Tens of thousands of theater-goers in Hawaii of the United States have for years been appreciating authentic Peking Opera, without ever stepping foot in China.

The opera is performed at the University of Hawaii at Monoa and the artists, most of whom have been born and raised in the United States, while playing traditional Chinese roles, sing the arias in English.

Recently, they performed "Women Generals of the Yang Family," a classical repertoire with thrilling martial arts. It was also the sixth, full-length opera show by the university over the years.

The woman behind these productions is former opera artist Shen Xiaomei.

For her exemplary leadership and mentoring of the Peking Opera Resident Training Program at the University of Hawaii (UH) at Manoa, Shen was awarded the Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree on February 10, the day the "Women Generals of the Yang Family" premiered in Honolulu.

In its statement on the award, the Board of Regents of UH writes: "Through her numerous professional accomplishments and her contributions to student artists and the wider community in China, Hawaii, East Asia, North America and Europe, Shen has made it possible for generations of UH students to learn the art of Jingju (Peking Opera)."

Shen's association with the university began in 1979, when she began training Elizabeth Wichmann-Walczak, then a PhD student engaged in research on China. Wichmann-Walczak is now a professor and director of the university's Asian Theater.

Shen claims she is a personal disciple of the legendary Peking Opera Master Mei Lanfang.

Shen and Wichmann-Walczak have co-operated in the Peking Opera Resident Training Program for six years, making the cream of Chinese performing arts a centerpiece of the university's internationally renowned Asian Theater Program.

"Peking Opera embodies and can represent the Chinese people perhaps more clearly and completely than any other performing art," said Shen in an interview with China Daily right after the award ceremony.

"Along with generations of other artists in China, I believe it is also an art of international value."

Shen said that for Peking Opera to win wider international renown performing artists outside China should get involved in its study and performance, in the same way that ballet and classical Western music has spread in China and other non- Western countries.

"Performing in English will help American audiences better understand the opera and develop more interest in it," she said.

"The intensive study and respectful performance at the University of Hawaii are both helping bring Peking Opera the international acceptance it deserves, and preparing the students to contribute meaningfully to the enrichment of multicultural world theater," Shen said.

She said it was exciting to see the opera inspire students to learn more about China. "It's a testimony to the beauty and power of Peking Opera," she said.

Students take turns to appear in the Peking Opera shows.

Graduate student Nicole Tessier, who plays Yang Zongbao's only surviving son, Yang Wenguang in the newest opera, is an example.

"This is my third appearance in a Peking Opera show at the university," Tessier said. "I love it! I have spent two years in Beijing to improve especially my martial arts and singing."

According to Dr Wichmann-Walczak, many students go to China to specialize in Peking Opera or other fields of study about China after their learning and performing experiences at the UH.

Shen's contributions to the popularization of Peking Opera have also won acclaim in the local media:

"She has been instrumental in establishing Peking Opera internationally, restoring the traditional repertory to the stage and creating new, non-political works with widespread audience appeal," an article in the Honolulu Advertiser read.

Fruitful retirement

"Madame Shen's new honorific is being viewed as something of a cultural milestone in China," the Star Bulletin commented.

After retiring from the stage in China in 1995, Shen has devoted her time to drawing in new audiences for the traditional arts. One such initiative is the Jiangsu Province Program for Promoting Peking Opera Appreciation in Education.

In the past 10 years, Shen and the Jiangsu Peking Opera theater have organized more than 5,000 lectures, with audience members numbering more than 145,000, most of them school students.

"Like the Great Wall and the terracotta horses and warriors in the Qinshihuang Mausoleum, Peking Opera is a treasure of the Chinese nation," said Shen.

"Our most important goal is to help the youngsters find aesthetic value in Peking Opera and value the nation's cultural tradition."

"We still have a long way to go to make Peking Opera popular both domestically and internationally. I hope more people can join in our efforts," Shen said.

(China Daily March 1, 2006)