Xinmin Evening News 14 June 2020; Reporter: Zhao Yue
From teachers and students visiting venues of significance along red routes to attending the same class online, the "four histories" study and education in the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Shanghai Theatre Academy has been active and enthusiastic despite the COVIC-19 outbreak. Founded in 1927 and 1945 respectively, the histories of these two art universities have inseparable links with the "four histories".
Among the numerous courses at the two universities, the innovation of ideological and political courses can be described as a unique move. Students from the College of Creative Studies of Shanghai Theatre Academy went to the Red Culture venues in Shanghai such as the site of the first and second National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Longhua Martyrs Memorial Museum etc and designed new cultural and creative products such as T-shirts with the same font of “New Youth” magazine and umbrellas with elements of Longhua Martyrs Cemetery etc, and finally held an exhibition of all items that they had created. Visitors to the exhibition left a message with a good surprise, saying that "it is a wonderful to see the red memory of the long-gone past can still exist freshly and lively in today’s time in this way”.
Affected by the COVID-19 outbreak this year, the ideological and political courses have been delivered online. Last week, Liao Changyong, President of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, gave an online lecture entitled "Listen to the Voice of the Times, Present Quality Works to the People". Teachers and students of eight art colleges and universities in China attended this online lecture, thinking about the proposition of the era - "what is art, what is art for”.
Recently, the second season of the "Project Great" demonstration party classes was launched in the Shanghai Theatre Academy, which also included the music-based party class developed by the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the drama-based party class developed by the Shanghai Theatre Academy, in which the static courseware became dynamic with the inclusion of art elements. In the second half of the year, the second season of the music-based party class will be launched, with excellent songs created by the Shanghai Conservatory of Music on fighting COVID-19 as an important component.
On the other hand, STA has compiled the excellent plays created in recent years into the party class. In the second season of the drama-based party class, the speakers will expand from those within the Shanghai Theatre Academy to also include those with direct personal experience from the whole city, thus developing the "Party Class Now Begins" brand by combining lecture and performance.
Starting from the musical "Spring Shanghai 1949", the Shanghai Conservatory of Music has initiated the mechanism to build the party branch in each production team. All members of the production team, no matter the person is party secretary of the school or a student who has just become a party member, will be incorporated into the temporary party branch. This has been the case for the 8K live action movie "He Luting" that the Shanghai Conservatory of Music is preparing and the opera "He Luting" which was created before. Moreover, these two works in themselves are the most vivid teaching materials - He Luting joined the Communist Party of China in 1926, and he practiced the faith and pursuit of a CPC member and a revolutionary musician in his whole life.
Recently, the Shanghai Theatre Academy produced radio play "Target: Wuhan" and drama "Nurse’s Diary". Each part of the creation process, no matter it was the preparation for the role or the stage design, become an important opportunity for teachers and students to study the "four histories", and became an important starting point for establishing moral values and cultivating people.
