Centuries-old art form thrives anew, thanks to support for talent and training

The lights come on, the music begins, and Wu Muzi slips into character onstage.

Years of training have taught the young Minju Opera performer to do more than remember every movement: She has learned to feel the role and let the performance carry her.

"I enjoy being onstage now," said Wu, an intern performer at the Fuzhou Minju Opera Theater in Fujian province. "Once you truly become immersed in the character, performing becomes something you enjoy rather than something you fear."

It wasn't always that way. When Wu first enrolled to study Minju Opera after graduating from primary school, she knew almost nothing about the centuries-old art form. Everything — from vocal techniques to stylized movements — had to be learned from scratch. The most difficult part was basic training.

Every day began with flexibility exercises so painful that she often cried.

"I wanted to give up and go home," she recalled. "But I kept telling myself to persevere."

Years of relentless practice gradually transformed both her technique and her understanding of the art. What once felt like mechanically copying a teacher's movements evolved into learning how to express emotion through every gesture, expression and note.

"I used to worry about remembering the movements," she said. "Now I focus on becoming the character."

For Wu, each performance is another step in mastering an art that has been passed from one generation to the next.

However, only a few decades ago, that chain of transmission was close to being broken.

When Xi Jinping became Party secretary of Fuzhou, Fujian's provincial capital, in April 1990, Minju Opera was facing one of the most difficult periods in its history.

With over 400 years of history, Minju is one of China's oldest local opera genres and the most distinctive theatrical tradition of Fuzhou. Performed in the local dialect, it preserves the city's stories, customs and cultural identity.

But as audience numbers declined and financial difficulties mounted, the future of the art form appeared increasingly uncertain.

Ma Guofang, then director of the Fuzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, still remembers one of his first conversations with Xi shortly after Xi became the top official in the city.

Ma recalled Xi told him that "we are both newcomers to Fuzhou". "But we must attach great importance to preserving and protecting Fuzhou's distinctive local culture, especially Minju Opera. We must never let it disappear on our watch," Xi added.

The remark left a lasting impression on Ma. "It showed how much importance he attached to Minju Opera," he said.

During his six-year tenure in Fuzhou, Xi gave instructions, conducted research visits and attended events related to cultural development on more than 90 occasions, according to the city's cultural authorities.

For Ma, the frequency reflected something much deeper than an appreciation of the performing arts.

"He viewed cultural development as an essential part of economic and social development," Ma said. "Material prosperity alone is not enough. People also need spiritual and cultural fulfillment."

One of the first priorities was revitalizing Minju Opera itself.

Fuzhou assembled a task force bringing together cultural officials, playwrights and leading opera troupes to create three new productions for the 18th provincial opera festival in Fuzhou.

Working through the scorching summer, performers and production teams spent more than six months rehearsing.

Their efforts paid off. The productions won multiple awards at the provincial festival, marking what Ma described as "a solid first step" in the revival of Minju Opera.

In 1993, Fuzhou hosted the Third China Theatre Festival — the first time the country's premier theater festival had been held outside Beijing.

More than 50,000 people attended performances, with many shows selling out. For Minju Opera, national recognition helped restore confidence.

However, awards alone would not secure the future of the art form. Without new performers, there would eventually be no opera to perform.

When Xi visited Minju Opera performers and training facilities, he found that conditions were cramped and inadequate.

At the time, Minju Opera had not recruited new students for nearly a decade.

"If another 10 years passed without enrollment, the opera genre might disappear," recalled Lin Ying, now vice-president of the Fuzhou Minju Opera Theater.

Xi supported the construction of a dedicated teaching building and included the project among Fuzhou's key public projects.

More important, enrollment for Minju Opera training resumed after a 10-year suspension.

The decision changed the future of the art form.

"When I entered the new school, all my teachers told me how fortunate we were," Lin said.

Xi visited the school several times, and Lin still remembers him carefully studying the class timetable displayed in the corridor.

Seeing that students had many academic courses, Xi remarked that performers in the new era should receive a good general education as well as professional artistic training.

He also noticed that teenage students were burning enormous amounts of energy during daily physical training.

Soon afterward, the school introduced an additional meal each day, including milk, soybean milk, steamed buns and other food for growing students. "He cared about every detail," Lin said.

For many students, the training was grueling.

Lin remembers frog-jumping seven flights of stairs, practicing water-sleeve techniques — the graceful, flowing use of opera costumes by which performers convey emotion — hundreds of times a day, and repeating every movement until it became second nature.

At 14, during her first stage performance, Lin dropped a spear before a live audience. The audience booed. "I was frozen for a moment," she recalled.

Instead of giving up, she practiced alone for hours every day until every movement, every breath and every glance became instinctive.

She now passes the same commitment to her own students. "My teachers taught me without holding anything back," she said. "I do the same."

For Lin, preserving Minju Opera means passing on not only techniques but also discipline, professionalism and respect for the stage.

Decision praised

Chen Dengyu, director of the Fuzhou Minju Opera Art Inheritance and Development Center, said he believes that Xi's decision to resume enrollment prevented an irreversible break in the transmission of Minju Opera.

"If that class had not been reopened, there would have been a generation gap in performers," Chen said.

A majority of today's leading performers, directors and administrators graduated from the reopened program.

"Theater depends on people," Chen said. "Without talent, there can be no productions."

Today, city authorities continue investing in the art form.

Between 2021 and 2023, the city allocated nearly 60 million yuan ($8.95 million) to support new productions, talent cultivation and theater construction. Fuzhou Art School now enrolls nearly 100 students each year to study Minju Opera, ensuring a steady stream of young performers.

Wu, the performer, is becoming part of that tradition herself. But she believes carrying it forward does not mean simply repeating what came before.

"Innovation can help bring Minju Opera closer to young people and make it part of contemporary life," she said. "Minju Opera is rooted in Fuzhou. It is our own local art, performed in authentic Fuzhou dialect."

She also shares her daily life as a Minju Opera performer online, hoping to introduce the art to more young people.

"I want people to know that our own opera in Fuzhou is anything but old-fashioned," Wu said.

Contact the writers at xuwei@chinadaily.com.cn