Stan Lai: The Cross-Strait Theater Bridge-Builder Behind Performance Workshop and the Wuzhen Theatre Festival

30-Second Overview: Stan Lai was born on October 25, 1954, in Washington, D.C. His father, Lai Chia-chiu, was a Republic of China diplomat stationed in the United States. In 1983, he received a PhD in Dramatic Art from UC Berkeley. In 1984, he co-founded Performance Workshop with his wife Ding Nai-chu, Lee Li-chun, Lee Kuo-hsiu, and others. Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land premiered in 1986, and its 1992 film adaptation starred Brigitte Lin. In 2007, he received the 11th National Award for Arts (an honor he has received twice). In May 2013, he co-founded the Wuzhen Theatre Festival with Chen Xianghong, Huang Lei, and Meng Jinghui and served as its artistic director. Theatre Above opened in Shanghai in 2015. The BBC has praised him as “the best Chinese-language playwright and director in the world.”¹

A Cross-Cultural Upbringing

Stan Lai was born on October 25, 1954, in Washington, D.C. His father, Lai Chia-chiu, was a Republic of China diplomat stationed in the United States. Because of his father’s work, Lai lived with his family in the United States, Germany, and other places from an early age, giving him extensive cross-cultural experience.¹

In the 1970s, he returned to Taiwan to study in the Department of English at Fu Jen Catholic University, marking his formal encounter with Taiwanese culture. During university, he developed an interest in theater and took part in campus drama clubs. After graduation, he went to the United States to pursue a doctoral degree in Dramatic Art at the University of California, Berkeley, receiving his PhD in 1983.

During his time at Berkeley, Lai systematically studied classic playwrights such as Shakespeare and Brecht, while also becoming interested in experimental theater and improvisational performance. This period of study established the cross-Eastern-and-Western theatrical outlook that would later define his work.

Academic Theater Formation

After completing his studies, Lai returned to Taiwan in 1983 and taught in the Department of Theatre at the National Institute of the Arts, now Taipei National University of the Arts. As a founding faculty member of Taiwan’s first professional arts university, he helped build Taiwan’s modern theater education system.²

During his time at the arts institute, Lai began combining Western theater theory with Asian cultural traditions, exploring theatrical forms suited to a Chinese-language cultural context. He paid particular attention to actor training methods, developing performance techniques that fused the Stanislavski system with Eastern bodily aesthetics.

In the early 1980s, Lai directed a number of experimental works, including Hezhu’s New Match and The Night We Became Hsiang-Sheng Comedians, attempting to incorporate elements of traditional opera into modern theater and demonstrating his deep reflection on local culture.

The Founding of Performance Workshop

In 1984, Lai co-founded “Performance Workshop” with his wife Ding Nai-chu, Lee Li-chun, Lee Kuo-hsiu, and others. It was Taiwan’s first modern experimental theater troupe, founded with the aim of developing modern Chinese-language theater and training professional theater practitioners. (Chin Shih-chieh was an important early actor and collaborator with the troupe, but he was not a founding member.)³

Performance Workshop adopted a collective creation model. Unlike the hierarchical division of labor in traditional theater, all members participated in the creative process. This working method later developed into Lai’s distinctive “collective improvisation” method, opening a new path for Chinese-language theater.

The troupe’s early works included The Night We Became Hsiang-Sheng Comedians and Look Who’s Cross-Talking Tonight, which combined the traditional art of xiangsheng, or comic crosstalk, with modern theater to create a new performance form. They received an enthusiastic audience response and established the troupe’s position in Taiwan theater.

A Classic Work: Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land

In 1986, Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land premiered and became a classic in the history of Chinese-language theater. The play uses a “play within a play” structure, developing the chaotic situation of two unrelated theater troupes rehearsing on the same stage into a profound philosophical meditation on life.⁴

Secret Love tells the tragic romance of two lovers separated by war, while Peach Blossom Land adapts Tao Yuanming’s The Peach Blossom Spring, presenting the conflict between the ideal and reality. The two plays proceed in alternation, producing a theatrical effect that juxtaposes ancient and modern, tragedy and comedy.

