[caption id="attachment_8432" align="alignright" width="392" caption="The National Ballet of China | The Peony Pavilion"][/caption] Edinburgh International Festival announces the programme for 2011: an exploration and celebration of the vibrant and diverse cultures of Asia and the long standing influences on the cultural landscape of the west. Artists from China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea and Vietnam with others from Europe and beyond gather in Edinburgh for three weeks of classical and contemporary music, dance, theatre, opera and visual arts. The festival runs August 12 - September 4 2011. Bringing together east and west The Peony Pavilion, performed by the National Ballet of China with western classical ballet, a classic symphony orchestra, traditional Chinese instruments, and a quintessentially Chinese story demonstrates the ideas and ambitions of Festival 2011. This beautiful and moving ballet is based on a love story by one of China’s greatest writers, and contemporary of Shakespeare, Tang Xianzu. The Tempest is re-imagined by Mokwha Repertory Company from Seoul in a distinctive production weaving Shakespeare’s famous tale with fifth-century Korean chronicles.  In another adaptation of Shakespeare, Shanghai Peking Opera Troupe retells the familiar tale of Hamlet setting it in China and performing the tragedy in the extraordinary acrobatic and elaborately costumed style of Jingju opera. Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto, one of the world’s leading artists, brings two poetic series of work not presented before in Europe. Lightning Fields and Photogenic Drawings reveal Sugimoto’s dramatic exploration of the very nature of photography, presented in partnership with the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. Dance at Festival 2011 includes French-Vietnamese choreographer Ea Sola’s re-creation of her critically acclaimed meditation on the human cost of war, Drought and Rain, New York-based Chinese choreographer Shen Wei’s Re-Triptych, the south Indian Nrityagram Dance Ensemble and Korean choreographer, Eun-Me Ahn and her company’s colourful tale of Princess Bari. Singapore's T'ang Quartet perform and a Conversations event features the quartet, Ng Yu-Ying, Ang Chek Meng, Lionel Tan and Leslie Tan talking about their work as one of Asia's foremost classical string quartets. Continental Shifts is a series of talks and debates on Festival themes and ideas, presented in association with the British Council, The Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Confucius Institute for Scotland. A diverse range of Festival performers, cultural commentators, international academics and intellectuals come together to discuss perspectives and ideas effecting our understanding and shifting perceptions of the global landscape with special reference to Asia. DOWNLOAD pdf. press release with all the programme details for EIF 2011