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Peking Opera troupes take bold steps to be profitable

By Liu Jie and Hou Qingyang (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-22 10:49

The Mei Lanfang Grand Theater in downtown Beijing, which is named after the legendary Peking Opera star, is quite popular among local fans and foreigners alike. So much so that, during weekends, tickets for the nearly 1,100 seats are very often sold out.

(Left) A fan photographs a statue of Hua Dan, a young, lovely character in Peking Opera, in the corridor of the Mei Lanfang Grand Theater, and a Peking Opera sculpture at the theater. [Zhang Wei]

Its three-story structure, decorated with traditional Chinese characters on the inside, was built at a cost of nearly 200 million yuan and thrown open to the public in November 2007.

"In addition to the luxurious interior and intangible value of the Mei Lanfang brand, our unique selling proposition is the all-star lineup from the China National Peking Opera Company," said Yu Sheng, the general manager of the theater.

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The China National Peking Opera Company, China's top operatic troupe, entrusted Beijing Guoyishengping Culture Development Co, Ltd to manage the theater and make it commercially viable one and a half years ago. Zhang Delin and his wife Yu, a famous BTV anchorwoman, own the Beijing Guoyishengping.

That move marked a turnaround for the State-owned firm used to government funding to run its operations. An opera ticket at the theater is priced between 2,080 yuan to 50 yuan.

For long, State-owned performance groups like the Peking Opera Company used to be subsidized by the Chinese government.

But, since 2004, many of them have carried out reforms in line with government policies that encouraged cultural units to tap market resources and cut their dependence on State funds.

"It's really different from three years ago when we used to get fiscal support and subsidies from the government," said Wu Jiang, president of the Peking Opera Company, which also owns an experimental theater, Changheyuan, that performs a modern-style Peking Opera as well as classic arias at comparatively lower rates for cost-conscious audiences.

Other State-owned performance troupes, including the China Children's Art Troupe, China Puppet Art Troupe, China Arts and Entertainment Group, Jilin Opera and Dance Performance Co, Shanghai City Entertainment Co Ltd and Jiangsu Opera and Dance Group, have also followed in Peking Opera's wake.

Take Shanghai's Circus Theater, a large hemispherical building with a golden dome, for example. The theater hosts the multimedia odyssey ERA every evening.

The play has been staged over 1,450 times with box office receipts exceeding 150 million yuan. Nearly 1.4 million people, 60 percent of them foreigners, have seen the performance to date.

"Not only will the audience be amazed by the ERA acrobats' control and precision, they will also be enchanted by the world that is created through the use of multimedia, technology, lighting and sound effects, elaborate costumes, original live music and a lot more," said Wang Hongbo, media director of China Arts and Entertainment Group, the country's largest art conglomerate.

ERA, jointly produced by the China Arts and Entertainment Group, Shanghai Media & Entertainment Group and Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe, has seen investments worth 10 million yuan by each of the partners.

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