The work has been performed more than a thousand times to date, including multiple revivals in 1991, 1999, 2006, 2016, 2022, and 2026. Its reach spans Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, and overseas Chinese communities, and it has been praised as “the representative work of Chinese-language theater.” In 1992, it was adapted into a film starring Brigitte Lin, directed by Lai himself. The film version won the Young Cinema Competition Silver Sakura Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival and received multiple nominations at the 29th Golden Horse Awards.

Collective Improvisation

Lai’s “collective improvisation” method is his most original theoretical contribution. This methodology emphasizes openness and collectivity in the creative process, breaking down the fixed division of labor among playwright, director, and actors in traditional theater.

The creative process usually begins with actors’ improvisations. Through repeated rehearsals and discussions, a complete script gradually develops. The director’s role is more like that of a “catalyst,” guiding actors to discover their inner creative potential.

The philosophical basis of this methodology comes from Eastern Daoist thought, emphasizing alignment with nature and governance through non-action. Lai believes the best creative work often comes from the subconscious, rather than deliberate rational design. Chin Shih-chieh, Lee Kuo-hsiu, Ding Nai-chu, and others all benefited from it, later leaving indelible marks of their own on Taiwan theater.

The Creative Peak of the 1990s

The 1990s were Lai’s golden creative period. He released works including Me, We, Him and Them (1991), Thirteen Connections (1999), and Millennium Teahouse, which premiered on 2000/12/31, exploring identity, historical trauma, and contemporary social issues.⁵

During the same period, Lai also began international collaborations, engaging in cultural exchange with theater companies in the United States and Europe and promoting the international influence of Chinese-language theater. His works were staged in international arts centers including New York, London, and Paris, earning recognition from Western audiences.

Cultural China and Zen Thought

Lai’s works are deeply influenced by traditional Chinese culture, especially Zen thought. In his plays, he often explores philosophical propositions such as “reality and illusion” and “being and nothingness,” embodying the wisdom of Chan Buddhism.

A Dream Like a Dream (2000) is his most representative Zen-inflected theatrical work. It uses a circular stage and an eight-hour performance to fully immerse the audience in theatrical time and space, exploring Buddhist ideas such as the cycle of life and death and karmic encounter. Lai believes theater has a spiritual function: it is a place of practice where audiences confront themselves. This idea gives his works their distinctive power.

A Cultural Bridge Across Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China

As a representative figure in Chinese-language theater, Lai has made substantial contributions to cultural exchange among Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China. Beginning in the 1990s, his works were staged in China one after another, allowing audiences on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to find a shared theatrical language.

In 2008, he created The Village, using military dependents’ village culture as its backdrop and presenting a historical memory distinctive to Taiwan. The work succeeded on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and prompted audiences to reflect on shared history. He also opened workshops in Beijing, Shanghai, and other places, teaching his collective improvisation method and advancing the development of modern theater in China.⁶

2013 Wuzhen Theatre Festival: A New Cross-Strait Theater Platform

In May 2013, Lai, Chen Xianghong, Huang Lei, and Meng Jinghui jointly initiated and founded the “Wuzhen Theatre Festival,” with Lai serving as artistic director. Held in Wuzhen, Zhejiang Province, China, the Wuzhen Theatre Festival is one of the most influential Chinese-language theater festivals across Taiwan and China, attracting companies from Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, and the international theater world each year. In 2015, Lai opened Theatre Above in Shanghai, his theatrical base in mainland China.

Lai’s daughter, Lai Fan-yun, is also active in the theater world and has worked with her father to advance the next generation of Performance Workshop.

Later Work and Awards

In recent years, Lai’s creative work has focused more closely on cultural identity and historical memory, reflecting on modern people’s values and exploring fundamental questions such as “Who are we?” and “Where do we come from?”

Lai has twice received the National Award for Arts; the first time was the 11th award in 2007, recognizing his outstanding contributions over a 40-year theater career. He once said: “Theater is a mirror, reflecting the spiritual face of an era.” His works record Taiwan society’s cultural transformation from martial law to the post-martial-law period and also form one of the coordinates of Chinese-language culture as a whole. The BBC has praised him as “the best Chinese-language playwright and director in the world,” while China Daily has called him “Asia’s top playwright-director.”⁷

References

Further Reading

• Performance Workshop — Official website of the theater company founded by Stan Lai, including past works and ticketing information
• Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land — A classic work of Chinese-language theater