On the afternoon of April 24th, 2025, an in-depth exchange event on drama art was held in Room 417, School of Foreign Studies (SFS), Nankai University. Ms. Wen Liqin, a national first-class actress, was invited to deliver a special workshop on “Proper Stage Expression” for all students of the Foreign Language Drama course and members of the Foreign Language Drama Club, offering a spectacular feast of drama knowledge for faculty and students of SFS. The lecture was hosted by Dr. Shi Yuchen of the Translation Department, and attended by Ms. Xiang Yu, Deputy Party Secretary and Vice Dean of SFS, Nankai University; foreign teachers Dr. Vallini Letizia from the Italian Department and Dr. Jin Yingqiao from the English Department; members of the Foreign Language Drama Club and students enrolled in the “Foreign Language Drama” course from the English, Translation, Italian, Russian, and Japanese Departments.
At the beginning of the lecture, Ms. Wen Liqin drew upon her profound professional expertise to conduct an in-depth analysis of the core elements of drama performance from multiple perspectives. The Q&A session generated a warm atmosphere, and the teachers and students enthusiastically asked questions accumulated during the rehearsal of the drama.
From refining the minutiae of performance to handling the delicate emotions of complex characters, Ms. Wen Liqin patiently addressed each question with her wealth of practical experience and professional artistic perspective, providing clear solutions to the students’ questions.
After the lecture, Ms. Wen Liqin provided tailored guidance on the new drama Mulan, which was jointly created by the Translation Department and the Foreign Language Drama Club. The Mulan crew first conducted a table read of the script of the first scene. Through their passionate performances, the actors vividly portrayed Mulan’s life scene and inner entanglement before she joined the army for her father.
After the reading, Ms. Wen immediately launched targeted guidance.
In discussing the rehearsal of a drama performance, Ms. Wen shared the innovative approaches to utilizing props and costumes based on her extensive experience as both a performer and director. For the stage lighting design, she emphasized that at pivotal plot points, dynamic lighting transitions could be employed to highlight characters’ inner transformations. She also repeatedly stressed the importance of actors maintaining a focused performance mindset during rehearsals, viewing each scene as an opportunity to refine their characters through full immersion and continuous refinement of their acting methods. Ms. Wen’s unreserved sharing of invaluable insights provided precise empowerment for the growth and development of the crew.
With her profound professional quality and rich practical accumulation, Ms. Wen Liqin gave precious drama performance knowledge and experience to the teachers and students of SFS, Nankai University, through this special guidance. For a long time, SFS has always placed foreign drama education in an important position, incorporated drama education as a core component of its educational mission, and specially offered the elective course in “Foreign Language Drama.” This course adopts the curriculum mode of teaching and practice in parallel, which aims to enable students to learn foreign languages through drama while cultivating a collection of high-quality foreign-language drama projects with distinct Chinese characteristics, thereby supporting Chinese drama to enter the international stage. This year, the departments of Italian, Russian, and Japanese continued the tradition by jointly creating, translating, studying and performing the classic drama Thunderstorm. Students majoring in English and translation (English) and members of the Foreign Language Drama Club have taken a different approach. Using the newly adapted play Mulan as their vehicle, they tell Chinese stories through drama, inherit the excellent drama tradition, carry forward the cultural spirit of Nankai drama, and make persistent efforts to promote Chinese drama culture to shine on the world stage.
