Life of Guangzhou - Yun Deng: I Want to Cultivate Young Opera Actors and More Appreciative Audience

lifeofguangzhou.com: What impressed you most during your working period in Guangzhou?

"During my work in Guangzhou, what impressed me most was that Guangzhou is a beautiful flowery city with an impressive food culture. What's more, the government takes business opportunities in food seriously and holds a series of food festivals to continue and promote traditional Cantonese cuisine. Cantonese Cuisine is developing not only in terms of quantity but also in quality, and it is also a healthy food culture."

lifeofguangzhou.com: Are there any touching stories that happened during your working time in Guangzhou?

"What touched me most was that when SARS broke out, Cantonese and government officials, especially those medical workers represented by Zhong Nanshan, were not scared, but determined to conquer the disease. Their spirit of sincerity, responsibility and sacrifice touched me a lot. As a result the members of Guangzhou Opera Institute collective created a vocal symphonic poem named Sunshine of Love to compliment the medical workers. The poem was subsequently performed at the founding ceremony of Guangzhou Opera Institute. The poem was popular with the audience and influenced what they thought about the Cantonese's caring more about money than people. It expresses the idea of, united we stand, and solving problems together when we confront disease and disaster."

lifeofguangzhou.com: As a foreign expert in Guangzhou, what was your biggest achievement? What made you feel proudest?

"Although I am now a US citizen, I was born in Guangzhou and grew up here. I am glad to work in my Hometown. My major is opera. And I thought I should come back to promote my profession and cultural exchange. The promotion of opera in Guangzhou, the cultivation of performance skills in juniors and the elevation of audience's appreciation of opera are the key tenets of the Guangzhou Opera Institute. We have achieved by facing difficulties and working hard over the years, and we are internationally recognized. Guangzhou Opera Institute is the first private institute particularly concerned about promoting and popularizing opera in the whole country. Although our work is not going smoothly, we still feel proud of our evolution. After all, it is the first for us and the nation."

lifeofguangzhou.com: Are there any difficulties when working with Chinese staff? How do you deal with cultural differences for example?

"I lived here when I was a child. So for me, it is not difficult to deal with the dialect and living conventions. Referring to cultural differences, it is not easy to popularize opera to many different kinds of people, whether western or Chinese. We try our best with the most basic works, and select segments from famous western operas to form new popularized operas. We also simplify scenery, localize costumes, interlude asides and explanations during the show, and add Chinese captions to the singing segments. We conduct opera appreciation lectures, special opera concerts, and the construction of corporate culture combined with notable Chinese and foreign operas, so that different types of citizen can feel the charms of opera gradually. The beautiful Guangzhou Opera Institute is being completed, professional opera actors are being cultivated, and appreciating audiences are growing. As such, we can exchange more with opera arts group and promote our operatic undertakings. This is also the essence of Guangzhou Opera Institute. We believe that with the support and concern of government, ways of solving problems are lessened."

lifeofguangzhou.com: Why did you come to work in Guangzhou?

"Having lived in Guangzhou and worked abroad for many years, I always thought about my hometown. The undertaking of Guangzhou Opera is still developing. I chose my hometown as my work place because I feel that it needs me. I am willing to devote myself to Guangzhou Opera undertaking. I want to cultivate a new generation of young opera actors and a more appreciative audience. I would like to let them stand on my shoulders."

lifeofguangzhou.com: How long do you plan to work in Guangzhou?

"It is not difficult to do some things, but it is difficult to develop Guangzhou Opera undertaking. This work not only needs time but also courage. Cultivating juniors alone I cannot achieve a great success. This cannot be achieved in a short period of time. We need to develop the abilities of local actors, introduce, rewrite, and generalize notable operas in order to fulfill the needs of development. With support and recognition, the success of Guangzhou Opera will hopefully be accomplished in the near future."

lifeofguangzhou.com: What suggestions do you have for Guangzhou?

"It needs a plan for cultural development. Recently, Guangdong has made great strides as a province of culture, and Guangzhou is developing rapidly as a city of culture. However I think that both can improve. The cultural projects government has carried out should be emphasized and generalized. It would be more realistic if we could base our source for cultural works on the lives of the masses."

(Translated by Luna Yang and Alan Devey)