Peking Opera artist receives US honorary doctorate

China's top Peking Opera artist and arts educator Sun Ping received an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from Chapman University in Orange, California on Saturday.

It marks Sun as the second heavyweight figure of Chinese Peking Opera –and the first of this century— to be recognized by the western American academic world, 86 years after legendary Peking Opera artist Mei Lanfang received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Southern California and Pomona College in recognition of his literary and artistic achievements in 1930.

Peking Opera artist Sun Ping poses with a picture of herself dressed up in a stage costume at Chapman University in Orange, California, May 21, 2016. [China.org.cn]

Chapman University recognized Sun for her "significant contributions to cultural and artistic exchanges through your Peking Opera performances and lectures around the world." James L. Doti, Ph.D and President of Chapman University, said that she stands alongside other great performing artists like Mei Lanfang and Placido Domingo, a world-famous Italian Opera artist. "Like them, you have made an indelible mark nationally and internationally in your quest for better intercultural understanding, and peace and harmony among cultures and civilizations.”

"This recognition is not only a reward for my forty-years' working in the field of Peking Opera, but also another proof of the prosperous connection between the art form and the United States of America since 1930," Sun said in her acceptance speech.

She continued, "Peking Opera is the most representative form of art in the Chinese traditional theatre, as well as in Asia. It combines singing, dancing, reciting, acrobatic acting and some other methods to tell story and depict characters vividly. I sincerely hope that you can have more opportunities to comprehend the extraordinary charm of the opera and fall in love with it.”

Cheered by thousands of students, faculty, officials and guests, Sun then sang a famous aria gig from Peking Opera classic "Mu Guiying Taking Command" on stage.

The artist later said to media that she also had high expectations for a Chinese Peking Opera archive that will be established at Chapman University, an academically distinguished private university in Orange County ranked in the U.S. News and World Report's top-tier of western region colleges and universities.

Cui Tiankai, the Chinese ambassdor to the United States, sent his congratulations to Sun, "The awarding of an honorary degree to Madame Sun Ping is nothing but the manifestation of the university's respect for the culture of other countries and nations, for artists and for the importance you attach to China-US cultural exchange."

Sun Ping started to learn Peking Opera at the age of 10 and has been a well-established Peking Opera performer for about half of century, whose performances have been seen and applauded by former U.S. presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

She is also well-versed in Western dramas and has not only acted as the main character in 25 pre-modern classical Chinese dramas such as "Farewell my Concubine," "The Drunken Beauty" and "Butterfly Lovers," but also directed and performed Western dramas such as "Snow White," "Hamlet" and "Last Supper" during a 10-year-stay in Europe in the 1980s.

Sun was a former visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University, and has held appointments as a guest professor at Yale and the University of Pennsylvania. She has received numerous awards including the United States Presidential Award, the Honorary Citizen of Hungary and the Performance Award of Hungary.