Nanjing held an event to promote its culture and tourism in San Francisco on the afternoon of June 14.
The "Charm of Nanjing" event held at the San Francisco Public Library included shows of Kunqu Opera and Qinhuai Lanterns, winning applauses from the audience.
Ji Wen(right) presents her books to Tom Fortin(center), curator of San Francisco Public Library.
At the promotion, Ji Wen, a novelist from Nanjing, presented her novels to the library. She started writing on the Internet after moving to Canada in 2012. In 2016, her first novel soon became a hit. In just over two years, she wrote four novels based Nanjing's history and culture. Last year, at the Paris stop of "Nanjing Week", an event to promote the city in world’s top cities, the English version of Ji's novel was firstly launched at the headquarters of UNESCO. Ji has brought the Nanjing stories to the San Francisco Bay Area as part of the promotion tour of Nanjing Tech Week.
For this event, Kunqu opera performer Chen Rui and his colleagues revised the international version of Peach Blossom Fan, a musical play and historical drama. They have drawn strengths from light music and combined modern lines with Kunqu‘s unique speaking skills (nianbai) to present the scenery along the Qinhuai River, maintaining the charm of classical Kunqu opera and also including bold innovation. Chen said that he hopes to let the US audiences fully understand the story of Peach Blossom Fan.
Ann, a composer from Colorado, said that Kunqu has both poetic lyrics and touching melodies, and the performer’s costumes and movements are also fascinating. Phil, a local English teacher in San Francisco, said he is interested in Chinese culture and has taught himself Chinese. Impressed by the Confucius Temple in the promo, he said he wants to experience the atmosphere in which people show highly respect to education in Nanjing.
