THIS year marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and the Norwegian Ministry of Cultural Affairs is commemorating 2006 as "Ibsen Year" all over the world.

The Norwegian Embassy in Beijing will present the Ibsen Year in China. A series of dramas, concerts and exhibitions will be held in Beijing and Shanghai to celebrate the works of the great writer.

"While Ibsen's dramas were written more than 100 years ago, his topics are still relevant today," said Tor Hildan, the Norwegian ambassador to China.

Many people in China are familiar with Ibsen plays such as "A Doll's House."

"Ibsen had deep influences on early Chinese modern dramas as well as Chinese dramatists' knowledge of the function of drama," said Wang Xiaoying, deputy president of the National Theater Company. Wang has played the Ibsen character Peer Gynt and directed Ibsen's "Ghosts."

"Even the Chinese word for modern drama, 'huaju,' came into being at a Chinese dramatists' seminar in commemoration of Ibsen in 1928," Wang said.

However, Wang pointed out that Ibsen's works staged in China were mostly his social plays, and Chinese dramatists have paid less attention to his later symbolic works.

Fortunately this will be remedied in June with the performance of "The Master Builder," performed by the Lin Zhaohua drama studio in Beijing.

Lin will also collaborate with Norwegian director Jon Tombre to produce Jesper Halle's "Nora's Children" in April. The play explores Ibsen's most famous play, "A Doll's House," from the children's point of view. This production was first staged in Oslo in January 2005.

The Ibsen Year in China will present collaborations between Chinese and Norwegian artists.

A concert of songs by Edvard Grieg based on Ibsen poems was performed in Beijing on March 20 and will move to Shanghai on March 25.

In May the Ibsen Year will feature a special Ibsen concert in Beijing by Norway's leading musical group Secret Garden plus Ibsen's classic play "An Enemy of the People," staged by Nanjing University, and Ibsen Week at Fudan University in Shanghai.

In spring and fall this year, the Opera School of Shanghai Theater Academy will stage "Peer Gynt" in the style of Beijing opera. In September, the National Theater Company will host a drama festival "Eternal Ibsen" in Beijing. Leading theater companies worldwide will be invited.

The Ibsen Year in China will also include the dance drama "The Hunt for Nora" with Norwegian and Chinese performers, a women artists' exhibition dedicated to Ibsen's female characters, and an international seminar on Ibsen.

Editor: Wing