Feature: Sichuan Opera staged at museum in London to celebrate Chinese New Year

LONDON, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Artists from southwestern China's Chongqing Municipality Saturday brought their classic Sichuan Opera performances to the Museum of London Docklands to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year with local people.

Prior to the performance, the Museum of London Docklands held various kinds of family activities on Saturday morning, including Chinese traditional paper cutting and calligraphy lessons for children as well as enchanting Chinese ribbon dance and peacock dance lessons.

Shen Tiemei, director of Chongqing Chuan Ju Theater, and also a leading character of Sichuan Opera introduced the history of Sichuan Opera, the five different roles and their different costumes and performance style.

After a brief introduction of the 300-year-old national intangible cultural heritage, actors performed some parts of the classic Sichuan operas. The comic A Roller with an Oil Lamp on the Head received warm applause from the audience.

Shen has taken her team and Sichuan Opera to New York, Toronto, Amsterdam and many other cities across the world, however, this was the first time that Sichuan Opera being displayed at a British museum.

"The form of combining lecture with performance is very helpful not only for adults but also for children to have a better understanding of the unique traditional Chinese culture," Shen said.

Alex Werner, head of History Collections of Museum of London told Xinhua that the Museum of London Docklands is very close to the first Chinese community in London, the Limehouse area where the first Chinese settlers established themselves almost 200 years ago.

The principal reason to hold Chinese New Year celebration at the museum was because there are still many Chinese Londoners living in the area, meanwhile, an increasing number of Londoners love the Chinese New Year celebrations as well.

"Chinese New Year celebrations are one of the high points in London's festival season," he said.

The celebration and relevant events on Saturday attracted a lot of local families.

"It's a chance to learn about other cultures and these spectacular customs that the opera actors wear I think is one of the main attractions," said Werner, adding that any kind of cross cultural event in London is really important, as it is the cultural link between the global city and the world.

Max Fras brought his three-year-old son to take part in the celebrations at the museum, they learnt Chinese calligraphy and wrote Chinese characters.

"We are interested in different cultures in the world, and Chinese culture is quite important in London, so we come here to see how the Chinese New Year is celebrated," he said.

"Celebrations being held in the main local organizations is the best way to open to the wider public, because if it was only happening in the Chinese community center, it wouldn't be known about," added Fras.