Newman Huo

THE Third Cultural Festival for the Shenzhen International Cultural Industry Fair (ICIF) will be held from today to June 30, aiming to provide a cultural extravaganza for city residents.

The festival has three parts, namely selected State-level plays or operas, Shenzhen-produced plays or operas and selected plays and concerts from China and abroad. In total, the festival offers 25 plays and 58 performances of various styles.

Different from the two previous cultural festivals, which took place only in a couple of theaters in the city, this year’s events will be held in seven theaters in the city’s Futian, Luohu, Nanshan, Bao’an and Longgang districts, including Shenzhen Grand Theater, Shenzhen Concert Hall, Shenzhen Poly Theater, Children’s Palace Theater, Longgang Cultural Center, and Bao’an Xixiang Theater.

The 2008 Longgang Art Festival in Longgang District and the 2008 Happy Valley International Hip-hop Dance in Overseas Chinese Town (OCT) will be included as two special events in this year’s cultural festival.

As a highlight of this year’s event, the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra (HKCO) will perform a special concert in Shenzhen Concert Hall on May 16 to mark the opening of the fourth ICIF.

Founded in 1977, the 85-member HKCO is the only professional, full-sized Chinese orchestra in Hong Kong.

As a cultural ambassador of Hong Kong, the HKCO has been invited to perform at various famous venues around the world and at international festivals.

The repertoire at Shenzhen Concert Hall on May 16 will feature a series of Chinese folk music works that have been performed in countries such as Germany, Austria and Britain in recent years, as well as some works specially created by Hong Kong composers for the coming Beijing Olympics.

With the support of the Ministry of Culture, the city has hosted performances of selected State-level plays or operas in the past two years.

This year’s eight selected State-level plays or operas will include a dance drama, a children’s drama, and a modern drama, apart from Henan, Kunqu, Sichuan and Beijing opera performances.

The modern drama, “Heavenly Sound,” performed by a military modern drama troupe from Guangzhou, is based on the true story of a soldiers’ drama club in the Red Army during the Long March from 1934 to 1935.

The reputed Beijing opera comic Zhu Shihui will bring his well-known play “Doctor Zhang.”

At this year’s cultural festival, three local plays will be performed, including the Hakka dance drama “The Big Hakka Round House,” the Guangdong opera “Scholars of the Ming Dynasty,” and the animation drama “Princess Snow White and Seven-color Lights.”

The original dance drama, “The Big Hakka Round House,” will be performed jointly by the Dance Troupe of the Longgang District Cultural Institute and Shenzhen Art Troupe.

The animation drama “Princess Snow White and Seven-color Lights” will be produced by the Shenzhen Mini Children’s Art Troupe.

An important part of this year’s cultural festival, the selected plays and concerts from China and abroad will feature 14 performances, including a concert by pianist Fu Cong at the Shenzhen Concert Hall on May 9, a concert by the violinist Pinchas Zukerman and the Macao Orchestra in the Shenzhen Concert Hall on May 19, the modern drama, “Black and Red,” by the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center at the Shenzhen Poly Theater on May 15 and 16, and the classic Chinese ballet, “The Red Detachment of Women,” by the China Central Ballet Troupe at Shenzhen Grand Theater on June 28 and 29.

According to Diao Tiejun, deputy director general of Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Culture, the Ministry of Culture has allocated 1.5 million yuan (US$214,285) to subsidize performances of the selected State-level plays in Shenzhen.

Apart from that, the Shenzhen Municipal Government has allocated another 1.5 million yaun to subsidize performances of the Shenzhen-produced plays or operas, and selected plays and concerts from China and abroad.

All tickets for the selected State-level plays or operas this year will be priced at around 50 to 180 yuan. Twenty percent of tickets for the selected plays and concerts from China and abroad will cost less than 100 yuan, and 40 percents of tickets for the Shenzhen-produced plays or operas will be priced at below 100 yuan.