CAO Yu was the most accomplished dramatist in the history of Chinese modern drama. His representative works include Thunderstorm, Sunrise, The Wilderness and Peking Man. As an initiator of the Chinese New Culture Movement, he enjoys equal popularity with LU Xun, GUO Moruo, MAO Dun, BA Jin and LAO She. CAO Yu was a leading authority in Chinese modern drama and a theatre educator. He served successively as a member of and Executive Chairman of the Standing Committee of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Executive Director and Vice Chairman of the China Theatre Association, a council member of the China Writers Association and Chairman of the Beijing Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Vice President and Honorary President of the Central Academy of Drama, and President of the Beijing People’s Art Theatre. Every character in his writing is unforgettable. In 1934, his debut drama, Thunderstorm, was published, and this is of immense significance in the history of Chinese modern drama. Its publication implied that Chinese modern drama had achieved maturity, and Mr. CAO Yu was therefore honoured as the “Shakespeare of the East”.

WANG Keran is a director and playwright and Artistic Director of Magnificent Culture. He is a recipient of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de France. He is one of the most representative Chinese figures on the world theatre stage, according to the media.

As a director, his representative works include Magnificent Culture dramas Crocodile (written by MO Yan), You and Me, Seven Magic Steps in Theatre, A Shakespearean Adventure for Young Lads, How Are You, and others.

As a revival director, his representative works include Ghetto, Magnificent Culture A Dream Like a Dream, serial dramas Thunderstorm and Thunderstorm II, etc.

As a playwright, his representative works include Love Letter, Who’s Gonna be Daisy’s Groom?, film Song of the Stray Dog, etc.

As an executive producer, executive presenter and managing producer, his representative works include Les Misérables, Thunderstorm, Thunderstorm II, Watch TV With Me, No. 1 Village on Taiwan Island, A Dream Like a Dream, I Take Your Hand in Mine, The Seagull, Die Winterreise, Village, The New Wilderness, Peking Man, Ghetto, Ponzi Scheme, Do You Still Play the Guitar, and others.

In 2016, WANG Keran brought in the Gesher Theatre Israel’s “signature production” Village and staged it for promotion in four Chinese key cities. In 2018, he introduced a French drama, Saigon, which was awarded as the Best Drama of the Year at the end of that year by New York Times.

WANG Kerang put forward a unique set of intrinsic values on theatre production, i.e., “Emotional consumption is a productive force”. Then he pointed out that “the path to values is value itself’. With this, he spent 16 years expanding the market influence of high-grade serious theatrical works in China, greatly popularising the theatre arts among the general public in the fields of art and ideology. Thus, the value of theatre has been realised in the contemporary socio-economic and living environments. By sticking to the path of industrialising theatre, he upholds his own theatrical vision and willpower.

Magnificent Culture, led by Mr. WANG Keran, is a preferred partner for highly accomplished artists from home and abroad. It has reached cooperation with LAN Tianye, WAN Fang (CAO Yu’s daughter), Yuri Yeremin (Russia), Ramni Kuzmanetis (Lithuania), Jean Bellorini, President of the Théâtre National Populaire, Jean Varela, President of the Printemps des comédiens, Anaistamo Martane, a renowned French artist, Joshua Sobol, a greatly eminent Israeli playwright/director, David Lescot, a talented French music and theatre director, Caroline Guiela Nguyen, a winner of the Best Theatre Award of the Year by New York Times, and Eric Lacascade (France).

In December 2021, the French Ministry of Culture awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres to Mr. WANG Keran in recognition of his theatrical achievements and his outstanding contributions to Sino-French theatrical exchanges and China-France friendship. That same month, he attended the 11^th National Congress of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles on behalf of the China Theatre Association.

In September 2023, WANG Keran was invited to the 2023 Beijing Culture Forum, where he gave a keynote speech entitled “The Vital Role of Theatre in Cultural and Tourism Integration” at a sub-forum. A signing ceremony was held at the forum for Magnificent Culture A Dream Like a Dream, produced by WANG Keran as Leader of the Revival Team.

In 2024, Magnificent Culture scaled a new height of art under the leadership of WANG Keran -- Les Misérables, a grand co-production of China and France, with WANG Keran as Artistic Director/Executive Producer, was staged as the only high-quality theatrical work to be selected for celebrating the “60^th Anniversary of the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between China and France”. It was also the only Chinese drama among the eight programmes put on in China for the “China-France Year of Culture and Tourism”. The drama was invited to France for its Europe premiere at the Théâtre National Populaire. That same year, MO Yan chose to collaborate with Magnificent Culture on his drama Crocodile, the first work that he created after winning the Nobel Prize, with WANG Keran as the director and Shigeru Umebayashi (Japan) as the composer.

In May 2024, WANG Keran was hired as an academic adviser to the China News Service “Think Tank”. That June, he was appointed as a member of the Tenth Council of the Beijing Federation of Literary and Art Circles.

WANG Keran insists on cultural inheritance and innovation - he is devoted to inheriting classics. With his own theatrical strength, he has convinced Europe that with the efforts of China, the world’s humanistic values remain in vogue, the theatrical classics can still grow in number and category by technology, and human beings can show greater confidence in the theatre arts.

Shigeru Umebayashi began composing film music in 1984. That same year, he composed music for the Japanese film Sorekara, receiving several film music awards. So far, he has composed music for more than 30 Japanese films, including Onmyoji and Onmyoji II.

Shigeru Umebayashi enjoys an international reputation, too, particularly renowned for his composition of Yumeji’s Theme and other musical pieces for In The Mood For Love and 2046, two films directed by Wong Kar-Wai. He also worked with director ZHANG Yimou as music producer and composer for House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower, with his composition, the ending song Lovers sung by Kathryn Bartol, a famous American soprano. Furthermore, he composed music for A Single Man (2009), directed by Tom Ford. Especially, his composition for Días de gracia, directed by Everardo Gout, won him the Best Film Music Award by the Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía in 2012.

Recently, Shigeru Umebayashi composed music for Ghost of Tsushima PS4, thus winning the 75^th British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards (BAFTA Awards).

In 2023, Shigeru Umebayashi won the “Lifetime Achievement Award” at the Rome Film Festival.

In 2024, Shigeru Umebayashi composed music for a drama, for the first time. The drama is Crocodile.