Frequently, Beijing's expensive theatre tickets keep crushing the dreams of the literati, who flock to the city's renowned theatres expecting sensuous pleasure.

Gates are slammed shut in front of those who are unable to afford the extravagant tickets. Yet numerous scalpers skulk near the box offices surreptitiously waving their illicit tickets. These rogues will even stuff name cards in people's hands, trying to set up "business" relationships and promising to courier tickets to a patron's home in the future.

These scalpers get their paws on a lot of complimentary tickets sent by performing companies to various sponsors and media reporters, the Beijing Morning Post reported recently. "Ticket prices would slide down if companies simply reduced the amount of complimentary tickets," said Xiao Fuxing, a Chinese writer and deputy chief editor for People's Literature magazine.

In recent months in Beijing the highest ticket price for a concert conducted by Argentina born Daniel Barenboim sold at about 980 yuan (US$132). Yet the most expensive ticket in the United States is not supposed to hit US$60, Xiao said. .

But it remains difficult for performing companies to cut out dispensing complimentary tickets. "We have no choice since there are too many sponsors asking for bonuses," said a performance organizer surnamed Wang.

According to a random survey conducted by the Beijing Morning Post, more than half of the twenty people interviewed in the audience inside the Beijing People's Art Theatre had come on November 4 to see White Deer Prairie, a drama adapted from a Chinese novel, with complimentary tickets. People who were not interested in the show sold their tickets to scalpers.

Xiao commented that the complimentary tickets were metaphorical "tumors" inside the city's art performances. "Scalped tickets create a vicious cycle in which the true audience must pay an extra, hidden cost created by the comp tickets," the editor wrote in one of his articles.

To create a more positive image, theaters in Beijing have started staging performances exclusively for students and are selling less expensive tickets. Significantly, on November 6 the Capital Theatre sold out 900 student tickets for White Deer Prairie. The most expensive ticket was priced at 100 yuan, which is at least 400 yuan lower than the highest end seat. "Students loved these charity performances but they also complained about the scarcity of tickets," said a staff member from the theater.

(China.org.cn by Wu Jin November 11, 2007)