27 September 2019
At the invitation of the Education and Youth Bureau of Macao Special Administrative Region, 68 teachers and students from the Chinese Opera School affiliated to Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA), came to Macao on 15 September 2019 to give a series of five special performances in seven days under the name of "Art Education Popularization Plan for Students - Appreciate National Essence, Savor Chinese Opera".
The Art Education Popularization Plan for Students launched by the Education and Youth Bureau of Macao SAR aims to provide middle school students in Macao with the opportunities to enjoy traditional Chinese culture every year so as to improve their ability to appreciate the art of Chinese opera.
The Chinese Opera School affiliated to STA has brought six selected highlights from Peking opera and Kun opera on this trip to Macau. The first performance officially began on the morning of 18 September. From the students participating in the performance to the instructing teachers, we worked together with the Macau side to take every detail seriously and made full efforts in the preparation for each step of the performance both on the stage and behind the scene. Chinese opera is a comprehensive stage art and the essence of Chinese traditional culture. As such it needs a certain cultural accomplishment to appreciate it. Therefore, the audiences of this performance were mainly Year 12 students of middle schools in Macao middle, while the students of the Chinese Opera School affiliated to STA participating in the performance were students of Peking opera performance major 2014-2016. On and off the stage, the performers and audiences were of the similar age, and the collision between young minds created a wonderful atmosphere. In the on-stage interactive experience session, the Macau students competed to actively participate in the display of Chinese opera water sleeve movements, creating the climax of the event and a good experience of educational interaction.
Macao is a city with strong cultural inclusiveness. In this highly modernized place where Chinese and Western cultures converge, the choice to perform traditional Chinese opera reflects the characteristics of multi-cultural coexistence, as well as the common spiritual blood and aesthetic interests of the Chinese nation. The Chinese Opera School affiliated to STA will continue to take on the responsibility of training excellent reserve talents of Chinese opera, inherit the tradition, carry forward the national essence, and constantly spread the seeds of Chinese opera.
