Celebrating its leading role

It was early in the morning one Friday when the capital's Chang'an Avenue was already busy with heavy traffic. At the National Centre for the Performing Arts near Tian'anmen Square, a crowd was already forming.

These people were not just regular tourists visiting the iconic venue where musicians and artists from around the world come and perform. They were going to the venue's annual open day on Dec 22, to mark the center's 16th anniversary.

People entered the north-to-south entrance galleries, which led to the venue's major auditoriums. Throughout the day, various activities took place at different parts of the center, such as the resident singers performing arias from classic operas, musicians from the NCPA Orchestra playing popular pieces and dancers displaying their well-honed technique.

"I have been participating in the NCPA's open day event since 2009.It feels like celebrating my birthday whenever I come here on Dec 22," says Jin Li, who arrived at the venue at 8 am.

"We brought our 2-year-old daughter with us, letting her enjoy the celebration of art," says a young mother surnamed Yang, who came here with her husband and daughter. The couple used to participate in the open day event before becoming parents.

At 9 am, the resident singers opened the celebration with the song, Happy Birthday to You, which was followed by more songs, such as the popular aria, Drinking Song, from Verdi's opera La Traviata.

Inside the concert hall, musicians from the China Broadcasting Chinese Orchestra performed works featuring a diversity of traditional musical instruments, such as A Moonlit Night on the Spring River, a pipa (a four-stringed plucked lute) piece of the Chinese classical repertoire, named after a Tang Dynasty (618-907) poem by Zhang Ruoxu, and Hundreds of Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix, a suona (a double-reed woodwind instrument) piece.

According to Gong Jicheng, vice-president of the center, the institution had to celebrate its birthday by holding online events from 2020 to 2022 due to COVID-19. A 12-hour "online arts festival", for example, was held to mark its 13th birthday.

"It's like a reunion with our audience. We feel very excited this year," Gong says.

Veteran actor-director Pu Cunxin and writer Liang Xiaosheng appeared at the celebration with their new books.

"It's a great delight to be an actor, not only because I can play different roles, which allow me to experience different lives, but also because I can get instant feedback from the audience," says Pu, who just wrapped up his latest performance in the drama, Jane Eyre, produced by the center based on English writer Charlotte Bronte's novel of the same title.

Pu, 70, has played the role of Rochester in the drama since 2009.The actor from the Beijing People's Art Theatre also read a chapter from his new book, titled Wo He Wode Juese (Me and My Roles), in which he recorded his decadeslong acting career.

Liang also met the audience at the center, with his new book, titled Ren Huozhe (Living), a prose collection of Liang. His award-winning novel Renshijian (A Lifelong Journey) has been adapted into a Chinese play, which was staged at the center.

Liang was impressed by the large audience for the center's 16th birthday. The 74-year-old says that he doesn't visit the venue regularly to watch performances, but he often passes by the iconic architecture. "It changes colors during the four seasons and has different looks during the daytime and the night," he adds.

Since its inception in 2007, the center has produced 103 theatrical productions and held more than 600 exhibitions. It has built connections with 400-odd art institutions from over 70 countries and regions.

According to Gong, art education has been a major part of the center's mission with about 14,000 art educational programs, which attracted 5.4 million people since 2007. The online programs have garnered 5.5 billion clicks.

What made this year's celebration special is that two other venues also opened to the public — the NCPA Taihu Stage Art Centre, located in Taihu town, Beijing's Tongzhou district, and the recently opened Beijing Performing Arts Centre, near the Grand Canal in Tongzhou, one of the most important waterways in ancient China.

And at the latter venue, The Ballad of Canal, a Chinese opera produced by the NCPA, was staged as its opening performance on Dec 22.In 2024, the Beijing Performing Arts Centre plans to stage about 300 performances and about 300 art educational events.