Chinese Opera Festival (Kunshan) 2025 Opens

The 2025 Chinese Opera Festival (Kunshan), co-organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government, opened on September 8 in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province. Building on past festivals that highlighted the classical role types of Sheng (male), Dan (female), Jing (painted face), and Chou (clown), this year’s program centers on martial arts theater.

The opening performance featured martial arts excerpts presented by six renowned Chinese opera masters. Throughout the festival, which runs until September 20, martial arts performers from across China will stage 10 collaborative productions, showcasing the ongoing preservation and innovation of traditional Chinese opera.

The opening night included an excerpt from the Beijing Opera “The Eighteen Arhats Subdue the Raptor Demon” (Photo provided by Kunshan Converged Media Center) (PRNewsfoto/Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government).

During the opening ceremony, certificates were presented to participants selected for the 2025 National Leading Talents Development Program for Chinese Opera, along with honors for institutions recognized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism between 2020 and 2024 for Outstanding Opera Production Initiatives.

This year’s festival is anchored by five flagship programs: the opening and closing ceremonies, a national showcase of opera artists (martial arts theater), invited performances of acclaimed productions, opera symposia, and initiatives to preserve endangered opera forms. Five extension programs complement these, including opera exchange and promotion activities, the cultural tourism campaign “Watch Opera, Visit Jiangsu,” a special exhibition at the Chinese Opera Museum, a traditional opera cultural market, and a digital promotion platform.

Over the course of the festival, 39 performances will be staged, featuring 107 productions from 53 ensembles representing 31 distinct opera traditions. Events and activities will take place in diverse venues, including traditional theaters, historic towns, museums, universities, and scenic sites, offering audiences immersive cultural experiences.

Kunshan, the birthplace of Kunqu Opera—the oldest form of Chinese opera—hosts the festival for the seventh consecutive year. A new three-year action plan has been launched to guide its future development. Between 2018 and 2024, the festival showcased 348 opera genres, including puppetry and shadow theater, bringing together 494 organizations that staged 295 performances with 606 excerpts, while attracting record audiences both in person and online.