It is May 1912. The Republic of China was founded in January. Sir Claude MacDonald, until recently the British ambassador in Peking, has retired and is on a lecture tour of East Asia. He has stopped off in Singapore at the National Library.
During the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, Sir Claude commanded the defence of the foreign legation quarter in Peking. The rebels besieged it for 55 days until the foreign diplomats, civilians and Chinese Christian refugees were rescued by a multi-national relief force, the ‘Eight Nation Army’.
Sir Claude wants to talk about ‘China and the West today’ but starts by ‘taking you back to Peking in 1900’, to the Imperial Palace, where the audience is mistaken for a foreign delegation and hears the Chinese side of the story. It is not straightforward and will challenge your view of the past… and the present.
Mark Kitto is an actor and writer based in the United Kingdom. He lived for 18 years in China, where he performed for the Shanghai People’s Arts Theatre and has written three books about the country. He speaks Mandarin Chinese.
According to Cindy Yu, China editor at The Spectator, Kitto’s self-penned solo production is, ‘intelligent and humorous. A very good place to start if you want to understand China.’
After the show Mark hosts a Q&A where he draws on his deep personal experience of working with China.
