves? With these questions in mind, the performance team from the Shanghai Theatre Academy engaged in deep exchanges with experts and scholars from around the world at the forum through the form of educational theatre.
The play was produced by teachers Shen Liang and Han Shuang, in collaboration with Zhang Shufan, a current PhD student at Cambridge and a graduate of the Shanghai Theatre Academy. It was directed by Xu Yang, a teacher from the Department of Dramatic Literature, with He Yuting, a doctoral student, as the lead writer. The entire crew collectively co-created and revised the play during rehearsals. Master's student Bao Xinhui was responsible for stage and lighting design, and the main cast included master's and doctoral students Li Wenxuan, Li Kaidi, Hou Rui, Zhang Shufan and Lou Feifan from the Shanghai Theatre Academy and Cambridge, with special appearances by teachers Shen Liang and Kang Jiacheng. After six months of script incubation and two months of intensive rehearsals, students from the Shanghai Theatre Academy and Cambridge completed the creative process together.
i Human explores the impact of the highly developed artificial intelligence of the future era on the human world. Presented entirely in English, it provided ample room for discussion among the audience, fostering a collision of ideas among viewers from different fields. Young scholars who watched the play expressed that the production was full of imagination, from the story content to the design and arrangement, and it was uniquely connected to reality, offering multiple attractions. During the performance, both actors and audience experienced the collision between humans and AI at the crossroads of the era, and even after the performance ended, no one could remain "uninvolved."
As a teaching achievement of graduate education at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, i Human allowed the audience to personally experience and reflect in the theatre, leading to deeper contemplation on "theatre + artificial intelligence" in the information age, and sparking discussions on education, technology and the fate of humanity.
This co-creation between China and the UK provided an effective platform for exchange among experts and scholars from the two countries, promoting cross-cultural cooperation and exchange in theatre education. It also showcased the talents of teachers and students from the Shanghai Theatre Academy in practice and offered new insights into the integration of educational theatre and artificial intelligence.
