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With fewer than 300 people performing Long Drama, efforts called for to save it

Lei Tongxia first encountered Long Drama, a unique traditional opera from Northwest China's Gansu province, when she was 12 and living in a local village. Since then, she has been addicted to it.

Lei Tongxia

"In the beginning, I sang and danced with old villagers for fun, or I just performed it to kill time and wanted to perform with others in this way," said Lei, 50, who is vice-president of the Gansu Dramatists Association. "But to my surprise, the Long Drama, which is filled with magic power, has influenced my growth since then. I went on to learn a lot about traditional drama and decided to be a professional performer after I went to a local art school."

As a first-class State artist, Lei often took the piece to grassroots areas where such entertainment originated during the Han Dynasty out of the folk tradition, with narration and singing first accompanied by percussion instruments and later by the melodic sounds of shadow puppetry.

As a deputy to the 12th National People's Congress, China's top legislature, she now has concerns about how to protect, develop or even "rescue" such drama as it disappears across the country.

Now, the number of performers of such work in the province's State-owned theaters numbers fewer than 300, she said. Only around 80 of those based at her workplace, the province's Long Drama theater, are still able to perform the work.

"The problem of preserving such traditional arts has been serious in recent years because people, especially young people, have no idea about them and do not know how to learn the skills, even if they are interested in them," she said.

Lei submitted a proposal during this session, suggesting governments find ways to incorporate traditional drama-related knowledge into music classes and popularize them among students in primary schools and kindergartens.

She would like to see such drama publicized in school music books.

"This will build interest in young students and they may chose to learn more voluntarily at university," she said. "The first step is to let young people know what Long Drama is. Not everyone will be physically able to learn it but awareness of the need to protect the drama is very important."

She said many other local styles of drama or opera are under threat.

"In the past, there were more than 360 local dramas in the nation, but now there are less than 200, which is why I'm eager to see change."

Because of cultural policies put forward by central leadership that are being enforced, traditional arts are now increasingly being highlighted and more money is being directed toward them.

"We applied funds for Long Drama's development and hope efforts to attract more people who understand and love it will be successful."