Next year, the company will undertake its fifth large-scale tour in Shanghai, showing five productions while hosting colorful educational events and comprehensive collaborations with colleagues in the city.

And the festival will host a special campaign during the Edinburgh Festival, focusing on the promotion of Chinese art and showcasing the Shanghai Culture Week during the Hong Kong Arts Festival.

The Shanghai event will also kick off new comprehensive projects with the International Society for the Performing Arts this year to build a new international performance-trading platform.

Moreover, it also announced 10 Impact Index Prize-winning productions selected from the 72 shows featured at last year's main festival, including Der Ring des Nibelungen by the Mariinsky Theatre, the Old Fashioned Comedy by the Beijing People's Art Theatre and Brecht's Ghosts by the Berliner Ensemble.

The last production features more than 100 puppets that director Suse Wachter designed to portray such figures as Franz Kafka, Luciano Pavarotti and Margaret Thatcher.

The performances at Theatre Young in Shanghai during the 22nd arts festival won critical acclaim. This year, the festival will promote the performance of the Berliner Ensemble in Shanghai for a second round show and help facilitate its tour to more Chinese cities, says Li.