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A scene from Tian's acclaimed work Green Snake. Chai Meilin / For China Daily
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From March 27 to 30 at the Kennedy Center, her production Green Snake immersed the audience in an old romantic Chinese myth that involves two female snake spirits who take human form and respectively fall in love with a scholar and a monk. The result leaves both goddess and mortals beyond redemption.
Alicia Adams, vice-president of the Kennedy Center and curator of the World Stages International Theater Festival, wants to bring together some of today's most exciting theatrical visionaries. She asked China's Ministry of Culture for recommendations and also asked Alison M. Friedman, an experienced American curator who has done lots of Chinese projects, who can represent China's contemporary theater. Both of them gave her the name Tian Qinxin. After watching Green Snake when it premiered at the Hong Kong Arts Festival in March 2013, Adams decided at once to invite Tian.
The performance was as successful as it was at the Hong Kong Arts Festival and Shanghai Arts Festival last year. Many of audience members stayed to ask her questions at the after-show talk.
"I did not expect American audiences to enjoy the story so much. They can totally understand it, just the same as Chinese audiences. It was like I was sitting in the theater in Beijing," Tian says. "The only difference is that Americans are more open to expressing their love and sadness while watching."
