We can conclude that Confucius is an arrogant man, compared with Socrates, who lived in the same period and enjoyed the same status. Socrates, by comparison, enjoyed discussing questions with his students. My cross-talk is based on Confucius' dislike for discussion. Some audience will question the authenticity of the quotation. They will go to check the Analects of Confucius and try to understand the quotation and the character of Confucius.

Does this cross-talk also mirror some problems in education?

Liu Yang: Yes. In my textbook in middle school, there was one chapter called History of Chinese thinking, compiling only the quotes of famous people. We were asked to remember those quotes and the birth year and death year of Confucius. Therefore, we walked out of that course without knowing anything the famous people did. I try to make fun of this teaching model in the cross-talk.

Translating "Comment ca va?" into "Have you had your meal?"

How have you translated or created your own scripts?

Xavier Froment: The majority of our plays are based on foreign scripts. We have to translate and revise them ourselves since there are practically no Chinese versions available. For example, while La Mère is originally a French comic dialogue, we put its context as China. And I myself have participated in the translation of the script.

Liu Yang: Some of our scripts are very well translated while others have small mistakes. Confucius is well received because the script is originally written in Chinese. Some French plays are also well received because of the good translation. We stick to using the colloquial language in translation.

Xavier Froment: When Chinese people greet each other, they usually say "have you had your meal," which is an equivalent to "comment ca va" in French. But foreign scripts translated by the Central Academy of Drama translate the French greeting word-for-word into "how is going," which does not conform to Chinese people's etiquette. It feels stiff.

(This article is originally written in French, translated by Li Li)