Shows celebrate New China
The National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts will put up four shows at the Chang'an Grand Theater this week to celebrate the 60th anniversary of New China's founding.
Tomorrow, the academy's young faculty members will present a gala of popular Peking Opera arias.
Friday will feature the classical repertoire Romance of Liu Bei and Sun Shangxiang (Longfeng Chengxiang), with famous actress Zhang Huoding appearing as Sun and actor Chen Lincang as Liu. Based on the Romance of The Three Kingdoms, the play featuring a joyful wedding ceremony is performed during celebratory occasions.
Saturday will feature a Peking Opera version of the Red Detachment of Women. The ballet with the same title has been tremendously popular since its 1964 premiere, but the Peking Opera rendition, which was also produced during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), has seldom been staged. The revival features new settings and costumes, and is presented by rising students from the academy.
The celebration shows will wrap up with leading actress Zhang Huoding's appearance on Sunday. The 38-year-old is one of the top performers specializing in the Cheng School, named after the renowned late Peking Opera artist Cheng Yanqiu (1904-1958).
Everybody's kungfu fighting
The Chinese kungfu show Shichahai will be put on stage at Chang An Grand Hotel from Oct 28.
Starring world kungfu champions and a nationally leading kungfu team, the show will demonstrate the highest level of this martial art. It will also present the landscapes of Shichahai, a famous place of interest in Beijing. The area is known not only for its beautiful lake and bands, but also for the kungfu masters who grew up here and trained at the Beijing Shichahai Sports School, which was founded in 1958. The school is one of the main centers for training young athletes in Beijing.
The show also fuses dance, acrobatics and opera.
Books donated to Germany
Five hundred signature Chinese books donated by Chinese people from all walks of life are ready to be exhibited and given out to German readers at the five-day 2009 Frankfurt International Book Fair (FIBF) beginning today.
The 500 books have been selected by Goethe-Institute (China) out of more than 1,000 books it received in a program specially designed as part of China's country of honor activities at the FIBF. The program calls on Chinese people to donate books they recommend for German readers in a bid to establish a true image of China and to clear up some foreigners' misunderstandings of China.
Attached to each book is a 400-word donator's introduction translated into English, stating the reason for the recommendation, and printed with the donor's e-mail address to generate further communication.
English cleanup continues
Massive efforts to standardize English-language public signage in the years leading up to the Beijing Olympics have proven largely successful. But this huge project still requires improvement, especially in comparison with other major cities in the world.
The campaign, which is expected to last until the end of this year, focuses on major tourism locations around the city.
People joining the "cleanup" taskforce include teachers and volunteers. They are divided in small groups who patrol the streets. After surveying the English-language signage, they suggest corrections in a report to Beijing Foreign Affairs Office.
Editor: Dong Jirong
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