A Chinese expert has called for affordable theater in China, citing that the high price of the country's theater tickets has made theater-going an exclusive activity for the few.
"Theaters should return to the average people," said Ye Tingfang, research fellow of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, at the ongoing First China Theater Forum held in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province.
China's theater industry has been moving toward an extravagant trend since it started market-oriented management, with no regard to the current income level of the average people, shunning them away from theaters for the high ticket price, he said.
The price of the best ticket at a Zurich theater in Switzerland was 83 Swiss francs in the mid-1990's, which accounted for 0.4 percent of a professor's salary, and the price of secondary ticket at a Roman theater accounted for 1.5 percent of a local professor's salary, according to Ye.
While in big Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai, a ticket for opera, symphony or ballet usually could sell at anywhere from 500 yuan (US$62.5) to 800 yuan (US$100) which accounted for 10 to 17 percent of a Chinese professor's salary, he said.
The ticket for the recent Berliner Philharmoniker Concert in Beijing was up to 4,000 yuan (US$500) while it is sold in Berlin for only 43 euros (US$52), just one percent of a German professor's salary.
"A theater ticket in China is usually 10 times that in developed countries," Ye acknowledged.
With an average per-capita monthly income of 1,000 to 3,000 yuan (US$125 to 375), entertainment tickets should be priced from 30 to 100 yuan (US$3.75 to 12.5), said Han Jian'ou, a show business company manager in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province.
Ye said there is a widening gap between the wealthy and the needy in terms of the entertainment activities they are engaged in.
"The government should make more substantial efforts to cope with the demands of the average people for culture and entertainment," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency December 4, 2005)
