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On fast-food culture and spiritual values
By Lin Hongming |
September 11, 2009, Friday
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Q: What do you think about Chinese audience's manners?
Lin: On the whole, manners are not very good. I do not admire the hardware of foreign theaters, nor do I particularly like the contents of all foreign performances, but I appreciate foreign audiences. Their good manners are a result of decades or hundreds of years of education and cultivation.
Our audience's manners have improved a lot since 2005. They're one of the best if not the best audience in China. For example, audience members who are late are allowed to enter the hall only during the intermission. In 2005, eight out of 10 late comers insisted on entering, but now only two out of 10 demand to be seated. The other join our staff in persuading them to wait.
When it performed in May, the Dresden Philharmonic (Dresdner Philharmoniker) praised our audiences for their great manners and keen appreciation of music.
A first-class theater must have first-class audiences, first-class orchestras, first-class hardware and first-class management and marketing. I am proud that Shanghai's audiences are becoming genuine connoisseurs of art.
Q: German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter asked a Chinese man in the audience to leave because he took a picture while she was performing. Was this an example of bad audience manners or bad temper on the part of the violinist?
Lin: The man was wrong to take pictures during the performance, although he did not use a flash. He knew he was wrong and left immediately at the request of the performer and other members of the audience. He was nice and cooperative. He learned a lesson.
I would say he loved art, especially Anne-Sophie Mutter, otherwise he wouldn't have come and bought an expensive ticket. And on the whole, the audience had excellent manners that day.
You cannot blame Anne-Sophie Mutter. She was not putting on airs as a celebrity, she only wanted to perform at her best. She was actually very courteous to the audience. After the performance, around 500 people lined up for her to autograph CDs. I had hoped to limit the number to 50 so she would not become too tired, but she insisted on satisfying everyone. She smiled as she signed and had her photos taken with members of the audience.
At a pre-performance press conference, she arrived five minutes early only to find that half the Chinese reporters had not yet arrived. Who, then, put on airs of celebrity: the violinist or the reporters?
Q: Who is your audience?
Lin: Our mainstream audience is very young. More than half are 40 years old and under, in contrast to attendance in many foreign countries.
In foreign theaters, I often see a sea of grizzled hair. Our audiences are well educated and more than half are college graduates.
Generally speaking, money is not a problem for our theater goers.
The problem for white collars is that they are often overworked and don't have much time left for art.
Many other young people are more interested in pop music than in art performances. They may spend lavishly on pop music concerts, while shying away from operas.
I understand that young people tend to like things popular, and I am not saying that serious art should replace pop music. I just hope that everyone should have a taste of art. I also hope white collars could squeeze out some time to enjoy art as part of their life.
Q: Our times seem dominated by pursuit of material pleasure and wealth, to the virtual exclusion of spiritual values. Your views?
Lin: Ours is a time of fast-food culture. Fewer and fewer people do serious reading now as they are attracted by pictures. But if you do some quiet reading of the classics, including novels and poems, you will feel the infinite beauty of words.
I often work until 10pm every day, and then I will read until one or two o'clock in the morning. I used to play the violin, flute and erhu a lot, but now I enjoy reading most of all. I have a roomful of books. Reading is one of the biggest joys for the lowest cost.
English poet Lord Byron wrote: "But words are things, and a small drop of ink, falling like dew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think."
A man should not live without spiritual enlightenment. If our society pays equal attention to economic growth and spiritual cultivation, more people may make friends with books and art.
Q: Besides Western art, how will you promote traditional Chinese art?
Lin: A theater like ours with a mostly Chinese audience cannot promote Western art only. We've been working hard to promote traditional Chinese art. Last year we began to promote major genres of operas of the Yangtze River Delta, mainly Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. This year we've expanded our program to include Huangmei Opera from nearby Anhui Province.
From next year, we will not be limited to operas in the Yangtze River area but will strive to become a stage for the nation's major operas.
We will invite Yu Kuizhi and Li Shengsu, two Peking Opera moguls from China National Peking Opera Company, to attend our opening ceremony next year. As more and more cities in the delta region build grand theaters, we will cooperate with them to jointly launch traditional Chinese art performances.
