World heritage on display

A Peking Opera artist from the Jingju Theater Company of Beijing performs in the United States in 2013.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Beijing's celebrated Jingju Theater Company will stage two classical Peking Opera pieces in Australia as part of a cultural festival. Chen Nan reports.

When the Peking Opera Festival opened on Tuesday at the Darwin Entertainment Centre, audiences in Australia got the chance to see a troupe of nearly 70 Peking Opera actors and musicians from the Jingju Theater Company of Beijing, which is on tour through Dec 1.

Peking Opera, also known as jingju in Chinese, has a history of more than 200 years and was declared as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2010.

During the festival, the troupe will present two classical Peking Opera pieces, The Legend of the White Snake and One Good Turn Deserves Another, as well as three extracts from Peking Opera pieces－Monkey King Creates Havoc in Heaven, At the Cross Roads and Presenting A Pearl on Rainbow Bridge.

"The Legend of the White Snake is a graceful display of martial arts, while One Good Turn Deserves Another emphasizes the characters' emotions," says Li Enjie, director of Jingju Theater Company of Beijing, one of the largest and most prestigious Peking Opera troupes that was founded in 1979.