8 December 2017
On the evening of 6 December, jointly sponsored by the Education and Public Health Working Committee of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee and the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and organized by the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA), the “Song of Youth in Celebration of the 19th CPC National Congress - Oriental Land Tour Performance by Student Cultural Volunteers from Universities in Shanghai” was staged at the Oriental Land. The show, which featured a blend of songs, dance, Chinese opera and other brilliant performances, enchanted the several thousand middle school students who were attending military training at the Oriental Land.
(Puppet show "Three Monks" performed by students of STA)
General Secretary Xi Jinping’s report at the 19th CPC National Congress stated that “Culture is a country and nation’s soul. Our country will thrive only if our culture thrives, and our nation will be strong only if our culture is strong. Without full confidence in our culture, without a rich and prosperous culture, the Chinese national will not be able to rejuvenate itself”. In order to deeply study and earnestly implement the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress, to further practice the core values of socialism and to inherit and carry forward the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation, the student cultural volunteers from universities in Shanghai, upon completion of their cultural performances in Zunyi of Guizhou Province, came to the Oriental Land for an exchange tour performance. This was the second tour performance held at the Oriental Land after the first one on the evening of 29 November.
(Puppet show "Drifting Fragrance of Magnolia" performed by students of STA)
The performance of the evening began with the ancient costume show “Chinese Costume of Five Thousand Years” performed by the students of the Donghua University. As the organizer and a comprehensive art university, STA participated in the performance with five shows and two emcees for the entire evening. The five shows included two puppet shows “Three Monks” and “Drifting Fragrance of Magnolia” which combined traditional art with modern technologies and were novel, cheerful and unique, as well as three Peking opera shows “Eulogy of Pear Blossoms”, “Song of Peking Opera Facial Masks” and “Greetings from Golden Monkey” which fully demonstrated the long history and infinite charm of Chinese traditional art and planted the broad and profound Chinese traditional culture of excellence into the mind of young students through appreciating the glamour of the quintessence of Chinese art. The entire performance was concluded with a classic male and female duet “Sunny Road”.
(Peking opera "Greetings from Golden Monkey" performed by students of STA)
In 2014, in order to implement the “The Opinions on Carrying out the Chinese Traditional Culture of Excellence Inheritance Program” issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council, to further integrate the cultivation, inheritance and innovation of Chinese traditional culture of excellence into the whole process of ideological and moral education at educational institutions, and to build the platform for cultural exchange and display, the “Song of Youth – Domestic Cultural Exchange and Volunteer Service Program” emerged. Under the leadership of the Education and Public Health Working Committee of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee and the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, the Shanghai Theatre Academy, as the organizer, joined hands with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, East China Normal University, Fudan University, Shanghai University of Sport, Donghua University, Shanghai Institute of Visual Art, Shanghai Film Art Academy and some other higher education institutions in the establishment of the university students’ team of cultural volunteers and carefully selected the classic and brand shows from the respective universities to create a repertoire of high quality and wonderful performances comprising traditional culture (such as Peking opera, traditional music, puppet and martial art), modern fashion (such as fashion show), international trend (such as musical play and orchestra music), and youthful vigor (such as Latin dance and fancy rope jumping).
(Fully packed performance venue)
Over the past four years, the team of student cultural volunteers from universities in Shanghai totaling more than 100 people has been many places that Shanghai is paired with to provide one-on-one support, including Kashi of Xinjiang, Yongping Country and Mengzi County in Dali of Yunnan, Aba Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan, and Zunyi of Guizhou, where the team went into the counties, towns, primary schools, middle schools and community cultural centres bringing Chinese traditional culture of excellence to the local people. At each place, the team gave three to five performances for nearly 10,000 local audiences. The program has been warmly and enthusiastically responded and has become a brand program of the Shanghai university students cultural exchange activities.
(Group photo of performers with leaders and guests of honour)
The exchange activities carried out by cultural volunteers have played a positive role in promoting university students’ contribution of service to the society and in promoting culture-focused poverty alleviation and culture-focused co-development in the western region. At the same time, it has enabled the university students to have exposure to the subtle and imperceptible influence and ideological education in the former revolutionary base in the course of the activities there. With significantly increased social impact, this program has been proved to be an effective way of putting the core values of socialism into practice and has become an effective vehicle for carrying out cultural inheritance and exchange, strengthening the ideological and moral education for university students, and bringing cultural activities to the rural areas.