If you live in Shanghai and love traditional Chinese operas, you will have a great time next year and thereafter, whether you are Chinese or expat.
Lin: On the whole, manners are not very good. I do not admire the hardware of foreign theaters, nor do I particularly like the contents of all foreign performances, but I appreciate foreign audiences. Their good manners are a result of decades or hundreds of years of education and cultivation.
Our audience's manners have improved a lot since 2005. They're one of the best if not the best audience in China. For example, audience members who are late are allowed to enter the hall only during the intermission. In 2005, eight out of 10 late comers insisted on entering, but now only two out of 10 demand to be seated. The other join our staff in persuading them to wait.
When it performed in May, the Dresden Philharmonic (Dresdner Philharmoniker) praised our audiences for their great manners and keen appreciation of music.
A first-class theater must have first-class audiences, first-class orchestras, first-class hardware and first-class management and marketing. I am proud that Shanghai's audiences are becoming genuine connoisseurs of art.
Q: German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter asked a Chinese man in the audience to leave because he took a picture while she was performing. Was this an example of bad audience manners or bad temper on the part of the violinist?
Lin: The man was wrong to take pictures during the performance, although he did not use a flash. He knew he was wrong and left immediately at the request of the performer and other members of the audience. He was nice and cooperative. He learned a lesson.
I would say he loved art, especially Anne-Sophie Mutter, otherwise he wouldn't have come and bought an expensive ticket. And on the whole, the audience had excellent manners that day.
You cannot blame Anne-Sophie Mutter. She was not putting on airs as a celebrity, she only wanted to perform at her best. She was actually very courteous to the audience. After the performance, around 500 people lined up for her to autograph CDs. I had hoped to limit the number to 50 so she would not become too tired, but she insisted on satisfying everyone. She smiled as she signed and had her photos taken with members of the audience.
At a pre-performance press conference, she arrived five minutes early only to find that half the Chinese reporters had not yet arrived. Who, then, put on airs of celebrity: the violinist or the reporters?
Q: Who is your audience?
Lin: Our mainstream audience is very young. More than half are 40 years old and under, in contrast to attendance in many foreign countries.
In foreign theaters, I often see a sea of grizzled hair. Our audiences are well educated and more than half are college graduates.
Generally speaking, money is not a problem for our theater goers.
The problem for white collars is that they are often overworked and don't have much time left for art.
Many other young people are more interested in pop music than in art performances. They may spend lavishly on pop music concerts, while shying away from operas.
I understand that young people tend to like things popular, and I am not saying that serious art should replace pop music. I just hope that everyone should have a taste of art. I also hope white collars could squeeze out some time to enjoy art as part of their life.
Q: Our times seem dominated by pursuit of material pleasure and wealth, to the virtual exclusion of spiritual values. Your views?
Lin: Ours is a time of fast-food culture. Fewer and fewer people do serious reading now as they are attracted by pictures. But if you do some quiet reading of the classics, including novels and poems, you will feel the infinite beauty of words.
I often work until 10pm every day, and then I will read until one or two o'clock in the morning. I used to play the violin, flute and erhu a lot, but now I enjoy reading most of all. I have a roomful of books. Reading is one of the biggest joys for the lowest cost.
English poet Lord Byron wrote: "But words are things, and a small drop of ink, falling like dew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think."
A man should not live without spiritual enlightenment. If our society pays equal attention to economic growth and spiritual cultivation, more people may make friends with books and art.
Q: Besides Western art, how will you promote traditional Chinese art?
Lin: A theater like ours with a mostly Chinese audience cannot promote Western art only. We've been working hard to promote traditional Chinese art. Last year we began to promote major genres of operas of the Yangtze River Delta, mainly Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. This year we've expanded our program to include Huangmei Opera from nearby Anhui Province.
From next year, we will not be limited to operas in the Yangtze River area but will strive to become a stage for the nation's major operas.
We will invite Yu Kuizhi and Li Shengsu, two Peking Opera moguls from China National Peking Opera Company, to attend our opening ceremony next year. As more and more cities in the delta region build grand theaters, we will cooperate with them to jointly launch traditional Chinese art performances.
If you live in Shanghai and love traditional Chinese operas, you will have a great time next year and thereafter, whether you are Chinese or expat.
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