Pioneering Chinese theater targets global audience with 'new codification' style

Ding Yiteng has been hailed as "the pioneering young theater director of the new generation in contemporary China." His acting performances have received acclaim from renowned theater directors such as China's Meng Jinghui and Italy's Eugenio Barba. As a director, he attempts to fuse Chinese opera techniques with contemporary theater.

Ding says Western audiences are growing tired of watching kung fu, Chinese opera, and other traditional performances that have been replayed for decades. He believes they may be more interested in how young Chinese think about the world, which is why he is focusing on theaters that bring these contemporary ideas to the fore.

Born in Beijing in 1991, Ding is an emerging artist in Chinese theatrical circles. He was fascinated by the stage from an early age. In middle school, Ding appeared in his first play, "Beauty and the Beast," based on the novel by French author Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont.

At college, he became hooked on theater and devoted himself to performing. After graduation, he formed a drama troupe and adapted French playwright Jean Genet's "The Maid." In 2014, the play was staged at the 2nd Wuzhen Theatre Festival. It caught the attention of world-acclaimed director Eugenio Barba, founder of the avant-garde theater group Odin Teatret in Denmark. At the master's invitation, Ding studied with the Danish theater company in 2015, becoming the first Chinese actor in the troupe's 50-year history.

Ding says his experience there opened new windows of opportunity. He got to see troupes perform from Denmark, France, and the UK, which encouraged him to create a new brand of theater in China.

After his stint at the Odin Teatret, Ding studied Chinese dramas and reinterpreted traditional plays. In 2016, he made his directorial debut with an adaptation of the classic Yuan Dynasty tale "Dou E Yuan," or "Injustice to Tou'O." Ding starred as the lead character, Dou E, a woman wrongly convicted of murder by a corrupt court official.