An Exceptional and Grand Occasion——China’s First Peking Opera Festival

IN the early winter of 1995,Tianjin,a big city in northern China,witnessed a great cultural event China’s First Peking Opera Festival.The festival followed commemorative activities marking the twohundredth anniversary of the arrival of Anhui Province’s local opera into Beijing in 1990,and the activities marking the centenary(1894-1994)of the birth of Mei Lanfang and Zhou Xinfang(two eminent Peking opera artists).Jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Culture,the Ministry of Radio,Film and Television and the Tianjin Municipal Government,the event aimed to revitalize Peking Opera.It lasted eight days。