Using innovation to save culture

Both Huagu Opera and xianziqiang have a history of several hundred years, and were passed down in a word-of-mouth manner, which means all the operas were stored in the actors' minds without any written record. The operas were popular in the 1950s, but died out against the backdrop of the market economy in the 1980s.

Meanwhile there are worries that the art will die out when the last few exponents of the opera forms pass on. Echoing these fears, singer Chen Junhua from the China National Symphony Orchestra, who was born in this area, says: "Due to the limitation of time, the actors' lack of professional knowledge about the operas, and their inability to put down the operas in a scientific and systematic way, I'm afraid that the intangible cultural heritage will die out."

Chen's parents were both members of the Pingli Opera Troupe, and she grew up listening to the operas which inspired her a lot.

As a result, she initiated a project to bring together the old actors to give performances of the operas and record what they sing so as to preserve the cultural heritage in a digital form.