Will UNIMA China be ready for 2012?

After much anticipation, the 21st UNIMA Congress and Festival 2012 has finally launched their website. Although not much information is yet available, it is a start to what we hope will be a wonderful first for Asia in hosting UNIMA's Congress & Festival.

The world puppetry congress and festival is scheduled to take place in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, of Southwest China from 28 May to 4 June 2012 (see my previous post here).

On May 12, 2008, only one month after China was awarded the 2012 hosting rights by UNIMA at the 2008 Perth Congress, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck causing damage to the area, killing about 80,000 people and injuring 26,413 as of May 12, 2008. 4,021 of the casualties and most of the property damage were from Dujiangyan and Pengzhou, two cities within the administration of Chengdu, the sub-provincial city. Chengdu did not suffer any discernible damage.

Although the website is now up, there is no official word yet about the program contents of this prestigious event, so watch this space and hopefully there'll be more info available soon.

For more information about the 2012 Congress, you can check out the official unfinished website here or look at the UNIMA Norway website here for further information.