Wazzup Pilipinas!
The National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the Cultural Center of the Philippines, together with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China and the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China proudly present a special Beijing Opera performance of “ The Monkey King Making Havoc in Heaven ” featuring The Qingdao Peking Opera Company on Friday, 18 May 2018 (Gala Night) at 7:30 pm and Saturday, 19 May 2018 at 7:30 pm at the Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (CCP Little Theater) CCP Complex, Roxas Blvd., Pasay City.
Admission is FREE. For ticket reservations, please call the NCCA International Affairs Office at (02) 527-2206 --- Mon. – Thurs. 10 am to 4 pm.
The year 2018 marks the 43rd year of the formal establishment of the Philippines - China Diplomatic Relations. In light of the progress made by the increase of official people-to-people contacts and exchanges, both countries agreed to facilitate cultural activities to further enhance the Philippines-China bilateral relations.
Part of the 2015-2018 Executive Program of the Philippines-China Cultural Agreement is a cross-cultural collaboration of the Filipino Sarswela/Opera and Chinese Jingju (Peking Opera).
The visit of the Qingdao Peking Opera Company shall feature back to back performances, interactions, lecture-demonstration, and pre-production meetings with Filipino theatre artists to facilitate a traditional theatrical collaboration between the Philippines and China.
The Philippines-China diplomatic relations was formally established back in June 9, 1975. The late Premier Zhou Enlai and the late Philippine President Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos signed the joint communiqué of the establishment of diplomatic ties in Beijing and formally established diplomatic relations at ambassadorial level.
Synopsis of " The Monkey King Making Havoc in Heaven."
When Sun Wukong led the monkey training in the “Mountain of Flowers and Fruits”, The Jade Emperor sent the God Venus to invite him to temple peach feast, which is not real invitation. Enraged by the news that he is not in the guest list of peach feast, Sun Wukong smashed abode of immortals in heaven and stole the temple peach and elixir made by the God Venus.
Flaunting the banner of “The Monkey King”, Sun Wukong called his own troops in the “Mountain of flowers and Fruits”. After defeating the Li Tianwang army sent by the Jade Emperor, Sun Wukong and all monkeys enjoy their happy lives in the “Mountain of flowers and Fruits”.
Established in 1950, Qingdao Peking Opera company is recognized “National Key Provincial Opera Troupes” and “National Advanced Culture Collectives ” by the Ministry of Culture, People's Republic of China. Awarded as “Shandong National Advanced Culture Collectives”, the Qingdao Peking Opera Company was officially ratified as “Province-level Intangible Cultural Heritage” by People’s Government of Shandong Province.
Over the past 60 years since its founding, the Company has inherited and developed various schools of Peking Opera through endless efforts of artists such as Yan Shaopeng, Zhang Chunqiu, Zhang Shaolou, Jie Yun Hong, Li Shibin, Dong Chunbo etc. In recent years, the Company has been developing vigorously “Young Talent Cultivation Strategy”. Charged with the important task of cultural exchanges with foreign countries, the Company constantly sends performance visits to Japan, Russia, Britain, South Korea, Norway and other countries. The Qingdao Peking Opera Company is one of the elite and distinguished Peking Opera Troupes in China.
In the years of artistic creation and performance appraisal in the Central Propaganda Department, the Company has won several awards, "China Peking Opera Art Festival Award", "National Children's Drama Repertoire of Outstanding Performances Award", "Shandong Province Quality Engineering Award" and "Shandong province Taishan Literary Award”, among others.
The classic traditional repertoires are "Harmony through a Royal Marriage," "Silang Visiting His Mother," "Wild Boar Forest," "Qin Xianglian," "Wangjiang Pavilion, "Zhu Lian Village," “The Legend of Wang Baochuan and Xue Pinggui," "Big Two," “Uproar in Heaven," "Bazhen Decoction," "Mu Guiying," "Losing Pavilion•Use of Empty City•Killing Masu," "Farewell to My Concubine," "Nest," "An Imperial Concubine Gets Tipsy," "Changbanpo," " Village Of Tigers," "Champion," "Taking Turns Fight against Four Pairs of Mallets.” The repertoires have won extensive influence and deep love among audiences from home and abroad.
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
