Martin Luther King being played by a Chinese man in Beijing

This is a rather interesting story. Martin Luther King’s life is being depicted on stage by Cao Li, in Chinese. A foreigner (presumably from the context) is the producer, one Caitrin McKiernan, and black gospel singers accompany Cao Li on stage. It almost seems blasphemous for a black civil rights leader to be portrayed by a man of a different racial and ethnic background at first, but when one really thinks about it, it’s a really open-minded and deep move; quite appropriate. Also surprising is that the authorities aren’t stopping anything.

“I think that it shows that there’s something happening right now in China,” McKiernan says. “There’s a moment, there’s an opening that’s happening that allows people to have these kinds of discussions, that allows the actors during one scene to hold signs that say ‘freedom now’ and to sing ‘We Shall Overcome’ on stage, and to show what civil disobedience is.”

Full article and audio can be seen on the National Public Radio website, here.