The Graduate School and the Student Affairs Office of Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA) organized students to go to Chongqing to undertake the social practice course "Practice and Innovation of Dramatic Activities" in the summer vacation, so as to stimulate students' "ability to create", "ability to think" and "ability to take action" in innovation and entrepreneurship.
This activity was co-sponsored by Shanghai Theatre Academy and Chongqing Municipal Culture and Tourism Commission, and undertaken by the Graduate School of Shanghai Theatre and the Chongqing Municipal Culture and Tourism Education and Training Center. Ten postgraduate students and eight undergraduate students from different colleges and departments of STA participated in this course.
On the afternoon of 25 July, the teachers and students of STA arrived in Chongqing and attended the opening ceremony of the course. The chief of the Municipal Culture and Tourism Education and Training Centre made the welcome remarks. Liu Qing, Vice President of Shanghai Theatre Academy and Deputy Director-General of the Chongqing Municipal Culture and Tourism Commission, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech. Shen Liang, Dean of the Graduate School and Director of the Academic Affairs office of Shanghai Theatre Academy, gave a pep talk for the training course.
At the opening ceremony, the two sides also signed the Agreement on Jointly Building the Student Practice Base and, on behalf of Shanghai Theatre Academy, Shen Liang presented the plaque of "Teaching Practice Base of Shanghai Theatre Academy" to Chongqing Municipal Culture and Tourism Training Center.
Then, the social practice group started a tight and substantial program of course activities. Experts and artists from Chongqing held discussions and lectures for the teachers and students of STA on such topics as “Intangible Culture and Humanistic Spirit of Chongqing”, “Collection and Re-creation of Folk Songs” in the Chongqing region, “Inheritance and Development of Sichuan Opera in China” etc.
The teachers and students also went to Kangjiantang Theater to observe the resident play "Foggy Chongqing", and visited Chongqing Anti-Japanese War Drama History Exhibition Museum to experience the "golden age of Chinese drama development" in this "city that’s sings out the years of history with drama". The STA social practice group also went to a number of historical, cultural, intangible cultural heritage and patriotic education sites in Chongqing to carry out activities of collecting the manifestations of culture and history.
It is hoped that the students can successfully complete their practical research reports and paper through this social practice course in Chongqing and, even more importantly, it is hoped that they can use the personal experience gained therefrom to help make themselves ready in the pursuit of their future literary and artistic creation and go farther and farther.
