Young artist takes active part in inheritance of opera culture in NW China’s Xinjiang

Photo shows a scene from a modern opera that demonstrates the profound friendship between a Party member and a man of the Uygur ethnic group as staged in Urumqi, capital city of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, June 23, 2022. (Photo/Li Ziliang)

She Yongchao, a man born in the 1990s in Hutubi county, Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, is a modern opera performer. On June 23, the man presented his first large-scale opera performance in Urumqi, the regional capital.

The opera told a story that took place in Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture in the middle of the 1960s, demonstrating the profound friendship between a Party member and a man of the Uygur ethnic group, which was portrayed by She during the show.

She Yongchao presents his first large-scale performance in Urumqi, capital city of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo/Li Ziliang)

The opera that She is engaged in and hopes to carry forward is the only local opera in Xinjiang that’s performed in the Chinese language. It represents a fusion of different genres of operas and folk songs from northwest China, and the Xinjiang dialect, and has been integrated with the artforms of different ethnic groups in Xinjiang. In 2006, it was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage project in China.

“The Xinjiang Opera is different from Yu opera and Qinqiang opera, which are taught at art schools. For years, we’ve been actively exploring ways to cultivate inheritors of the Xinjiang Opera,” said Wang Dong, secretary of the Party committee and head of the Art Theatre in Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture.

The Art Theatre in Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture has entrusted opera schools in north China’s Shanxi Province to cultivate opera talents for it under the framework of the pairing assistance program.

“I was sent to Shanxi to learn opera knowledge and skills in 2013. After graduating from the school, I came back to Xinjiang to learn Xinjiang Opera,” said She, who added that many performers who participated in the opera show on June 23 had also been trained under the specific opera education program that he once had joined.

“We want to attract more young talents to pay attention to Xinjiang Opera, fall in love with the artform and then promote its inheritance,” said Wang, adding that after the debut, the show will be staged in various localities in Xinjiang.