Cultural ambassador

Sun Ping describes herself as that kind of person who is filled with a sense of urgency that never lets her stop. When she achieves a dream, instead of resting, she will plan a new goal.

In 1990, she took part in several cultural exchange programs. She went to Hungary for half a year. She and her husband, Ye Jinsen, also a Peking Opera artist, successfully introduced Peking Opera to Hungarian audiences. When they returned home, they got an invitation from Hungary again. The government invited them to take part in a performance research program. Their pioneering work bore fruit, resulting in a nine-year stay in Hungary, where she was acclaimed as a cultural ambassador in recognition of her contributions to cultural exchange.

Sun Ping and her husband became popular for their achievement of introducing oriental art into Hungary. They were whole-heartedly engaged in teaching, training, researching and creating new dramas. Their hard work finally paid off when their new drama, which featured the acting conventions of Peking Opera, was dubbed "action drama" in Europe. In Sun's words, this new drama was a perfect combination of Peking Opera and western drama.

She said the greatest feature of Peking Opera is lying inside, and, at the same time, outside the role, which means that the performer will sometimes become the narrator. She inserted this skill into Western dramas, at the same time adding more Peking Opera elements such as acting skills, a simple stage, facial mask painting and wardrobes. Her first work was King St. Laszlo, which was performed more than 300 times in Europe. When people were celebrating the success of King St. Laszlo, Sun had another dream of creating more dramas and introducing more Chinese elements into the action drama genre.

Among many of her bold projects, The Journey to the West, or Monkey King, adapted from a famous traditional novel in China, has been the most successful. The performance of the drama marked the acceptance of Peking Opera by Western audiences. The Journey to the West was performed more than 600 times in Europe.

It was also performed at the German Drama Festival in 1994. Helmut Kohl, the then German chancellor, announced the founding of this new performance form – action drama. The Action Drama Festival was founded the same year, and it is held annually to this day. The Journey to the West was a typical work of action drama, representing her dream of bringing Peking Opera to the mainstream culture in Western theaters.

Sun Ping got then more and more audacious. She started to adapt western musicals and operas, such as the Artists' Festival, Human's Doomsday, Story of Western Region and Please Forgive Me. She became popular in Hungary, even throughout Europe. She said, "Yes, musicals and operas are their traditional art forms. I'm not trying to infringe their culture. I just want to show them there is another way to perform and I never force them to enter the theater. They have right to choose and I take the responsibility of giving them more options. The result was that all of these adapted action dramas performed successfully."

In an effort to recognize Sun Ping's contribution to the cultural exchange between China and Hungary, Hungarian President Goncz Arpad named her an honorary citizen of Hungary in March of 1993. She was only the third foreigner to receive this honor.

Following her success in Europe, Sun continued her mission in the U.S. In 2000, she worked with the Washington National Symphony Orchestra in her American debut. Her performance was well-received and the success led her to explore more opportunities to help American audiences understand oriental art.

She gave lectures at Princeton University to a fully-packed hall. She collaborated with the University of Pennsylvania Symphony Orchestra to perform arias of modern Peking Operas. She explained that the orchestras were not simply accompanying the opera – they have equal status. They share the same stage, with the orchestra playing a long entry of the arias, which describe the emotion of the story. With the accompaniment of the orchestra, the Peking Opera starts.

Her effort not only received applause, flowers, "bravos" and "encores," but also many questions. Sun said, "I always meet that kind of person who asks me, 'Do you think your action drama and Peking Opera symphony lose contact with their Chinese roots?' I don't think so!" She said, "Peking Opera would not have been born without those opera troupes from Anhui, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Hebei provinces who entered Beijing 200 years ago and merged with Beijing's local opera, Hanju Opera. A reasonable combination of east and west and borrowing from other art forms can keep an opera young and fresh."

"The combination of Western art forms with Peking Opera allows Western audiences to more easily to accept it. If they have a great interest in Peking Opera, then they will study more about genuine Peking Opera. On the other hand, I combined two art forms, so it's not clear which one compromises the other. I just give audience more options."

(China.org.cn August 4, 2008)