2006-11-28
1.2.3 Steps for Foreign Agencies and Promoters Dealing with Commercial Performances in China (II)
3. Touring in China
3.1. To arrange touring time and link up different touring cities reasonably.
Tip: Foreign performing troupes, agencies and promoters may combine their performance tour with main Chinese art festivals, making full use of the established fame and publicity exposure of the festivals. Main art festivals in China are:
3.1. To arrange touring time and link up different touring cities reasonably.
Tip: Foreign performing troupes, agencies and promoters may combine their performance tour with main Chinese art festivals, making full use of the established fame and publicity exposure of the festivals. Main art festivals in China are:
a. Meet in Beijing Arts Festival, held every April to May in Beijing, is presented by Ministry of Culture, Beijing Municipal Government, State Administration for Radio, Film and TV, undertaken by China Arts and Entertainment Group and Beijing Government. Normally it takes place at the same time with Beijing International Drama Season. West Australia Symphony Orchestra had participated in the Meet in Beijing Arts Festival this year. (www.meetinbeijing.org)
b. China Shanghai International Arts Festival, held every October in Shanghai, is presented by Ministry of Culture and undertaken by Shanghai Government. The festival was awarded as the most influential festival in China by International Festival Association. The festival in 2005 saw La Bohemia of West Australian Ballet, famous dance performance Burning Floor by Australian producer Medcalf, joint production and performance of Hua Mulan by Sydney Dance Company and Shanghai Song and Dance Ensemble taking part in the Festival. Australian National Ballet will take its Swan Lake to the festival this year. (www.artsbird.com)
c. Beijing Music Festival, held every mid-October to mid-November in Beijing, offers a wide variety of music performances, including opera, symphonic, solo or chamber music concerts, classical jazz concerts, song and dance drama, and vocal concerts. The festival had attracted many big names of maestros, virtuosos, composers and orchestras from home and abroad. The festival programme of the 8th Beijing Music Festival 2005 included Richard Wagners four-night opera Der Ring des Nibelungen performed by Nuremburg State Opera, Sir Simon Rattle with Berliner Philharmoniker, Sir Roger Norrington with Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, pianist Ivo Pogorelich, composers Tan Dun and Ye Xiaogang, viola virtuoso Tabea Zimmermann, violinists Joshua Bell and Sarah Chang. (www.bmf.org.cn)
d. Nanning International Folk Song Festival, held every November in Nanning, Guangxi Province. Wangawilli Band from Australia performed during the festival in 2005. (www.nnsong.com)
e. China Wuqiao International Acrobatic Festival, held every odd year in last week of October or first week of November in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, is initiated in 1987 and named after Wuqiao, a world-known hometown of Chinese acrobatics. (www.wuqiao.org)
f. China Wuhan International Acrobatic Festival, initiated in 1992 and held biennially in Wuhan, Hubei Province. (www.whaf.elong.com) During the above mentioned two acrobatic festivals, acrobatic competitions will be held in the form of public performance, with programmes including stage acrobatics, trapeze acrobatics, juggling, comical buffoon, and circus act. Both festivals are well-known for their high quality acrobatic presentation and competition at international level and provide great business opportunities for acrobatic promoters and agencies.
g. China Arts Festival, the most important national cultural and art pageant, was initiated in 1987 and then held once every two years in different cities, co-sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and provincial or municipal government, and usually lasts for 15 to 20 days. The 8th China Arts Festival 2006 will be held in Wuhan, Hubei Province.
h. Shanghai Spring International Music Festival, held every April to May, could be dated back to the former Shanghai Spring Music and Dance Month, which was established in the 1960s.
i. Harbin International Ice-Snow Festival, held from January 5th to February 5th every year in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, known as one of the birthplaces of the world ice and snow culture. The festival was first held in 1985 with traditional ice lantern celebration and skiing festival and has become one of the world's four grand ice-snow festivals. (www.harbin-ice.net)
j. China International Chorus Festival, initiated in 1992, is co-sponsored by Bureau for External Cultural Relations, Ministry of Culture and China Arts and Entertainment Group, organized by China Cultural Tours Inc. The festival is held in Beijing every two years.
k. China Dance Festival, first held in 2002, is co-sponsored by China Federation of Literature and Art Circles together with Yunnan Provincial Government, and jointly organized by Dancers Association of China, Kunming Government and World Expo Garden of Kunming. The festival is held in Yunnan Province biennially and has become a grand activity of dancing art exchange.
l. Gulangyu International Piano Art Festival, initiated in 2002, is co-sponsored by Musicians Association of China and Gulangyu regional government. The festival is held biennially in Gulangyu, a well-known piano island of Xiamen, Fujian Province.
