For theatre and music fans around the world, the golden autumn ushers in new
seasons or galas of ballets, operas, concerts and dramas. Beijing and Shanghai,
two major cultural centres in China, are no exception.
In Beijing, the ongoing Eighth Beijing Music Festival, which raised its
curtain in mid-October, is expected to arrive at its grand finale this weekend
when the Berlin Philharmonic gives two concerts on its return trip to China's
capital, after a 26-year interval.
In Shanghai, the month-long fiesta of the Seventh Shanghai International Arts
Festival, which started on October 18, has reached quite a few climaxes not only
with its variety programmes of opera, dance and drama but also with free
open-air shows.
The two separate but major music and arts events have gathered, arguably, the
best the worlds of music and theatre have to offer. Running for their seventh or
eighth years, they have garnered support from the Ministry of Culture and
sponsorship from various big home and international businesses.
The venues for the events have also been upgraded. In Shanghai, for example,
in addition to the Shanghai Grand Theatre in downtown, the Shanghai Oriental Art
Centre, occupying a total area of nearly 40,000 square metres in Pudong, has
just opened and will house the Shanghai debut concerts by the Berlin
Philharmonic next week.
In the heart of Beijing, extensive interior decoration and installation of
reportedly the state-of-the-art equipment is under way at the China National
Theatre. Incidentally, Paul Andreu takes credit for the designs of both the
China National Theatre and Shanghai Oriental Art Centre. While the former is in
the shape of a glassy shell, the latter features five blossoming petals and
forms a beautiful butterfly orchid in full bloom when viewed from the sky.
For all the glitter and glamour of the participating stars, ensembles and the
venues, old problems have persisted and new ones have emerged.
Tickets for the shows have remained expensive with the highest reaching 2,000
yuan (US$246) in Beijing and 4,000 yuan (US$493) in Shanghai. At the Lincoln
Center for Performing Arts in New York, one of the international cultural
centres, the tickets for the Metropolitan Opera's "Aida" this coming Saturday
are selling at US$220.
As performing arts agencies claim that the most expensive tickets are easier
to sell and companies fall for them for public relations purposes, many people -
including fans - would grapple for a free ticket, despite the Ministry of
Culture's new regulation against such a practice.
That is especially serious in Beijing, where public relations work is all the
rage.
Meanwhile, home ensembles seem to have a harder time attracting sponsors and
promotions for their participation in the events. The publicity for their shows
can hardly match those from overseas, even though the tickets for their shows
are conspicuously lower, with the highest prices reaching between 380 and 680
yuan (US$47-84).
Moreover, quite a few home ensembles have reasons to shy away from such
events as they have difficulties raising money for creating new shows or drawing
good enough box office revenues for their own seasons.
Above all, television, the Internet and other leading mass media have kept
bombarding the public, especially the young, with instant fame, sparkle and
money of pop culture that do not involve serious learning and hard efforts.
Meanwhile, the young, especially the teenagers who may become future theatre
and concert fans, are burdened with so much school work that their parents must
think twice before taking them to good performing arts, except catering to the
children's needs to see the pop stars.
All these problems combined have erected obstacles to the long-term
development of a broader public base for the fine performing arts and for the
improvement of home-based performing arts ensembles.
And all those require solutions so that the two wonderful arts events and
others like them will continue to enrich the cultural life of not only the two
leading Chinese cities with ambitious drives to become international
metropolises but also the whole country.
Email: lixing@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 11/03/2005 page4)
