Major cultural events to celebrate CPC's centenary

A series of major cultural events will be held later this year to celebrate the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China.

Dramas, operas and concerts will be presented throughout this year to review the remarkable journey of China in the past century, officials announced at a news conference held in Beijing on Monday by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

A total of 300 major works will be performed on stages across the country, including 100 newly created works.

The project will not only recall revolutionary history, but also reflect the achievements made by the CPC in recent years such as poverty alleviation and the fight against COVID-19, said Lyu Yuzhong, an inspector with the arts department of the ministry.

Nevertheless, classic revolutionary-themed works will also feature prominently in the program.

For example, The White-Haired Girl, which was premiered in 1945 in Yan'an, Shaanxi province, then a major revolutionary base area of the CPC, will return to the stage. Other household names for generations of Chinese audiences such as The Red Lantern, a Peking Opera work of the 1970s, and the 1960s ballet The Red Detachment of Women have also been adapted for the new performance season.

"These performances will help to strengthen people's morale even further in the new era," Lyu said.

Along with top-tier national and provincial troupes, privately owned troupes and colleges will also join the project, and some of the shows will also be broadcast online in order to reach a wider audience.

A national-level exhibition of artworks on the anniversary of the founding of the Party is also scheduled to open in June at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing, said Lyu.

He said that about 400 artworks from the collection of the museum and on loan from art museums nationwide will be showcased at the event.

"People are familiar with many of them due to their frequent appearance in school textbooks,"Lyu said.

The exhibits will include traditional Chinese paintings, oil paintings, sculptures and prints. As well as famous original works, some of the items on display will be newly created ones focusing on key events and modern heroes in the period since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012.

At the news conference, Shan Gangxin, an official with the ministry's resource development department, said that "red-themed" tourism plays a key role in displaying the Party's traditions and nurturing patriotism. The ministry will release a list of 100 recommended tourist routes.

These will include historical sites related to key moments in the history of the Party, such as Yan'an in Shaanxi province and Jinggangshan in Jiangxi province, but also sites that show China's achievements since the launch of reform and opening-up, such as key villages on the road to prosperity and major infrastructure including the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.