3.2. The above mentioned festivals are non-profit cultural exchange projects. Organizing committees of the festivals shall issue and send invitation letters to chosen foreign performing troupes, artists, agencies and promoters, apply for performance permission from local and central government. Most of the festivals will cover expenses of meals, accommodation and inside-city transportation for foreign groups during the festival, while the foreign groups covering their own international travel and transportation expenses. Some of the festivals will pay a symbolic amount of performance fee, rather to be called daily allowance, to the performers for their performance during the festivals.
3.3. Most foreign performance troupes would like to tour other cities and give commercial performance prior or after the festival. To do so, they may need a Chinese performing art agency other than the organizing committee of the festival to be their presenter, to get official permission for them for the commercial part of the tour. Generally speaking, the organizing committee of the festival would also very much like to introduce and recommend those invited foreign performing troupes to reliable Chinese promoters for commercial touring. For instance, the Burning Floor dance troupe imported and invited by China Arts and Entertainment Group was introduced to China Shanghai International Arts Festival, but the troupe also gave commercial shows in Beijing prior to the festival. West Australia Symphony Orchestra invited by China International Cultural Exchange Centre this May also visited and performed in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Shenzhen after its presence at Meet in Beijing Arts Festival.
3.4. Touring cities shall be selected according to category, scale and content of the performance. In China, economically developed cities, those with larger population and better performance market, with more potential and appreciating audience, are clustered in eastern coastal regions of the country. Therefore many foreign troupes will choose big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, sometimes Hong Kong, for touring. But the paradox is, saturation may easily occur in those cities. Performance market and audience in big cities, together with the Chinese agency or promoter, may have higher request on competitive quality of the shows.
Tip: If the performance is popular enough, and the publicity of the show sufficient enough to attract more potential Chinese audience, the touring troupe may make stops in cities like Harbin, Changchun, Dalian, Taiyuan, Chengdu, Chongqing, Wuhan, Changshang, Hefei, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Xiamen, etc. The above mentioned cities shall all have at least 1-2 well-equipped theatres with over 900 seating capacity.
If a foreign performing troupe is small in scale and agile enough for travel, not so costly regarding its performance fee requirement and traveling expenses, including the transportation of the stage properties, and the performance suits both refined and popular tastes, the troupe may choose medium and small cities in western and inland region for touring, where residents have rare chances to attend performance given by foreign troupes and beat all success in tickets sale may unexpectedly occur.
b. China Shanghai International Arts Festival, held every October in Shanghai, is presented by Ministry of Culture and undertaken by Shanghai Government. The festival was awarded as the most influential festival in China by International Festival Association. The festival in 2005 saw La Bohemia of West Australian Ballet, famous dance performance Burning Floor by Australian producer Medcalf, joint production and performance of Hua Mulan by Sydney Dance Company and Shanghai Song and Dance Ensemble taking part in the Festival. Australian National Ballet will take its Swan Lake to the festival this year. (www.artsbird.com)
c. Beijing Music Festival, held every mid-October to mid-November in Beijing, offers a wide variety of music performances, including opera, symphonic, solo or chamber music concerts, classical jazz concerts, song and dance drama, and vocal concerts. The festival had attracted many big names of maestros, virtuosos, composers and orchestras from home and abroad. The festival programme of the 8th Beijing Music Festival 2005 included Richard Wagners four-night opera Der Ring des Nibelungen performed by Nuremburg State Opera, Sir Simon Rattle with Berliner Philharmoniker, Sir Roger Norrington with Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, pianist Ivo Pogorelich, composers Tan Dun and Ye Xiaogang, viola virtuoso Tabea Zimmermann, violinists Joshua Bell and Sarah Chang. (www.bmf.org.cn)
d. Nanning International Folk Song Festival, held every November in Nanning, Guangxi Province. Wangawilli Band from Australia performed during the festival in 2005. (www.nnsong.com)
e. China Wuqiao International Acrobatic Festival, held every odd year in last week of October or first week of November in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, is initiated in 1987 and named after Wuqiao, a world-known hometown of Chinese acrobatics. (www.wuqiao.org)
f. China Wuhan International Acrobatic Festival, initiated in 1992 and held biennially in Wuhan, Hubei Province. (www.whaf.elong.com) During the above mentioned two acrobatic festivals, acrobatic competitions will be held in the form of public performance, with programmes including stage acrobatics, trapeze acrobatics, juggling, comical buffoon, and circus act. Both festivals are well-known for their high quality acrobatic presentation and competition at international level and provide great business opportunities for acrobatic promoters and agencies.
