{"id":5102,"date":"2016-01-16T07:50:17","date_gmt":"2016-01-16T07:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/?p=5102\/"},"modified":"2017-08-29T01:53:23","modified_gmt":"2017-08-29T01:53:23","slug":"alison-friedman-talks-performing-arts-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/cn\/alison-friedman-talks-performing-arts-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Alison Friedman Talks Performing Arts in China"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Check out the full article by the Paulson Institute <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paulsoninstitute.org\/events\/2016\/01\/21\/alison-friedman-talks-performing-arts-in-china-at-paulson-institute-event\/\" target=\"_blank\">at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dd8IZ-gTJIo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"wpsdc-drop-cap\">W<\/span>hen Alison Friedman founded Ping Pong Productions in 2010, her goal was \u201cto bring China and the world together through the performing arts.\u201d After half a decade of touring Chinese performances across the world and bringing global productions to Chinese cities like Shenzhen and Shanghai, Friedman has become a true insider in China\u2019s performing arts world.<\/p>\n<p>The breaking up of the state-managed economic model has led to a rapid commercialization of China\u2019s performing arts, Friedman told a crowd gathered at the Paulson Institute\u2019s Contemporary China Speakers Series on the University of Chicago campus. Such commercialization has caused massive change in the Chinese arts world.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2537\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2537\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2537\" src=\"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/PaulsonInsitute1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Alison Friedman, delivers the Contemporary China Speakers Series lecture in the Quadrangle Club library Thursday, Jan. 21, 2016, on the University of Chicago campus. The event is co-sponsored by Chicago Harris and the Paulson Institute. (Photo by Joel Wintermantle)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/PaulsonInsitute1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/PaulsonInsitute1-219x146.jpg 219w, https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/PaulsonInsitute1-50x33.jpg 50w, https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/PaulsonInsitute1-112x75.jpg 112w, https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/PaulsonInsitute1.jpg 725w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-2537\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alison Friedman, delivers the Contemporary China Speakers Series lecture in the Quadrangle Club library Thursday, Jan. 21, 2016, on the University of Chicago campus. The event is co-sponsored by Chicago Harris and the Paulson Institute. (Photo by Joel Wintermantle)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Cities have been building modern theaters and symphony halls, Friedman said, but a lack of government and philanthropic financial support means that the arts are mostly reliant on box office sales. As a result, venues are only willing to host big-name stars, meaning independent artists are forced to rely on touring internationally, depriving the Chinese people of homegrown performances.<\/p>\n<p>The artists that Friedman helps perform in China are bucking that trend. On one 2014 tour, 90% of each audience stayed after the show for a post-show discussion. Recently, an independent Chinese dance troupe sold out a week\u2019s worth of shows in Beijing, their first major performances in China. \u201cThe problem in China isn\u2019t the performer or the audience,\u201d said Friedman, \u201cit\u2019s the infrastructure that links the two.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately for China\u2019s independent performers, government censorship of the arts doesn\u2019t seem to be a significant barrier. As Friedman put it, \u201cthe [censorship] pendulum swings, but the general view from above is \u2018If you don\u2019t bother us, we wont bother you.\u2019 The government usually doesn\u2019t think that performance arts can create a revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In Friedman\u2019s experience, the performing arts can actually be an effective vehicle to talk about issues that typically cant be tackled head-on in Chinese society. The Ministry of Culture, she noted, generally understands that \u201cthe best way to bring attention to something is to censor it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Check out the full article by the Paulson Institut<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized-cn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/amf-at-paulson.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5102"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6322,"href":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5102\/revisions\/6322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}