Click here to read Part 1 of the Limelight’s Big Read.

As China’s arts sector continues to develop, Jansson J. Antmann talks to artists who have witnessed its recent evolution firsthand, including actor Tim Draxl, soprano Lise Lindstrom and Queensland Ballet Artistic Director Ivan Gil-Ortega, with further insights from soprano Sarah Brightman, producer Torben Brookman and conductor Dane Lam.

Build it and they’ll come

The level of arts infrastructure construction in China has been staggering over the past two decades and it continues apace. GWB Entertainment’s co-founder Torben Brookman is particularly impressed by the fact that arts facilities are regarded as a key driver of the country’s urban development strategy.

“Whole new precincts of a city are being built,” Brookman says. “They’ll say, ‘We need a cultural precinct, and in that precinct, we need a five- or six-theatre complex that has an opera house, a symphony hall, a playhouse, and so on,’ – and they’re being built for a population that isn’t even there yet.”

Shanghai Grand Theatre. Photo © Dargasea/Wikimedia Commons

Tim Draxl, who co-starred alongside Sarah Brightman in Sunset Boulevard, experienced some of...