Star dream blooms in spring

This year's art admission test, or yikao in Chinese, has set many pretty faces and figures in full spin. Clad in traditional Peking Opera costumes, teenage students demonstrate their performance skills, reciting, singing, and acting out their favorite Peking Opera excerpts in the seven to 10 minutes required during the two days of second-round test, organized at the Central Academy of Drama since Feb 9. Some 30 students will be recruited as freshmen for the academy's department of Peking Opera. Each February, students rush to take such tests at famous arts schools including at the Beijing Film Academy and Central Academy of Drama.

Photos by Jiang Dong / China Daily