UK university opens Shakespeare center in China

A world-renowned UK-based institute dedicated to the life and works of William Shakespeare opened a study center in China.

The Shakespeare Centre, China, is the result of collaboration between the University of Birmingham’s Shakespeare Institute and Nanjing University.

Academics and experts at the institute, which is based in the playwright’s birthplace of Stratford-upon-Avon, want to reach out to millions of Chinese people to increase access to and understanding his works.

The new center was formally inaugurated recently Nanjing.

“Nanjing University has long been a beacon in Shakespeare studies in China,’’ Professor Michael Dobson, director of the Shakespeare Institute, said. ``Its combination of academic expertise and performance tradition makes it a natural partner for the Shakespeare Institute and we are already working on collaborative research.’’

The opening of the center was marked by lecture on the play Hamlet and a workshop about the inter-cultural performance of Shakespeare’s Handan Dream - a hybrid production incorporating extracts from Shakespeare and extracts from China’s Kun opera, performed in London last year.

Birmingham University says the Shakespeare Institute is in talks with Phoenix Publishing & Media Group, one of the largest media and publishing companies in China, about translating Shakespeare’s works into Mandarin.

It’s also planning purpose-designed residential courses in Stratford for Nanjing students.

Founded in 1902, Nanjing University is one of China’s oldest and most prestigious institutions. It was the only Chinese university to mount a Shakespeare festival to mark the 400th anniversary in 2016 of the playwright’s death.

To contact the reporter: mikeharrisonldn@hotmail.com