Art Transcends Borders, Exchange Promotes Development – The Beijing Youth Performance Delegation visits ROK to attend the “2019 Seoul Friendship Festival”

The Beijing Youth Performance Delegation, which was organized by the Beijing People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and consists of 13 teachers and students of the Art Troupe of Gengdan Institute of Beijing University of Technology, visited ROK, upon the invitation of the municipal government of Seoul, to attend the world cities culture celebration of “2019 Seoul Friendship Festival” from August 29 to September 2, 2019. The opening and closing ceremonies, as well as the performances and charity sales of the “2019 Seoul Friendship Festival” were held in Seoul Plaza and Cheonggyecheon. The sponsor invited 16 performance delegations from overseas cities and more than 60 embassies in ROK, including the Cultural Academy of the Chinese Embassy in ROK. About 400,000 tourists from all over the country and all over the world participated in the activities of the two-day “2019 Seoul Friendship Festival”.

During this period, the Beijing Youth Performance Delegation had 3 performances, shared the stage with 16 city delegations from different countries, such as Bangkok, Budapest and Mexico City, and performed “Long Plaits”, “Pretty Hua Dan” and “Common Vetch Plucking” to the admiration of Seoul citizens and tourists from different countries. These folk dances represent the characteristics of Chinese traditional culture in different areas and with different styles, bringing fresh and new features to foreign audiences. In addition, the delegation gave other performances such as the traditional Chinese folk music – Zhongruan solo “Blooming Flowers and Full Moon” and the quintessence of Chinese culture – the famous Peking Opera excerpt “Ode to Pear Flowers”. The splendid performance of Beijing Youth Performance Delegation won bursts of applause of the audience and received high recognition from the sponsor of the “2019 Seoul Friendship Festival”.

The folk dance “Big Braids” originated from the original ecological folk song of northern Shaanxi, which depicts the beautiful images of girls with big braids, red hair ribbons, two tassel-shaped plaits, curved eyebrows, almond-shaped eyes, cherry-like small mouths. They wore embroidered coats and seven-inch loose trousers, creating a beautiful scene when swinging their arms.

The classical dance “Pretty Hua Dan” is created on the basis of Huadan, which is one of the actors of Sichuan Opera and is featured with the regional style of Bashu. The dance is lively, vivid, humorous and interesting, with rich local characteristics. The combination of opera and dance shows Huadans’ characters in a flexible and vivid way, and the classical rhythm shapes the pretty images of Huadan with its own characteristics.

The famous Peking Opera excerpt “Ode to Pear Flowers” is the theme song of the newly compiled historical Peking Opera – “The Imperial Concubine of the Tang Dynasty”. Its content directly echoes the love theme of Emperor Tang Ming Huang and Imperial Concubine Yang in “The Imperial Concubine of the Tang Dynasty”. The singing design is based on the Erhuang tone of Peking Opera, and incorporates the characteristics of Mei Lanfang School's singing, featured with its mildness and splendidness.

The Zhong Ruan, which is a Chinese mediant musical instrument, has a quiet, soft and poetic tone. The Chinese folk music “Blooming Flowers and Full Moon”, which is a Zhongruan solo, implies that the poetic and picturesque scenes of a leisure pavilion, blooming flowers, gold cups, a round and bright moon, with persons sitting lightheartedly and chatting passionately, drinking wine and tea.

The rhythm of the classical dance “Common Vetch Plucking” is very slow and tender, and the color of the dance is very light and elegant. The two rows of girls change the formations with the styles of the drifting wind and flying snow, and wave their water sleeves with the styles of floating clouds, covering the moon. They elegantly and implicitly show the purest classical beauty with the style of lyric poems.

This is the 10th time that the Beijing People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries was entrusted by the Foreign Affairs Office of Beijing Municipal Government to organize a delegation to visit ROK for attending the “Seoul Friendship Festival”. The purpose is to further implement the spirit of the third plenary meeting of the “Beijing & Seoul Mixed Commission”, to publicize and demonstrate the healthy, upward, and excellent mental outlook of the young people in Beijing through the cultural and artistic exchanges among the friendly cities, to learn from and absorb the world's excellent culture, to help the world know China better, to inherit and carry forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture, and to continuously enhance the cultural self-confidence of the Chinese nation through strengthening cultural exchanges with young people from all over the world.

Gengdan Institute of Beijing University of Technology, founded in 2005, is a full-time general undergraduate institution approved by the Ministry of Education. The institute is named after the martyr Gengdan, who was a Chinese early educator, revolutionist with a Ph.D in United Kingdom. Adhering to the school mission of "non-profit" and inheriting the great patriotism spirit of martyr Gengdan, Gengdan Institute is forging the school spirit of “serving for the country and the people faithfully”, practicing the school motto of “mastering the learning ability, being determined to work hard, pursuing progresses, and striving for comprehensive development”. The institute is committed to building a century-old university with a social mission.

2019 Beijing Youth Performance Delegation

August 29 – September 2, 2019 • Seoul, ROK