On 15 September, Ambassador Gui Congyou attended a Peking opera lecture given by the renowned Peking opera artist Yuan Huiqin, who was on a cultural exchange visit to Sweden. Culture Counsellor Pu Zhengdong, Science and Technology Counsellor Dai Gang, and Education Counsellor Dou Chunxiang were among the audience.
With lively and easy-to-understand language, Ms Yuan presented the basics of the Peking opera art to more than 200 Chinese and foreign guests. Young artists from the China National Peking Opera Company, who were also on the visit, as well as fans from Sweden and local Chinese community performed classic Peking opera episodes, which has drawn enthusiastic applause from the audience.
Ambassador Gui said Peking opera is the quintessence of Chinese culture and has been well inherited. Peking opera is also the first Chinese drama to go global and has a lot of fans and fanciers around the world. In the 1920s, during his trip to China, the Swedish Crown Prince especially visited Mei Lanfang, the Peking opera master. Mei Lanfang and his son Mei Baojiu, also a Peking opera master, staged performance in Sweden in the 1940s and 1980s, which made important contribution to the arts exchange between China and Sweden. The visit of Ms Yuan Huiqin has increased the Swedish people’s understanding of the traditional Chinese opera art. It is hoped that the Chinese and Swedish art groups will further strengthen communication and exchange and make new contribution to the prosperity of the time-honored culture of our two countries and the deepening of the traditional friendship between our two peoples.
