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.

News | H5 Tang Sha Meeting — A “Top-Tier” Convergence Across Four Centuries

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2025-12-28

More than four centuries ago, the East and the West—two radiant stars of human civilization—shone brightly in distant harmony. Tang Xianzu composed, in his Yuming Hall, “Love knows not whence it springs, yet once kindled, it burns deep”; Shakespeare, with quill in hand, penned, “Never swear by the moon.” Though mountains and rivers may separate them, their souls resonated as one.

In November just past, the 7th Tang Xianzu International Theatre Exchange Month 2025 concluded successfully in Fuzhou, Jiangxi. The event’s opening production—“The Tang-Shakespeare Encounter,” a cross‑disciplinary play co‑created by renowned artists from China and abroad—presented a dazzling theatrical feast that seamlessly blended Eastern and Western traditions, vividly illuminating the spiritual resonance between Master Tang and Master Shakespeare.

This is a rendezvous between the leading figures of East and West, and even more so, a dialogue between civilizations that transcends time and space.

This dialogue among civilizations began with a landmark initiative.

In October 2015, during his visit to the United Kingdom, President Xi Jinping stated: “Tang Xianzu and William Shakespeare were contemporaries, both passing away in 1616. China and the United Kingdom can jointly commemorate these two literary giants, thereby promoting people-to-people exchanges and deepening mutual understanding.”

With a single word as its opening, a dream‑chasing journey that spans time and space has officially begun. Since 2016, the commemorative events honoring Tang Xianzu and the International Theatre Exchange Month dedicated to him have been held seven times in Fuzhou, Jiangxi, elevating this locally rooted cultural initiative to the global stage. Fuzhou, the hometown of “the Sage of Eastern Drama” Tang Xianzu, has also established a sister‑city relationship with Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare’s birthplace.

A decade of cultural exchange and mutual learning—now, the fresh melodies of the peony are heard across the world. Let us set sail, boarding the little boat of Tang Sha and her companion, and glide along that celestial path that bridges East and West, linking past with present.