Woo:
Our next speaker is Director Li. You may pick a seat or you can stand.

Li Liuyi:
I dare not to sit inside. I’d better sit out there.

Woo:
Hi.

Li Liuyi:
Hi.

Woo:
I know that many of your works are cross-cultural, using the traditional ways to present western classics. So how do you treat cross-culturalism? And what do you think about its relation with education, especially performance education?

Li Liuyi:
Cross-culturalism is actually a very broad topic. To be able to cross different cultures, it’s necessary to touch on education. They’re closely linked.
On the topic education, for people from the Mainland like me, we have deep feelings about this word. The most profound impressions are extreme sadness, extreme frustration and extreme sorrow. When talking about education, I have such feelings. Why say so? Because we are in a certain education system which makes it a very dangerous area.

One symbolic incident happened a few years back. Prof. Qian Liqun of Peking university wrote an article, saying that the Peking university is nurturing delicate egoists, egoists, delicate egoists. Prof. Li has also observed that we are facing very serious problems in education now. For us, who grew up in this education system, we have deep feelings about it, and it’s deep sadness. This term brings the feeling of extreme sadness.

2 days ago, our Education Minister gave a speech and warned people to prevent the foreign antagonistic powers from affecting education… and something like that. Actually, it’s very awful. Another question is that, why do we feel sad, frustrated, sorrowful? We grew up under such a system, and it did distort the human nature of many people. Cross-culturalism is inseparable from education.
But I think cross-culturalism is a not a new topic. It has existed ever since there have been societies, cultures and history. For example, there are cross-cultural elements in traditional art. The emergence of Peking opera was cross-cultural in nature. Anhui troupe groups went to Beijing with their different artistic forms, which led to the formation of, or improvement of, Peking opera. This is true.
However, given the failure in contemporary education, cross-cultural topics have become all the more important. The concept of cross-culturalism has existed for hundreds or thousands of years. This concept even exists in our everyday life.
It is very common and very present. But because of the failure in education, this issue has become all the more important.
In the past, I didn’t pay much attention to education. Why? I was a performance director and I focused on rehearsals. As I have said, the work on western classics involves traditional elements. In the creative process, I might encounter cross-cultural problems, but they were not related to the education area at large. Later, when faced with my subjects under my direction, and the existence of their cultures, I gradually found out how important education was. For example, when we work with actors who are university graduates, we encounter many problems.
But what is the cause of these problems? I asked them a question: “How many books have you read in the 4 years of university life?” Please raise your hand if you have read 100 books. In 4 years…none. I asked, “What about 50 books?”
Anyone raising his hand? No. In 4 years! I asked, “Has anyone read 10 books?”
There were a few hands.

Woo:
Undergraduates or postgraduates?

Li Liuyi:
Undergraduates, 4 years.

Woo:
4 years. OK, they studied drama?

Li Liuyi:
Studying drama professionally. So, those studying drama don’t read? They don’t read books.

Woo:
They don’t read books, then what do they do?

Li Liuyi:
They do plastic surgery.

Woo:
I see. They do plastic surgery, ok.

Li Liuyi:
Then I realize how important education is. However, the problems we are facing now is that our university education has serious problems. Your students haven’t read 10 books in 4 years! Not 50 books. So your education…As you all know, an actor’s artistic accomplishment depends on his efforts outside the profession. Looking at the masters, Mei Lanfang was good at acting, but also good at literary work and painting, right? Many old artists at the Beijing People’s Art Theatre also have achievements other than that of their profession. Through this, I realize how important education is.
It’s not only about self-education. It’s about the cross-cultural aspects in my creation- How to assimilate? How to inherit? How to create? How to develop?
These are my personal queries. But the subjects you are facing constitute such a plain reality. And we, as director, need to express ourselves to the subjects, but they are so mediocre, what can we do? Hence, in the past few years, this question has been my great concern. When I was younger, I didn’t give much thought to it, and I just worked hard on my own by focusing on directing and rehearsing. However, in recent years, I found that this question has become extremely important. So in 2010, my studio issued a notice to recruit actors.
Many people from Beijing and other places sent us applications. There were 500 applicants in total, and we took only 8 people. Through examinations and exchanges with them, 8 applicants were admitted. Then we retrained them.
In fact, during the training…Yesterday, I noticed that the Creative Playground project is divided into 6 parts, which is quite similar to that of our training, and there are also differences. I can share with you my experience.
In my professional field, these are my observations in training for cross-culturalism and education. First, I think the body element is still very important.
In the training process, the body should be given the foremost attention. Paying attention to the body entails a few aspects, which I’d briefly explain. First, it’s about the natural everyday state of living.
Second, I recruited some modern dance teachers to train their body through modern dance, and Peking opera teachers to train them physically through Peking opera. I also think that Noh of Japan is very meaningful, but we don’t have resources to recruit Noh teachers. But 10 years ago, when I was rehearsing a play in Japan, I worked with Hideo Kanze, a renowned master of Noh.
We rehearsed a play and spent half a month together. In the process and in the subsequent years, I have researched on and have more understanding about the training system of Mr. Suzuki. So, I share my feelings with the students, the kids, on the bodywork methods the Noh employs in training and cultivating actors physically. This is what I’d do for body training. In fact, it entails different types of arts, or there are different cultures connecting with the actors’ bodies. This is about the body element.
Another element is the voice. In my work, vocal expression is very important.
In the Mainland, if you want to play drama on stage, you have to speak standard Putonghua. In Beijing People’s Art Theatre, we have recruited many young actors.
Many of them speak with a strong accent of northeastern China. That is, in 4 years, you haven’t changed your accent of northeastern dialect. This is the problem of education. When they are on stage, the stage is filled with the flavour of northeastern China. The kids from the northeast…

Woo:
That’s cross-cultural.

