Culture Beat: Play showing authentic Beijing to be staged

Promotional material for Yinding Bridge Photo: Courtesy of National Centre for the Performing Arts

Play showing authentic Beijing to be staged

A Beijing-style drama Yinding Bridge is set to hit the stage at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing.

In 2015, director Lin Zhaohua and main actors Ni Dahong and Shi Ke brought this story of Beijing's urban dwellers to the theater for the first time. 

Co-produced by Beijing Fenshuo Fruit Culture Media and Beijing Poly Theatre, this original realistic drama pro-vides insight into the world and shows the life of modern Beijing people, allowing the audience to experience great troubles and great joys.

In 2023, this Beijing-style drama will be held once again from December 6 to 9.

Zhang Lifeng, the general producer of the play, said that choosing to bring back the play this year was more of an "impulse."

"There are too few people like Yu Wu, the protagonist in the play. He is so real, so clean, so lovely, but stubborn. I like this person too much. I needed a way to express my feelings for this character and this play, so I chose to re-make it. I want to cherish this play more and cherish people like Yu," Zhang said.

Playwright Cui Shiyun said, "I am good at writing musicals. Yinding Bridge was my first play. There are many problems with the structure and characters. However, you will also see a band on stage throughout this Beijing-style play, and it is full of various musical elements."

"In the past eight years, I have continued to write musicals and have cooperated a lot with foreign teams. Based on this, I look back at this play and I have a lot of new thoughts on the script, such as its thin storylines. If I have time next year, I'd like to rewrite the script," Cui noted.


China Lifestyle Sports Conference to be held 

Featuring three new highlights, the second China (Chengdu) Lifestyle Sports Conference will be held from November 21 in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province. 

From "Village BA" to the Chengdu Universiade and the Hangzhou Asian Games, these types of activities and grand events have provided a stage for cultural exchanges and mutual benefit. With topics such as "sports + culture and tourism" and "sports + agriculture" heating up, these sports events have become an important driver for stimulating deep consumption and a new trend for public participation. 

The conference starts from the most concerned issues of the people, with the theme of "green, youth, health and sharing," focusing on various topics such as sports venues, public health, community sports and e-sports. 

In the most eye-catching opening ceremony of the conference, Robert Rauch, president of the World Flying Disc Federation, will share international experience in trendy sports, from "niche" to "mass," by taking the sport of flying disc as an example. 

Boxing Olympic champion and world boxing winner Zou Shiming will also share his personal experience in the lifestyle sports scene.  

As one of the most influential cities in the domestic e-sports industry, Chengdu has been accelerating its pace to build itself into a "Chinese E-sports Culture Capital" while hosting various international e-sports competitions. 

The conference is expected to announce major e-sports projects for the construction of Chengdu as an "E-sports Culture Capital."