A son of Peking Opera stars branches out

With both of his parents top Peking Opera stars in China, Jack Zhang feels destined to follow an artistic path. However, his chosen medium and formula are film, video and an open heart.

Over the past four years, the 15-year-old has spent almost all of his spare time exploring cross-cultural topics, making friends, and honing his shooting and editing skills.

Perhaps more importantly, he continues to refine his own understanding of people-to-people exchanges between China and the US and beyond.

"I am a strong believer in humanity. I believe we share way more commonalities than our differences," said Zhang. "We all live on this same Earth under the same moon. Humanity connects us all."

It's that firm belief in sameness that inspires Zhang to capture "the profound bonding and appreciation of each other among people of different races" and it resonates this year in his seven-minute short film, A World of Peace and Happiness.

On Nov 9, the film brought him the International Communication of Chinese Culture Award at the 20th Chinese American film and TV festivals. The top honor in the category also made him the youngest director at the annual cross-border movie industry celebration in Los Angeles.

"I feel so excited," said Guan Bo, Zhang's mother, the star actress at the China National Peking Opera Company in Beijing. She attended the awards ceremony. "I feel so happy seeing Jack's dreams coming true."

The plot and scene setup are simple and straightforward, Zhang said. "It's a group performance of 50 amateurs singing a famous Chinese poem, The Prelude to Water Melody, in Chinese." To assemble the troupe, he reached out to his neighbors, classmates and sports club buddies.

"A lot of pitching and public speaking, also an opportunity to let me introduce China and its culture to others," he said.

Written by one of China's most accomplished writers, Su Shi, more than 1,000 years ago, the rhythmic lyric highlights the Chinese people's celebration of a sacred full moon and a jubilant reunion with family members. Several universally appreciated lines include:

The moon does wax, the moon does wane,

And so men meet and say goodbye.

I only pray our life be long,

And our souls together heavenward fly!

A full crew, however, did not necessarily equate to success. Before long, Zhang realized the real challenges are performers' limited knowledge of spoken Chinese. "They are Koreans, Indians, Italians, Caucasians, African Americans, Latinos. They don't speak Chinese at all. And it's fair to say that the Chinese language is hard for a foreigner to pick up."

To solve the language barrier, "Jack invited them (crew members) over, helped them annotate the phrases and lines, and teach them word by word, line by line, how to pronounce each character," said Guan. "For the whole summer, he was literally doing the same thing — teaching, correcting and rehearsing.

"Participants are ardent and truly committed," said Guan. "They want to join Jack's efforts to strengthen cross-culture communications. There is a physician actor who would spend extra time enhancing his acting, although his schedule is very hectic."

In his monologue, Zhang said the beauty of the moon "transcends race, status and wealth. So, let's appreciate each other, and encourage each other, wishing the much-sought peace and happiness to everyone in the world."

Eve Xue, a participant, said the experience resulted in many "firsts" for her and her family. "It's the first time that I came into a studio, had my voice and performance recorded, and worked together with non-Chinese team members."

Another participant, Lincheng Speer, said: "Choreography, presentation, the arrangement of elements and shooting required so many do-overs. But no one complains. What we want, same as Jack and his parents, is one inch closer to perfection."

"I consider being a bridge for people-to-people exchanges is my shared responsibility," said Zhang. "There is so much to do."

Zhang recognized the urgency and necessity of cross-cultural citizen collaborations when he was only 8 years old. As an international student who had just moved to Los Angeles, Zhang attended his school's International Day carnival, an event that prompts young minds to display their cultural heritages and mingle with those of different backgrounds.

"To my dismay and very surprise, I could not locate a single booth that introduced China and Chinese culture," recalled Zhang, adding that he felt awkward and embarrassed strolling around the international cultural corners.

"Indian, Korean, Latino, Italian, Japanese, Australian, African … their delicacies and cultural elements all are there but not China's," he said.

"He was so upset that day. The first thing he said to me when I picked him up was, ‘Mom, can we do something together next year to promote Chinese culture?'" said Guan, adding that they started brainstorming right away. "Since Peking Opera was my specialty, and my husband is a master of Peking Opera fiddle players, we decided to start from there."

It took the entire family months of practice to finally present a "spectacular eye-opening presentation" in Zhang's school, filling the void of China's culture at the International Culture Day.

"I will continue my quest for being the bridge of cross-culture exchanges," said Zhang. "Still, cameras and filming are my tools."

junechang@chinadailyusa.com