Stratford building economic links in China

The 400^th Commemoration of Shakespeare takes place next week and will be welcoming a number of visitors who will be taking part in the celebrations.

Fuzhou City of Jiangxi Province in China will be visiting the town to help forge further economic ties with Stratford-upon-Avon and explore the cultural links between Shakespeare and Fuzhou's own culture giant Tang Xianzu. The visitors will also be participating in the Birthday Parade and Celebrations on Saturday 23 April.

In December last year the Leader of Stratford-on-Avon District Council, Cllr Chris Saint signed a Memorandum of cultural co-operation between the District Council and Fuzhou City to strengthen culture, education, tourism, economy and trade.

Background information

Tang Xianzu (1550-1616) was a contemporary of William Shakespeare who left behind more than 2,000 poems when he died on July 29, 1616 at the Jade Tea Studio in Linchuan.  One of his best known literary masterpieces was the play, The Peony Pavilion, written in 55 scenes.

Neither William Shakespeare nor Tang Xianzu knew of each other's existence and wrote in very different worlds but both have enjoyed a cultural after-life. 

Both playwrights represent the cultural resources that are used in their respective nations' ideas of a national culture; both were published in print and in changing forms of theatre and both have a rich history of transmission that has created myths through which their plays are read in the present day.

The 400^th anniversary in 2016 of the deaths of both Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu represents a great opportunity to bring these two writers and their audiences together and in doing so bring the two nations closer together and strengthen the economic and literary connection.