Quanzhou builds an opera culture, to delight of local residents and tourists

Quanzhou, known for its time-honored traditional operas, is injecting the art into daily life of its people to help develop a culture that respects, understands and appreciates opera.

The city is known for its local opera arts such as Liyuan, Gaojia and Dacheng.

Originating in the 12th century, Liyuan Opera is said to be the oldest opera art still in existence in China. Dubbed as the "living fossil of Chinese opera arts", Liyuan gives people a glimpse into what operas looked like during the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and even longer before. To this date, "Liyuan" is still the synonym of the opera circle in China.

Watching opera has been a lifestyle of Quanzhou people, which has led to the prosperity of the local performing arts market.

In June, the Quanzhou Grand Theater opened to the public to host routine high-level performances, often seen in a crowded hall of opera lovers.

While local operas are popular among residents, they have also developed a fondness for opera arts from across the country and the world.

Officials from the city's culture and tourism bureau said they plan to introduce more plays from home and abroad in the future to meet the demands of residents.

The city has been inviting China's top opera artists to perform for the locals. Over the past three years, about 30 winners of Plum Blossom Performance Award, the top honor for operas and dramas in China, have visited Quanzhou.

Recently, three award winners performed Female Princess Consort and Marriage of the Fairy Princess, two classic plays of Huangmei Opera in Quanzhou, attracting fans from across the city.

Jiang Jianguo, head of Anhui Huangmei Opera Theatre, one of the visiting troupes, said the audience applauded from the start to the end during their performance. He said he hoped to perform in Quanzhou again.

At the second Maritime Silk Road International Arts Festival in 2016, people waited in long lines to enter the theater for the opening performance, said You Chuncheng, former chairman of Quanzhou Ballad Singers Association. You added that all seats in the theater were occupied. Shen Tiemei, who has won the Plum Blossom award for three times, performed at that time.

In December 2017, seventeen Plum award winners performed on the same stage in Quanzhou, a milestone in the local opera industry.

In August, national first-level actor Zhang Zhengchun performed a classic play of Dacheng Opera that told the story of Monkey King borrowing weapons from the Dragon King's palace.

Zeng Jingping, director of Fujian Liyuan Opera inheritance center, said such exchanges and mutual-learning help to improve the level of performance of local arts, and it would encourage more local classic plays to go outside of the region to increase Quanzhou's fame.

Chen Juanjuan, who has performed Gaojia Opera for over 40 years and is an inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage, said Quanzhou is a city with diverse culture and a town of operas.

The fourth Maritime Silk Road International Arts Festival, which opened on Nov 22, also hosts multiple opera performances. Chen said she hopes more people will join "the feast of art".

(China Daily 11/26/2019 page19)