Jiang Weiguo

(a.k.a.David W.Jiang)

b. 1943, Shanghai

Theatre director, actor

Dean of the School of Drama at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, David Jiang has been actively involved in intercultural theatre since his first trip abroad in 1989. Graduating from the Acting Department of the Shanghai Theatre Academy in 1964, Jiang was assigned to work in Anhui province. After four years in the countryside, Jiang settled down to hone his skills in the Anhui Provincial Spoken Drama Company. As an actor, playwright and director, Jiang then worked and taught in Shanghai, New York, Leeds, Taipei and Hong Kong. He also completed a doctoral degree in the UK in 1997.

Jiang’s best-known work as a director includes a Huangmeixi (Hubei opera) version of Much Ado About Nothing (Anhui, 1986), Macbeth (UK, 1994), Paravda (by Howard Brenton and David Hare, Taiwan 1998), Man from Wuling (Wuling ren by Zhang Xiaofeng, USA, 1999), Miss X (X Xiaojie by Yao Yiwei, Taiwan 2000), An Ordinary Day (by Dario Fo and Franca Rame, China, 2001) and Family (Jia by Cao Yu, Hong Kong 2002). Drawing upon a background in the Stanislavsky system, which he received while pursuing his BA, an understanding of traditional Chinese theatre and its aesthetic concepts, and experience collaborating with various Euro-American counterparts, Jiang is known for the diversity of his directing styles, using strong visual imagery to deliver his reading of the text.

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