Japanese twist to arts festival

The past four years of the Beijing Nanluoguxiang Performing Arts Festival has marked it as an event, where experimental ideas and art meet. This year, there will be a noticeable Japanese tinge to the annual event.

Over the course of the festival's 10-week run, 48 performances and a score of workshops and screenings will be held around Nanluoguxiang, one of eastern Beijing's coolest districts.

The festival will open on May 23, with Shugen-Celebration/Expression, a Japanese, Korean and Chinese joint production that responds to the massive 2011 Tohoku Earthquake in the typical Japanese "quiet theater language" of theater, dance, music and photography.