Stan Lai (center), his elder brother Lai Sheng-yu (left), attended the annual folk art festival in Huichang on Aug 26.[Photo by Zou Hong/China Daily]

Father's wish

For Lai Sheng-chuan, taking his plays to Huichang is part of fulfilling his father's wish of returning home. However, there is a lot more to it than that; he also wants to promote the theater culture among the locals of Huichang.

The celebrated director had earlier played a role in turning a small town into a theater mecca. He is one of the core members of the Wuzhen Theater Festival, launched in 2013 and which turned Wuzhen, a small town in Zhejiang province, into a theater phenomenon in China.

Lai Sheng-chuan chose comedy to bring to Huichang because he sees that genre as a good introduction for those unschooled in the ways of theater.

"To me it's sort of a social experiment. I am seeing what's going to happen in this small town after 10 years of constant theater coming from me. I am sure there will be change. We want to give the young people in the town a better vision of what the future will bring so that they don't just feel they have to go to the big cities and do whatever. Perhaps there they have a chance to get into art, to be an artist. Perhaps they could work in the theater. Through theater we want to make a difference."

His stated aims have received warm encouragement from the government of Huichang. A new city center is in the pipeline, one based on the theme of theater and Huichang's local culture, especially the Hakka ethnic culture. Lai Shengchuan's name is attached to the theater center.