Shanghai Express

Jonathan meets Prince Zi Dan

Just in town for a day we made the most of our time in Shanghai. There were meetings with the Shanghai Cultural Bureau, the Ministry of Culture, and we got to know the British Council representatives in Shanghai. All of this took place around and about our press conference in the afternoon.

The conference was at a gorgeous little hotel in the French Concession called Le Sun Chine and was well attended with many local Shanghai and national media print media, as well as online and broadcast crews turning out to hear from Jonathan and Mr Sun (the Director of the Shanghai Peking Opera Troupe, or SPOT as we affectionately call them).

Jonathan and Mr Sun signed a letter of agreement and the event culminated in a short performance by Prince Zi Dan, the equivalent character to Hamlet in Shanghai Peking Opera Troupe’s retelling of Shakespeare’s famous tale. Prince Zi Dan was fabulous. A wonderful costume, particularly expressive feathers and the envy inspiring platform boots. However it was his muscle control that stole the show with a stunning, sculptural physical feat. It has certainly left me wanting to see more!

Now we have the job of evaluating and translating all the coverage. The circulations of some of these outlets are mind-blowing, but that is the nature of the scale of China in numbers. It certainly has the wow factor.

- Susie Burnet