In recent years, traditional operas have lost their leading position on urban and rural stages in China. Some local operas have even disappeared. China's traditional opera culture is facing an unprecedented crisis. According to the results of a latest survey of the status quo of operas and troupes around China published by the China Art Institute, the country's operas and troupes are facing four major dilemmas in their development.

State-run troupes shoulder heavy burdens and encounter many difficulties to survive. Many theaters and troupes are short of funds and find it hard to improve the conditions for artistic creation and the life of their staff, not to mention creating and rehearsing new programs. Therefore, those with bad management disbanded one after another, and the rest are also encountering many obstacles against laboring along.

The phenomenon of brain drain and broken ladder in talent cultivation is serious. Since theaters and troupes are in bad financial conditions and can hardly guarantee the base pay for their employees, and performing in rural areas all year round means poor living conditions, many employees are discontented and resign to land a better job.

Opera heritage is in danger of being lost. China only has 267 opera genres nowadays, a decrease of more than 100 compared to the early years of the People's Republic of China. In the late 1950s and the early 1960s, Fujian Province alone dug out over 15,600 types of traditional programs and 100-odd singing styles. Only a handful of these programs and singing styles have been sorted out, compiled and published, while a large proportion of them were preserved by old artists and became worm-eaten, or remained in the memory of old artists, or lost overseas and could not be collected, purchased and well protected for lack of funds.

Opera creation and the performing market are seriously out of joint. Award-winning programs cannot be popularized. Excellent programs are too high to be popular and they win praises from experts but find few audiences in the market.

(Chinanews.cn June 16, 2006)