On Saturday evening, the classic Wuxi Opera (or Xiju) The Pearl Pagodaby the Wuxi Xiju Opera Theatre from East China's Jiangsu Province, was successfully staged in Latisana, Italy, drawing thunderous applaud from the audience. Following two successful performances in Vienna, Austria, this tour marks the first time that a large-scale Wuxi opera production has been presented in Europe.

Without amplification equipment and fancy props throughout the performance, the actors adhered to the performance conventions of Chinese opera, relying on their solid foundational skills in singing, recitation, acting, and martial movements, allowing the foreign audience to experience the most authentic form of traditional Chinese opera, Cai Yu, president of Wuxi Xiju Opera Theatre, told the Global Times on Monday.

"Although there is a language barrier, art is borderless. The greatest charm of Xiju lies in the audience's ability to engage directly with the live performance, gaining an immediate and immersive understanding of this unique art form," Cai said.

"The sustained applause from the audience overseas is the highest tribute to the art of Xiju and a testament to the power of traditional Chinese opera to transcend cultural boundaries. This performance also strengthened our own confidence in Chinese culture," she said.

Cai noted that the European debut and a new regulation on the protection and inheritance of Wuxi Opera have added new momentum to the development of the art in the modern era.

Xiju, one of the three major opera genres in East China and a representative opera form of Jiangsu Province, is known as "a plum blossom by Taihu Lake." In 2008, it was included on China's National Intangible Cultural Heritage list. As an art form named after the city of Wuxi, Xiju is one of the city's most representative symbols of traditional culture.

A press conference was held on Thursday in Wuxi to announce the Regulations on the Protection and Inheritance of Wuxi Opera, introducing its background, significance, and main provisions. As Wuxi's first local regulation in the field of intangible cultural heritage, it will take effect on November 1 this year.

By improving support measures, strengthening talent cultivation, deepening reform and innovation, and promoting communication and exchange, the new regulations aim to provide legal protection for Wuxi Opera to overcome development bottlenecks and achieve sustainable inheritance.

Meanwhile, local opera practitioners in other parts of China are also exploring new ways to expand the reach of their distinctive art forms and engage younger audiences, including Qinqiang Opera in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province and local opera in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Enhancing public foundation

The new regulation is a boost in the protection of both the Xiju and its practitioners, providing legal support for them to uphold tradition while pursuing innovation, Cai said.

To strengthen the public foundation of Xiju, the regulation designates June 7 each year as "Xiju Day." A new Xiju Museum is also expected to be completed by the end of 2027, according to the press conference.

Wei Yan, a director with the Wuxi Xiju Opera Theatre, told the Global Times on Monday that they have joined hands with local schools to get students interested in exquisite artistic charm of Xiju.

"The defining characteristic of Xiju is that it moves away from lyrical softness and delicate grace. We have staged performances in colleges in some provinces and regions outside of Jiangsu and offered workshops at local schools, integrating traditional culture into students and letting them bring it to audiences across the country," said Wei.

In addition, a full two-hour Xiju performance can be broken down into short episodes and shared with young audiences through short video platforms.

"We are also promoting Xiju by leveraging the current popularity of the Jiangsu Football City League," Wei noted.

Connecting with the youth

Another opera that connected with campus is Qinqiang Opera (a Chinese folk opera genre originating in the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046BC-771BC) in Shaanxi. In collaboration with local universities, a "Qinqiang Opera on Campus" event was launched to offer singing classes and facial makeup workshops. At the same time, a Qinqiang-themed online challenge has been introduced, encouraging young people to record and share their learning journeys through short videos, Dai Jiukui, Weinan Qiangqiang Opera Troupe in Shaanxi, told the Global Times on Monday.

Dai acknowledged that currently, the greatest challenge to inheritance lies in the dual pressure of a shortage of professional talent and the difficulty of engaging younger audiences.

Qinqiang Opera places high demands on performers' mastery of the fundamental skills of singing, recitation, acting, and martial movements. It takes more than ten years of rigorous training to cultivate a mature actor, said Dai.

"However, to reach young audiences, we are exploring cross-sector communication and collaboration. Drawing on the innovative experience of Qinqiang micro-dramas, we plan to adapt and refine classic arias for new media, creating a content model that combines 'dramatic conflict + intangible cultural heritage performance' on short video platforms. These efforts infuse Qinqiang with new vitality in the modern era," Dai noted.

During experiential sessions at colleges, most students joined out of curiosity, but once they mastered a singing passage or completed a facial makeup design, the genuine passion in their eyes was unmistakable, said Dai. Starting from April 1, measures for the protection of local opera in Nanning of Guangxi took effect, aimed at strengthening the protection of local opera.

"Young people are not indifferent to traditional arts - they just need forms of expression that resonate with their world. As long as we find that point of connection, Qinqiang opera can surely thrive among the younger generation. This hope for its inheritance fills me with motivation," Dai noted.