Beijing Panel Discussion on Playwriting: She Writes in English, Chinese, and the Language from Her Secret Planet

August 04, 2018

On August 4, Columbia Global Centers | Beijing hosted a panel discussion on playwriting, featuring Columbia alumna ZHU Yi SOA '11.

Panelists included HE Ping, Professor and literature critic from Nanjing Normal University; TAO Qingmei, Associate Researcher of Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Science; SHANG Xiaolan, reporter from Beijing Youth Daily; and ZHANG Hang, Dramatic Critic, Playwright. Professor QIAN Ying, Assistant Professor at Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University, served as the moderator.

ZHU Yi is a New York-based playwright and screenwriter, and was born and raised in Shanghai, China. She holds a MFA in playwriting from Columbia University. Yi has received the First Prize at 2015 World Sinophone Drama Competition, and Shanghai Drama Valley's 2015 Outstanding Playwright of the Year Award, and is 2012-2013 Emerging Artist Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop, a Youngblood alumni at Ensemble Studio Theatre, a member of Ma-Yi Writers Lab, the Royal Court Theatre's International Playwrights Program, and Dramatists Guild of America.

Two young actors, ZHANG Wei and SUN Shuyue, were first invited to read the excerpts of Yi's play. The audience was deeply moved by their voice and performance. During the discussion, panelists talked about the rising of the young playwrights in China as they integrate their perspectives on today's social issues into their works and question the audience what human can do to make a better world.

Around 86 people attended the event and more than 114,000 people watched the event live through the Beijing Center's live streaming platform.