World City Guide

Culture

Many Chinese art forms date back centuries but most struggled to survive following the Communist revolution of 1949. Artists were organised into associations, which meant that the Party controlled every aspect, both creative and administrative. Travelling theatre, music and dance groups were created to take the Party message to the masses together with teams of projectionists showing reels of ideological films. Plays written before the 1950s, films with human interest and the Beijing Opera were suppressed and their creators persecuted until the end of the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s. Now many pre-Cultural Revolution art forms are performed regularly, as well as modern versions, which celebrate ancient and current culture, as well as ethnic differences.

As to be expected from a capital city, Beijing is leading the country’s cultural revival, and a crop of teahouses have recently reappeared in the capital that show a variety of Beijing Opera, martial arts and acrobatics and serve delicious selections of tea and cakes.

Western influences have been embraced to transform traditional Chinese art forms into contemporary pieces and the theatrical scene is changing fast. A recent development has been a fashion for Chinese translations of Western plays and home-grown dramatists are experimenting with foreign styles, such as Absurdist theatre, or emulating influential playwrights, such as Samuel Beckett. In addition, Western music and dance is now performed, and the city often receives visits from international acts. The Beijing Concert Hall has a mix of Chinese and Western music, whereas the Zhengyici Theatre has mainly Chinese productions.

Also worth seeing is traditional Chinese acrobatics, which have existed in China for 2,000 years and cover anything from gymnastics and animal tricks to magic and juggling. The style may be vaudeville, but performances are spectacular, with truly awe-inspiring feats.

Music: The Beijing Concert Hall, 1 Bei Xinhua Jie (tel: (10) 6605 5812), just off Xi Chang’an Jie, is dedicated to classical music, with regular concerts by Beijing’s resident orchestra, as well as visiting orchestras from the rest of China and overseas. Beijing Opera is still very popular and the best place to see it is Zhengyici Theatre, 220 Xiheyan Dajie, Xuanwu district (tel: (10) 6315 1649), a short walk from Heping Men subway station. Built in the 17th century, the theatre was originally a Ming Dynasty temple before being converted by some of the founding artists of the Beijing Opera company.

Theatre: Spoken drama was only introduced into Chinese theatres this century. The People’s Art Theatre in Beijing became its best-known home and, before the Cultural Revolution, staged European plays that had a clear social message. The last decade has seen a total turnabout, with the People’s Art Theatre, reassembled in 1979, establishing its reputation with a performance of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. They and other companies perform at the Beijing People’s Art Theatre (in the Capital Theatre), 22 Wangfujing Dajie (tel: (10) 6525 0123).

Teahouses: Traditional theatre, such as story-telling to musical accompaniment, magic shows and acrobatics, takes place daily at the Lao She Chaguan, 2nd Floor, Da Wancha Building, 3 Qian Men Xi Jie (tel: (10) 6303 6830), and at the Tianqiao Happy Teahouse, 113 Tianqiao Nandajie (tel: (10) 6303 9013).

Acrobatics: The most popular venue is the Wan Sheng Theatre, Beiwei Lu, just west of the Tianqiao Happy Teahouse (tel: (10) 6303 7449). There are also nightly shows at the Chaoyang Theatre (also known as the Heaven & Earth Theatre), 36 Dongsanhuan Bailu, Chaoyang District (tel: (10) 6507 2421/1818). Performances at all venues start at 1915.

Film: Beijing cinemagoers are beginning to move on from a seemingly insatiable appetite for kung fu movies, and taking seriously the often controversial movies emerging from a new wave of younger film-makers. Foreign films are mainly dubbed and carefully censored by the authorities before they are put on general release and a constant supply of Hong Kong hit movies and Korean rom-coms is readily available. A popular, central cinema is the Capital Cinema, 46 Xi Chang’an Jie (tel: (10) 6605 5510). The Sun Dong An Cinema City, 138 Wangfujing Dajie (tel: (10) 6528 1988), shows major films from the USA.

Beijing’s appeal for film directors as a sweeping, cinematic panorama was most brilliantly demonstrated by Bernardo Bertolucci in his famous 1987 epic, The Last Emperor. Set in an old Beijing bathhouse, which is threatened by developers who want to turn it into a shopping complex, Zhang Yang’s 1999 film, Shower, epitomises the tension between tradition and the dictates of commerce in contemporary Beijing. Farewell My Concubine (1993) is a stunning epic spanning half a century of modern Chinese history including the Cultural Revolution and is about the relationship between two friends growing up in the world of Beijing Opera. It was a triumph internationally for the director Chen Kaige. An extremely funny film set in modern-day Beijing is Sorry Baby (1999) directed by Feng Xiao Gang, about a feud between a wealthy businessman and his driver. Wang Xiaoshuai’s 2001 hit, Beijing Bicycle (Shiqisui de Zixingche) is unerringly simple and uncomplicated, yet its masterful cinematography earned it the Silver Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival.

Cultural Events: The Chinese New Year, which takes place either in late January or early February, is the most important festival of the year. The build-up to the festival is as frenzied as Christmas is in the West, with parties, the exchanging of gifts, and streets and houses decorated with lights. Most Chinese celebrate the start of the New Year with their families. International Labour Day on 1 May also heralds a week-long holiday. The Mid-Autumn Festival in September or early October is celebrated by displaying lanterns in various shapes, such as animals, and by eating moon cakes made of ground lotus, sesame and egg.

Literary Notes: There is a good joke in the most recent novel by the Chinese-American writer, Amy Tan – The Bonesetter’s Daughter (2001). A Chinese character in the book gives the following dismissive appraisal to a Westerner who is enthralled by Beijing’s Forbidden City: ‘In those day, so many thing forbidden, can’t see. Now everyone pay money see forbidden thing. You say this forbidden that forbidden, charge extra.’ This epitomises much of the current Chinese attitude towards Beijing where reverence towards the city because of its history and tradition is put very much to the effort of making money.

Numerous highly acclaimed contemporary works of fiction that explore China’s tumultuous history and the impact of the Cultural Revolution have become international bestsellers, notably Half of Man is Woman (1985), an autobiographical account of life in a labour camp by Zhang Xiangliang. Heralded as the Chinese Milan Kundera, Xianliang was born in Nanjing in 1936 and educated in Beijing. Other celebrated novels include Wild Swans (1991) by Jung Chan and Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club (1989). Lu Xun (1881-1936) is celebrated as the father of modern Chinese literature, and A Madman’s Diary (1918) is considered the first story written in modern, colloquial Chinese – namely in the language spoken by the masses as opposed to the classic literary language. Lu Xun embraced the early Communist movement and is still regarded as a hero by the authorities. The small house he inhabited in Beijing from 1912 to 1926 can be seen next to a museum (open Tue-Sun 0900-1530) dedicated to his life and work at a hutong just off Fucheng Men Dajie, near Fucheng Men subway station.

However, for a contemporary Beijing-based writer who marks a break from the serious tradition of political and social responsibility favoured by the Communist Party, there is Wang Shuo. Dubbed the ‘Chinese Jack Kerouac’ for his sharp mockery of almost every aspect of Chinese life, delivered in a savvy Beijing slang, his novel Please Don’t Call Me Human (1989) is perhaps the best introduction to his work for foreign readers. Written in the aftermath of the Tiananmen massacre, the book wickedly lampoons the state security apparatus and its need to bend the individual into serving the interests of the nation.