Peng Liyuan and wives of Central Asian heads of state visit historical theater

2023-05-22 00:02:25

Beijing (ots/PRNewswire) – Peng Liyuan, wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping, invited the first ladies of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to visit the historic Yisushe Theater in Xi’an, northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, on Friday morning.

Guests included Aigul Japarova, wife of Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, and Ziroatkhon Mirziyoyeva, wife of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Japarov and Mirziyoyev were in Xi’an for the China-Central Asia summit that ended on Friday.

Peng first took her guests to a museum of Qinqiang opera arts in the culture block of Yisushe Theater, where they viewed exquisite items related to folk opera.

They stopped in front of a mural and watched closely how local musicians in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) played together with their counterparts from the western regions. They also received information about Qinqiang’s popularity in China.

Peng and her guests also tried their hand at making shadow puppets in an exhibition hall and talked to experienced folk art artists. They then watched a Qinqiang classical performance at the Yisushe Theater.

Qinqiang Opera, a Chinese folk opera genre originating in the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC to 771 BC), is still popular in a large region of northwestern China and was incorporated into the Chinese Empire in 2006 List of the country’s intangible cultural heritage included.

Like many forms of traditional Chinese opera, Qinqiang includes song, dance, martial arts and acrobatics. The repertoire consists mainly of old stories and folk tales performed in the Shaanxi dialect.

China is willing to strengthen cultural exchanges and cooperation with Central Asian countries and promote mutual understanding and friendship between peoples, Peng said.

Japarova and Mirziyoyeva expressed that they feel that the Silk Road connected the cultures of Central Asia and China. They expect both sides to deepen people-to-people exchanges and mutual learning.

Long-term cultural exchange leads to fruitful results

In the more than 30 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, the people of China and Central Asian countries have reaffirmed the thousand-year friendship, achieved fruitful results in areas such as education, culture, health, tourism and sub-national exchanges, and established a multi-faceted framework for people-to-people exchanges created.

China-Central Asia has 62 twinnings between provinces, regions and cities. In 2022, China proposed holding a China-Central Asia Peoples’ Friendship Forum and promised to increase the number of sister cities in the five countries to 100 within a decade.

Since 2004, China has established 13 Confucius Institutes and 24 Confucius Classrooms in Central Asia, now enrolling more than 18,000 students.

From 2010 to 2018, the number of Central Asian students in China increased from 11,930 to 29,885, with a compound annual growth rate of 12.33 percent. China has become one of the leading study abroad destinations and preferred countries for students from the Central Asian countries. The number of Central Asian students studying in China has increased rapidly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his keynote speech at the China-Central Asia summit on Friday, Xi also stressed the need to to strengthen the dialogue between civilizations. China invites Central Asian countries to participate in the Cultural Silk Road program and will set up more traditional medicine centers in Central Asia.

“We will accelerate the establishment of cultural centers in each other’s countries. China will continue to provide state scholarships to the Central Asian countries and support their universities to join the Silk Road University Alliance,” Xi added.

“We will ensure the success of the Year of Culture and Arts for the peoples of China and Central Asian countries and the high-level China-Central Asia media dialogue. We will launch the ‘China-Central Asia Capital of Culture and Tourism’ program and open dedicated train services for cultural tourism in Central Asia,” Xi said.

View original content: