Two-Way Flow I — Going Global: Presenting the Chinese Mainland's Best Contemporary Stage Works

Established in 1960 and incorporated in 2012 as a state-owned performing arts company, Hebei Song and Dance Theater is home to four independent troupes dedicated to dance, musicals, folk music, and musical theatre, supported by planning, marketing, and production creative departments. 

In the 60 years since its founding, Hebei Song and Dance Theater has won numerous awards: the New Production Award at the 7th Wenhua Awards for the folkdance work, Xuan Yuan Emperor. Several recent works have received funding support from the China National Arts Fund, including: the dance drama Yan Zhen Qing; the folk orchestral works The Great River North of the Mountain, Hero’s Peace, The Epic of Yanzhao, and The Pear Blossom Road; the musical 18 Scenes from Spring Mountain, and the stage variety show Kites in Flight – two of which were shortlisted for outstanding productions by the fund. The folk orchestration Hero’s Peace was nominated for the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s 2022–2023 ‘Sound of the Times’ creative support scheme, while The Great Silk Road was nominated for the Culture and Tourism Bureau’s 2024–2025 edition. The theatre’s orchestra has been selected twice for the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s Outstanding Chinese Orchestra Award. The song-and-dance work A Bond with Bayingol won the 6th National Ethnic Minority Cultural Association’s Dream Award for New Creative Works, while the dance work Yan Zhen Qing was named an Outstanding National Dance Performance.

In recent years the theatre has participated in the planning, creation, and performance of major national and regional cultural events, including Spring Festival Gala performances for CCTV and the Chinese Arts Festival. It has also participated in tours and exchange programmes in the US, Italy, Greece, and Spain.

Founded in 1995 through the merging of the Shanghai People’s Art Theatre (est. 1950) and the Shanghai Youth Dramatic Troupe (est. 1957), the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre is the only state-owned theatre company dedicated to spoken drama in Shanghai. The Centre supports a comprehensive performing arts ecosystem, including project planning, stage production, storage, theatre architecture, venue management, marketing, education, and artist management.

The Centre’s 317 employees operate six theatres, which on average welcome 330,000 audience members a year. Across its 31-year history, the Centre has created nearly 400 stage productions and received numerous national, provincial, and municipal arts awards. It is also one of the. Most active theatre companies from the Chinese mainland developing international collaborations, including around 50 international co-productions to date, with its productions touring to more than 20 countries across the Asia-Pacific, Europe, and North America. The Centre also collaborates with theatres and festivals across China on co-productions.

Hunan Provincial Acrobatic Arts Theater Co., Ltd.

Originally founded in 1959, Hunan Provincial Acrobatic Arts theatre was restructured into a state-owned cultural enterprise in 2012; it is now affiliated with the Hunan Performing Arts Group. Over the past six decades, the Theatre has toured to more than 60 countries, including the US, Germany, Japan, and the UAE, to promote Chinese and Hunanese culture around the world. 

Its productions have received more than 30 major awards and international and national competitions, including the Silver Clown Award at the Monte Carlo International Circus Festival; the Golden Lion and Golden Chrysanthemum at the National Acrobatic Competition; the Golden Chestnut Grand Prix and the Ukraine International Youth Circus Festival; the Silver Award at the Australian Circus Festival; and the Bronze Idol Award at the Russian International Circus Festival. 

The Theatre has created several acclaimed productions, including The Dream Journey, Youth by Another Name, and The Fantasy Realm: Four Seasons. These works have received honours including the Hunan Provincial Five-One Project Award and the Tian Han Special Award. The Theatre has also received funding from the China National Arts Fund on four occasions and has been selected three times (including the 2025–2026 season) as a National Key Enterprise for Cultural Export.

The Theatre is driven by innovating new fusions of culture and tourism. Its Zhangjiajie International New Acrobatics and Theatre Week has generated more than 4.3 billion view and interactions across online and social media platforms.  It continues its commitment to foster cultural exchange and bringing new energy to cultural tourism.

Founded in 1979, Shenzhen Cantonese Opera Troupe is the only state-owned Cantonese opera company in Shenzhen. Over the years, the troupe has nurtured some of the leading artists in the field, including the two-time winner of the Plum Blossom Award for Chinese Theatre, Feng Gangyi, as well as Plum Blossom Award winners Zhuo Peili, Su Chunmei, and Qiongxia. The troupe is currently led by Peng Qinghua, a National First-class Performer and Plum Blossom Award winner. Its company members include: renowned wenwusheng (civil and martial male role) National First-class Performer Huang Weaken; National First-class inheritor of the Feng singing style, Xiao Yi; and other accomplished artists Tan Lanyan, Lin Haitao, Bu Meiling, and Wen Hui. 

