Boom city swaps commerce for culture
By Chen Jie and Zou Huilin (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-10-15 09:09

Economic booming Shanghai is not just about making money.

The port city enters a thriving season of arts and culture when the Sixth Shanghai Arts Festival opens today and runs until November 18.

In the month-long showcase - sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Shanghai municipal government - over 60 live acts performed by artists from over 20 countries and regions will thrill audiences.

At the same time, the 2004 Asia Music Festival, Baoshan Folk Arts Festival, International Performing Arts Fair and a series of exhibitions will be launched.

Planned is a diversity of performances including classical and pop music, Western ballet and Chinese dance, Western and Chinese local opera - and other multi-media theatrical productions.

Dance drama

The spectacular two-act dance drama "A Dream of Red Mansions" (Honglou Meng) produced by Shanghai City Dance Company will be staged at the opening ceremony.

Wu Weifeng, left, as Jia Baoyu and Shan Chong as Lin Daiyu in the two-act dance drama "A Dream of Red Mansions" produced by Shanghai City Dance Company.

"A Dream of Red Mansions" written by Cao Xueqin (?1715-?63) is one of the four most worldly-renowned Chinese ancient literature works that has been well read both at home and abroad.

Adapted from the novel, the dance focuses on the tragic love between Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu.

Sun Mingzhang, general manager of the Shanghai City Dance Company, admits that adapting such a classical novel is extremely challenging as it is so famous that in China every reader has his or her own imagination of the main characters.

But choreographer Zhao Ming, who worked on "Farewell My Concubine" (Bawang Bieji) for the company last year, manages to simplify the complicated relationships between all the characters appearing in the novel by creating a poetic and dream-like dance version of the love story.

Starting in a dream, Jinghuan, a fairy foretells the fates of Jia, Lin and other girls in the Jia family. The first act focuses on the romance between Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu, the life of them and other girls of the Jia family in the Daguan Garden.

Some original major plots of the novel are featured in the first act such as Jia and Lin read the banned love-story "The West Chamber" (Xixiang Ji), Lin buries the fallen flowers, Jia and the girls form a saloon to compose poetry.

The second act is the tragic ending where Jia is cheated into marrying Xue Baochai whom he does not love. Lin burns her love poems before her death and Jia leaves home and becomes a monk after she dies.

In addition to ballet and Chinese dance numbers, choreographer Zhao borrows some acting patterns and movements unique in Chinese local operas, for example, the woman dancer flicks the long white silk sleeves.

Zhao confesses that he just read the classic novel once and his version an abridged edition. "It's hard to tell such a long story in a 90-minute dance. The simpler, the better. I catch the truest love between Lin and Jia from the simplest plots and details," he explains.

"As I prepared, I did not have the whole story in my mind. I just worked on every scene such as how Lin buries the fallen flowers, and how to display the wedding of Jia and Xue. The abridged scenes appear in my mind one after another and I then make notes."