The four-day China Performing Arts Fair, as well as the 2002 International Society for the Performing Arts Foundation (ISPA) International Forum, opened on March 8 in Beijing.

The events offer a unique opportunity for artists and international performing arts companies to access China's arts market and share experiences with their Chinese counterparts.

According to Chen Jixin, executive general manager of the China National Culture & Arts Co. Ltd and a member of Director Board at ISPA, the Forum & Fair have attracted more than 50 international companies, organizations or parties with professional involvement in the performing arts to come to Beijing.

"Their main purpose is to watch as many performances as they can to get to know the local performing arts, and then bring some of them to the world market," Chen said.

"Many of us have seen Peking opera and Chinese acrobatic shows outside China," said ISPA president Elisabeth Bradley at a press conference on March 7. "We hope to see more contemporary works and discover more younger artists."

The Forum & Fair will showcase about 400 performances ranging from dance, music, drama and local opera to acrobatics.

"We are witnessing a flourishing period in terms of creating artistic works and developing the market of performing arts," said Feng Yuan, director of the arts department at the Ministry of Culture.

"As an overall showcase, all the performances selected for the fair are top-notch artistic works featuring both Chinese flavour and world trends, as well as displaying the state and development of China's performing arts," Feng said.

He believes the fair offers a good chance to educate the world about Chinese performing arts and to promote more Chinese performances throughout the world.

Besides Peking Opera, China boasts more than 360 local operas. Foreign visitors can enjoy at least one local opera while travelling in China.

Strongly challenged by film, TV, karaoke and other kinds of modern entertainment these days, the local opera still attracts regular audiences. Folk opera companies are trying every means possible to compete in the fast-changing entertainment world by revising classic repertoires, creating new plays, adopting high-tech methods to improve stage effects or drawing on the experience of other forms of performing arts.

The tragic tale of pipa

Kunqu opera, which was proclaimed "the masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity" by UNESCO (United Nation's Education, Science and Culture Organization) last May, will bring some representative works to the fair.

"Great progress has been made in the preservation and production of the Kunqu Opera over the past two decades," said Cai Zhengren, director with the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe.

"We intend to put on more shows abroad so that more people in other countries will know about this delicate art and its elegant tunes and promote traditional Chinese art," Cai said.

This time, the troupe brings Ballad of pipa, which won great acclaims for its participation in the Berlin Asia-Pacific Weeks and the China Festival last September.

The five-scene opera, based on a poem by the great Chinese poet Bai Juyi (772-846), follows the story of Qianniang, a kind of geisha in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), who excels in playing the pipa, a Chinese plucked-string instrument.

The tragedy revolves around encounters between Qianniang and the famed Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi and offers vivid portrayals of the female musician whose fortunes and misfortunes rise and fall along with her beauty.

The title of the play comes from Bai's actual work, Ballad of pipa, which he wrote after his first encounter with Qianniang.

Huang Shuqin, a well-known domestic film director, directs the play. "Her creative ideas often broaden our minds and refresh the old opera," said Liang Guyin, starring as Qianniang.

It is a great challenge for Liang, a veteran actress in her 60s, to portray the woman protagonist, who is seen at the age of 18 and again at the age of 68 years old by the end of the play. She has to master four types of female roles in the Kunqu Opera: huadan (teenage girl), guimendan (damsel role), tiedan (middle aged woman) and laodan (old woman).

Thanks to her 40 years of rich experience in singing Kunqu Opera and playing various roles, Liang displays her artistic skills in all these portrayals.

Dream of Red Mansions

Yueju Opera, also called Shaoxing Opera, is a relatively new local opera popular in the southern regions of the Yangtze River. Its tunes are sweet and beautiful and the performance vivid and full of local colour.

A Dream of Red Mansions, adapted from the great Chinese literary classic novel of the same title written by Cao Xueqin (1715?-1763?), is one of the opera's representative plays.

Since its debut more than 40 years ago, its refined melodies, graceful dances and, above all, distinctive characterization have moved several generations of audiences.

After four decades of box-office success, the Shanghai Yueju Opera Troupe has ventured to replace the time-tested old production with a new edition of the show.

"The new version, though based on the original work, introduces new concepts suited to the big stage and environment of the modern theatre as well as current audience tastes," said Tong Weiwei, director of the new production.

The new edition opens with a magnificent scene in which the aristocratic Jia's family holds a festival to mark the homecoming of its eldest daughter, the imperial concubine Yuanchun. The old production began with simple scenery and the meeting of the two lovers under green trees.

Tong said, "We hope to catch audience's eyes at once with the splendid scene, beautiful girls and jubilant music."

The luxury is in strong contrast to the tragic ending when Jia's family collapses."

Some state-of-the-art stage techniques have been introduced into the props and scenery to create a sense of grandeur.

In the dimly lighted backstage area, over 500 exquisite props are faintly lit up to make the backstage look like a storehouse of treasures.

More than 40 lifelike peach trees and petals float to the ground when Lin Daiyu laments her lonely life. A prop boat that is eight metres long and four metres high sails dozens of actresses across the stage.

