China honors outstanding plays, artists

China's Ministry of Culture honored outstanding plays on Wednesday, as well as ballet dancers from national art troupes.

The plays awarded include:

-- "Farewell My Concubine," an epic tragedy presented by the National Opera of China.

-- "This is the Final Struggle," staged by the National Theatre of China, which tells a story about family conflict that involves corruption and a rapidly changing China.

-- "Journey to the West," or commonly known to foreigners as "Monkey King," presented by China Children's Art Theatre.

The ministry also presented awards to ballet dancers who had won international ballet competitions.

At the awards ceremony, Vice Culture Minister Wang Wenzhang encouraged national art troupes to create even more superior plays and perform them more frequently.

Wang said national art troupes should deepen their reforms to set up an operational mechanism to enable them to "serve and win over the people in the process of conquering the market."

In addition, the Ministry of Culture plans to stage a series of outstanding performances in this August and September. 32 performances composed by 9 troupes are expected to be shown in the National Center of Performing Art.