Sounds of Germany

The Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1945 and is one of the most important musical ambassadors of Germany today. The concert will feature pianist Sun Yingdi and conductor Stephane Deneve.

7:30 pm, April 4. Shanghai Oriental Art Center, 425 Dingxiang Road, Pudong New Area, Shanghai. 021-6854-1234.

Shades of pale

Watercolor is the best media when an artist aims to present transparency and lightness. An exhibition that opens this weekend features 11 artists from home and abroad, who all work with watercolor.

9 am-5 pm, March 30-April 9. Zhu Qizhan Art Museum, 580 Ouyang Road Shanghai. 021- 5671-0742.

Guangzhou

A faithful record

An Irish missionary spent 45 years in a rural town in Northeast China from 1897 to 1942 and witnessed one of the country's most turbulent times. The missionary's grandson, Mark O'Neill, an experienced journalist, traced his ancestor's footsteps to China, France, North Ireland and Japan and wrote a biography. He will be in Guangzhou on Sunday with the book to share more about his grandfather's friendship with China. O'Neill has worked in Asia since 1978, with 16 years spent on the Chinese mainland.

3 pm-5 pm, March 31. Fangsuo Commune, TaiKoo Hui shopping mall, No 383, Tianhe Lu, Tianhe district, Guangzhou. 020-3868-2327.

Touching the heart

More than 200 works by realist oil painter Li Zijian are on display in Guangdong Museum through Sunday. Li has held touring exhibitions around the globe in the past 20 years with the theme of "Humanity and Love". This show offers Li's series about a wide range of topics, including China's rural areas, kids in Wenchuan of Sichuan province, tramps in the US and love between mother and daughter. The artist will talk about his works and share the stories behind their creation at the closing ceremony on Sunday.

9 am-5 pm, until March 31. Hall 2 and 3, Third Floor, Guangdong Museum, 2 Zhujiang Donglu, Zhujiang New Town, Tianhe district, Guangzhou. 020-3804-6886.

Quick pick

Long but worthy dream

Stan Lai's eight-hour play A Dream Like a Dream will run from April 1 to 14. Inspired by several small stories Lai heard in the 1990s and an India trip, the must-see drama weaves several characters' dreams and realities into a seamless structure that echoes Buddhist beliefs about life, death and reincarnation. Lai first put on this epic in Taiwan in 2000, then revived it in 2005 for a Cantonese edition that played in Hong Kong in 2002. As for Wagner's Ring Cycle or Tang Xianzu's Kunqu Opera Peony Pavilion, both of which take days and nights to watch, the audience will sit from afternoon to midnight, with a short supper break. For the event, the theater will be rebuilt to create a custom-designed space for the audience to sit in the center, while actors perform around them.

2 pm-7:30 pm, April 1-14. Poly Theater, No 14 Dongzhimen Nandajie Street, Beijing. 010- 6551-3348, 400-860-0605.

- Chen Jie

China Daily