The three-week-long Belt and Road Art Talent Training Program formally began on 19 June 2018. The program is sponsored by the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and jointly organized by the International Exchange Center of the Shanghai Theater Academy and the International Student Office of the International Exchange Division of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. This year, a total of 20 students from 12 countries, including the United States, Canada, Russia, Vietnam, India, Finland, Mongolia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Turkey, Ukraine and Poland etc, were recruited for the program with scholarship grants.

Ms Zhang Yunlei, Deputy Director of the International Exchange Center of the Shanghai Theater Academy, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech. While extending a warm welcome to the students, she expressed the hope for them to personally experience the charm of Chinese opera and music during this period and bring what they would learn back to their own countries for sharing, thereby promoting the international exchange in art and becoming the active implementers of cultural communication. Ms Liu Yan, Vice Chairman of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, attended the opening ceremony and made a wonderful speech. The student representatives, Ankita Vikhankar and Polosina Anastasiia Igorevna, also spoke successively expressing the joy of participating in the program and the expectation for Chinese culture.

Under the Belt and Road Initiative, China is having a wider and deeper connection with other countries of the world, and there is a growing need in the other countries of the world to understand Chinese culture and Chinese art. As a colorful corridor of art and culture, the Silk Road can not only promote the creation of the new model of cooperation among the countries along the route, but also connect the art and culture of those countries involved. The Belt and Road Art Talent Training Program has put together the most advanced disciplines of the Shanghai Theater Academy and the Shanghai Conservatory ff Music to build a multilateral exchange platform for all students.

In this event, young students from different countries will study and live in the Shanghai Theatre Academy and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music for a total of three weeks. They will gain exposure to various kinds of traditional Chinese musical instruments and folk songs at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and, subsequently, they will personally experience the charm of Peking Opera in the Shanghai Theater Academy. Through various forms such as lectures and workshops, they will learn Chinese culture and art in a multi-facet, multi-level and immersed way.

As Ms Zhang Yunlei said, the Shanghai Theater Academy and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music have probably the smallest campuses but definitely the most beautiful campuses in the Shanghai area, and it is in the bustling metropolis that both universities proudly play the role of inheriting Chinese traditional art and bear the responsibility of promoting Chinese culture to the world.