Emerging Theater Festivals and Cultural Politics in the PR China: Why Cities Need to Be Eventful

In this video, Yumin Ao discusses her activities and research in the field of Chinese Theater and theater festivals in the PR China. Connecting cultural politics and the concept of eventful cities, she critically examines China’s recent boom in theater festivals. She identifies different modes of festivals, related to their prominent initiators, funding models and China’s rising middle class. Furthermore, she debates future challenges and issues in the development of China’s theater festival scene.

Yumin Ao is the founder of the Chinese Theater Göttingen and the editor of Yingming Theater Journal. If you are interested in participating, please find all relevant information and the latest issues of the journal on their webpage: https://yingmingtheater.com. 

Yumin Ao is currently doing research at the Global and Transregional Studies Platform (GTSP) of the University of Göttingen  In the past, she worked as a research fellow at the University of Tokyo and Taiwan Academia Sinica, and held faculty positions at Kennesaw State University as well as George Mason University. Dr. Ao’s research topic at the GTSP is “An Analysis of the Theater Arts of China within the Social Conditions of their Production, Circulation and Consumption”. She observes and reflects about the shifts of the landscape of contemporary Chinese theater, with a focus on the avant-garde drama and theatre in the People’s Republic of China since the start of the post-Mao era (after 1976) in the context of China confronting its modernity.