NCPA Traditional Chinese Operas as Intangible Cultural Heritages

The Yunnan Opera is one of the main local operas in Yunnan Province. With a history of more than 200 years, it is known as the cultural quintessence of Yunnan Province. Established in October 1951, the Yunnan Opera Theatre is an exemplary Yunnan Opera art ensemble. In June 2008, the Yunnan Opera was included in the second State-Level Non-Material Cultural Heritage List by the State Council while the Yunnan Opera Theatre was identified as a protector of the Yunnan Opera, a national intangible cultural heritage. In May 2011, the Yunnan Opera Theatre was announced as a public performing arts institution by the Publicity Department of the CPC and Ministry of Culture. It is now a public-interest institution.

Since its establishment, the Theatre has stood committed to creating high-quality works, burnishing its image, and expanding publicity to achieve greater development. The Yunnan Opera artists, who are devoted to building on past achievements and striving for new progress from generation from generation, have excavated, arranged, inherited, transplanted and created a large number of excellent operas with their own unremitting efforts. Some of them were cordially received by the Party and state leaders including MAO Zedong, ZHOU Enlai, and LI Xiannian. The Changchun Film Studio produced a Yunnan Opera film titled “A Marriage of Wife Borrowing”, which was screened across the country. After that, many works, including A Spring Melody, Righteous Blood of Guanshan Mountain, Soul of Guqin, Immortal Iron and Blood, Jingniang, Flow, Returning Home, In and Out of the Opera, In and Out of the Door, In and Out of the Feelings, In and Out of the Pool, and ZHANG Guimei, have won many prizes including the Award by Ministry of Culture, Excellent Literary and Artistic Masterpiece Award by Yunnan Province, New Opera Award, Huadeng Award for Contribution to Yunnan Opera Revitalization, and financial support from the China National Arts Fund.

With the development of the Yunnan Opera, the Theatre is often invited to large-scale performing arts events held both at home and abroad, such as the 16^th Chinese Opera Festival held by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles in Chongqing, Zhejiang, Hunan, Henan, etc., China Boxing Intangible Cultural Heritage (Rare) Operetta Festival, and NCPA 2019 Intangible Cultural Heritage Opera Festival. Also, the Theatre has delivered performances in foreign countries and regions including Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Singapore, and Madagascar on invitation. In addition, the Theatre recorded 18 episodes of the Yunnan Opera highlights, with a total of 540 minutes, at the invitation of CCTV-11 Appreciation of Classical Opera Arias, arousing strong repercussions among theatre goers. Since its founding, the Theatre has followed the socialist literary and artistic orientation, guidelines and principles while offering cultural services at the grass-roots level, offering many public-spirited performances in Qujing, Honghe, Baoshan, Chuxiong, and other cities in Yunnan Province.

WANG Yuzhen and CHEN Yaping, two artists of the Theatre, have won the Plum Blossom Prize, while another artist enjoys special government allowances from the State Council; 17 artists have won the Camellia Award, the highest prize for opera performance by Yunnan Province; 13 artists enjoy special allowances from the Yunnan Provincial Government or have won the Yunnan Province’s Award for Literary and Four Kinds of Talents in the First Batch by the Yunnan Provincial Publicity Department, Provincial Development of Culture, and Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles; artists including WANG Runmei, CHEN Yaping, WU Lan, and WANG Shuping have been awarded the title of Young Performing Artist by the Provincial Development of Culture; other artists, including WANG Bin, TAI Guangyuan, DENG Laisha, ZHAO Chunfen, and LIU Shanshan, have been awarded the title of Outstanding Young Actor/Actress by the Provincial Development of Culture. At present, the Theatre has excavated, arranged, inherited, transplanted and created more than 300 Yunnan operas, and won more than 310 national and provincial awards including collective and personal honours.