Peking Opera often seems puzzling and out of place, even in China. Its style is the opposite of naturalism: It is perfectly possible that young girls play wizened generals, or that the young actor Liu Zheng performs the heroine's sword dance from "Farewell my Concubine."

 

The radical artificiality of Peking Opera has often met resistance. During the Cultural Revolution of the 60s and 70s, it was considered decadent and was outlawed. Today it seems hopelessly old-fashioned compared to the new currents of popular culture

 

While visiting a Peking Opera school, we met a number of teachers and pupils who are working hard and with admirable devotion to keep their highly refined music and dance theatre alive. The theatre people not only taught us about their century old Chinese art form, but also about their lives in the midst of a mostly imported new culture.