Marketing Chinese Performing Arts in the United States

In the past years, China has been making great efforts to promote Chinese performing arts to the world. However, marketing has long been recognized as a major weakness of Chinese performing arts presented overseas. It suffers from insufficient market information, limited connections to mainstream society, and a lack of international marketing professionals. As a result, Chinese performing productions have been promoted almost exclusively to the Chinese community in the United States. Research on the process and challenges of marketing Chinese performing arts in the United States includes interviews with export-oriented presenters in the United States, Chinese government officials, and American performing venues that have accommodated Chinese performances. Based on three major case studies, this paper discusses major problems in presenting Chinese performing arts in the United States as well as proposes possible solutions.