Beijing

Guitar maestro

Steve Vai, American guitarist, songwriter and producer who last visited Beijing nearly 10 years ago, is back again. The guitar maestro has brought his new solo album, The Story of Light as well as other classics works. The 53-year-old will perform with his trademark seven-string guitar for the Chinese audience.

7:30 pm, July 26. Mastercard Center, 69 Fuxing Road, Haidian district. 010-6828-6386

Andes inspiration

Lyu Jia will lead the National Center for Performing Arts Orchestra for a night that will transport the audience to the Andes. The concert, Songs of Wayfarer I - Imagination of the Andes is part of the center's 2013 program Roam about Classics. The orchestra will feature the works of Arturo Marquez, Luis Bacalov, Alberto Ginastera and Maurice Ravel.

7:30 pm, July 27. National Center for the Performing Arts, 2 West Chang'an Avenue, Xicheng district. 010-6655-0000

Art of performance

Beijing One - International Arts of Performance Festival will kick off this weekend. The event will feature performances, visual arts and panel discussions. Exhibitions will be host by the Times Art Museum until July 28 and other events around the town until Aug 3. Playwright Philippe Tancelin will partner up with Chinese dancer Hou Ying and guqin player Wu Na for a fusion performance of poetry, music and dance.

10 am-50 pm, until July 28 3. Times Art Museum, F35-37 D Block, CITC Plaza, 6A Jianwai Street, Chaoyang district. 010-8567-9817

Shanghai

Game music

Video Games Live is a symphonic concert featuring music from video games. The concert series was founded in 2005 and has been performed more than 300 times all over the world. The first VGL concert came to China in 2009 and made a successful comeback in 2012. The upcoming concert will present music from World of Warcraft and Starcraft. Russell Brower, music director of World of Warcraft, will rearrange some of the most beloved music and present global premiere of new pieces at the concert.

7:30 pm, July 27. Mercedes-Benz Arena, 1200 Expo Avenue, Pudong New Area. 021-5150-9199

Change of cities

A joint exhibition will be presented in Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, featuring three artists from Shanghai, Taipei and Huston. Curated by Dino Tsai and Gu Jiajun, the exhibition focuses on the change of cities and people from both sides of the Taiwan straits.

9 am-5 pm, until July 27. Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, 27 Duolun Road. 021-5609-5728

Suzhou

Ode to an educator

Suzhou Museum is having a retrospective exhibition of Liu Haisu (1896-1994). About 50 Chinese paintings, oil paintings and precious documents will be presented, including Liu's most representative masterpieces from different periods of his career. Liu is widely recognized as a founder of China's modern art education. He studied oil painting in his early years, and later was dedicated to Chinese ink art.

9 am-5 pm, Tue-Sun, until Sept 1. Suzhou Museum, 204 Dongbei Street, Pingjiang district, Suzhou, Jiangsu province. 0512-6757-6011

Hong Kong

Photos capture city

Photographers have long been fascinated by the color and buzz of Hong Kong's cityscape. All About Hong Kong showcases the works of 10 international and local artists who each explore aspects of the city that beguile them. Its architecture, its people, its customs, its good, bad and ugly are all captured, collectively illustrating the work of Hong Kong natives Ho Fan and Almond Chu and German Michael Wolf among others.

9 am-6 pm, July 26-Sept 14, Tue-Sat. AO Vertical Art Space, 3/F-13/F, 8 Fung Yip Street, Chai Wan. 852-2976-0913

Laughing down under

Melbourne residents love a good laugh, and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival is one of Australia's biggest arts events, and is second in stature only to Edinburgh's Fringe Festival. Come see for yourself what all the noise is about as the festival's marathon road show returns to Hong Kong for its third consecutive year. Stand up comics include Frank Woodley, Nazeem Hussain and Daniel Townes.

7:30 pm, July 22-27; 5:30 pm, July 22-23. The Fringe Club, Fringe Underground, 2 Lower Albert Road, Central. 852-2521-7251

Rooms for thought

As part of Mandarin Oriental's 50th anniversary celebrations, the legendary hotel gazed into a crystal ball by enlisting the help of Hong Kong Polytechnic University environmental and interior design students. Thirty-nine students formed teams to participate in a seven-week program to present ideas of what they think the hotel might look like in the future.

Until Aug 4. The Clipper Lounge, Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong, 5 Connaught Road, Central. 852-2522-0111

China Daily

(China Daily 07/21/2013 page15)