When East meets West on the stage: Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu

A Midsummer Night's DREAMING Under the Southern Bough made a splash in Beijing Tuesday. Students from the  University of Leeds performed a contemporary adaptation based on Chinese ancient play Nanke Ji. [Photo by Zhu Xingxin/ China Daily]

Liam Ashmore, the play's second leading male role, agreed. He said the play tells people not to be greedy. "We really think that everyone is an ant in this community (just like the play), but we sometimes needs to step out of this human world and not to be drowned up by things like gold and money."

Tang Xianzu (AD1550-1616) was one of the most well-known Chinese play writers during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1662) and one of his operas Nanke Ji tells a man's dream where he becomes the husband of a princess of the ant kingdom.