Recently, the 2016 Shanghai International Shakespeare Forum themed “Shakespeare and Cultural Change”was held at Donghua University. Cosponsored by the College of Foreign Languages and the Shakespeare Institute, the forum welcomed a gathering of over 60 domestic and foreign scholars from over 40 institutions worldwide, arousing wide concern from several social media such as Guangming Daily, Shanghai Education Television Station, China Youth Online, China News.com and ScienceNet.cn.
In the opening ceremony, Yang Lingui, the Director of the Shakespeare Institute of Donghua University stated that Shakespeare’s involvement in the construction of cultural significance of an era with his superb art serves as both the key to his works’ success and the cause for them to be disseminated constantly and remain enduring. He also pointed out that the process for Shakespeare’s works to be transmitted and studied around the world certifies that our understanding of Shakespeare connotations keeps varying with the needs and change of the era culture.
During the plenary, Prof. Tom Bishop from the University of Auckland delivered a theme speech titled “Shakespeare and Cultural Change,” Prof. Susan Bennett from the University of Calgary “Shakespeare: In 2016, the World’s Best-known Cultural Brand?”, Prof. Valerie Wayne from the University of Hawaii “The Changing Colors of Othello,” and Prof. Hyon-u Lee from the Soon Chun Hyang University “Korean Shakespeare Renaissance and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
The forum specially includes the phrase of expert discussion and group discussion, during which more than 40 Shakespeare experts were involved in the terrific exchange and discussion in terms of Shakespeare’s aesthetic thought and the change of literary criticism, the translation, communications and cultural influence of Shakespeare’s works, Shakespeare’s creation and era culture, etc.
The “Shanghai International Shakespeare Forum” has been successfully held twice since 2011 and gradually functions as the guidance of domestic Shakespeare research. In recent years, Donghua University has begun to lead the domestic Shakespeare research and gone international in Shakespeare research. It has been granted with two national social science funds and program funding of provincial level. The publication of “Shakespeare Studies in China” has become a symbolic achievement in China’s Shakespeare studies. Currently the new book series of Shakespeare studies have been compiled into volumes and will be printed and published by the Commercial Press.
