A meeting with China's National Peking Opera (Jingju) Troupe and its director Sun Guiyuan was held at the National Philharmonic Hall in Vilnius on the 2nd of June. It was a rare occasion to attend a Peking Opera workshop, which can be reffered to as the essence or the gem of the vast Chinese culture. The National Peking Opera Troupe is one of the most famous in China and the director Sun Guiyuan is one of the most distinguished; therefore tickets to their performances are rather pricey and are sold out very fast even in China.
During the workshop, Peking Opera was introduced by the director himself and the producer of the international channel of the China Central Television (CCTV) and a Peking Opera expert Xu Zhaoqun. The meeting was carried out in Mandarin and English, and translated to Lithuanian for the audience. Sui Guiyuan introduced Jingju's orchestra, makeup, roles, costumes, performances and Jingju's arbitrary setting; i.e. a performer walking in cricle can symbolise a trip from Beijing to Vilnius. Guests also had the chance to observe how performers put the makeup and costumes on, which is a rare sight even in China.
The workshop finished with a fight scene in which the performers pretended to fight in a complete darkness. The thrilling scene with a touch of humour was followed by applauses from the audience. During the workshop the audience not only received a lot of information that helped them to better understand the Peking Opera on Thursday, but they also had the chance to experience the close up of some exciting performances.
Chen Zhongjian's photos.