Month: May 2019

The music of Latin America and the Caribbean wowed audiences in Beijing across 22 performances held between May 23 and 26. Featuring a variety of music styles, such as reggae, rock and folk, the performances were part of the ongoing 19th Meet in Beijing Arts Festival — the capital’s largest annual festival.

Over a hundred musicians from countries, including Mexico, Peru, Chile and Argentina joined in the carnival. As well as live performances, artists from those countries also held workshops and shared their cuisine.

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The Latin America and the Caribbean festival has been part of the Meet in Beijing Arts Festival for six years.

As a country that boasts a rich mix of culture and tourism resources, Cambodia has become one of the most popular travel destinations for discerning tourists around the world. Last year, it received over 6 million international travelers, and one-third of them were from China.

While attending the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilization earlier this month, Thong Khon, Cambodia’s tourism minister, said in an interview with China Daily Website that Cambodia is ready to provide high-quality services to Chinese tourists in the future.

About 2 million Chinese tourists went to Cambodia last year. The number is expected to reach to more than 3 million by 2020, and grow to approximately 8 million by 2030, Thong Khon said earlier at the forum on culture, tourism and people-to-people exchanges, a parallel event to the conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilization.

The minister said in the interview that a strategic marketing plan was launched in 2015 to woo more Chinese tourists, and quality of tourism services will be improved through the China-Ready Accreditation System.

“We will develop better travel products to suit the demand of the Chinese market, for instance, a big tourist entertainment center will be built,” the minister said.

Thong Khon pointed out that apart from Angkor Wat, more appealing attractions need to be developed in Cambodia, including the coastal area, places near the Mekong River, and ecotourism sites, as well as healthcare tourist routes. He also emphasized the importance of upgrading infrastructure facilities in his country, implementing a favorable visa policy for Chinese visitors, and cultivating professionals and talents in the tourism industry so that the overall tourist environment in Cambodia can be enhanced.

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In terms of the significance of the first-ever Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilization, Thong Khon contends that the conference offers a good opportunity for different cultures and civilizations to learn from each other.

The singing competition reality show Super Vocal has hit the high notes with its ratings, has social media outlets singing its praises and, most importantly, it plays a key role in boosting the domestic musical theater industry.

The program’s format, under the mentorship of three established singers, sees 36 male participants who have received voice training in music academies or universities compete for six places on a national tour and to star on a new album.

Since its premiere in November, the program has received a rating of 9.3 out of 10 on TV and film review site Douban, evaluated by over 73,000 users, 69 percent of whom gave it a full mark of 10.

With their talents being showcased via the form of a reality show, the musical actors who participated saw a dramatic increase in their number of Sina Weibo followers.

According to a thread on the program’s Douban forum, musical actor Zheng Yunlong had 155,000 followers in December, but the figure has increased to 851,000. The number of followers of another musical actor Zhaili Shuotian also rose from 17,000 to more than 365,000.

The fame of the actors has undoubtedly exerted influence on the box-office takings of their musicals, which are now enjoying soldout performances across China.

When Zheng posted on Jan 4 about his performances in the Chinese versions of musicals, Murder Ballad and Letters, he was informed by thousands of followers that all tickets were sold out within one minute of their release.

He then commented on his post: "I just realized that this was posted a bit too late… I have waited 10 years for this one minute. Thank you."

When Murder Ballad, an off-Broadway musical, was staged in January in Shanghai, the top ticket price was 260 yuan ($37.6), but as its popularity kept rising, ticket prices rose to 880 yuan.

Tickets for all performances were still sold out in minutes.

Live musicals used to be a niche market. In Zheng’s post on Feb 25, that hinted at his displeasure at the rising cost of tickets, many fans posted pictures of the tickets they bought.

The third most-liked comment from a fan, with 16,000 likes, reads: "You don’t need to be angry. I bought 2,000 yuan worth of tickets to the musical Chicago the second day I knew you. Your wish of promoting musicals is being realized step by step."

Several Sina Weibo verified theater bloggers, including theater practitioner Zheng Chanyi and musical blogger MusicalBot, echoed a similar view that the show has presented a good opportunity to the Chinese musical theater industry, but meanwhile it revealed some existing problems such as an unstandardized market.

Zheng Chanyi says that Super Vocal is a key milestone in the development of the Chinese musical theater industry, as the reality show has raised its profile among many viewers.

"Never in any country has the musical theater industry been substantially boosted by a single reality show, not in the United States, the United Kingdom, nor South Korea or Japan – China has developed a new path," Zheng Chanyi says. "In general, it’s a good opportunity; the question is how to utilize it."

MusicalBot says: "The positive influence is that the show helped develop the musical theater industry. The negative influence is that everything is changing so fast, and the industry needs time to adjust and develop a workable system."

