Join us for a free one-day workshop for educators at the Japanese American National Museum, hosted by the USC U.S.-China Institute and the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia. This workshop will include a guided tour of the beloved exhibition Common Ground: The Heart of Community, slated to close permanently in January 2025. Following the tour, learn strategies for engaging students in the primary source artifacts, images, and documents found in JANM’s vast collection and discover classroom-ready resources to support teaching and learning about the Japanese American experience.
Chinese Kun Opera: The Peony Pavilion
University of California at Irvine presents a Chinese Kun opera, The Peony Pavilion.
Where
Two Matinees:
February 20, 2010 2:00 PM
February 21, 2010 2:00 PM
About THE PEONY PAVILION :
Written by Tang Xianzu (1550-1616), one of the most celebrated playwrights in Chinese history, The Peony Pavilion (1598) is a kunqu play about love. With 55 scenes, the author takes his readers through the journey of life and death, dream and reality, Confucianism and Daoism, and even to the underworld, all for the quest of love. Du Liniang, a sixteen-year-old maiden, falls in love with the handsome scholar Liu Mengmei in her dream in the garden, by the Peony Pavilion. Unable to find her love again in the real world, she gradually withers away. Before her death, she paints a portrait of herself, as a testimony of her youth, beauty, and love. Three years later, Liu Mengmei discovers the portrait and falls in love with the woman in the portrait. Moved by her uncompromising passion, the Judge of the Hades grants her permission to travel to the real world so she can consummate her love with Liu. Eventually Liu realizes the woman he sees every night is actually a ghost in the human form. With extreme courage and with his faith of love, Liu asks for help from Sister Stone, a Daoist nun to revive Du Liniang. Finally the body and spirit of Du reunite and the couple celebrates their nuptial bliss.
This play is often compared with Shakespeare’s famous love story Romeo and Juliet. As a matter of fact, these two love stories were written in the same year, 1598. Going beyond Shakespeare’s tragedy, the Chinese classic does not end with the lovers’ death as the testimony for love. The Chinese lovers have tremendous faith of love and courage to defy the traditional Confucius values and to transcend the boundaries of life and death. “Love is not love at its fullest if one who lives is unwilling to die for it, or if it cannot restore to life one who has so died,” claims Tang Xianzu.
About the COMPANY:
Tess Wu
Chelsea Lord
Sung-Li Wang
Junpeng Lu
Henry Chang
Junpeng Lu
Nemuna Ceesay
Kara Wang
Erin Ashley Goldman
Tanya Court
Belinda Lau
Juliet Ante
Xanthe Huyngh
Christine Troung
About our production:
The collaboration between Jade Bell Performing Arts Association and UCIrvine Drama students is a historic event. Since most American theatre education focuses on Euro-American theatre history and methods of acting, Chinese opera is rarely taught and rarely produced. With the enthusiasm of Tess Wu, the leader of the Jade Bell Performing Arts Association, and the wholehearted support of the Department of Drama, UCIrvine Drama students have a wonderful opportunity to train in Chinese opera movement, singing, and speaking, learn about traditional make-up and costuming, and perform with first-rate Chinese opera artists.
Your generosity will help us build a twenty-first century educational institute for performing arts with a true world vision. It is our greatest hope that we can raise sufficient funding to support a meaningful learning environment for theatrical endeavors of the highest order and multicultural education within the UCIrvine Drama Department. Can we count on you?
About fundraising:
Everyone — cast members, musicians, production staff, UCI professors, and students —volunteer for this singular event: Our ultimate dream is to promote Chinese performing arts and multicultural education in Southern California.
Your donation will support:
* Multicultural theatre education with world vision
* Lectures and master classes by Chinese opera scholars and artists
* Scholarships for graduate and undergraduate students
* Production costs for the UCIrvine Drama Season
* And finally, it will help our dream come true!
Your donation is tax deductible.
Ticket info
For Chinese:
Kingstone Bookstore
Irvine: 949-653-7638
Alhambra: 626-570-1277
San Gabriel: 626-292-1176
Rowland Heights: 626-964-3226
City of Industry: 626-965-3686
For English:
UCI Arts Box Office
949-824-2787
Performance will be in Chinese with English and Chinese subtitles
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Please join us for the Grad Mixer! Hosted by USC Annenberg Office of International Affairs, Enjoy food, drink and conversation with fellow students across USC Annenberg. Graduate students from any field are welcome to join, so it is a great opportunity to meet fellow students with IR/foreign policy-related research topics and interests.
RSVP link: https://forms.gle/1zer188RE9dCS6Ho6
Events
Hosted by USC Annenberg Office of International Affairs, enjoy food, drink and conversation with fellow international students.
Join us for an in-person conversation on Thursday, November 7th at 4pm with author David M. Lampton as he discusses his new book, Living U.S.-China Relations: From Cold War to Cold War. The book examines the history of U.S.-China relations across eight U.S. presidential administrations.