The Silk Road Traditional Performing Arts Festival, jointly hosted by Shanghai Theatre Academy and the ITI/UNESCO Network for Higher Education in the Performing Arts, was held from 10 to 16 November.
Xie Wei, Party Secretary of Shanghai Theatre Academy, provided a detailed introduction to the background and related information of this arts festival at the press conference for the event.
The series of activities, including art exhibitions and performances, centred on the "Belt and Road" initiative, have a long history at Shanghai Theatre Academy. In recent years, the academy has engaged in close cultural exchanges and cooperation with countries involved in the "Belt and Road" initiative through hosting the Silk Road Traditional Performing Arts International Symposium, the Shanghai International Experimental Theatre Festival, and various conferences. These efforts have significantly contributed to promoting Chinese traditional culture, advancing theatre education, and fostering mutual understanding among people. This year, to further integrate resources, enhance brand influence, better showcase the cultural diversity of "Belt and Road" countries, and tell China's story well, the academy meticulously organized and planned the Silk Road Traditional Performing Arts Festival as a self-branded arts festival project. In collaboration with the Network for Higher Education in the Performing Arts, the 12th Shanghai International Small Theatre Festival was included as an important part of this festival.
The launch of the Silk Road Traditional Performing Arts Festival by Shanghai Theatre Academy as a self-branded project holds several significant meanings:
Firstly, it serves the national and Shanghai development strategies. As an arts institution, Shanghai Theatre Academy bears an unshirkable responsibility and mission in promoting cultural exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, and fostering people-to-people bonds among the "Belt and Road" countries. Shanghai's development as an international cultural metropolis also requires more extensive cultural exchanges with countries worldwide. I have an immature suggestion: In the future, an arts section could be established within the China International Import Expo (CIIE) to allow our artistic works to be showcased, as cultural exchange is increasingly demonstrating its importance.
Secondly, it further highlights the excellent tradition and profound foundation of Shanghai Theatre Academy's internationalized education. Shanghai is an international metropolis, and Shanghai Theatre Academy is naturally an open and internationally-oriented university. In recent years, the academy has established long-term, close and profound strategic cooperative relationships with the International Theatre Institute. We are also the chair institution and the location of the secretariat for the Asia-Pacific Bond of Theatre Schools, possessing a very broad international exchange platform and network as well as related resources. We should further promote and expand these, using the arts festival as a lever to further brand the international characteristics and international exchange projects of the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA), so that more activities can converge into a branded project, allowing all sectors of society, our faculty and students, and our alumni to gain a deeper understanding of STA.
Additionally, this is also to continuously enhance the level of our acting and directing programs. Shanghai Theatre Academy is a school renowned for cultivating performing talents. Our fundamental principle is "uphold tradition and be bold to innovate, integrate Chinese and Western approaches". Many traditional performance methods from countries along the "Belt and Road" are worth exchanging and learning from. Our theatre and film acting and directing education includes many traditional performance methods, and we are exploring how to develop a new path with Chinese characteristics and STA's unique features in acting and directing education. In this process, we need to fully understand and absorb representative acting and directing techniques, methods, and unique features of traditional performing arts from around the world with a broader perspective.
In summary, the hosting of this arts festival further highlights STA's temperament, responsibility and contribution. We believe it will surely be a great success.
