Participants perform during the Beijing International Biennale. Wang Jing / chinadaily.com.cn

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He also points out that Chinese students need to learn how to work as a team and share other people's ideas.

"We want students from different cultures, not only to see and learn from each other's works but also to work together," says Sun. "Stage designers, unlike other artists like painters or fashion designers, cannot work alone to achieve their ideal set. They have to figure out solutions together."

Wang Xiaojun, a 21-year-old student studying stage design at the Central Academy of Drama, has exhibited her work, a stage design model she made for the classic play, Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land.

During the Biennale, she was impressed by work from Alexis Lucio, a 22-year-old product designer and costume designer, who graduated from Stanford University. Lucio made a bear for a friend’s stage production, The Winter's Tale, in which she used an internal human operator. The idea of combing creativity for theater with engineering attracted Wang most.

"Chinese students tend to work on their own and have less chance to make their ideas real by working with performance production companies. I have worked with several classmates on two dramas last year, which were experiences I couldn"t get from class," says Wang. 

Michael Ramsaur is a the former president of OISTAT President, a professor of lighting design at Stanford University and the Central Academy of Drama, and serves as honorary professor there and teaches in Shanghai. He gave Sun lots of support to make the Biennale happen.

"Chinese students used to be hesitant and shy about expressing their ideas and sharing with others. I noticed that during the past few years, they are fully participating in team projects, engaging with each other and negotiating," says Ramsaur. "I saw some interesting ideas in the Biennale this year."

"The experience is good, especially for young students who just began their artistic career," Ramsaur added.