More live plays in China's cinemas

The upcoming International Theater Live Festival will bring many British theater works to Chinese audiences, including Jane Eyre, staged by Bristol Old Vic Theatre.

Following the screening of the King and Country series of Shakespearean plays, Live from Stratford-upon-Avon, a collaboration between the Royal Shakespeare Company and Picturehouse Cinemas since 2013, will return to China with more of the Bard's stories, including The Tempest, King Lear and Richard II.

The Moscow Art Theatre will bring its production of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, and Broadway HD, a live theater company from New York, will present a musical of the US Roundabout Theatre's production She Loves Me.

Li Chongzhou, CEO of ATW Culture, says British theater productions have been broadcast to more than 150,000 people at nearly 40 venues across China in recent times.

In 2015, when Britain and China celebrated the Year of Cultural Exchanges, National Theatre Live started to bring more stage productions to China's cinemas.

"For Chinese theatergoers, this is a rare opportunity to experience world-class theater productions at home," Li says, adding that the number of viewers has risen in the country in the past two years.