Chinese college students, traditional Kunqu opera will no longer be just a description in a textbook, but a part of campus life.

This year, the Ministry of Culture has required each of the country's seven professional Kunqu theatres to give 20 free public performances at Chinese colleges yearly.

All costs of these performances will covered by the central and local governments, said Lu Yuzhong, an official with the ministry's department of arts, at a recent national Kunqu seminar held in Hangzhou, the capital of east China's Zhejiang Province.

Lu said the move is a part of the country's latest program to save, protect and support the Kunqu art drafted last May.

Under the program, the Chinese government will establish three to four Kunqu protection centers, create ten new Kunqu scripts and rescue 15 classic scripts and 200 traditional scripts from 2005 to 2009.

In addition, the country will take steps to train new Kunqu players and organize more cultural activities to promote Kunqu's popularity.

In Zhejiang, where the Kunqu opera once was popular, the local Zhejiang Kunqu Theater has decided to perform at Zhejiang University and other colleges and to discuss new scripts with the students.

"Only when the Kunqu gets popular among the young generation, can it be best-known from one generation to another," said Lin Weilin, head of the Zhejiang Kunqu Theater.

Lin said China lacks a long-term plan to publicize its cultural heritage among the young generation. In that respect, the new program is a breakthrough.

The 600-year Kunqu Opera, one of the oldest operatic forms in China, was considered the mother of many other types of Chinese traditional operas. It is known for its gentle and clear vocals, beautiful and refined tunes and dance-like stage performance.

The opera reached its peak of popularity by the late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), exerting a tremendous influence on other types of Chinese operas, including Beijing Opera. However, toward the end of the Qing, it lost its appeal to audiences and was on the verge of extinction.

Currently, there are only about 300 professional Kunqu players across the country and many traditional Kunqu scripts have been lost.

The fate of Kunqu Opera has aroused worldwide attention. In 2001, Kunqu was inscribed in United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) list of "oral masterpiece and intangible heritage of humanity."

(China Daily January 8, 2005)