The full text of traditional Chinese opera
Kunqu
Legend of the
White Snake was jointly staged, among others, here Saturday
by Japan Kunqu Opera Friendship Society and North China Kunqu Opera
Theater (NCKOT).
The event was aimed to mark the forthcoming 30th anniversary of the
normalization of the diplomatic relations between China and
Japan.
It
was the first time in 30 years the NCKOT has presented the full
text of the opera, which featured young performers from both China
and Japan.
Hisaka Maeda, who starred the main part, said that many Japanese
love the Chinese Kunqu opera, and that she hoped to preserve the
Kunqu scripts, so as to protect the invaluable cultural
heritage.
Hisaka, now a doctoral degree student at Beijing Normal University,
has studied Kunqu for more than 10 years under the instruction of
Ma Xianglin and Zhang Yuwen, who are both well-known Kunqu artists
in China. She has so far performed Kunqu's masterpieces including
"Dream Betrothal" and "Zhaojun Goes to the Border".
Since its founding in 1989, the Japanese Kunqu Opera Friendship
Society has held over 80 performances in China. It also collected
many recordings of operas by old-generation artists and published
scripts free of charge, to promote Kunqu in Japan.
According to experts, Kunqu, as the oldest form of Chinese opera,
inspired some other opera forms including the Peking
Opera. In May this year, Kunqu was listed by the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) among
the 19 "masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of
humanity."
(Xinhua News
Agency December 29, 2001)