As a gem of traditional Chinese culture, opera is an important vehicle for Chinese civilization to pass on from generation to generation, reflecting the cultural and artistic highlights of different historical periods. In order to "boost China’s cultural undertakings and cultural industries and uplift the country's cultural strength", the "2023 Tangshan Opera Contest" hosted by Tangshan Culture and Tourism Group was officially held in July. The event also saw generous support from Scienjoy, China’s leading mobile livestreaming platforms provider, which mobilized its platforms to livestream the whole contest, helping China’s excellent opera art reach more users.
On July 15, the intermediary heat of the contest’s Pingju opera children’s group was held at the Danfeng Chaoyang Square in Nanhu Scenic Area, Lunan District, Tangshan City. 20 young Pingju opera performers who outshined their peers from the audition gathered to perform popular excerpts for the audience, such as "Flowers as Matchmakers", "Liu Qiaoer", "Cheng Zhaocai", "Qiankun Belt", "Mu Guiying Takes Command", "Red Detachment of Women", and "A Handful of Salt". Although these performers from places like Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei are still young in age, they all share a special passion for China’s opera art, which could be easily told from their costumes, gestures and singing skills.
To provide professional-grade commentary and guidance on the contestants' performances, the competition invited Fei Hongyu, Director of the Chinese Pingju Opera Art Museum in Luanzhou, Zhao Yang, National Class-A Performer from the Heilongjiang Pingju Opera Troupe, Li Xuanjie, National Class-B Performer from the Tianjin Pingju Opera Troupe, and Zhang Xuan and Yang Ming, both national class-A performers from Beijing Opera Art's College to serve as jury members. And these master artists offered strong support for the growth and development of the young performers.
Li Xuanjie said that as a Pingju opera performer, he could understand the difficulties of these young performers and saw the future of Pingju opera from them. "I was very excited when I saw the children’s performances." Yang Min noted that cultivating cultural confidence and promoting Chinese civilization needs to start with the next generation. She felt extremely gratified to see so many outstanding children working hard to pass on China’s national culture.
Fei Hongyu said that judging from the excerpts performed by the young contestants, the whole show presented various genres and famous highlights. He stated: "The opera culture is our national symbol. With the development of the times and the inheritance of the new generation, our opera culture will definitely become more and more prosperous."
At Scienjoy, we believe that everyone has a responsibility in promoting traditional Chinese culture, which is also one of the company’s unswerving commitments. Leveraging livestreaming as an important communication channel in the Internet era, Scienjoy projected the Tangshan opera contest onto mobile phone screens, enabling greater outreach for traditional art and attracting more young netizens to follow traditional opera. In the future, Scienjoy will continue to delve into the production and dissemination of outstanding cultural content and contribute to the promotion of traditional Chinese culture.