Video: Alison Friedman Discusses China’s Performing Arts in the 21st Century

Alison spoke on February 13, 2013 at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Click here to view the event.

Covering a historic arc that reaches from the Cultural Revolution to the 2008 Olympic Games, Alison Friedman looked at how China is searching for a new globalized contemporary identity through music, dance and theater. Examples of artists navigating this search include world-famous classical musicians like Lang Lang and Tan Dun as well as less well-known underground ‘Chinese indie’ musicians such as Xiao He and the performing artist collective ZuHe Niao.

Ms. Friedman also addressed how performing artists are combining traditional Chinese forms with new influences from the west – or not! – as well as the role of international partners in the field, including festivals, collaborators, funding bodies, and Embassies, and how the international community is affecting China's contemporary performing arts scene, for better or worse (in sickness and in health….)

Alison M. Friedman is the founding director of Ping Pong Productions, a producing and consulting organization headquartered in Beijing with the mission of cultural diplomacy. Clients include TAO Dance Theater, Mark Morris Dance Group, the U.S Embassy in China, the British Council, Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, and Los Angeles Theatre Works. As director of Ping Pong Productions, Ms. Friedman works closely with Chinese and international governments and arts organizations to facilitate collaborations, tours, and lasting artistic relationships.

Fluent in Mandarin Chinese and political negotiations, Ms. Friedman has worked in the performing arts in China for more than a decade. She served as international director of the Beijing Modern Dance Company, general manager of Oscar-winning composer Tan Dun's company Parnassus Productions, Inc., and as a producer and host on Chinese national radio and television programs.

Ms. Friedman graduated Phi Beta Kappa/magna cum laude from Brown University with a degree in Chinese Literature/Literary Translation. She was a Fulbright fellow to China, an arts management fellow at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., and a fellow of the International Society for the Performing Arts.

An expert in China's developing arts market, Ms. Friedman lectures internationally in both English and Mandarin Chinese, including keynotes at the National Committee on US-China Relations, Asia Society, Brown University, People’s University of China, China International Performing Arts Fair Guangzhou, Fulbright Association 31st Annual Conference, and Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts. She has contributed articles and chapters to journals and collections published in the United States, China, and Europe. Ms. Friedman has been cited as an expert on Chinese performing arts by the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and China Daily.

Read about Alison’s work in the New York Times and China Daily.

Alison also helped make the Top Secret tour in China possible. Click here to view the videos from the U.S.-China Institute symposium on the play, which generated considerable debate in China about the role of the press.

Click here to view "US Artistic Ambassador to China: Ping Pong Productions' Alison Friedman," published by Asia Pacific Arts.

This video is also available on the USCI YouTube Channel.