Michael OSullivan looks at the work being done by British organisations to build cultural links with China.
Chinas embrace of the global economy is matched by a growing interest in international culture and the internationalisation of Chinas cultural institutions. Massive cultural infrastructure investment from the futuristic National Grand Theatre in to Beijing to the new Three Gorges Museum in Chongqing is stimulating demand for the development of arts management capacity and access to international performing and exhibition content of the highest quality. In government and amongst the public there is a growing sense that to move beyond its recent achievements as a high-growth, low-cost economy, and compete in a global knowledge economy, China will also need to cultivate individual creativity.
In the UK, just as major companies increasingly feel they have to be in China, our cultural institutions are coming to see a China dimension to their work as essential to their future. They are interested both in bringing Chinas arts to the UK and in reaching Chinese audiences. In China they face a challenging political and cultural context for achieving these ambitions, and a need to cultivate successful long-term relationships if they are to make an impact.
In response to this, the British Council has extended the range of its arts work, with the establishment of China-UK: Connections through Culture. This programme, forges new partnerships between Chinese and British cultural institutions, through a range of services including online market intelligence, networking events, and support for project development. So far 484 cultural institutions in the UK, Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao have become members. Links already brokered include a partnership between the Royal Opera House and Beijings new National Grand Theatre one of the worlds largest performance venues but now in need of content as it plans for its opening in 2008, ahead of the Beijing Olympics. Also in 2006, we helped mediate an agreement between the British Museum and the Capital Museum Beijing which saw Treasures of the Worlds Cultures exhibited to a total audience of 500,000, making it Chinas most successful international exhibition ever. We are also using Connections through Culture as our vehicle for ensuring a substantial UK dimension to the 2008 Cultural Olympiad in Beijing.
Working with the UK Film Council and Film London, we made great impact for the UK at the Shanghai International Film Festival, Chinas major annual film industry event. The British Film Showcase was the highlight of the Festival, attracting a total audience of 30,000 to recent UK films, and receiving extensive media coverage.
The largest British Council arts event in China over the past year was Aftershock, an exhibition of the work of Young British Artists (YBAs). The exhibition, the fruit of two-year collaboration between British and Chinese curators, brought to China for the first time a representative exhibition of YBAs, and focuses on how their work made contemporary art part of mainstream culture in 1990s Britain. The exhibition opened in Guangzhou, where 70,000 people attended the exhibition and associated events. The exhibition then proceeded to Beijing. Eighty-two per cent of visitors in both cities said that the exhibition had improved their perception of British creativity. In the words of a Chinese visitor, Each work has its message, from which we can see the level of creativity which can be attained by people living in a free environment and thinking freely. Or as the official Xinhua.com website put it: These works are as visually stunning as they are emotionally shocking.
Michael OSullivan is British Council Regional Director China.
For more about the British Councils arts work in China, contact Neil Webb,
e: neil.webb@britishcouncil.org.cn