The troupe innovates from tradition, committed to evolving Cantonese opera. Its major productions (The Legend of Chung Ying Street, A New Tale of Paifang Village, The Flag of Tuo Ge, The Wanderer in the Snowstorm, Thunderstorm, The Legend of Dongjiang River) have received numerous major national and provincial awards, including the Five-One Project Award (CPC Central Committee), the Wenhua Award (Ministry of Culture), the Plum Blossom Award (Chinese Dramatists Association), the Cao Yu Drama Award, and the Provincial Arts Festival Award for Outstanding Production. Their works have garnered wide acclaim across the Greater Bay Area, as well as in Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America. Today, the group has become an important cultural symbol for Shenzhen.

Nanjing Haixiao Cultural Media Company Ltd.

Founded in 2006, Nanjing Haixiao Cultural Media Company Limited is devoted to the development of musical theatre, devoted to excellence in musical theatre production, management, and international collaboration. Since 2020, Haixiao Culture has co-organised the Nanjian Musical Theatre Festival with the Nanjing Poly Grand Theatre. The festival has grown into one of the most influential musical theatre festivals in China, helping to foster a vibrant musical theatre culture in Nanjing and across the Yangtze River Delta. In 2019, Haixiao Culture became a co-organiser of the Shanghai Culture Square’s Chinese Original Musical Incubation Programme. Through the programme, it has supported emerging creative talent and promising new works, contributing the development of the Chinese original musical theatre sector. In 2026, Haixiao Culture’s original production, Baoyu: The Musical made its international debut as a co-closing production for the 20th Daegu International Musical Festival (South Korea), where it received the Festival Jury Award. Haixiao Culture was subsequently invited by the Korea Arts Council to co-present the Seoul presentations of the show. With its combination of international and local artistic perspectives channelled into sophisticated stagecraft, the production receives wide acclaim in both China and South Korea, marking an important milestone in the international development of Chinese original musical theatre.

Founded in 2011, Shanghai Shichen Culture specialises in high-end commercial performances and immersive experiences in Chinese. The company has produced nearly 1,000 commercial performances and immersive projects for leading luxury brands and cultural institutions worldwide, including cross-disciplinary projects, immersive spatial art, stage productions, fashion launches, and artistic banquets. Notable projects include the 2024 Hermès China immersive interactive exhibition Riding into the Unknown at the West Bund Art Center; the launch party for Louis Vuitton’s Louis the Ship in Shanghai, and Lancôme’s 90th-anniversary immersive celebrity performance The Happiness Express in 2025. Its international brand partners include Hermés, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, BVLGARI, Boucheron, Fendi, Porsche, and more than 50 other leading global brands. 

Through its work, the company continues to explore new ways of combining cutting-edge technology with the performing arts, committed to developing immersive storytelling, spatial experiences, and technological expression. In 2025, it established the Taixu Fantasyland Culture & Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., to further develop this arm of its work.

ShengYang ZhiDi (Beijing) Cultural Media Company, Ltd.

Founded in 2016 with investment led by Taihe Music Group, ShengYang ZhiDi is an arts and commercial platform dedicated to ethnic music and the revitalisation of intangible cultural heritage. The platform’s work centres around preserving and promoting traditional Chinese arts and culture, through sharing and evolving ethnic minority music, discovering musicians, and developing promoting musical forms rooted in indigenous traditions around the world. The company has signed and collaborated with numerous ethnic minority musicians and inheritors of intangible music heritage. To date, it has released two original albums and more than 40 EPs and singles, with nearly 80 new ethnic-pop music works in total. The platform has presented the new ethnic music concert “From Death to Resurrection” while its Future Ethnic Orchestra has performed at the Chinese Cultural Dinner at the World Economic Forum in Davos. It has also planned and co-produced the resident show ShengYang ZhiDi Zhangjiajie, and produced the stage work Born with Pride. 

The company has earned coverage from major media including CCTV and the People’s Daily. Its artists and productions have appeared on multiple televised gala programmes, variety shows, and short-video platforms. Through these activities, the company has helped introduce ethnic music to younger audiences and bring minority music and dance into contemporary popular culture and the social-media landscape, making traditional Chinese culture more accessible to a wider public.