Supported by:

The Mercers’ Company
The Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation
Hackney Parochial Charities

CHINA NOW – the UK’s largest ever festival of Chinese culture – takes place in 2008 to coincide with the Chinese New Year and continues through to the Beijing Olympics.

With over 800 events nationwide, CHINA NOW will showcase the very best of modern Chinese society and culture. 

Original design drawings for Confucius Says by Neil Irish.

HMDT’s new large-scale project is a Chinese adventure which culminates in performances of the premiere of an opera at The Hackney Empire on July 3 and 4 2008.

HMDT has been invited by the East Hackney Schools’ Consortium Education Action Zone to create and produce a new opera for 9 Hackney schools to perform based on a Chinese theme, which will incorporate whole school involvement in cross-curricular work, art and design and dance.

The analects of Confucius are blended with Chinese folk-tale to create a new children's opera. The Chinese Mother Goddess Nü Wa challenges Gong Gong the spirit of the water, and Jurong, the spirit of fire to redress the balance of yin and yang in the human beings she creates out of the clay of the Yellow River. Their battle of wits consists of six tales designed to persuade her which of them she should favour in her recipe for the human soul.

3000 children are involved in the development of the new work including composition workshops, design tasks to create Chinese elements of set and props used in the production as well as a range of curricular activities and workshops with Chinese artists. An exhibition of work including a large terracotta army will be presented at The Assembly Rooms. Parents will be involved through a costume course and teachers are joining the staff choir to perform in the work. Over 300 children will join them, 3 professional singers and a chamber orchestra to perform Confucius Says at The Hackney Empire.

The schools participating in the project include: Berger Primary School, Daubeney Primary School, Lauriston Primary School, Morningside Primary School, Orchard Primary School, St Dominic’s Primary School, Ickburgh and Downsview Special Educational Needs Schools, Wentworth Nursery School.