Experience the charm of Beijing Opera
This week saw the visit from Beijing Opera Yuyin Society, which was founded by the famous Beijing Opera artist Wang Peiyu. It was a two-day Beijing Opera event for our Junior and Senior School students, through which they experienced the charm of the national heritage of Chinese art.
It is a truly wonderful opportunity for our participatingstudents. Dulwich College Suzhou community is made up of over 30 countries andregions and includes a sea of different cultural backgrounds. Although most ofour students have already had different knowledge or experiences about BeijingOpera, few of them have really participated in the Beijing Opera workshop orhave a wholescale understanding of Beijing Opera. During this event, ourstudents not only had wonderful lectures about Beijing Opera but also earned abasic understanding of the various roles and martial arts of Beijing Opera. Inaddition, under the guidance from Beijing Opera artists from Yuyin Society,students participated in various interactive workshops, some of them paintedBeijing Opera facial masks, learned to sing famous Beijing Opera aria, such as"Li Hua Song" and "Bao Hua Deng", some practised the stagefigure of "Xiao Fang Niu", and got to know martial arts of BeijingOpera and Chinese etiquette culture.
As an important part of the whole event, our Chinese and English bilingual students shouldered the very challenging translation work for their peers which they completed fantastically. This is truly a great cultural exchange practice, worth all the extra time, resources and commitment input.
Lingran H, our Senior School Media Prefect said, "I have watched Beijing Opera many times but never been able to have the opportunity to interact with actors. Compared with many art forms from the west, such as musicals, I have realized that it would take so many years of training for Beijing Opera actors/actresses to be able to perform on the stage. This difference is fascinating and makes me think deeply.”
This event is organised by EIM aiming to provide students with rich experience in Chinese culture before the Chinese New Year. It is one of the most important ways to demonstrate how we Live Worldwise and what Dulwich Difference truly means.
