Bridging The Gaps, AHRC UK-China Creative Partnership Forum
On December 3rd 2020, AHRC UK-China Creative Partnership project Bridging the Gaps held an online forum, which researchers and industry partners across the UK and China attended.
The partnership forum was part of the third AHRC China Creative Industries annual conference. The previous two forums were held in Shanghai, and this one online due to COVID19 organized by BEYOND. It aimed to update partners project progression and discuss future planning of the project.
Dr. Haili Ma, the principal investigator of the project Bridging the Gaps warmly welcomed all UK – China partners and provided updates on the current progress of the project. She said that although the project had been suspended since July due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, progress had been made with two short documentary films as project outputs.
The two documentary films, From Textile Mill to Digital Theatre and Shanghai Yue Opera: New Fashion and Technology, were presented at the forum as well as the BEYOND conference to showcase the project. The two films demonstrated the interwoven development of the Shanghai Textile Industries and Shanghai Yueju, from a rural male sing-song form to all-female Yueju, representing China’s first female working class – the textile workers through the 20th Century. 
It highlights China’s post-industrial transitional point of the 1990s when mass redundancy across the textile industries were made, starting a painful process of searching and creating new Yueju for a new Shanghai audience. New fashion and technologies of the Shanghai textile industry and Shanghai all-female Yueju, in 21st Century China represents China’s latest creative industries development.
The Dubit Group, the largest independent gaming company in the UK, was introduced as a new partner. Mike MOUNTAIN, VP Designer at Dubit, provided an introduction to the company and their design ideas of introducing classic Chinese opera ‘The Butterfly Lovers’ as gaming for children in both Chinese and English language speaking countries. This aroused great interest amongst the partners across UK and China.
The forum gave everyone a discussion opportunity. The partners not only 
acknowledged and appreciated the efforts of others, but also contributed their ideas in the meeting. Suggestions include a joint UK-China Textile Industry exhibition, and incorporating Dubit’s Chinese opera design to develop the ROBLOX platform through virtual reality.
Through this forum, we look forward to close cooperation between partners and the development of collaboration and friendship across the UK and China.
Hosted by the School of Performance and Cultural Industries,
at the University of Leeds, this forum consolidated Bridging the Gaps partnerships across UK and China, provided a valuable platform to discuss ongoing project development and future progression.
BRIDGING THE GAPS PARTNER FORUM
News writer: Yi ZHAO (赵轶)