20 November 2018
On the afternoon of 25 November 2018, under the guidance of the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, sponsored by the Shanghai Municipal Student Affairs Center and organized by the Shanghai Theatre Academy, the “Youthful Feeling of Chinese Opera Circle and Gratitude for the New Era - 2018 Shanghai Higher Education Nurture with Financial Aid Chinese Opera Concert” was held at the White Palace Theatre on the Lianhua Road Campus of the Shanghai Theatre Academy. The whole concert fully demonstrated the youth demeanor of university students in Shanghai in respecting traditional classics and promoting cultural self-confidence. Ni Minjing, Deputy Director-General of the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, Zhang Weiling, Deputy Party Secretary and Vice President of the Shanghai Theatre Academy, Chen Hua, Party Secretary and Director of the Shanghai Municipal Student Affairs Center, and Wang Tao, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Municipal Student Affairs Center attended the concert. Over 400 representatives of students receiving financial support from Shanghai's major universities attended the event.
Zhang Weiling, Deputy Party Secretary and Vice President of the Shanghai Theatre Academy, made a welcome speech. He welcomed the leaders, guests and teachers and students who came to the event, and encouraged young university students in the new era to take on the mission of strengthening cultural self-confidence, promoting the creative transformation and innovative development of Chinese excellent traditional culture, and to constantly accumulate the courage and power to fight and overcome difficulties from the traditional aesthetics of Chinese opera.
The concert was divided into three chapters, namely, "adhere to the original aspiration, pay tribute to the classics", "teach by words and deeds, pass on the flame", "create new ideas, carry forward the past and open up the future". In the first chapter, young actors from the Shanghai Theatre Academy, Shanghai Yue Opera Theatre and Shanghai Shanghai Hu Opera Theatre sang different classical arias of Peking Opera, Yue Opera, Hu Opera and Kunqu Opera, showing the beauty of traditional culture both in appearance and in singing. The second chapter highlighted the inheritance and popularization of Chinese opera, with not only both teachers and students performing on the same stage, but also Wang Kai, a teacher from the Shanghai Theatre Academy’s College of Chinese Traditional Opera, explaining the knowledge of Chinese opera to the audience and teaching them how to appreciate Chinese opera on the spot coupled with the demonstration of movement given by the actors. The third chapter showed the modern innovation of Chinese opera, featuring the water sleeve performance brought by the Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Polytechnic and the Chinese Traditional Opera School affiliated to Shanghai Theatre Academy, the broadcast exercise based on Chinese opera brought by the East China Normal University, and the Peking opera singing brought by the Shanghai Theatre Academy, all showing the innovative transformation of Chinese traditional opera elements in contemporary cultural and artistic works.
The concert also invited famous Kunqu Opera artist Zhang Jun to the stage and reproduce the classic repertoire of his the concert in May this year, and present the awards to the winners of theatrical criticism. Other awards presented at the event included the Outstanding Organization Award for New Kunqu Opera Observation Activities, Top 10 Publicity Ambassadors for Student Financial Aid of Shanghai Higher Education etc.
The whole concert ended satisfactorily in the melody of the Chinese opera song “I Love You China”. Within the Shanghai Theatre Academy, the concert was completed by the College of Chinese Traditional Opera, with the Student Affairs Office and Youth League Committee taking the lead in organization and coordination. The concert was unanimously praised by teachers and students of universities in Shanghai.
