In March, we hosted a theatrical evening entitled ‘Chinese Boxing’ (nothing to do with boxing!), a one man show by actor, writer and China specialist, Mark Kitto, a fascinating man with an amazing knowledge of China. Mark has a degree in Chinese and lived in China for 18 years. He is also a writer and regular pundit.

A topical and entertaining piece of theatre, ‘Chinese Boxing’ began as a fictional talk, given in 1912, to the local Royal Asiatic Society. Sir Claude MacDonald (formerly Her Majesty’s Minister Plenipotentiary to Peking and commander of the defence of the Foreign Legations) recounted his thrilling tale of when they were besieged by the peasant ‘Boxer’ army along with thousands of Imperial Chinese troops in 1900.

Sir Claude talked about China and the West ‘today’ – that’s 1912 for him, today for us. 1912 was the year of the foundation of the Republic of China; a new country, a rising power the world must accommodate. Familiar?

So Sir Claude took us back to Peking’ in 1900 to the Imperial Palace, where we heard the story from the Chinese side which challenged our views of the past… and the present. ‘Chinese Boxing’ is a bold and innovative piece of theatre that tackles one of the urgent questions of modern times from both sides, no punches pulled!