China National Peking Opera Company

    China National Peking Opera Company (CNPOC) is one of the national ensembles of performance arts directly affiliated with the Ministry of Culture, People’s Republic of China. The company was founded in January 1955, with Mr. Mei Lanfang the great master of Peking opera art as the first president in its history. Now, Mr. Wu Jiang, a notable dramatist, is the president of the CNPOC, which consists of three troupes and one drama studio.

    The CNPOC has been recruiting performing artists in various schools of Peking Opera as well as notable dramatists, directors, composers, stage artists etc. to become one of the strongest ensembles in the field. Among them, performance maestroes Li Shaochun, Yuan Shihai, Ye Shenglan and Du Jinfang, director A Jia, dramatists Weng Ouhong and Fan Junhong enjoy high reputation worldover.

    In the past fifty years, the CNPOC produced(created) and performed more than 600 traditional or new dramas with different subjects and genres, forming its special artistic characteristics and styles with artistic strictness, fresh stage design and genres in great variety. In the repertoire, Boar Forest, Three Attacks on Zhu Village, At the Fork in the Road , Legend of the White Snake, The Jiujiang River Port, Sun An presents his memorial to the throne,, Xie Yaohuan, Mu Guiying in Command, Snafu in the Heavenly Palace, Man Jiang Hong, Heroine of the Yang Family, The Red Lantern, Battle in the Plain, The Red  Women Soldiers, Chun Cao Breaks into the Trial Court, Die Lian Hua, Nightmare at the Han Palace, Royal Envoy on Thin Horse, Sister Jiang, Princess Turandot, Lushui River and Yishan Mountain are popular to the numerous audience and have been greatly praised .

    More than 100 persons and 40 dramas have won, in international and national cultural activities, various prizes and awards, such as “Wen Hua Prize”, “Five Ones Project Prize”, “Mei Lanfang Gold Prize”, Prize of Elaborate Works Engineering for the National Stage Art “,“Mei Hua Prize” and “Gold Prize of the Chinese Peking Opera Festival”. In 2005, the company was appraised as “The National Mostly Valued Peking Opera Company “and also was confirmed to be one of “The Foremost Protected Units for the National Nonmaterial Cultural Legacy”.

    The CNPOC willingly shoulders the great responsibility in the international cultural exchange, and has had performance tours in more than 50 countries around the world, that actively contributed to the friendship of the Chinese people with people around the world and has enjoyed good international reputation.