Art beat in August

The Sanctuary Summer Courtyard Party & BBQ + THRIFT Pop Up Shop

Date: Aug 16 — 15:00 pm - Midnight

Venue: The Other Place

The Sanctuary will be hosting three hutong courtyard parties over the summer at the super chilled Gulou hangout, The Other Place. Join the final party on Saturday Aug 16 and enjoy some of the best Beijing-based DJs spinning outdoors in intimate and cosy surroundings with plenty of good people, food and drink. Music by BB Deng (Disobedience Movement), Charm (Sinotronics), Juhstynn (Factory), Ralph Zuckermann (Lebensfreude Records, Berlin) & ZhiQi (ShadowPlay).

THRIFT, organized by Jessica Rapp, will also be joining in the fun and will set up shop inside whilst we party outside. Jessica will be bringing a handpicked selection of unique, stylish and low-priced secondhand clothing, jewelry and accessories from around the world.

Conquering happiness

Meng Jinghui Theater Studio has adapted a book of philosopher Bertrand Russell’s essays for the Chinese theater. The book, Conquest of Happiness, translated by Fu Lei, has attracted millions of readers in China. Meng hopes to present new ideas about happiness by employing the help of three stage actors -- Ding Yiteng, Ding Boxuan and Guan Xiaotian.

7:30 pm, Wed-Sun, July 30-Aug 17, Yihai Theater – Pioneer Studio, 466 Jiangning Road, Jing’an district, 021-6256 8282 100-380 yuan

Swans on ice

Moscow Ballet Theater is presenting Swan Lake on ice, a combination of ballet and figure skating that originated with the Russian company. The ice-ballet production will feature some Chinese elements such as traditional acrobatics. Among the performers are international award-winning dancers and champion athletes.

7:15 pm, Aug 15-17. Shanghai Oriental Art Center-Opera Hall, 425 Dingxiang Lu (Road), Pudong New Area, Shanghai. 021-6854-1234.

Italian operas

The National Center for the Performing Arts is collaborating with an Italian cast to produce two Italian Verismo operas: Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. The two operas are complementary to each other and are often staged together. It's the first time they have been produced together in China. The NCPA has invited the acclaimed opera director Giancarlo del Monaco to helm the production. He has previously directed NCPA's productions of Tosca, Otello and The Flying Dutchman. Each production will be performed by an Italian cast and a Chinese cast.

7:30 pm, Aug 13-17. National Center for the Performing Arts, West of Tian'anmen Square, Xicheng district, Beijing. 010-6655-0000.

Of poor taste

Shenyang-based artist Yang Fan focuses on poor quality artworks and discusses the truth of values in his solo exhibition Values System. In his work from the past two years, Yang paints rows of beautiful but inexpensive buttons of different shapes by which he indicates the downgrading of aesthetic values. He paints healthy looking organs, a sarcastic comment on the fact that the human body loses its value if it is "standardized".

11 am-6 pm, Tuesday to Sunday, until Aug 17. Space Station, Zhong Yi Jie (Street), 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu (Road), Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-5978-9671.

For more photos, here