Qingdao's Shinan district celebrates New Year with variety of cultural performances

Shinan district, one of the most popular tourist destinations and fastest-growing areas in Qingdao, Shandong province, has launched a large-scale cultural project to celebrate this year's Spring Festival and boost traditional Chinese culture, according to local officials.

Themed "Attachment to Shinan, Happy Lunar New Year", the event, taking place Jan 24 through Feb 27, is attracting millions of visitors with its rich art forms of Peking Opera, symphony and quyi, a traditional Chinese folk entertainment, including singing ballads, telling stories, performing comic dialogues and crosstalk.

More than 40 cultural activities are running in the district in forms such as cultural fairs, flash shows, singing and dancing, as well as demonstrations of China's intangible cultural heritages.

One highlight was a live flash show at Shinan's Zhanqiao Square performed by local cultural volunteers.

Taking the Zhanqiao Pier, blue sky, the sea and the picturesque scenery as a natural stage, the flash show began with children singing the famous song The Sea Is My Hometown, together with songs such as I Love You, China, Happy Lunar New Year and Beautiful Mood.

The show was staged to convey best wishes for loved ones, hometown and the country and will add spiritual momentum to the high-quality development of the city.

Statistics show that the video of the show has garnered 386,000 clicks.

"Shinan district has achieved high-quality development. It has robust impetus to replace traditional growth drivers with new ones," said Hua Yusong, Party chief of the district. "The district has huge potential to achieve breakthroughs and new developments."

Peking Opera artists presented a total of 15 classic pieces at the Qingdao concert hall on Feb 10, including The Legend of the White Snake, The Taking of Tiger Mountain, Farewell to My Concubine and The Orphan of Zhao.

Other cultural activities include a symphony concert, folk performances, original literature and artworks and quyi.

The quyi performances were staged by cultural volunteers in Shinan during the "Literature and Art Light Cavalry" event, an activity to enhance people's awareness of traditional Chinese culture.

As a famed cultural brand, the month-long program, organized by the culture and tourism bureau of Shinan district, has performed thousands of shows since 2017 to spotlight traditional and fine Chinese culture and offer a visual feast for audiences from China and abroad.

Cultural volunteers also perform crosstalk such as Writing Spring Festival Couplets, Solving Riddles and Playing with Colorful Lanterns.

Crosstalk is a popular form of comedic dialogue in China and an indispensable part of Spring Festival.

"We pay our gratitude to those who have spared no effort to promote the development of the district and the city over the past year through various cultural activities," said Shinan district government.

The district invited professional cultural and art organizations to stage three public performances covering symphony, quyi and Peking Opera to enrich local residents' life.

To commemorate the 120th birth anniversary of Lao She, one of China's most influential novelists of the 20th century, Shinan district is also holding a cultural exhibition from Feb 8 to March 24, showing a series of the playwright's family treasures and artworks at the Camel Xiangzi Museum.

Lao created many well-known literary works when he lived in Qingdao in the 1930s, including Camel Xiangzi, My Whole Life and Xinghai Series.

The exhibition consists of three main parts with hundreds of pieces covering calligraphy, paintings, photos, goods and letters.

During the exhibition, the cultural and tourism bureau of Shinan district will hold reading seminars every month, together with a writing competition to commemorate the novelist's birth anniversary and enhance the public's awareness of cultural inheritance.

(China Daily 02/19/2019 page12)