All the wooden or plastic rockers, bridges, pavilions and terraces make the stage look similar to a real garden.

Besides the traditional Chinese instruments, the Western symphony orchestra will accompany the show with a belcanto chorus offering more power to the music.

English subtitles are available to help international audiences understand the delicate lyrics.

The hunchback

Peking Opera, known as China's "national opera," is relatively familiar to most foreigners.

Yet, many of them have only watched a few classic repertoires such as the Monkey King series or The Drunken Beauty (guifei zuijiu).

In recent years, the National Peking Opera Troupe and many local troupes have produced many successful new plays including Prime Minister the Hunchback Liu Yong.

The opera plot is based on legends about Liu Yong (1719-1804), a well-known statesman and calligrapher of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Middle-aged Liu is hunchbacked, chicken-chested and with little money, yet he wins a pretty wife from an aristocratic family, ranks first in the official test and becomes the prime minister.

Comic, witty, upright and guileless, he is a favourite of Chinese people.

Co-produced by the Beijing Art Creation Centre, National Peking Opera Troupe and Beijing Chang'an Grand Theatre, the play is an open-minded classic that weaves modern devices with tradition and is an interesting experiment on the 200-year-old Peking Opera.

Fairly compact and flexible in its form, the play has been a box-office hit because it brings to life the vigorous characters - their complex conflicts, thoughts and emotions - all in a celebratory atmosphere.

"Life is a game of go, who plays it new, bears no shame," said Liu in the opera.

The director, performers and stage designers have all succeeded in injecting something new into the traditional Peking Opera performance.

Famous domestic modern drama directors Lin Zhaohua and Tian Qinxin applied many dramatic and film elements to the opera house: the contemporary vocabulary, dialects, exaggerations, ingenious group dances, simple colours and the impressive stage designs.

Modern dance

Walking from the old traditional world to the modern one, the Beijing Modern Dance Company is an important venue for those interested in China's modern performing arts.

Modern dance was launched in China in 1987, with the establishment of a training class within the Guangdong Dance Academy. Over the past 15 years, Chinese dancers have done their best to promote the modern art.

Founded in December 1995, the Beijing Modern Dance Company has gathered some of the best modern choreographers and dancers in the country. They continue to create new dances by keeping abreast of the times and seeking to express their individuality.

Directed by Willy Tsao, a Hong Kong choreographer, the company stages new and innovative works for local audiences and establishes tours to other countries to introduce modern Chinese dances to the world.

Since 1999, it has hosted the China Modern Dance Festival annually in May.

Their last work was Kunlun, which was inspired by the Book of Mountains and Seas. It is a performance of folk geography in ancient China that has won high acclaim.

Tsao used the trendy "contact improvisation" to choreograph Kunlun and sought to inspire audiences to ponder the relationships that exist between mythology and reality, the dances and various roles and the performances and the audiences.

During the Forum & Fair, the participants will exhibit their latest production, Rear Light, choreographed by Li Hanzhong, vice-artistic director of the company, and his wife Ma Bo.

It is one show among the company's Beijing Visions Series that is being launched this year to provide a platform for young choreographers in Beijing to venture into innovate creations.

Before joining the Beijing Modern Dance Company in 1999, Li and Ma spent nearly 10 years with the Guangdong Modern Dance Company exploring their dancing and choreographic talents and accepting frequent invitations to various dance festivals abroad.

Rear Light, set to Pink Floyd's soundtrack of movie The Wall, challenges the usual perception of stage performances. The audiences are seated on both sides of the stage rather than in front.

"In a pseudo-claustrophobic space, the audience is expected to follow the show and to embark on a journey of self-discovery," said Li.

"It is a journey against the sources of light. The further you go, the darker it gets. As you finally arrive at the heart of darkness, you see light," Li explained.

Tibetan arts show

Also, there are many shows featuring rich local or ethnic flavors like the Tibetan song and dance spectacle Qomolangma.

The production involves more than 160 performers from different ethnic groups, including numerous Tibetans hailing from highland areas.

Named after the world's highest peak, the six-part show will present a comprehensive view of Tibetan history, culture, religion, music, dance and customs.

For this production, the creators have travelled to Tibet seven times and journeyed tens of thousands of kilometres to acquire a deep understanding of the life and culture of Tibetans.

"Ninety percent of the musical elements used in the show are genuine and have never been heard by most general audiences," said Michael Cheng, music producer of the play.

The uncommon Tibetan instruments used include the eagle flute, which is made from the claw bone of eagles; a stone percussion instrument; tongqin, a three-metre long horn; and damagu, a drum with different tunes.

The show also displays various styles of Tibetan dances such as the Simchuo dance from Xigaze, Plait Drum dance from Shannan and Xuan dance from Ngari.

"Tibetan dance has a great deal of variety," said choreographer Ma Yue. "We try to present dances exceptionally rich in Tibetan flavour."

(China Daily March 8, 2002)