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Over 30 provinces have been making specific plans to meet the goal of removing all expressway toll booths at provincial borders by the end of this year, a senior official with the Ministry of Transport said Tuesday.

The move aims to reduce logistical costs and improve traffic flow on expressways, said Wu Chungeng, spokesman for the ministry, at a news conference.

According to Wu, 23 provincial-level governments have set up special work teams in order to meet the target on schedule.

Removing expressway toll booths does not mean canceling toll collection, but it does mean realizing fast and nonstop electronic toll collection systems, Wu added.

By the end of this year, more than 80 percent of registered automobiles will have installed ETC devices, and more than 90 percent of vehicles on freeways should be able to use the ETC system, according to the ministry.

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Electricity consumption, one of the best indicators for economic activity, showed the Chinese economy is maintaining stable growth, especially through contributions from emerging sectors in the high-tech and service industries, industry insiders said.

The National Energy Administration said total electricity consumption in China totaled 553.4 billion kilowatt-hours in April, up 5.8 percent year-on-year. The growth rate in electricity consumption in sectors such as new energy vehicles, photovoltaic components manufacturing, and internet data services all exceeded 50 percent.

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From January to April, total electricity used in China exceeded 2.23 trillion kWh, with a year-on-year increase of 5.6 percent, the China Electricity Council said.

Lin Boqiang, head of the China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy at Xiamen University, said increases in China’s electricity consumption, if compared with year-on-year GDP growth of about 6.4 percent in the first quarter, indicated that stable growth of China’s economy is mostly supported by the real economy, which provides a good basis for the country’s high quality development.

“Electricity consumption figures are among the most reliable indicators of (the) real economy, because they can only be generated through down-to-earth economic activities,” Lin said. “The closer the growth rates of electricity consumption and GDP look, the stronger the real economy is.”

Electricity used in the primary, secondary, and service industries, and power used in people’s daily lives totaled about 21.7 billion kWh, 1.48 trillion kWh, 372.8 billion kWh and 359.1 billion kWh respectively.

The proportion of electricity consumption in the secondary industry, service industry, and people’s daily lives among the total social consumption were 66.2 percent, 16.7 percent and 16.1 percent. Primary industry electricity consumption accounted for about 1 percent.

The year-on-year growth rates of electricity consumption in the three sectors above and primary industry were respectively 3.2 percent, 10.3 percent, 10.9 percent, and 6.1 percent.

About 39.3 percent of total electricity consumption growth were due to an increase in the secondary industry, about 30 percent were due to electricity consumption in people’s daily lives, and about 29.7 percent were because of the service industry.

A few years ago, when China’s GDP expanded by around 7 percent annually, electricity consumption growth was higher, he said. This meant the economy has drifted away from the solid development of the real economy.

The two-digit increase of electricity people consume in their daily lives in the past few months, as well as in past years, indicated the Chinese economy is undergoing a transformation, with increasing momentum from the service and other emerging sectors driven by people’s swiftly evolving living standards, he added.

Yuan Jiahai, a professor with the School of Economics and Management in the North China Electric Power University in Beijing, said the difference in electricity consumption in the past four months among different sectors indicated a slowdown in energy-intensive industries and the rise of emerging high-tech and service sectors.

“Since 2017, new momentum in (the) Chinese economy, such as high-tech and digital and the service industries, has been growing very fast to become quite strong, and this has been demonstrated by (the) related electricity consumption growth,” he said.

Although electricity consumption increased only 5.6 percent year-on-year in the first four months of 2019 and while electricity consumption increased 8.5 percent in 2018 over 2017, that is not the whole story, he said.

He explained that in 2018, much of it was caused by accidental factors, such as the extremely long duration of hot and cold days, the environmental protection-related electricity consumption such as using electricity for heating, and the increase of electricity consumption in the steel industry last year induced by higher industrial profits due to supply-side reforms.

If those factors are excluded, the real electricity consumption growth last year was around 4.5 percent, he said.

“The electricity consumption in the past four months is a reflection of the new norm of the Chinese economy, and is going to last for a while,” he said.

“It is obvious that energy-intensive industries, such as coal and steel, have ceased to expand as they used to, and emerging sectors in the tertiary industry have grown strong enough to develop (at a) stable rate.”

He also mentioned the fast electricity consumption growth in Central and West China, which outpaced the rate in the coastal areas in the first four months, is a reflection of increased infrastructure construction and other economic activities, as well as people’s improving living standards in those areas, driven by programs such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the Yangtze River Economic Belt development strategy.

Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University’s new college takes shape in Taicang, Jiangsu province, Alywin Chew reports in Shanghai.

The Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University held the groundbreaking ceremony for its new Entrepreneur College in Taicang, a county-level city in Suzhou, East China’s Jiangsu province, on April 29, officially setting into motion its goal of debuting “a new educational model” that is said to be a leading one in the world.