Li Liuyi:
That’s cross-cultural, very cross-cultural indeed. That means, when you stage a play about the “Hutongs” in Beijing, you come up with something with a northeastern flavour. That’s very humorous. There are some basic trainings in terms of vocal training. The 4 phonetic tones in the Chinese language make training difficult. This is one aspect. We also give them trainings on how chanting is done in Peking opera. For singing in Peking opera, I attach importance to one element- chanting. Chanting, which is crucial to vocal training and cultivation, includes breathing techniques.
We use chanting to train your voice, so that you can find the proper point in the vocal muscle to deliver your personal emotions and feelings. This is about voice.
Vocal training connects with another very important element. That’s the third element, i.e. Chi, or previously known as breathing. Whether it’s for training of the body, the bodywork or the voice, breathing is essential. The breathing in Chinese opera is about sinking the breath down to the lower abdomen. But Chi in Noh is directed at the heel. So, they are totally different. Chi should…
I have 5 more minutes. So, in Noh, Chi has to be transferred down to the heel, but for Chinese opera, to the abdomen. After reaching the abdomen, Chi has to be flowed upwards. This means there is a force pulling in opposite directions- one directing upwards, and the other, downwards. This is about Chinese opera.
For Noh, Chi moves downwards totally. Chi in Chinese opera has to be moved up towards the sky, up and up till infinity. You have to reach the infinity. In contrast, Chi in Noh has to be moved down towards the ground, stepping down and down till infinity. Actually, they are totally different methods of Chi, and both can be used to provide trainings for actors. From deep breathing to Chi, Chi is completely about style and art, whereas, breathing can be a kind of technique.
So, in performing arts, how to master Chi is very important. From breathing to Chi entails a process of turning techniques into art. This is the third element, about the training of Chi.
There follows the fourth element- space, and it’s equal to creativity. And the fifth element is time. Because I think the time element is very important as it relates to how the actors feel when they are on stage. I have devised some methods to train them on how to turn the notion of time to that of space. This is about time.
Another element is subject. I think that on the stage… I have just talked about the various elements, from physical state to psychological state. But subjects can refer to material subjects or actual live exchanges, human subjects. You can train the actors in many things. And from subjects, we proceed to the next element, i.e. consciousness. Hence, we enter the stage of training on consciousness. Because I think performance is about psychology, and being conscious is crucial in performance. In training on consciousness, intuition and imagination are the supplementary elements.
Consciousness itself can be divided into under-consciousness, sub-consciousness and unconsciousness. How can we maneuver all these different types of consciousness to support and to complete your performance? Then there is the element of structure, which is as important as that of the Creative Playground.
I think from the training in natural abilities to the completion of structures, it leads to the last element, which is nature. After going through all these trainings, how can we return to a very natural state? Hence, in my workshop, the professional trainings for actors consist of these 9 elements. This is one dimension. I still have 3 minutes. I want to talk about education…one minute left only. Another aspect of education is social education. I’m now doing a project that involves planning and coordination in Chengdu. In the future, in Chengdu, we will set up an education system of a very big scale, which will provide education to students from the age of 3. Apart from the professional education I have just talked about, here is another focus on social education. In the present state of our society, the present state of drama is very important. If you don’t solve the problems in social education, merely creating good plays won’t solve any problems. From where does social education start? It should start from little kids. So, I have a very big plan, and it will start from the age of 3.
The first stage begins with age 3 to 6. Then there are different stages for primary, junior secondary and higher secondary levels. This will aim at students from age 3 to 18. This is a very big curriculum. Social education also has another part, the part which involves the working people. For example, the white-collared workers.
Their interest in and love of art and lifestyle bring them back to this system, and let them take up learning again. Another part is about education for the elderlies.
Now in China, education for the elderlies, in particular “square dance”, has become a social issue. Because those elderly people who participate in dancing in the squares sometimes develop romantic relationships, which affect family lives.
It’s a serious social problem. What can we do to solve some of the problems?
As China will become an aging society soon, how can we pull this large group of people with such lifestyle into a better system, a system offering social education?
What I especially want to do now is to set up a very big system for social education.
And for my own creative work, through working with the actors or my ideas of drama, I want to achieve, as you can see, a form of pure drama. All along, I have been looking for a way to realize my own ideal form of drama, which is the expression of pure drama. Apart from some literary requirements, this expression is mainly dependent on the training of actors. In these years, I have been working on setting up such a system, with which I can transform the actors’ body expression, their concepts and their consciousness, so that I can build my own concept and consciousness of a theatre. In fact, these are all related to education, and that’s why I have started to attach importance to education.
Thank you.

Woo:
Please remain on the stage. In the next section, we are going to invite the other speakers to come back to the stage, and we’ll have a dialogue.