(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-02-22 07:30

Peking Opera will be taught on a trial basis as part of the music curriculum of primary and middle schools in 10 provinces and cities starting from this year, according to sources from the Ministry of Education. Beijing will introduce Peking Opera classes in 20 primary and middle schools.

This is meant to let students familiarize themselves with this traditional performing art, which faces the danger of becoming extinct in the near future with the elderly making up the majority of audiences.

With a history of more than 200 years, Peking Opera absorbed the best of different local operas and became a very popular performing and singing art in the middle of the 20th century.

With highly-skilled stunts and symbolic movements, this opera not only entertained audiences but also imparted historical knowledge and social morals during most part of the last century.

During the political upheaval "cultural revolution" (1966-76) Peking Opera including various types of local operas, was banned as a decadent form of art and estranged young people from it, except a few modern revolutionary plays.

Peking Opera returned to the theater in the late 1970s, but it hardly regained its former popularity after being buried for a decade. Young people found it difficult to accept its slow cadence and formulated stage movements.

Peking Opera is a very refined art. It takes years of training for a performer to have a good command of its stunts, stage movements, and singing. And it also takes time for audiences to really understand what a particular stage movement is meant to convey and to appreciate the singing.

That explains why most young people consider it as an antique art form and find it difficult to appreciate and even accept it. But those who can spend time learning to appreciate Peking Opera will consider it as one of the best art forms and will find it difficult to tear themselves away from it.

Some university students in recent years have become Peking Opera fans after attending performances and listening to lectures given by experts.

It is a good idea to make it part of the curriculum. We do not expect many students to become Peking Opera fans, but they should have at least derived some knowledge of this art form that is an important part of our traditional culture.

Hopefully, this knowledge will remain as the young grow older. This is where the future of Peking Opera lies.

(China Daily 02/22/2008 page8)