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Wuyuan invested 2 million yuan in repairing ancient stage
( chinadaily.com.cn )
Updated: 2012-02-08
Wuyuan county invested more than 2 million yuan($317,800) to repair the Yangchun Ancient Theater Stage. This is an ancient theater stage from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and is being revitalized so that Chinese opera can resume in a time-honored architectural space.
The Yangchun Ancient Theater Stage, located in Yangchun village, Zhentou town, Wuyuan county, is a gate tower of the ancestral hall of a local Fang family. Built in 1562 in the reign of Jiajing Emperor in the Ming Dynasty, the stage boasts a history of over 400 years. With wooden column bases, the stage demonstrates the features of the architecture during the Ming Dynasty. The stage is 7 meters deep, 12.4 meters wide and 1.7 meters high, with two small stages and a total area of approximately 50 square meters.
With centuries-old drama tradition, Wuyuan once had quite a few similar stages, however, Yangchun Ancient Theater Stage is the only one that survived in the county. Worn down by the years without repair, the ancient stage has long lost its charm, plagued by leaks from rain, slanting columns and a damaged stage, even though it was listed as a national cultural relic protection site in 2006.
To revive this cultural relic, Wuyuan county invested more than 2 million yuan to repair the roof, external walls, crossbeams, rafters, the inner bar and the surface of the stage. The maintenance has finally come to a close.