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A cultural programme themed "China -- Between Past and Future" will commence on March 23 at the House of World Cultures in Berlin, Germany. The one-month long program is the most significant Sino-German cultural exchange in 20 years and is designed to examine the development of new art forms and the talented individuals involved in them. Among the areas included are the fine arts, music, opera, photography and their relationship to China's own fascinating traditions.

Traditional Chinese operas will be at the center of the program which also features a number of exhibitions and symposiums. The opera segment, entitled "Experimental China -- Cultural Memory" is co-sponsored by the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, the House of World Cultures and the Goethe Institute in Germany.

Experimental performances in five major Chinese opera genres will be staged: the Peking Opera (Jingju), Kun Opera (Kunqu), Qin Opera (Qinqiang), Sichuan Opera (Chuanju) and Yue Opera (Yueju). Five renowned artists -- Zhao Zhigang for Yue Opera; Taiwan's Wu Hsing-kuo for Peking Opera; Tian Mansha for Sichuan Opera; Li Xiaofeng for Qin Opera and Ke Jun for Kun Opera -- will present audiences with premieres of their new works.

Zhao Zhigang, the "prince of Yue Opera," tells of the development of an artist through his conflict with Jia Baoyu, the hero in the famous Chinese historical novel A Dream of Red Mansions. Baoyu is a man born to an affluent family and lives "in a world full of women," but ends up becoming a monk. The fate of Baoyu symbolizes Zhao Zhigang's liberation from the constraints of a theater form which has molded him but whose boundaries he has reached beyond. Zhao is the only man who masters all five voice categories of the Shanghai Yue Opera which are traditionally performed by women only.

Wu Hsing-kuo, founder and director of the Contemporary Legend Theater based in Taiwan, is regarded as one of the most important theater artists in Asia. His grandiose solo Peking Opera adaptation of William Shakespeare's King Lear explores the emotive conflicts to which all humans fall heir. In this performance Wu quite remarkably plays ten different roles. Artistically he employs the traditional means of expression using props, acrobatics and stylized battle techniques to give life to his characters in a modern, fast-moving and highly emotional tale of changing circumstances.

Tian Mansha's Qing Tan (Emotive Sigh) tells of the true fate of a Sichuan Opera artist, whose personal life was deeply affected by her profession. Tian Mansha -- a director, performer and university lecturer -- is one of the most prominent and influential theater artists in contemporary China. The premiere of her piece Si Shui Wei Lan (Small Waves in Still Water) was considered to be "a milestone in the history of the revival of Chinese theater." In media interviews she said her experimental pieces differed from the traditional work in that they were created to explore a contemporary China which was undergoing dramatic changes.

Dr. Bernd Scherer, director of the House of World Cultures, said German audiences were very much looking forward to the traditional Chinese operas which had survived many hundreds of years. He added that China's operas had profound meaning and that some German playwrights, including Bertolt Brecht, were in fact indebted to the Peking Opera guru Mei Lanfang.

Yang Shaolin, general manager of the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, said that after their premiere performances at the House of World Cultures in Berlin the five artists would return to Shanghai and start work on the "Experimental China -- Cultural Memory" series in Asia between May 16 and 21.

(China.org.cn by Wind Gu March 17, 2006)