China News Service, Hefei, January 24th: How did Chinese culture transform from “national” to “global”?
——Exclusive interview with Yu Junwu, director of the China Overseas Friendship Association and leader of the Sydney China Star Art Troupe
Author Chu Weiwei Zhao Qiang
The first Spring Festival after the Spring Festival (Lunar New Year) was designated as a United Nations holiday is approaching.
How to take this opportunity to use "overseas Chinese power" to promote international cultural exchanges?
How to transform Chinese culture from “national” to “global”?
Recently, Yu Junwu, director of the China Overseas Friendship Association, executive director of the Anhui Overseas Friendship Association, chairman of the Australian Chinese Literary and Art Circles and head of the Sydney China Star Art Troupe, accepted an exclusive interview with China News Service's "East-West Question".
The interview transcript is summarized as follows:
China News Service reporter: How have you helped Chinese culture take root and develop innovatively in Australia over the past few decades?
Yu Junwu:
The desire of overseas Chinese for Chinese culture contains huge energy. How to condense this energy to form a joint force is very important.
In 1988, my second year in Australia, I rehearsed the drama "Thunderstorm" in Cantonese with the local overseas Chinese, which was praised by the Australian government as "filling a gap in the history of Chinese drama."
In 1988, the Cantonese version of the play "Thunderstorm" premiered in Australia (Yu Junwu, second from right).
Photo provided by interviewee
In 1990, the Australian Chinese Cultural and Art Circles Federation (referred to as the "Australian Chinese Federation of Literary and Art Circles") was established and held the first Spring Festival Gala.
In 1993, the team performed in the large-scale Spring Festival Gala "Soul of China", which led Chinese artists to the stage of the Sydney Opera House for the first time.
In 1994, the Australian Chinese Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the New Oriental Cultural and Art Center invited famous artists such as Liu Xiaoqing, Zhou Jie, and Ma Ji to Sydney to hold the largest Spring Festival Gala in Australian history. Not only did the Chinese community enthusiastically support it, but Australian mainstream art groups also joined in. It pioneered the cooperation and exchange of large-scale artistic performances between China and Australia.
As China's door opens wider and wider to the outside world, the Australian Chinese Federation of Literary and Art Circles has successively launched hundreds of large-scale cultural activities. Among them, "Prelude to the Olympic Games: Welcome the Blooming Yellow Plum Blossoms" is the first time Anhui Huangmei Opera has set foot on the stage in Australia. Refreshing the Sydney audience.
In 2018, the Mid-Autumn Festival Party was held.
Photo provided by interviewee
In 2019, the scene of the large-scale cultural evening party "Celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival and Welcome the National Day".
Photo provided by interviewee
In 2014, the Sydney Huaxing Art Troupe was officially established, with a total of 53 groups and thousands of people. It hoops artists and art groups overseas like pieces of wood to form a "bucket" to water Chinese culture locally. Soil.
After the establishment of the art troupe, it successively participated in local activities such as the New Year Lantern Festival and the Campus Art Festival, and held a large-scale party "Commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War".
In addition, we regularly visit local nursing homes to perform Chinese cultural programs for the elderly, and we also work with the medical department to produce a one-act play to promote hepatitis B prevention knowledge to local residents.
Sydney Huaxing Art Troupe has embarked on a path of social welfare and cultural development by serving the overseas Chinese community.
In 2015, the first Huaxing Art Festival was held.
Photo provided by interviewee
Reporter from China News Service: The Spring Festival (Lunar New Year) has been designated as a United Nations holiday. What role does this play in the spread of Chinese culture overseas?
Yu Junwu:
The 78th United Nations General Assembly unanimously passed a resolution declaring the Spring Festival as a United Nations holiday. This provides a very good opportunity for overseas Chinese to inherit Chinese culture overseas.
The Chinese nation has formed a unique cultural tradition in its long historical development, which is the common wealth of all Chinese people at home and abroad.
When culture comes out, how to integrate into it?
This is a subject we often encounter.
The integration of culture depends on the flow of people. The mobile people are the carriers and disseminators of culture. It involves a long-term and gradual integration process.
In 2007, the scene of "Meet China Festival".
Photo provided by interviewee
At present, overseas, the Spring Festival has become an essential cultural phenomenon in people's lives, from folk custom displays and artistic performances to carnival art festivals hosted by municipal and county governments.
