Poster of Croisements festival [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

In 2017, Croisements festival celebrates its 12th year anniversary. 12 years completes one cycle of the Chinese zodiac, represented by 12 animals.

Over the past 12 years, Croisements has become the leading international festival in China, as well as France’s biggest overseas festival. Every spring, it demonstrates to Chinese audiences the strength of France’s creative sector and showcases Franco-Chinese crossovers in a range of disciplines: theater, dance, classical and contemporary music, popular music, visual arts, new media, cinema, books and debate. In 2016, Croisements attracted over 4 million people to its events held in 29 cities and livestreamed on LeLive and PPTV.

This year’s festival will also see a number of hybrid French-Chinese projects taking place. Following the success of the Chinese version of the piece Closing of Love in 2016, Pascal Rambert will return to direct The Beginning of Love, played by Chinese comedians. Together with the Shadow Theatre of Changsha, Doulce Memoire will present a performance that mixes two traditional arts, Chinese shadow theater and Renaissance music. Photographer Mai Lucas casts her eye over youth on the streets of Kunming and Changsha. Singers Joyce Jonathan and Lescop prepare to perform with Chinese musicians.

Meanwhile, the festival has received the support of ambassadors of Chinese arts and friends of French culture: Cui Jian, the father of Chinese rock, Wang Yabin, dancer and choreographer, Sui Jianguo, sculpter, Lu Ming, cartoonist and illustrator, and director Jia Zhangke.