The Tang Xianzu Memorial Hall in Fuzhou is a comprehensive cultural venue built to commemorate Tang Xianzu, one of the world’s hundred great cultural figures and a master of Ming‑dynasty drama in China. It is also one of Jiangxi Province’s ten major memorial halls dedicated to historical luminaries.

A Decade-Long Journey from Fuzhou to the World

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2025-10-25

In October 2015, during his visit to the United Kingdom, General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed that China and the United Kingdom jointly commemorate the 400th anniversary of the deaths of two literary giants—Tang Xianzu and William Shakespeare—in 2016. The CPC Fuzhou Municipal Committee and the Fuzhou Municipal Government responded enthusiastically and proactively formulated plans. Over the past decade, our city has steadfastly pursued research, dissemination, and promotion of Tang Xianzu’s cultural legacy, significantly advancing its outreach both domestically and internationally. Meanwhile, the brand “Fuzhou—The Hometown of Tang Xianzu” has continued to gain prominence, playing a vital role in helping Fuzhou establish itself as a nationally recognized historical and cultural city.

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Building a Premier Academic Hub for Tang Xianzu

Since 2016, our city has successfully hosted six editions of the Tang Xianzu International Theatre Exchange Month. Over the past decade, more than 300 domestic and international productions have been staged, attracting over one million attendees. Centered on Wenchangli—the birthplace of Tang Xianzu—large-scale immersive performances such as “In Search of a Dream: The Peony Pavilion” have been developed, fostering the growth of an integrated industrial chain that combines theatre‑going, tourism, and cultural‑creative industries. The Tang Xianzu cultural IP has directly created employment for more than ten thousand people. At the same time, six consecutive Tang Xianzu International Academic Summits have been held. Notably, the inaugural summit in 2016 drew over 240 experts from home and abroad, as well as local scholars, and published 140 academic papers on Tang Xianzu studies—its scale and influence unprecedented in the field of Tang studies. Subsequent forums have focused on Tang Xianzu’s theatrical achievements and their dissemination, his life, character, and thought, his family history, and cross‑cultural comparative studies, providing a vital platform for global scholars to exchange ideas and share findings. Renowned Tang scholar Ye Changhai has remarked that Fuzhou has become a major hub for Tang studies both at home and abroad.

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In September 2024, fifteen founding institutions—including the Institute of Opera of the Chinese National Academy of Arts, the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Peking University Institute for Cultural Heritage and Innovation (Fuzhou), the Shanghai Theatre Academy, the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe, Nanchang University, East China University of Technology, Gando College, Fuzhou Vocational and Technical College, the Fuzhou Municipal Center for Cultural and Artistic Development, the Fuzhou Tang Xianzu Memorial Hall, the Suichang Tang Xianzu Memorial Hall, the Xuwén Museum, the Fuzhou Wenchang Academy, and the Fuzhou Tang Xianzu International Research Center—gathered in Fuzhou to jointly celebrate the establishment of the “Tang Xianzu Academic and Cultural Alliance,” aiming to further consolidate strong momentum and more effectively promote the dissemination, development, and international exchange of Tang Xianzu’s cultural legacy. From October 22 to 24, 2025, the Shanghai Theatre Academy, in collaboration with the Fuzhou Tang Xianzu International Research Center, will host the 2025 Annual Conference of the Tang Xianzu Academic and Cultural Alliance in Shanghai.

Leveraging the Fuzhou Tang Xianzu International Research Center, our city has launched the academic journal “Tang Xianzu Studies,” which has so far published 13 issues and concurrently released four collections of scholarly essays, bringing together cutting-edge research in the field of Tang studies. At the same time, by focusing on the latest findings of the international Tang‑studies community, the city promptly disseminates scholars’ most recent contributions. To date, six monographs have been published, including “A Treasury of Tang Studies” and “A Collection of Stories from Tang Xianzu’s Four Dreams,” thereby exploring the academic and cultural significance of Tang Xianzu from multiple perspectives.

Committed to promoting the culture of Tang Xianzu

Over the past decade, the Fuzhou Tang Xianzu International Research Center has invited renowned scholars of Tang Xianzu studies from both China and abroad, organizing four consecutive lecture series on Tang Xianzu’s cultural legacy at prestigious institutions such as Peking University and Tsinghua University. Tang Xianzu’s culture continues to exert a powerful appeal on students and scholars alike. In 2018, when Wu Fengchu, director of the Fuzhou Tang Xianzu International Research Center and a leading expert in Tang studies, delivered a lecture at Peking University, the 200-seat auditorium was packed with nearly 300 attendees, while the live online audience reached 14,000. Meanwhile, the Center has engaged in exchanges with universities including Harvard, Cambridge, and the University of Hong Kong, inviting numerous distinguished scholars from home and abroad to Fuzhou to assess the current state and emerging trends of Linchuan culture, host lectures on Tang Xianzu’s legacy, and offer recommendations for the region’s cultural development. Additionally, the Center has collaborated with the Beijing Cao Xueqin Society on academic exchanges, jointly exploring the thematic and emotional connections between “The Peony Pavilion” and “Dream of the Red Chamber.”

Our city has also actively promoted a “cross‑temporal dialogue” between Tang Xianzu and Shakespeare, established sister‑city relationships with Stratford-upon-Avon in the United Kingdom and Alcalá de Henares in Spain, and organized touring performances of Tang Xianzu’s classic plays, such as “The Peony Pavilion,” in more than 20 countries. Scholars from the Fuzhou Tang Xianzu International Research Center have visited Beijing’s universities to deliver a series of academic and cultural lectures. Furthermore, Fuzhou has erected three cultural landmarks dedicated to Tang Xianzu overseas—each bearing the emblem of “The Peony Pavilion.”

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Our city has vigorously launched initiatives such as “Opera in Schools” and the “Citywide Opera Enthusiasts Competition,” integrating Tang Xianzu’s cultural legacy into the urban fabric and enriching the lives of residents, thereby making cultural confidence the most distinctive hallmark of Fuzhou. A Tang Xianzu Cultural Training Center has been established in Wenchangli, opera‑inspired radio exercises have been introduced in schools, and a 18‑episode television series titled “Tang Xianzu, the Sage of Eastern Opera” has been broadcast on Fuzhou TV, bringing Tang Xianzu’s culture into the everyday lives of the public.

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Editor: Deng Chao | Article Source: Fuzhou Release

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