Theatre Owner Wang Xiang Brings Art To China's Masses
By: Alan Henry Oct. 23, 2017
According to scmp.com: Wang Xiang founded Penghao Theatre, located in an alleyway in Beijing, in 2008. Much of Wang's time over the last year has been spent on fundraising endeavors for the theatre, rather than planning programs. This change came when the owner of the property told Wang to either buy him out or move out. The asking price for the space was 40 million yuan ($6 million US dollars).
The Penghao Theatre is China's first non-government, literary theatre. It is a 400-square-meter, 100 year old building that seats 100 people. The programs staged there range from home-grown works to foreign plays. Since opening, the Penghao Theatre has staged over 600 works with over 3,000 performances.
Wang said that the theatre has exceeded any expectations he had for the space, and that in less than a decade they saw over 300,000 visitors. Wang had no previous theatre experience, and came into the world of the arts from a career as a dentist. Wang says that at that time in China, spiritual life was not keeping up with the expansion of the economy, adding that the theatre was his "'resistance to the deprivation of souls.'"
The Penghao Theatre takes its name from a Chinese poem that describes the lives of ordinary people, which couples with Wang's belief that theatre should not just be for the elite of a community.
One of his biggest struggles, Wang said, was winning over the people due to things like censorship and capitalism. Wang also stated that, '"90 per cent of people are fed cheap cultural products that are full of entertainment if not lies.'"
Wang hopes the Penghao will help with opening people's minds and ways of thinking. They are well on their way, with the Penghao hosting "60 to 70 percent" of local, Western-style productions.
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