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Dubbed “syntegrative education”, the model will “train future talent with cross-cultural leadership skills, management skills, and the ability to innovate and to master and incorporate new technology to lead the industries of the future”, says Xi Youmin, XJTLU’s executive president.

The college’s new campus in Taicang will operate based on this model, and the facility is scheduled to open in 2021.

“The harder the path, the firmer my step,” Meng Meiqi sings, in high-pitched tones over a backdrop of pulsating electronica music, showing the 20-year-old’s determination to overcome any obstacle she might face in her performing career.

That’s a part of the title track of her first extended play record, for which she has written some of the lyrics.

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“I want to unveil my inner world to the listeners via the songs on this record,” says Meng.

The EP, Jiang (which translates as “stubbornness”), released on April 23, has already racked up about 8 million yuan ($1.16 million) in digital sales, topping the album charts on QQ Music, a major streaming music platform in China.

This is not the first time the young performer has impressed the public with her singing and dancing. Arguably, her biggest achievement to date came via last year’s hit online talent show, Produce 101, where she quickly stood out and secured her big break into China’s entertainment industry as a member of the 11-piece girl band, Rocket Girls 101.

After that, Meng opened the door to a large domestic fan base, garnering more than 20 million followers on the Chinese micro-blogging site, Sina Weibo.

“She is a wonderful performer as she knows how to control her facial expressions and body movements perfectly onstage. I’m fascinated by the expressive power of her performances,” says Wang Yiru, 24, a Shanghai-based office worker and a keen fan of Meng.

In the music video for Jiang, a scene where she stares into the camera through eyes lined with bright pink makeup while performing powerfully choreographed dance moves was captured in one continuous tracking shot. A scene like this requires the artist to display sophisticated dance techniques and performance skills, and that is exactly what Meng has been learning since the age of 12.

Meng recalls that it was a street dance video she saw in 2010 that inspired her to learn the genre at a dance club. Supported by her parents, Meng’s love of dance grew stronger and, four years later, the then 15-year-old made the decision to leave her hometown of Luoyang city, Henan province, to become a teen trainee with an entertainment company in South Korea.

A large-scale concert named 2019 Chinese Music Gala is scheduled to be held in Markham Auditorium in Toronto, Canada, on Saturday night, according to the organizers.

A number of well-known musicians and singers from Macao, Hong Kong and other parts of China will present different types of traditional Chinese musical instrument and classical Chinese songs.

The concert is designed to celebrate the 70th anniversary of founding of the People’s Republic of China and the 20th Anniversary of Macao’s return the motherland. It is also meant to promote and disseminate the art and culture of the Chinese nation, said Chen Guobo, organizer of the concert.

"Tonight’s traditional Chinese music gala will show our overseas Chinese’s love for the motherland and enrich the cultural life of local people in Toronto," Chen said in an interview with Xinhua on Saturday morning.

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The concert’s highlights include new music productions, mostly music style works from different Chinese regions, and Macao’s folk songs, most of which are premiered in Canada.

The concert is organized by the Canadian Association of Transnational Cultures and Arts, the Toronto Association of Friends of Macao Arts and Culture, with the support of Chinese Consulate-General in Toronto and the Macao Special Administrative Region Foundation.

For people who are familiar with Leonardo da Vinci’s painting The Last Supper, the version being exhibited at the Palace Museum in Beijing may look familiar yet peculiar.

There is Jesus Christ and his 12 apostles, but each character has a Chinese face and wears traditional Chinese clothes, and Chinese dishes are on the table.

In another painting, Mary, Jesus Christ and an angel are in a typical Chinese garden in which there is a towering rock. The composition may recall traditional figurative painting from the Song Dynasty (960-1279).

Both works from the early 20th century are among many examples showing how Catholic art got localized in China, and point to the frequent communication among different cultures.

Beauty Unites Us: Chinese Art from the Vatican Museums, the first exhibition of Chinese artifacts on loan from the Vatican, opened on Tuesday at the Palace Museum, China’s former imperial palace from 1420 to 1911, which is also known as the Forbidden City.

The display, which showcases 78 items selected from the collection of the Vatican Museums, will run until July 14.

Although Biblical-themed artworks and religious items are a key part at the exhibition, including ceramic plates with images of Bible stories, the exhibition also displays Buddhist and secular artifacts.

“The Vatican is a treasury of fine art with abundant masterpieces,” Wang Xudong, director of the Palace Museum, said at the exhibition’s opening ceremony.

“I’m so glad that the Vatican Museums could have a rendezvous with the 600-year-old Forbidden City in such a beautiful way.”

In 1925, Pope Pius XI (1857-1939) organized a major exhibition at the Vatican to showcase the beauty of cultures from across the globe, bringing together more than 100,000 works of art.

