In recent years, seeing traditional Chinese operas being performed at schools in North China’s Shanxi province has become commonplace. This is all because of a program initiated by local authorities in the region, to provide students with better access to traditional dramas, as reported by a local media organization in Shanxi.
Traditional operas gained popularity when a Shanxi TV Channel launched a TV show at 10 middle and primary schools in 2015; with similar events being held more regularly thereafter.
Over the past three years, 20 Jinju operas, a local form of music in Shanxi province, have been presented on the stages of Shanxi universities, involving students from all 79 universities in the province.
Jinju Opera Master, Song Hongli, told reporters that crowds of students came for the opera Rishengchang Exchange Shop, a drama about China’s earliest financial institution in the Ancient City of Pingyao in Shanxi. When the show was put on at Shanxi University, so many students went to the performance that even the corridors were jam-packed with young opera-enthusiasts.
Yin Tianwu, Party secretary of Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, commented on the trend positively, saying that having traditional operas performed at schools has proved beneficial in promoting traditional Chinese culture and schools can now also support students’ enthusiasm for the art.
“Introducing traditional operas to schools help youngsters build up cultural confidence, which is a fundamental and ever-lasting life skill”, said Jinju Opera Master, Li Guilian, who is now a teacher of Jinju Opera at various middle and primary schools.
Shanxi is one of the birthplaces of China’s traditional operas, and exerts a profound influence on the future development of Chinese operas.
The province has 38 categories of drama, more than any other province in China. It is also the home to the greatest number of ancient opera stages in the country, totaling 2,887.
Three of China’s four most well-known writers of Yuan Songs, a popular music form founded in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), are also from Shanxi province.
