LONDON: People living in Britain will soon get a better picture of Chinese culture when the United Kingdom hosts the largest ever Chinese cultural festival in 2008, local media reported yesterday.
Dubbed as China Now, the festival will begin on February 7 and last until August, providing British audiences with some 800 exhibitions and performances, said The Independent.
Works of China's new and established artists will be displayed across the country during the period, and dances with a strong Chinese flavor will also be seen in many British theaters, the report said.
China Art Now, as part of the festival, is expected to feature a huge brontosaurus installation by Xu Zhen, known as the maverick of the Chinese art world.
And He An, a young artist who explores the contemporary environment of China, is creating four neon signs which will be displayed on iconic buildings around Britain.
Sound artists Zhong Minjie, Yan Jun and Wang Changcun are creating installations at the Southbank Center ballroom, bringing sounds from the streets, shops, bars and workplaces of modern China to London.
Sadler's Wells will put on a season of Chinese dance in May and June.
The dancer and choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui has teamed up with the artist Antony Gormley to create a piece inspired by the martial arts of the Buddhist monks from the Shaolin Temple.
China has a very strong classical dance tradition and the impresario Victor Hochhauser is bringing the National Ballet of China to Covent Garden for a week of performances including a new production of Swan Lake by Natalia Makarova and Raise The Red Lantern, based on the 1991 film of the same name.
Hochhauser's China Season will also feature Acrobatic Swan Lake, a radical makeover of the ballet by the Guangdong Acrobatic Company, which combines classical ballet with pole balancing, rope walking, and jumping through fire hoops.
The Victoria and Albert Museum will also host a design spectacular, China Design Now.
Despite China's growing economic importance, its contemporary culture remains remote to the West.
Bringing it to Britain will present the world with "a more balanced and layered picture of contemporary China", the local report said, quoting one of the organizers.
Source: Xinhua/China Daily
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