Wenhua Award Winner

The Story of Play   Liuzhou Song and Dance Troupe of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

Songs on Bagui, a large-scale song and dance gala dedicated to ethnic minorities and their cultures, won the Wenhua Award issued by the Ministry of Culture at the Seventh China Arts Festival. In addition, Zhang Jigang won the Wenhua Award for Directing and Luo Jiangtao obtained the Wenhua Award for Stage Art Design, with Du Ming and Fang Ming winning the Wenhua Award for Composition. The play was also among the ten favorite plays selected by the audience. Bagui, alias of Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, boasts a large number of ethnic minorities as well as a rich variety of songs and dances. This program collectively displays the unique charm of the region. This large-scale program is composed of two parts: Work and Love. The program is neither a pure collection of folk songs nor a traditional song and dance night performance, but rather a perfect combination of folk songs with distinctive ethnic and modern flavors, dances and national music instruments as well as ethnic costumes. Zhang Jigang, the president of the Song and Dance Troupe of the People's Liberation Army's (PLA's) General Political Department, is the program's chief director. Fang Ming and Du Ming, two famous composers, are respectively in charge of the compositions of the Work and Love sections. Besides, the stage art's designer is Professor Luo Jiangtao of the Central Theater Academy, while Wang Ruiguo, an expert lighting designer from the National Theater Company of China, designed the lighting. Old, middle-aged and young lyrics writers from Guangxi created the more than 30 original lyrics. All 700 costumes of the play is hand made by the Long Hua from the Guangzhou Military Region's Acrobatics Troupe. With the joint efforts of leading artists, Songs on Bagui has been honed as a repertoire of the region, vividly demonstrating the colorful cultural phenomenon of the multiple ethnic groups including the Zhuang, Dong, Miao and Yao. As the only candidate for the Wenhua Award at the Seventh China Arts Festival from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, so far the program has been performed more than 70 times in front of a cumulative total of 100,000 spectators. The play debuted in Liuzhou in April of 2003, and has since been performed in places including Nanning (Guangxi's capital) and Zhengzhou (capital of Central China's Henan Province) as well as the Guangxi cities of Wuzhou and Guilin. Guangxi's only other Wenhua Award was for the Singing King seven years ago.

Author: Jeff

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