CRI听力:6th China Children's Theatre Festival Highlights Cultural Exchanges

The US Missoula Children's Theatre, who has performed an English musical, The Princess and The Pea, during last year's children's theatre festival, is busy rehearsing the 'Box of Idioms' now in Chinese.

Their new performance will be staged at the China National Theatre for Children in early July.

The theatre's head, Yin Xiaodong, reveals why they've selected this play 'Box of Idioms' for the US Missoula Children's Theatre.

"Chinese proverbs are a symbol of Chinese culture. Chinese proverbs and four-plus character idioms reflect Chinese people's cultural values and perceptions summarized from those great works of literature. This is the most representative part of traditional Chinese culture. Letting American children act in the 'Box of Idioms' would enable them to understand the profoundness of Chinese culture."

The 'Box of Idioms' play include a story-telling interpretation of three idioms, namely Marking a Boat to Seek One's Sword, or Ke-Zhou-Qiu-Jian (刻舟求剑) in Chinese, "To cover one's ears when he steals the bell" or Yan-Er-Dao-Ling in Chinese(掩耳盗铃) and "To try another way" or Ling-Pi-Xi-Jing in Chinese. (另辟蹊径)

According to Yin Xiaodong, the US Missoula Children's Theatre's upcoming play, a token for the US-China children's cultural exchanges, has also gained support from both governments.

"The theatre has dispatched a drama director to the US for a half-month long rehearsal. Before this, we've made lots of preparations including giving American children some language training. The program, which facilitates cultural and educational exchanges between children from both nations, has been included in a list of achievements of the 7th Round of China-US high-level consultation on people-to-people cultural exchange."

The China Children's Theatre Festival has successfully held five sessions since 2011. It aims to promote the development of world children drama and strengthen international exchanges and cooperation.

Gathering some 46 excellent drama works from eight countries and regions into Chinese cities, including Beijing, Jinan, Chengdu and Ningbo, this year's festival will kick off on July 8th and close on August 25th, lasting one and a half months.

The festival remains to be a stage where Chinese and foreign theater groups work together and children and families have fun, helping Chinese audience to learn more about the world.

For Studio Plus, I'm WL.