g. China Arts Festival, the most important national cultural and art pageant, was initiated in 1987 and then held once every two years in different cities, co-sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and provincial or municipal government, and usually lasts for 15 to 20 days. The 8th China Arts Festival 2006 will be held in Wuhan, Hubei Province.
h. Shanghai Spring International Music Festival, held every April to May, could be dated back to the former Shanghai Spring Music and Dance Month, which was established in the 1960s.
i. Harbin International Ice-Snow Festival, held from January 5th to February 5th every year in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, known as one of the birthplaces of the world ice and snow culture. The festival was first held in 1985 with traditional ice lantern celebration and skiing festival and has become one of the world's four grand ice-snow festivals. (www.harbin-ice.net)
j. China International Chorus Festival, initiated in 1992, is co-sponsored by Bureau for External Cultural Relations, Ministry of Culture and China Arts and Entertainment Group, organized by China Cultural Tours Inc. The festival is held in Beijing every two years.
k. China Dance Festival, first held in 2002, is co-sponsored by China Federation of Literature and Art Circles together with Yunnan Provincial Government, and jointly organized by Dancers Association of China, Kunming Government and World Expo Garden of Kunming. The festival is held in Yunnan Province biennially and has become a grand activity of dancing art exchange.
l. Gulangyu International Piano Art Festival, initiated in 2002, is co-sponsored by Musicians Association of China and Gulangyu regional government. The festival is held biennially in Gulangyu, a well-known piano island of Xiamen, Fujian Province.
3.2. The above mentioned festivals are non-profit cultural exchange projects. Organizing committees of the festivals shall issue and send invitation letters to chosen foreign performing troupes, artists, agencies and promoters, apply for performance permission from local and central government. Most of the festivals will cover expenses of meals, accommodation and inside-city transportation for foreign groups during the festival, while the foreign groups covering their own international travel and transportation expenses. Some of the festivals will pay a symbolic amount of performance fee, rather to be called daily allowance, to the performers for their performance during the festivals.
3.3. Most foreign performance troupes would like to tour other cities and give commercial performance prior or after the festival. To do so, they may need a Chinese performing art agency other than the organizing committee of the festival to be their presenter, to get official permission for them for the commercial part of the tour. Generally speaking, the organizing committee of the festival would also very much like to introduce and recommend those invited foreign performing troupes to reliable Chinese promoters for commercial touring. For instance, the Burning Floor dance troupe imported and invited by China Arts and Entertainment Group was introduced to China Shanghai International Arts Festival, but the troupe also gave commercial shows in Beijing prior to the festival. West Australia Symphony Orchestra invited by China International Cultural Exchange Centre this May also visited and performed in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Shenzhen after its presence at Meet in Beijing Arts Festival.
3.4. Touring cities shall be selected according to category, scale and content of the performance. In China, economically developed cities, those with larger population and better performance market, with more potential and appreciating audience, are clustered in eastern coastal regions of the country. Therefore many foreign troupes will choose big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, sometimes Hong Kong, for touring. But the paradox is, saturation may easily occur in those cities. Performance market and audience in big cities, together with the Chinese agency or promoter, may have higher request on competitive quality of the shows.
Tip: If the performance is popular enough, and the publicity of the show sufficient enough to attract more potential Chinese audience, the touring troupe may make stops in cities like Harbin, Changchun, Dalian, Taiyuan, Chengdu, Chongqing, Wuhan, Changshang, Hefei, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Xiamen, etc. The above mentioned cities shall all have at least 1-2 well-equipped theatres with over 900 seating capacity.
If a foreign performing troupe is small in scale and agile enough for travel, not so costly regarding its performance fee requirement and traveling expenses, including the transportation of the stage properties, and the performance suits both refined and popular tastes, the troupe may choose medium and small cities in western and inland region for touring, where residents have rare chances to attend performance given by foreign troupes and beat all success in tickets sale may unexpectedly occur.
Author: Xu Rong
Deputy Director of Dept for Cultural Industry, Ministry of Culture of P. R. China.
If you would like to read simplified Chinese version of this essay, please click:
http://www.seechina.com.cn/html/news/200611/2006112117000580820.html
Deputy Director of Dept for Cultural Industry, Ministry of Culture of P. R. China.
If you would like to read simplified Chinese version of this essay, please click:
http://www.seechina.com.cn/html/news/200611/2006112117000580820.html
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