12 Young Artists Debut Across Genres at Chuan Yi Center's 10th New Talent Stage

The National Center for Traditional Arts (NCTA) has been preparing for the 10th "Cheng Kung: Rising Stars Stage" project since last year, with the official launch scheduled for October. Taking its name from the Chinese characters for "inheriting achievement," the project aims to provide a stage and exposure opportunities for the new generation of traditional opera talent. The NCTA screened over one hundred trainees nationwide and ultimately selected 12 young actors hailed as the "new generation of traditional opera successors." These artists will perform together on the same stage to showcase cross-genre interaction and innovation. This initiative serves not only as a test of the traditional opera talent cultivation system but also as a response to recent warnings regarding an aging audience demographic and declining viewership rates for traditional opera.

The performance lineup for this year's rising stars stage is quite diverse, encompassing five major genres: Peking opera, Yu opera, Hakka opera, Taiwanese opera, and glove puppetry. As the quintessence of Chinese opera, Peking opera is known for its rigorous stylized movements and soaring vocal cavity styles. Yu opera attracts audiences with Henan's regional language and strong folk coloring. Hakka opera preserves the speech sounds and living contexts of the Hakka language family, holding special significance for the preservation of Hakka culture. Taiwanese opera represents indigenous Taiwanese traditional opera, blending Southern Min dialects with local themes. Glove puppetry is renowned for puppet manipulation and exquisite stage settings, combining the dual arts of vision and sound. The 12 rising stars will each take on leading roles in their respective specialties while also undergoing cross-genre collaborative rehearsals, aiming to spark new ideas through mutual learning and inject modernity and crossover potential into traditional opera.

Regarding the training mechanism, the NCTA combines three major pillars: campus curricula, mentorship transmission, and practical performances. After being selected, the participants undergo six months of intensive training, including comprehensive instruction in vocal styles, physical movements, costumes, and stage design, with senior veteran mentors providing personal guidance. During the training period, trainees must not only master the fundamentals of traditional repertoires but also complete creative challenges that combine traditional elements with contemporary themes to form performance segments with a sense of the times. This "tradition plus innovation" teaching model aims to cultivate versatile traditional opera talent equipped with both artistic depth and market competitiveness, enabling them to pursue diverse development in troupes, television, or new media platforms in the future.

This joint performance planning also reflects the policy orientation of the government and cultural departments toward the preservation of traditional arts. In recent years, central and local governments have successively invested funds to promote "opera new generation" subsidy programs, troupe tour performances, and campus promotion activities, hoping to reduce the risk of traditional art decline through institutionalized support. As the nation's only professional institution for traditional arts, the NCTA bears the dual mission of cultivation and exhibition. Through the public performances of the "Cheng Kung: Rising Stars Stage," audiences can directly experience the vitality and creativity of young actors, while also providing empirical evidence for future funding investments and audience cultivation, thereby forming a positive cycle.

Expectations from the audience level cannot be underestimated either. Traditional opera audiences in the past were mostly middle-aged and elderly groups, and young people's unfamiliarity with traditional opera has kept box office numbers declining. This event specially designs an interactive viewing experience; audiences can participate in brief traditional opera tutorials during intermissions and even take photos with the actors, lowering the viewing threshold and enhancing a sense of participation. If the performance results are favorable, it is expected to attract more schools and community organizations to list traditional opera in their curricula or club activities, further expanding the social impact of traditional arts. Overall, the "Cheng Kung: Rising Stars Stage" is not only an artistic gala but also a testbed for examining the survival and development of traditional opera in contemporary society, with the hope that through the injection of fresh blood, ancient traditional opera will continue to shine brightly in the future cultural landscape. (Source of facts: Central News Agency)