Two months after the controversial Peking Opera studies program was announced by the Ministry of Education, the plan is being launched in Shanghai.

The Shanghai Education Commission said yesterday that it had chosen 20 primary and middle schools as pilot venues for the city's Peking Opera education program.

All 20 schools, most of which are key experimental schools, will bring Peking Opera into students' compulsory art lessons. The commission will start to offer professional training in the subject for art teachers but individual schools will have to fund the program and purchases resources for opera education.

Schools will have to arrange for their students to see Peking Opera performances on a regular basis and professional opera performers should be invited to help teachers, the commission said yesterday.

"It is a pilot program so that schools and the education authority will be able to assess the experience of the scheme's implementation," the statement said.

In February, the Ministry of Education issued a notice requiring Peking Opera to be taught to primary and middle school students throughout the country as a way of preserving traditional Chinese culture.

Ten regions, including Shanghai, were selected as the first batch of pilot regions to run the opera courses.

The plan, however, created controversy throughout the country.

Many people argued that it was inappropriate to issue mandatory orders asking students from different regions, some of whom do not even speak standard Mandarin, to perform opera which is far removed from the younger generation.

Lack of resources was another reason for skepticism.

(Shanghai Daily April 22, 2008)