Kunqu Opera performance delights visitors at UN headquarters

For Toni Thai Sterrett, founder of AI-powered screenwriting platform Cinepartna, the performance showed how traditional cultures from different parts of the world can resonate across borders.

"I thought it was beautiful. It was different. I don't understand the language, but I understood what was going on," she said. "I felt the emotion."

Sterrett, who was visiting UN headquarters, said she found it especially meaningful to see women performing Kunqu Opera after learning that the art form was traditionally performed entirely by men. She also praised the production's comic role, saying, "The jester was really funny."

What impressed Sterrett most, however, was the sense of familiarity she found in an art form from a different culture.

"It made me think about how similar all these traditional cultures are," she said. "Older cultures throughout Asia, Africa, and indigenous communities have so much in common. The gestures and the way they were communicating made me think, 'Wow, we really are all the same.'"

The performance also carried broader significance at an international venue like the United Nations, Sterrett said.

Co-hosted by the UNSRC Chinese Book Club and the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism, the performance featured excerpts from three classic Kunqu productions — Age of Splendor (Shengshi Hongzhuang), The Tale of the Precious Sword (Baojian Ji) and Fifteen Strings of Cash (Shiwu Guan) — presenting stories that range from the grandeur of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and themes of loyalty and righteousness to humorous glimpses of everyday life.

Recognized by UNESCO in 2001 as one of the first masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, Kunqu Opera is celebrated for its elegant singing, graceful choreography, poetic language and minimalist stagecraft, using symbolic gestures and movements to convey rich emotion and dramatic narratives.

XINHUA