Youthful utopia

Li's core standard for selecting works is simple: "Are they genuinely trying?" Even inexperienced teams are welcome. She hopes young people will come to the festival to exchange experiences, share creativity, and grow together, and for audiences to experience theater in all its forms.

"The Daliangshan Theatre Festival feels like a utopia for theater people," says 28-year-old Jiao Wenbo, who brought a play he produced to this year's event. He runs a theater studio, with 1,000 university students from 13 campus societies, and supports them in creating original productions. Their production, The Playwright and the Character, performed at the festival, emerged from this university alliance.

Jiao is also a PhD student at Harbin Engineering University, majoring in Management Science and Engineering.

"We don't treat theater as a pathway to fame or money. We perform because we love the stage," he says.

At the festival, Jiao watched the American physical theater piece, Red Tiger Tales, which interprets ancient fables through comedy and acrobatics. The performers, non-professional actors from Vashon Island near Seattle, financed their trip to China with donations from their community.

A scene depicting hope arriving like a strawberry when life seems bleak, moved Jiao to tears. "The story isn't profound, but it resonated deeply with me," he notes.

"This is my 10th year working in theater," says Jiao, who recalls a period when academic pressure forced him to pause his work. "I felt like I lost everything." Only after a friend invited him back to the theater did he rediscover his sense of belonging. "That moment made me certain that theater is what I'll do for the rest of my life."