Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2016 i Beijing Review

Traditional Chinese operas are an important part of China’s intangible cultural heritage, including well-known genres such as Peking Opera, Kunqu Opera and Cantonese Opera. Among them, Peking Opera has greatly outperformed others in terms of recognition abroad. Some foreigners not only travel to China to watch it, but also to pick up some of the opera’s performance techniques. However, as today’s audiences are evolving to consume different forms of entertainment, traditional operas face challenges regarding the maintenance of their cultural legacy whilst innovating to keep up with contemporary needs. In terms of retaining its popularity, the industry is obstructed by a lack of master performers—and Peking Opera is no exception. Compared with older generations of heavyweights, even today’s best young performers lag far behind in terms of ability and repertoire.…

‘Zhang Huoding! Zhang Huoding! Zhang Huoding!” Legions of young fans, waving and clapping hands, yelled out the name of their idol among crowds at the Chang’an Grand Theater in Beijing on May 24. This was not a pop concert, but a Peking Opera show—a traditional art form in China that has a history spanning over 200 years. It has nonetheless seen a recent decline in popularity as it continues to lose younger generations of followers— but not in some cases. There was a short period of suffocating silence just as Zhang was about to come out on the stage. Unlike the audiences’ frenzied behavior, the opera actress walked out at a leisurely pace. After several graceful movements, she made a pose in time with the final tone of the background…

Editor’s Note: In an article published on May 19 in the Singaporean newspaper The Straits Times entitled “U.S.’s Rebalancing Is Fishing in South China Sea’s Troubled Waters,” Xu Bu, Chinese Ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), analyses the role the United States has played in the region after President Barack Obama’s administration adopted the Asia-Pacific rebalancing strategy. The shift of the U.S. strategic focus has led to regional instability and caused an immediate rift among nations in the South China Sea area. Edited excerpts from his article follow: Since 2009, the United States has played a driving role in increasing tensions between China and Southeast Asian countries, turning the South China Sea into a regional hotspot. No one benefits. On several recent occasions, Admiral Harry B. Harris,…

Taiwan’s new leader Tsai Ing-wen took office in Taipei on May 20. Following the change of leadership in Taiwan, the most important question now is whether the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will acknowledge the 1992 Consensus and its core implications, because the question involves the political foundation for peaceful development of cross-Straits relations. It also matters for the benefit of Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits as well as for regional stability and peace. To most people’s disappointment, Tsai posed an ambiguous stance on the 1992 Consensus in her inaugural address, not showing responsibility for history. Tsai’s equivocation casts a huge shadow over the future of cross-Straits relations. The 1992 Consensus, the common political foundation reached by the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, states that both sides…

RENOWNED SCHOLAR DIES Yang Jiang, a well-known Chinese writer, translator and foreign literature scholar, passed away in Beijing on May 25 at the age of 105. Proficient in English, French and Spanish, Yang made a name for herself in the field of translation. Her translation of Don Quixote into Chinese from its original Spanish has been generally regarded as the best version to date. As a writer, Yang is known for her plain but resonant style. Her essay collection We Three and her novel Baptism have been a hit both at home and abroad. Yang enrolled in Tsinghua University to study foreign literature in 1932, where she later met her husband Qian Zhongshu (1910-98). Qian was a renowned writer and literary critic. After their marriage in 1935, the couple went…

Peking Opera roles fall into four categories: sheng, dan, jing and chou, based on the gender, age, evil or kind-heartedness, and the handsomeness of the characters being played, and are artificially exaggerated by makeup, costumes and gestures. Sheng is the male role in Peking Opera. This role has several subtypes according to the character’s age, personality and status, which are laosheng (senior role), hongsheng (middle-age role), xiaosheng (handsome young role specializing in song and recitation), wusheng (acrobatic role, extremely agile and physically skilled), and wawasheng (a child role). Dan is the term for female roles in Peking Opera. The roles can be divided into six subtypes based on the characters played. Zhengdan or qingyi, is the most important role in Peking Opera and is used for dgi nified, serious, and…

In a recent article entitled “South China Sea: How We Got to This Stage,” published in the U.S.-based National Interest on May 9, veteran diplomat Fu Ying and senior researcher Wu Shicun examined the evolution of the maritime disputes in the South China Sea between China and some neighboring countries. They called for efforts to avoid further misunderstandings in order to prevent escalation of tensions amongst all parties concerned. The first part of the article was published in Issue No.21 of Beijing Review. Fu is chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of China’s National People’s Congress, chairwoman of the Academic Committee of China’s Institute of International Strategy under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and specially-invited vice chairwoman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges. Wu is a PhD…

In a desolate wasteland, sits a small mound overhung with boughs. The stage is set for a Chinese version of Waiting for Godot, presented by the Contemporary Legend Theater from Taiwan at the Tianqiao Performing Arts Center in Beijing on May 15. Waiting for Godot is a two-act absurdist play by Irish playwright Samuel Beckett that premiered in 1953. Originally written in French and translated into English by Beckett himself, it features two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, also called Didi and Gogo, who wait endlessly for the mysterious Godot, who never shows up. The uniqueness of the Chinese version lies in its incorporation of Peking Opera elements into the Western classic. Didi and Gogo adopt Peking Opera performances, while the other three characters use modern performing styles. This innovative revamp…

Jinan, capital of Shandong Province Area: 7,998 square km Population: more than 7 million GDP (2015): 610 billion yuan ($93 billion), up 8.1 percent year on year Pillar industries: shifting from heavy industrial sectors including iron and steel, automobile, machinery, chemicals and cement to emerging industry such as modern logistics Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi Province Area: 7,402 square km Population: more than 5 million GDP (2015): 400 billion yuan ($61 billion), up 9.6 percent year on year Pillar industries: automobile, metallurgy, textile, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, bioengineering, electronic information, new materials, software Tangshan, a heavy industry base in Hebei Province Area: 13,472 square km Population: 7.8 million GDP (2015): 610 billion yuan ($93 billion), up 5.6 percent year on year Pillar industries: iron and steel, cement, equipment manufacturing, oil Zhangzhou, a coastal…

Dear Readers, Forum is a column that provides a space for varying perspectives on contemporary Chinese society. We invite you to submit personal viewpoints on past and current topics (in either English or Chinese). yanwei@bjreview.com Please provide your name and address along with your comments School violence has repeatedly made headlines in recent years. In March 2015, for example, a video clip showing a female student in east China’s Jiangxi Province being beaten and slapped in the face by classmates because of conflicts between her and one of the attackers went viral on the Internet. Soon afterward, in May 2015, a junior middle school student was stripped naked and beaten by 10 peers in south China’s Guangdong Province. Video and images of the incident were later posted online. In the…