Sydney Huaxing Art Troupe has a wide range of troupes and rich and colorful programs. It has become an important part of the carnival arts festival hosted by various cities and counties during the Spring Festival.
According to official statistics, there are millions of people watching the carnival performances of Sydney China Star's art groups every year, 65% of whom are people from non-Chinese speaking backgrounds. This provides a foundation for overseas audiences to understand, appreciate and apply Chinese culture.
China News Service reporter: As a foreign judge of the first Orchid Award, how will you use your "overseas Chinese power" to promote international cultural exchanges?
Yu Junwu:
The civilizations of various ethnic groups have different values, but they have a common yearning for a better life. The "Orchid Award" is also seeking the consensus of harmony and common prosperity.
As the only overseas Chinese among the foreign judges of the first Orchid Award, what I look forward to most is the word "integration".
More than 30 years ago, there was a relative lack of Chinese culture in Australia.
Over the past few decades, we dug a pit, and a little water seeped out of it. Through this little water, we watered one seedling, two seedlings, three seedlings... Now they are full of green leaves, due to six words : "Bloodline, Responsibility, Reward".
No matter where they live on the earth, overseas Chinese have the blood of the Chinese nation flowing in their bodies, and it is their duty to devote themselves to the inheritance of culture overseas.
In 2018, Yu Junwu directed "China Star Dance Competition".
Photo provided by interviewee
For the Sydney Huaxing Art Troupe, the first is to participate in the Carnival Art Festival; the second is to provide regular services to local nursing homes; and the third is to build its own cultural brand in the local area - the Huaxing Art Festival.
The most important thing is that we use our nation’s festivals to enrich the cultural connotation and make the symbols of traditional Chinese folk customs more colorful.
The forms of expression include dance, painting, food, dragon and lion dance, etc. The performance venue is not limited to the theater, but can also be a lawn or a square, which makes it more integrated.
Next, we will continue to develop cultural brands such as "Spring in All Seas", "Family China" and "Happy Spring Festival", and at the same time carry out localized innovative development.
During the 2024 Spring Festival, the Sydney Huaxing Art Troupe will participate in dozens of theatrical performances in the two-week Spring Festival Carnival Arts Festival hosted by the Sydney City Government, and will also film the stories of overseas Chinese during the Spring Festival - "Memory of the Spring Festival Gala".
Reporter from China News Service: Anhui has a long history and culture. What suggestions do you have for future cultural cooperation and exchanges between Anhui and Macao?
Yu Junwu:
Now we must have a "big culture" pattern, which must be adapted to local conditions. Culture needs to be interconnected with economy, trade, tourism, etc. It must not only "go out" but also "bring in."
Culture is a good link, connecting the world like bridges, relying on local resources to form bonds and connect them.
As the saying goes, "What belongs to the nation is what belongs to the world", but how to make "what belongs to the nation" become "belongs to the world"?
The word "cheng" contains the three major advantages of overseas literary and art workers: connections, channels and knowledge. It requires us to continue to innovate and inject new vitality.
In 1988, the drama "Wu Wang Jin Ge Yue Wang Sword" was staged in Australia.
Anhui not only has well-known excellent cultures such as Huangmei Opera and Hui Opera, but also unique artistic performance forms such as Nuo Opera and Qingyang Tune.
There is an impressive play in Huizhou opera called "Psycho". It inherits the ancient artistic tradition of Huizhou opera, borrows the story background of the famous tragedy "Macbeth" by the British playwright Shakespeare, and follows the characters of "Sheng Dan Jing Mo Chou" The program of singing, chanting and fighting tells the story of the tragic character Zi Yin who cannot withstand the temptation of power and eventually leads to self-destruction.
Using storylines that Westerners can understand and adding Chinese elements, this art form that combines Chinese and Western elements is a good manifestation of culture going global.
(over)
Interviewee profile:
Yu Junwu, a famous director and overseas cultural activist, graduated from the Central Academy of Drama in 1984 and stayed at the school to teach after graduation.
He studied in Australia in March 1987 and is currently a director of the Chinese Overseas Friendship Association, an overseas committee member of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, chairman of the Australian Chinese Literary and Art Circles, and head of the Sydney China Star Art Troupe.