“Many of them came from China. The Vatican Museums also accepted donations from priests’ collections of Chinese artifacts,” said Wang.

The Vatican Museums currently houses around 5,000 Chinese cultural relics.

“These collections have great variety and are from a wide range of eras,” Wang said.

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The artifacts on display include a Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534) stone Buddhist statue and sancai – a type of Tang Dynasty (618-907) pottery figurines using glazes and generally in three colors, a Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) thangka – a Tibetan Buddhist painting on cotton and silk applique – and an imperial robe from the Qing Dynasty.

Also on show is a scroll map, which was drawn during the reign of Emperor Kangxi (1662-1722). It shows the cities, rivers, mountains and barracks along the route of the Great Wall. It was in the collection of a cardinal in the 18th century.

Paolo Nicolini, delegate for the administrative-management sectors of the Vatican Museums, said that the exhibition is a result of continuous cooperation since 2016, when he visited China to attend the inaugural Silk Road International Cultural Expo in Dunhuang, Gansu province.

“Fine arts cannot be locked in a safe,” Nicolini said. “It should embrace the whole world, and open doors to all people, no matter which philosophy they have. These Chinese art items are symbols of friendship, which will be further enhanced by this exhibition.”

“The friendship we have built makes our minds broader and horizons wider,” he said. “Beauty keeps us united and it will continue to do so in the future.”

The Palace Museum selected 12 treasures from its inventory to present at the exhibition, including Eight Horses, by Giuseppe Castiglione, the 18th-century Italian Jesuit painter who worked for Chinese royal family, and a painting by Wu Li, an early Qing Dynasty artist who was also a Catholic.

Melodious plays provide a backdrop for enthusiasts to don extravagant dress and makeup, Cheng Yuezhu reports.

As dusk descends, the music of the night is about to start. Time for full makeup and a theatrical costume. Lines must be rehearsed. But these are not actors, at least not on the main stage. These are some of the fans who spare no effort in their offstage performance.

The main cast will get the applause and maybe a standing ovation, but the cosplayers and bloggers have a supporting role as devoted musical fans.

For some enthusiasts, musicals entail such power that they extend far beyond simply a performance or a one-off experience. Rather, musicals are to be savored repeatedly, each time offering a new sensation.

Musical fan Li Li (pseudonym) has been to the theater to watch live performances of Les Miserables 38 times. She started a habit of going to musicals when she studied in London and lived in the West End, the center of the city’s world-leading theater district.

When she goes to the Queen’s Theatre, home to this world-renowned musical, she can discern the tiny details－how the performance differs from previous ones, or what minor changes the actors have made that fit the characters’ personality.

“What attracts me the most about musicals is the inclusiveness, their constant exploration of incorporating other art forms, as well as those factors unique to individual musicals such as the beautiful songs, the charming actors, ingenious stage design and great storyline,” says the 25-year-old.

Before a performance of Mozart L’Opera Rock in Shanghai in 2018, another fan named Liu Borui, 21, stands out from the crowd with his ornate sense of style. He is dressed as Antonio Salieri, an antagonist who’s also empathized with by the fans, a flawed character driven by jealousy in the musical as his reputation is diminished as Mozart’s rises.

Wearing a black velvet tailcoat, underneath a waistcoat and a bow tie, he has one arm poised in front of his body adorned in lace sleeves. He embodies the temperament and appearance of an 18th-century gentleman.

Liu says he was a timid boy growing up, and musicals encouraged him to come out of his shell.

“Being the focus of the crowd delights me, and the costume and makeup help me conceal my true identity,” Liu says.

Musical fans showing up at performances in costumes are already part of the scene, but what makes Shao Feifei, a teenage girl and also a fan of Mozart L’Opera Rock, stand out is that she makes all her costumes herself.

Before becoming a musical fan, Shao was already involved in the cosplay scene as a makeup stylist for other cosplayers. She says that she has met a lot of male cosplayers who refuse to wear makeup because they want to “maintain their masculinity”.

“I can feel how males are not encouraged to express their desire to look good, so to me it takes a lot of courage for Mikelangelo Loconte (Italian singer and actor of the protagonist Mozart) to wear heavy eye makeup. Whether intentional or not, he is breaking the gender stereotype, and I admire him very much for that,” Shao says.

She started making her own costumes in 2018 because custom-made clothing is expensive. When she first modified a coat into a simple costume and wore it to a fan meeting of Loconte in Shanghai, she was invited onto the stage and was praised by the actor as “incredible”, so she decided to pick up the craft.

She also seeks self-improvement from her love of musicals and the motivation brought by Loconte. “I actually have concerns about idolizing stars, because it requires a lot of unrewarding devotion, so I keep reminding myself to learn something in the process,” she says.

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