Intercultural Chinese Dance Artist in the UK: Interview with Joanna Hangyu Zhou

UK-China Performing Arts (UKCPA), one of the UK’s most prominent Chinese performing arts organizations, plays a crucial role in bridging Chinese and British performing arts cultures. Joanna Hangyu Zhou, the founder of UKCPA and a former national-level dancer with a permanent position at China National Opera & Dance Drama Theater, has emerged as a leading international dance artist in the UK. Following her graduation with a master’s degree from the University of Roehampton in 2016, where she specialized in dance studies, Joanna embarked on a journey of exploring innovations in intercultural Chinese and British performing arts through artistic practice and education.

The realm of intercultural performances has been a subject of exploration and research by artists and scholars worldwide, particularly in the wake of globalization post-World War II. Figures such as Ric Knowles and Peter Brooks, among others, have delved into this domain, albeit with a focus primarily on Europe and America. Intercultural performing arts with Chinese elements have often been overlooked due to complex political and cultural contexts, as noted by Dr. Thorpe Ashley, the director of the Center of Asian Theatre Studies at Royal Holloway University of London, in his book Performing China on the London Stage. Joanna’s work serves to address this gap by cultivating her unique artistic style of pragmatic intercultural performing arts through both her educational endeavors and commercial practices.

During my interview with Joanna at the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, following her presentation at the sub-unit event of the Fourth Chinese Culture Carnival organized by her and her organization, she emphasized that participation in international arts festivals transcends individual artistic showcases to become collaborative experiments in intercultural encounters. This collaborative approach expands the stage beyond temporal and spatial boundaries, allowing for diverse voices from artists and their respective cultures to be heard. Joanna’s establishment of the Carnival’s sub-platform facilitates a closer engagement with the broader creative economy of contemporary Europe, fostering a dynamic relationship between grassroots artistic communities and global cultural policies. In this way, the collaborative platform emerges as a practical method for intercultural arts practice.

The Fourth Chinese Cultural Carnival at Edinburgh Festival Fringe featured a range of performances, including dance troupes representing the UK’s Chinese diaspora, international students from China studying in the UK, Chinese performing arts ensembles, and custom-tailored performances for the carnival. In our post-carnival interview, Joanna shared insights into her utilization of intercultural methods in arts education. When instructing British students in Chinese traditional dance, she observed their initial confusion stemming from differing conventions in performing arts between the two cultures. To bridge this gap, Joanna integrates realistic settings and materials from the British context into her teaching methodology. For instance, she conducted a Chinese performing arts workshop at the London Science Museum, intertwining the museum’s collections with the five elements of Chinese traditional culture to teach students the expressive movements associated with these elements in Chinese dance. By integrating Chinese culture with the immediate surroundings of the teaching environment, Joanna fosters an intercultural flow that enhances communication between teachers and students.