As for the music of my new play The Assassin, Tan Dun had expressed a willingness to cooperate with me many years ago. The first and foremost rule in my plays is that the music should be suitable, or say compatible, to the style. To be honest, the music in my previous plays was "stolen" by me from a wide range of composers. For example, I would use music by Qu Xiaosong, Tan Dun and Guo Wenjing in plays with Chinese elements. My understanding is that we would hurt the composer as well as his work if we insisted on editing music that was obviously incompatible to the play. As a result, I have never invited a composer for my plays. But things have changed now. Tan Dun generously contributed his music to The Assassin.

The Beijing People's Art Theatre took the play The Teahouse to Washington D.C., New York, Houston and Los Angeles in 2005. This is widely regarded as the move that opened the door for other Chinese plays to perform overseas. What are your impressions on what happened?

It was a cultural exchange program between the United States and China, and a memorial for the late Jiao Juyin, a renowned director with Beijing People's Art Theatre. The Teahouse, which he'd originally directed, is considered a milestone of Chinese theatre. Given that it was a memorial for Jiao, I was the arts advisor rather than the director, although I had directed a new version of The Teahouse several years ago.

Fortunately, the play was welcomed warmly and acclaimed by audiences, academic critics and the media alike. Three factors contributed to its success. Firstly, there are plenty of Chinese, whether migrant or aboriginal, in the United States; they have no access to Chinese mainland theatre and the play gave them a sense of familiarity. Secondly, the play, enacted in a Beijing-style teahouse was deeply engrossing and visually stunning, revealing to the audience a broad panorama of society. Thirdly, the stellar cast of about 30, led by Liang Guanhua, Pu Cunxin, and Yang Lixin, gave a brilliant master class in ensemble acting. The audience was totally fascinated by their performance.

Since the mid-1980s you have been invited to overseas cultural and academic exchanges, through which you met with international theatre masters such as Peter Brooks from Britain, Tadashi Suzuki from Japan, and so on. What are their impressions on Chinese theatre? Did these meetings give you greater insight into serving your creation better?

As far as I know, theatre abroad, European theatre in particular, has little knowledge of Chinese theatre. This is partly because theatre there, which originated in ancient Greece, was rooted in Europe for centuries. Chinese theatre, by contrast, had no access to the trends and reforms in European theatre until the 1980s. The only theatre theorist that we were exposed to was Stanislav Roudavski. No wonder some European theatre professionals are totally unfamiliar with Cao Yu, the most prestigious theatre writer in China. Several factors are responsible for such an embarrassing phenomenon--for instance, the problem of translation, and the fact that some plays recommended by Chinese cultural officials are not qualified in terms of aesthetics.

I've seldom gone abroad to attend cultural exchanges in recent years. Instead, I stay here to direct plays.

There was a cultural exchange that happened in 1990, which I regret not attending. William Shakespeare's Hamlet, produced by the Lin Zhaohua Working Office with only nine staff in it, was invited to the Munich Theatre Festival in Germany. Coincidentally, Peter Brooks, the well-known British theatre and film director, was presenting The Tempest, another play by William Shakespeare, at the Festival too. Two plays by Shakespeare, one from the East and another from the West, would be debuted at the same time! It was actually a great honor not only for me but also for the country. Unfortunately, we failed to make it there.

As for the communication between international directors and me, I always find inspiration and broader perspectives. I have been to European countries, such as France and Britain, to attend theatre festivals, big and small.

What impressed me most is that my Western counterpart has a more active and insightful thinking into theatre writing. The environment and development of theatre in Europe, by and large, are better and brighter than in China. However, Chinese theatre is not inferior to its European counterpart, and some plays can even compete with them.

There always seem to be barriers in language and culture when Chinese theatre go abroad. Do you have any suggestions for better "localization"?

It can be said that theatre is a kind of art without any boundaries. It is true that American audiences might not understand the language of Poet Li Bai; it is also true that they will still enjoy the opera, because everyone can perceive what it expresses: the contradictions within a human being and his helplessness in the face of destiny.

Profile of Lin Zhaohua

Born in Tianjin in 1936, Lin Zhaohua entered the Beijing People's Art Theatre as an actor, and then turned director. He was vice president of the Beijing People's Art Theatre between 1984 and 1998, and now holds the title of head of the Theatre Studies Center, Peking University. His productions, ranging from play to opera, are considered to be "avant-garde" compared to traditional theatre styles. His plays, including Hamlet, The Beijingers, Absolute Signal, etc. have garnered high praise both at home and abroad.