China Changing Festival, Southbank Centre

Designed to showcase contemporary Chinese culture and its creative connection with the UK, the China Changing Festival has been running for three years at the Southbank Centre.

A hugely ambitious project, it’s brought us theatre, dance, exhibitions and talks by a number of Chinese artists, writers and thinkers. And now, after three packed annual editions, the Festival is reaching its end with a fascinating programme spread over four days in October.

The programme is so packed, it would impossible to list every event; you can find a full listing here.

However, some events are definitely worth highlighting, first and foremost Cloud Show – a complex multi-disciplinary project by the BAFTA and Academy Award winner Tim Yip, designer of the sumptuous film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Cloud Show includes an art installation, a video presentation and a series or workshops. It culminates on festival closing day (7 Oct) with a catwalk display of 30 new spectacular costumes, the result of a long collaboration between some of London’s best fashion designers and promising London fashion students.

Also enticing is the one-woman show The Empress, the true story of Princess Der Ling, who found herself caught between relative freedom in Europe and the stifling culture of Beijing’s Forbidden City.

A series of talks will deal with topics such as the rise of feminism in China; there will be comedy and a carefully curated programme for families.

A dance piece by the Beijing-based choreographer Wen Hui, called RED, is the subject of a separate preview in Culture Whisper’s Dance section.