400 years on, Tang and Shakespeare brought closer together

Combination photo taken on Oct 12, 2016 by Zhou Mi (L) shows the script of "The Peony Pavilion" displayed at the commemorative museum of Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu in Fuzhou of East China's Jiangxi province and taken on July 21, 2016 by Han Yan (R) shows the collected works of British writer William Shakespeare displayed at the former residence of Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon, Britain. [Photo/Xinhua]

"Is Tang Xianzu 'China's Shakespeare'? The answer is no," Ansell said. "But it's a very useful connection to make if only to show that it wasn't just Shakespeare who was making great art.

"The key point is that Tang is not Shakespeare. He doesn't need to be. He is the Chinese Tang. That's good enough."

"I think the Chinese need to be proud of the fact that they have Tang."

Britain and China have got a good basis of cultural exchanges, said Susan Adams. "China is opening up. Schools (in UK) now teach Mandarin, and we have lots of exchange visits."

More than 5,000 children in Britain are to learn Chinese as part of a scheme, which allows them to intensively study the language for eight hours per week, according to a recent Daily Mail report.

Zou Zizhen, a professor with the Minjiang University, believed that it is equally, if not more, necessary to popularize the plays domestically.

"If we want to have our culture spread across the globe, we must spread it within China first," he said.

Tang Tingshui, who is also a village doctor, said he had donated all the material he had about Tang Xianzu to the government.

"My fellow villagers and I are not so well educated. It's a bit hard to live up to being descendants of such a great person," he lamented.