David Symington: Setting the stage for the integration of East and West

Drama education expert David Symington from London, known as "Si Mingcheng" in Chinese, has lived in China for nearly 20 years. His long experience of living in China has given him a unique and profound understanding of Chinese culture.

Cultural complex starting from Ink Wash Painting

Twenty years ago, David Symington buried himself into studying square Chinese characters like天地玄黄、宇宙洪荒(The sky is dark blue and the earth is yellow, for the world comes into being under the chaotic state of ignorance), never imagining that he would one day build a bridge between two hemispheres and two cultures with 26 letters. While studying Chinese culture, he felt that those ancient people whom he admired and who achieved a lot in the history of human civilization exchange, seemed to be nodding and smiling at him from afar, including famous Monk Jianzhen in the Tang Dynasty, Italian missionary Matteo Ricci and Italian painter Giuseppe Castiglione.

David Symington's bond with China appears to have been destined when he was a child. "I remember when I was about four or five years old, I had a children's storybook that included a Chinese story, and I was fascinated by the Chinese ink wash painting illustrations in it." The story is called "the Legend of the Blue Willow" and was written in UK in the 19th century. Different from the Western painting style, the illustrations caught his attention. Later, David Symington learned that this kind of painting, overflowing with the classical beauty of the East, is called "ink wash painting".

The mountains, water, clouds, fog and, of course, a transcendent "fairy aura" are all vividly brought to the viewers through the quietly elegant images and proper space arrangement, sparkling much imagination. Ink and wash gave him a totally new mysterious experience distinguishing from animated films or other forms of painting. As a result, young David Symington opened a new aesthetic door and became interested in Chinese aesthetics.

Later, when David Symington came to China, he discovered more things he was "hooked on", such as food, tea, etc. He found that Chinese people are all artists who know how to live. And this artistic temperament that goes deep into life is closely related to the Chinese concept of aesthetics and attitude towards life.

Building a stage that integrates East and West

Thanks to the long-standing influence of drama, David Symington has developed a strong interest in history and culture. During his years at Oxford University and Fudan University, he systematically studied the civilizational lineage of Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and Ancient China, and eventually determined to come to China.

Today, the "son of the British" has become the "son-in-law of the Chinese". After 16 years of "immersion experiences" in China, David Symington has developed an equal sense of identity with both Chinese and Western cultures.

However, there is still a gap in mutual understanding between the two parties. Desiring to donate his time and efforts for this, David Symington made up his mind to use his beloved drama art to bridge the gap between Chinese and Western communication.

In 2021, he turned classic well-known Chinese stories into the stage plays and created Stories of China Performed in English. In 2022, he rearranged world-famous Western fairy tales into plays to present to Chinese youth.

In order to meet the needs of Chinese language learners from all over the world to understand the colorful Chinese culture, the China Stories on Stage in the cultural series "The World Tells China Stories" launched by CLEC contains 18 classic Chinese stories, ranging from ancient legends such as "The Great Zodiac Race" "The Monster Nian" to historical allusions such as "Wang Zhaojun and the Plum Blossom" and "Su Wu Tends Sheep". There are also classic fragments of Chinese literary masterpieces such as "Wu Song fought the tiger" and "Borrowing Arrows from the Enemy".

As the editor-in-chief of the book series China Stories on Stage, David Symington said that the cultural content of traditional Chinese stories is very deep, and it is infused with the worldview, morality and values of Chinese culture. The book uses a bilingual script, close to the actual needs and expression habits of learners, and also provides learners with a reference for drama rehearsals through accompanying videos and other digital means. Presenting traditional culture in a modern way can help give foreign friends a better understanding of these spiritual treasures that are most cherished by the Chinese and have inspired generations, while being able to break away from the limitations of the book through drama performances, and adding contextuality to the language material allows Chinese language learners to be exposed to as much vivid language as possible in the learning process.

In 2023, Shaanxi: A Cradle of Chinese Civilization, the first book of the "China in Stories" cultural series organized by the Center for Language Education and Cooperation (CLEC), was released. As the English senior editor of the series, David Symington said that the books contain many vivid and interesting stories that can really guide overseas Chinese language learners and Chinese culture fans into Shaanxi and know more about Shaanxi.

He has been actively trying to convey the beautiful and profound culture of China to the world.