Explaining Ramayan to the Chinese

Gadda Kumara Swamy is presently working as a teaching assistant at the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts, Beijing, China. Born in a traditional folk theatre family (Oggukatha), Swamy hails from Karimnagar. Dr Swamy did his doctoral thesis in theatre arts from Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University.

He acted and directed more than 68 theatre productions, 11 short films and 3 feature films. Kumara Swamy, an actor and director in the field of theatre arts, designed and directed a short intercultural performance called “INCHINAAYAN”. Inchinaayan is an intercultural theatre performance based on Indian Epic Ramayana.

It is a kind of recognition of both differences and similarities between cultures of India and China. This was an experimental short intercultural performance which received good appreciation at the Indian Embassy on November 10. He involved Chinese and Indian talents, focussing especially on physical movements and singing styles of Peking opera to convey the story of Ramayana.

“It is actually concept of an Indian boy who loves a Chinese girl and a Chinese boy who loves an Indian Girl. The conflict between these characters can be seen and how they are adjust and understand each other is the story. But we changed the idea to INCHINAAYAN because of the context of Diwali cultural celebrations at embassy for the Indian community and Chinese guests,” said Kumara Swamy. Kumara Swamy had won many awards in his career. He won the Chinese Government Scholarship Award for Beijing Opera Performer Training at National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts (NACTA) in 2009. He was also awarded the Young Artist Scholarship by Ministry of Human Resource Development by the Dept of Culture, Govt of India in 2004