Shakespeare in Hong Kong

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

Folger Shakespeare Library

Arts

4.8 • 879 Ratings

🗓️ 1 July 2015

⏱️ 24 minutes

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Summary

"Last thing he did, dear queen, He kissed—the last of many doubled kisses— This orient pearl. His speech sticks in my heart." ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA (1.5.45-48) Hong Kong, a former British colony, has been staging and teaching Shakespeare plays for nearly 150 years. In this episode from our Shakespeare Unlimited podcast, we see how Shakespeare is stretched to tell a story of contemporary Hong Kong and colonialism in two important adaptations of ROMEO AND JULIET—"Crocodile River" and "Young Lovers". Then, in the 1980s, a local tradition of performing Shakespeare plays begins to merge with another art form—opera. Alexa Huang, Professor of English of George Washington University, is an expert on Sino-European cultural exchange and the globalization of Shakespeare. Adele Lee is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Greenwich in England and the author of numerous articles about Shakespeare on film in Hong Kong. Huang and Lee are interviewed by Neva Grant. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published July 1, 2015. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Richard Paul; Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster and Esther Ferington. We had help from Laura Green at the Sound Company.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited.
0:04.2	I'm Michael Whitmore, the Folgers director.
0:07.0	This podcast is called This Orient Pearl.
0:11.0	The Folger is home to the world's largest Shakespeare collection.
0:14.6	It's also a place for us to question and explore Shakespeare's legacy.
0:19.2	That legacy includes recognizing how Shakespeare as a touchstone for
0:23.6	English culture and identity was long used as an instrument of colonial indoctrination as the
0:29.3	British built their empire. This podcast is one in a series looking at the role of Shakespeare in
0:34.9	former British colonies. It takes us to Hong Kong, which, as you'll hear,
0:39.3	has been staging and teaching Shakespeare plays for nearly 150 years.
0:44.3	Our guests are two Shakespeare scholars with a deep knowledge of the history and cultural significance of Shakespeare in Hong Kong.
0:51.3	Alexa Wang, professor of English at George Washington University, is an expert in
0:56.7	Sino-European cultural exchange and the globalization of Shakespeare.
1:01.3	Adele Lee is a senior lecturer in English literature at the University of Greenwich in England
1:06.3	and the author of numerous articles about Shakespeare on film in Hong Kong.
1:11.6	They are interviewed by Neva Grant.
1:14.5	Alexa, if you could put me in a theater in Hong Kong today,
1:18.8	imagine we're sitting in the audience and watching a Shakespeare play.
1:22.7	Today and the present date, what would it look like?
1:25.1	Who would be on stage and who would be with us in the
1:27.5	audience? I would say we would have well-heeled audiences around us. Some of them may be there
1:36.0	to be seen rather than to see a play. What does it look like? I'll give an analogy. It looks like a Royal Shakespeare Company production.
	...

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