US Students Performed Chinese Mermaid Story
From July 5 to 24, 2023, invited by China National Theatre for Children(CNTC), 23 people from 4 cities of Montana and California of U.S.A. visited Beijing and Xi’an of China for 20 days. Within which there are 15 teens who are high school students, they performed CNTC’s classic show Chinese Mermaid by speaking Chinese and dancing ballet on the stage of CNTC, as the opening show of the 12th China Children’s Theatre Festival, also brought a wonderful dancing recital Youth Connects East West embodies Chinese and Western cultural characteristics.
The show Chinese Mermaid(US version)
This is a meaningful and valuable folk cultural exchange between China and US. As Ms. Li Feng, President of CNTC said, theatre for children and young people is a “world language” that enables children of different countries and races to instantly communicate without words. Theatre for children and young people is the seed of innocence, kindness, beauty. It is also the seed of love, culture, and friendship from which sprouts blossoms of the utmost beauty.
Rehearsal of the show Chinese Mermaid
Chinese Mermaid performed by 15 US teens is one main part of a program which is called China-US Youth Theatre Exchange Program hosted by China National Theatre for Children and Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre, supported by China International Culture Association and Center for Language Education and Cooperation.
Let the Flowers of TYA bloom Around the Children
“I hope that more children and more art practitioners who love children will come to find light, nourish the growth of children with drama and art, and start from here with us, with light, towards hope, to the future, and run together on the field of art!” said Feng Li , president of China National Theatre for Children(CNTC).
Feng Li, President of CNTC
The First Rural Children’s Art Carnival hosted by CNTC was successfully held in Guangshan County, Henan Province, which is an innovative practice of the national theater to participate in rural revitalization and practice the service tenet of “All for Children”.The Carnival started from July 8th and concluded on July 31st. In the vast Chinese rural area, children rarely see a high-quality TYA production. CNTC made 230 artists trips to Guangshan County, presenting an unique “Art Event” exclusive for children in rural areas.
With the theme of“Running Together on the Field of Art”, the Carnival lasted for 23 days, covering 2 drama creations, 33 performances of 11 plays, 3 drama education workshops and 2 aesthetic education lectures, and 1 seminar on “How to Make Children’s Art Better Serve Rural Children and Realize the High-quality Development of Children’s Art”.
One of the highlights is that CNTC created two “Seed Project” works, in which CNTC sent a group of outstanding artists as the main creative team to utilize the local and traditional cultural resources of Guangshan County, and produces the two TYA works, Lights and Young Sima Guang. The two works belong exclusively to the children of Guangshan County and are performed by local primary and secondary school students and teachers. They will be passed on generation by generation, then the seeds of drama can take root at the grassroots level and truly let the flowers of drama bloom around the children.At present, the two works have been taken into the local primary and secondary school drama course.
The Carnival attracted attention with 120 million followers on the whole network. The total views of the opening ceremony play Three Monks reached 485,000, the closing ceremony Lights and Young Sima Guang reached 1.083 million. The live streaming of cultural and sports events came up to 3.32 million views, also the followers of Weibo hashtag on the Carnival reached more than 85mililion, the views of short videos on Tiktok China reached more than 24mililon as well.
