Cao Yu's classic Peking Man returns to capital

In 1980, Stan Lai Shengchuan, then a 26-year-old student from Taiwan, who was pursuing his PhD in dramatic arts at the University of California, Berkeley, attended a talk by Chinese playwright Cao Yu (1910-96) about Chinese theater at the school.

Cao Yu, whose real name is Wan Jiabao, the founding member and first president of the Beijing People's Art Theater, was accompanied by Ying Ruocheng (1929-2003), the famous actor, director and translator who would later become China's vice-minister of culture. Lai had the chance to talk to them and got to know more about the work of the Beijing People's Art Theater.

"It was a lifelong influence on me," recalls Lai. "I was not so sure about my future in theater, since most of my friends in Taiwan studied science and technology. They didn't understand why I wanted to learn drama. But Cao said in his speech that theater was like a language without borders. He also shared his experiences of writing for contemporary Chinese theater, which were very inspiring."