18 September 2018
On the afternoon of 15 September 2018, the proposal assessment meeting of "Research on the Creation of Modern Chinese Opera", a major project in art theory of the China National Social Science Fund in 2018 for which Li Wei, Research Professor of the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA) is the chief expert, was held at the Merry Hotel Shanghai. Huang Changyong, President of STA, Yang Yang, Vice President of STA, Shen Jie, Deputy Director of the Culture and Art Department of the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture, Radio, Film and Television, seven assessment experts from all across China and five leaders of the sub-projects, as well as Ye Changhai and Lu Jun, senior professors of STA, Huang Dunwei, Deputy Dean of the STA School of Traditional Chinese Opera Huang, and Liu Xiubing, Special Representative of the Ministry of Culture and Deputy Director of the Interview Centre of the China Culture Daily, attended the proposal assessment meeting as the specially invited guests. The proposal assessment meeting was chaired by Zhi Yunbo, Deputy Director of STA’s Research department.
In his speech, President of STA Huang Changyong expressed his sincere thanks for the support of all partner organizations and the presence of the assessment experts. After the speech, he presented the letter of appointment to the five leaders of the sub-projects.
On behalf of all the members of the project team, Research Professor Li Wei, chief expert and principal leader of the project, expressed the welcome to the leaders and experts present at the meeting, and introduced the main contents of the project and the concrete ideas of the five sub-projects, as well as the sub-project leaders. The data and materials collected and processed by the project group will be compiled into a 300,000-character "Compendium of Modern Chinese Opera" and a 2 million-character "Compilation of Research Materials on the Creation of Modern Chinese Opera", and a 500,000-character academic monograph "Studies of the Creation of Modern Chinese Opera" will be completed on the basis of investigation, literature collation and theoretical analysis to the fullest extent.
The leaders of the sub-projects, including Professor Lu Ang, Director of STA’s Directing Department, and Professor Yin Tianfu, Director of STA’s Department of Stage Design, made speeches one after another, in which they put forward their views focusing on the issues to be solved and introduced the ideas of completing the sub-projects.
The assessment experts put forward many constructive opinions and suggestions for the future research of the project team, and raised some questions with regard to the key and difficult points in the research direction, and placed great expectations on the project team. Lu Jun, Professor of STA, spoke on behalf of the specially invited guests and shared his experience.
At the meeting, Vice President of STA Yang Yang put forward expectations and requirements for the leaders of the project in his speech. Finally, Researcher Professor Li Wei responded to the remarks and comments from the assessment experts. He promised to work hard and honor his mission. On behalf of the members of the project team, he thanked the experts and leaders once again for their encouragement, attention and support.
In recent years, STA has won four awards in three consecutive years in the bidding for major projects in art theory funded by the China National Social Science Fund. This is a rare phenomenon in a single discipline in all universities. This year, Shanghai has won approvals for four major projects of art theory funded by the China National Social Science Fund, two of which have been awarded to STA with this project being the first of the four projects in Shanghai to hold the proposal assessment meeting.
