The Museum of Traditional Chinese Opera was unveiled during the Hundred Drama Festival held in Kunshan on Tuesday. The event was sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the People's Government of Jiangsu Province.
At the opening ceremony, Lu Yingchuan, Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism, and Zhang Aijun, Member of the Standing Committee and Director of Publicity of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee, unveiled the Museum of Traditional Chinese Opera. Vice Governor Xu Ying delivered speeches.
The Museum of Traditional Chinese Opera is the first themed museum in China to showcase 348 different genres of Chinese opera. The museum features various exhibition halls, public education, and cultural and creative areas by integrating the collection, display, teaching and research, and performance functions of traditional Chinese opera themes, and comprehensively showcasing the development process of Chinese opera and the characteristics of 348 genres of Chinese opera.
The opera research base of the Chinese Academy of Arts was unveiled at the opening ceremony. Industry leaders and opera masters jointly performed six traditional Chinese opera performances, including classic and famous highlights from Sichuan Opera, Peking Opera, and Chu Opera.
“The Hundred Drama Festival has accumulated a lot of strength for us opera performers and Kunqu Opera people, and it is also a very good and professional platform, whether it is the preservation of opera genres, the mutual exchange of opera genres, or the innovation of opera genres, I think it is very meaningful,” said Qu Qixia, Director of Kunshan Contemporary Kunqu Opera Theatre.
The Kunshan Hundred Drama Festival aims to promote the active inheritance and development of Chinese opera by focusing on the selection and cultivation of leading talents in traditional Chinese opera, the support of endangered opera genres, and the construction of Chinese opera inheritance bases, with the theme of "a grand gathering of traditional Chinese opera and a festival for the people".
The grand ceremony will continue until October 31st with a combination of online and offline performances, including 6 major dramas and 20 traditional Chinese opera performances. The National Opera Actors' Meeting will also be held to encourage more young people to love traditional culture and continuously enhance the influence of the Chinese culture dissemination.
“This year, we focus on the integration of various aspects of traditional Chinese opera, including the integration of traditional Chinese opera and tourism, as well as the integration of traditional Chinese opera and variety entertainment so as to continuously promote development and maintaining vitality,” said Wu Jidong, Deputy Director of the Kunshan Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, and Tourism.