French cultural festival in China resumes with an eclectic repertoire of events in 14 cities, Cheng Yuezhu reports.

The ongoing Festival Croisements presents a wide range of activities, including dance, concerts and book events. (SU WEI / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Festival Croisements returns this year with an eclectic repertoire of events from the fields of music, drama, visual arts, cinema, dance, books and fashion.

Organized by the French embassy in China and Institut Francais, the festival, after a year of suspension due to the COVID-19 outbreak, began on April 21. It runs through July 31, with some 78 events being hosted in 14 cities in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu in Sichuan province and Wuhan in Hubei province.

If bookshops have a special section for graphic novels, more people will know that they are in fact books that provide a visual experience, almost like watching films

Li Kunwu, illustrator

The festival aims to promote cultural exchanges between France and China.

Laurent Bili, French ambassador to China, says each year the festival provides Chinese and French artists new opportunities to collaborate and highlight their work.

This year's festival also proves the vitality of creativity and an urge for bilateral cultural exchanges, Bili adds.

As 2021 marks the centenary of the death of French composer Camille Saint-Saens, the Chinese musical group DNA Trio, comprising pianist Zhang Jialin, violinist Zhang Jingye and cellist Song Zhao, together with composer Zhou Jing, will present a tribute concert at the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing on June 24.

The works of Saint-Saens, along with those of French composers Cesar Franck and Hector Berlioz, will also be available online, with a concert performed by Orchestre National de France at the Paris Philharmonic concert hall, which will be streamed on Chinese platforms Bilibili and Sina Weibo to accommodate a wider audience amid COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Works created jointly by Chinese and French artists will be highlighted at this year's festival.

Laurent Bili, French ambassador to China. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Qfun Theater, a troupe dedicated to children's drama education in China since 2013, has worked alongside Hybridites France-Chine, an organization founded in France that promotes France-China artistic exchanges, in adapting Flowers in the Mirror by Chinese novelist Li Ruzhen (1763-1830) into a stage play. Performed entirely by children, the play uses puppetry and masquerading to realize surreal scenes and plots of the classic fantasy.

Other coproductions at this year's festival include Cosmogonies and Metamorphoses, a play combining traditional Chinese shadow puppetry and contemporary French visual arts, and a dance choreographed by Chinese dancer Xiao Ke and French choreographer Jerome Bel.

Festival Croisements 2021 will introduce the fifth edition of La Fete des Bulles in response to a growing interest in comic books in China. Related events will begin in Beijing on May 29 and end in Shanghai on June 6, presenting comics and graphic novels from China and France, with illustrators signing their books and sharing experiences in creating them, as well as holding a workshop on comic translation.

The exhibition Trees is one of the highlighted events of this year's Festival Croisements. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

The representative for the book event is illustrator Li Kunwu.

"It's common knowledge that many Chinese adults consider comics as an equivalent of children's books and find it difficult to take comics seriously. If bookshops have a special section for graphic novels, more people will know that they are in fact books that provide a visual experience, almost like watching films," Li says.

Fashion is a field that is being presented for the first time at Festival Croisements. A serial project, entitled Fashion Rendezvous, will be launched to promote emerging young designers who integrate art and sustainability into their designs. The Franco-Chinese Fashion Night will take place at the Sea World Culture and Art Center in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, on May 9, presenting the fashion brands Sankuanz and Andrea Crews.

Representatives for this year's festival are Shangguan Zhe, the founder of Sankuanz, Chinese actress Tong Liya and actor Jin Dong.

Contact the writer at chengyuezhu@chinadaily.com.cn