Feature: American youths fascinated by Peking Opera

As Chinese people at home and abroad celebrate the Spring Festival, or the Lunar New Year, more and more young Americans become fascinated with the centuries-old Peking Opera, a quintessence of the Chinese culture.

Alex Cline, who adopted a Chinese girl 11 years ago, has been trying his best to let his daughter learn more about China and its ancient civilization.

Knowing that Sun Ping, a first-class Peking Opera actress in China, would give a lecture at UCLA after performing a famous episode -- "The Forest of Wild Boars," Cline came early with his daughter.

"She's already interested in it so she wants to come," he told Xinhua. "She watched DVDs of the Peking Opera for a while. She has different episodes of DVDs of Peking Opera. She likes the performance, the costume, the music and everything about Peking Opera."

In the view of Cline, his adopted daughter has an indivisible relationship with China.

"She has a potential to be closer to her culture, so she can go back to China and be awakened to more and more about her culture," he said.

During Spring Festival celebrations, overseas Chinese and those fancying the Chinese culture, like the Cline family, enjoyed fascinating art performances of traditional Chinese culture.

More than 300 artists from nine art troupes, invited by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, charmed the audiences of 13 countries this month on five continents with 36 performances, including the well-known Peking Opera.

The series of shows, under the theme of "Cultures of China, Festival of Spring," have been staged since 2009 to share Chinese people's festive mood with other peoples every year.

"I do like the performance of Peking Opera. It's really interesting. I like the costumes -- they are very gorgeous -- together with the headdress and makeup. It's really dramatic," said Riley Ford, a senior student of Chapman University.

"It's nice to have a change to see a piece of history through Peking Opera," he added.

Karina Hubbard, a junior student of Chapman University, said she was also glad to enjoy Peking Opera at her university. "I really like the performance. I think it's a good thing to expose Americans to it," she said.

Speaking of the content of Peking Opera, she said: "It's a little bit difficult for me to understand the story, because I think a lot of the words don't translate like exactly the same but I got a pretty good idea."

For Hubbard, the performance was really a "feast for the eyes."

"I personally like the fight scene and then I love the characters with beautiful costumes," she said.

"If I have another chance to see Peking Opera in Los Angeles, I'll probably take my family with me. My parents like plays and operas and that kind of things," she added.

Echoing Hubbard's view, Motaru Morita, a graduate student of Asian studies and technical theater in Chapman University, said that although Americans cannot fully understand the plots of Peking Opera, they will enjoy it for its splendid visual images.

"Among the younger people, I would think the Peking Opera will become more interesting for them, because it's the different culture and different costumes. I think that would be the main trigger," he said. Endi