Fresh appeal

Faced with a declining audience for Peking Opera, an heir to the theater leads a movement to give it a more contemporary feel, Chen Nan reports.

Peking Opera, like many other ancient art forms in China, is struggling to survive in the face of a fading fan base. It's a fact that even Li Baochun, the son of the late Peking Opera master Li Shaochun (1911-75), who himself is a star of the theater, admits.

However, instead of lamenting about the bad situation, Li, 64, has been pushing the boundaries of the traditional theater and reaching out to audiences, especially the younger generation, with solid performances and his modern sensibilities.