19 October 2014
At 6 pm on the evening of 18 October, the opening ceremony of Rising Artists’ Works 2014 was held successfully on the lawn in front of the Red Building of the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA). Mr Wang Ping, Deputy Director-General of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, Mr Teng Junjie, Artistic Director of Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture, Radio, Film and TV, Mr Liu Wenguo, Artistic Director of Shanghai International Arts Festival Centre, Ms Wang Juan, President of Shanghai International Arts Festival Centre, as well as Mr Lou Wei, Chairman of STA, Mr Han Sheng, President of STA, Ms Hu Min, Vice Chairman of STA and Mr Guo Yu, Vice President of STA, attended the opening ceremony together with other leaders and guests of honour.
The first one to perform on the stage was Mr Chang Shilei, a well-known singer and golden producer born in the 1980s. With unique tone and diversified abilities in creation and production, he was the winner of the Best Arrangement Award and Best Album Producer Award at the 24th Taiwan Golden Melody Awards and as such was the first musician in the Mainland China who won these awards. His masterpieces include You and Me and High Song.
He has brought his concept concert Me and TA to RAW 2014, which is one of the commissioned works of RAW 2014 as part of the 16th China Shanghai International Arts Festival. As a commissioned young artist, he not only wrote Only for the Good which is the theme song of RAW 2014, but also brings Me and TA, the extension of You and Me which is the theme song of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. TA refers to music and also refers to friend. It is the breath of existence and signature of life. It is the inevitability of music and is also the contingency of encounter. It not only incorporates the theme of RAW 2014 which is Evolution – Adaptation and Development, but also highlights the contemporary and experimental nature in the performance. He said he likes this place because of the strong artistic atmosphere and because there is a group of young people who are working hard towards the same goal in order to realize their dream. On the lawn in front of the Red Building, he sang for the audience with the greatest sincerity and at the top international music production standard. At that moment, the collision of light and sound sparked not only passion and enthusiasm, but also the release of youthfulness.
After that, it came the 3D wall projection show, Red Building @ Civilization and Evolution. As STA’s repertoire for the Rising Artists’ Works, the projection show also incorporated new points of sight. Civilization and evolution will no doubt trigger more people to think what we are pursuing in the course of evolution of the world. This projection show had Professor Han Sheng, President of STA, as the chief planner, Associate Professor Liu Zhixin, Vice Dean of Creative Studies College as the artistic director, and Associated Professor Zhang Jinping as the technical director. 14 students of the Year 2012 creative media major and Year 2013 digital media art major participated in the production of the projection show. Civilization an Evolution, as a projection show, is not only an artistic creation, but also a comprehensive display of the combined creativity of the teachers and students of STA Creative Studies College. It also demonstrated STA’s creative strength to the society.
At the end of the opening ceremony, the BDC group performed a sensational belly dance, which gave rise to rounds of applause from the audience. In the dance, when the dancers turned their heads and bodies, they revealed a different kind of mystery. The sensational dance not only ignited the dancers themselves, ignited the rhythm, but also ignited everyone’s heart at the night of early autumn, which was the longing for the arts.
Youth, Arts and Creative Thinking.
Dream, Passion and Freeing up.
RAW 2014 is on and what are you still waiting for?
