(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-22 15:16

China's latest effort to promote traditional culture among its younger generation has raised controversy in a nation where diverse opinions and options are gaining a grudging respect.

The country's Ministry of Education on Thursday announced a pilot program to teach students in primary and secondary schools its traditional Peking Opera. Deemed one of the nation's unique cultural treasures, the opera will be added into music courses for 200 schools in 10 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions throughout China.

The move immediately drew heated reaction from the public.

"I support this project wholeheartedly," said Zhu Shihui, a renowned Peking Opera performer. "Interest should be fostered since childhood. I myself began to get fascinated with Peking Opera whilst in primary school. It eventually became my lifetime career," he told Xinhua.

The general public, however, are not as enthusiastic. In a survey by Netease, a news portal in China, nearly 70 percent of voters were against the project.

In another opinion poll by China's leading web portal Sina.com, of over 21,000 respondents, only 27 percent believe setting up the course will help promote traditional Chinese culture.

Nearly 38 percent think the course should not be compulsory as students' choices should be respected, and the remaining 35 percent propose different local operas be taught in different areas since China boasts a huge reservoir of local operas.

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