After some pleasantries, Joseph, pressed for time, asked, "Can we begin negotiations this morning?" He was returning home in a week to report back, so he was naturally anxious.
Duanmu Ci, however, had other considerations. Upon hearing this, he simply waved his hand and said, "No rush, no rush, there's plenty of time. Why be in such a hurry? We've also arranged some welcoming activities. As a guest, Joseph, are you going to refuse?" As he spoke, he frowned, seemingly somewhat displeased.
"Not at all, not at all!" Joseph hurriedly protested. "We'll participate." He thought this was another act of kindness from Duanmu Ci, and he couldn't help but admire his negotiating opponent once again for being so courteous, willing to waste his precious negotiation time to treat him well.
This naive Australian seemed to have forgotten that, as guests who had traveled from afar, their negotiation time was the most precious thing...
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Although Chinese drama did not develop as vigorously as ancient Greece, with its origins spanning thousands of years, its variety far surpassed that of ancient Greece. Following the court jesters of the pre-Qin era, the miscellaneous plays of the Sui and Tang dynasties, and the Yuan dynasty drama, Chinese drama developed extremely rapidly in the Ming dynasty. Peking Opera, Yue Opera, Kunqu Opera, and even Huangmei Opera emerged one after another, creating a vibrant and diverse landscape that seemed poised to surpass its predecessors.
Although Haishan is located at the intersection of North and South, its people and customs are more influenced by the Jiangnan region. Therefore, Kunqu Opera, Yue Opera, and the local Shanghai Opera are more popular in Haishan, while Peking Opera and other opera genres are somewhat neglected.
Haishan Grand Theatre is one of the largest theatres in Haishan, with a history of over eighty years. During the Republic of China era, it was a favorite place for opera enthusiasts in Haishan. Back then, it wasn't called a theatre, but rather an opera troupe. Because the opera troupe was located in the foreign concession, no matter how loud the gunfire was outside, it couldn't drown out the music played inside.
Those who love opera, dressed in long gowns and carrying birdcages, can stroll over slowly, humming a few lines of opera lyrics, like the wealthy and powerful Manchu nobles from the capital.
The Haishan Grand Theatre has undergone several renovations and expansions, making it even more impressive than before. However, the number of visitors has never been high. After hundreds of years of glory, the art form of drama has finally shown signs of decline in modern times. After all, young people today prefer energetic rock and pop music and are naturally not interested in elaborate and difficult dramas.
However, this ancient art has been given new life today.
The most renowned Kunqu Opera masters of the past two years, Mr. Yi Qieru and Ms. Peng Xiaohong, will soon grace this venue with their presence to perform the famous Kunqu Opera excerpt, "The Peony Pavilion." Within just three days of this announcement, tickets were almost completely sold out. The sheer popularity astonished the theater's management. Upon learning that many of the ticket buyers were students, even the security guards at the theater entrance couldn't help but marvel at this once-in-thirty-years event.
An anonymous person once said that, like most beautiful things in this world, their glamorous exteriors usually conceal unknown secrets.
The same applies to this matter.
Most of the students who came to buy tickets were students from Haishan University, and most of them were from the School of Humanities. The highly respected (and very popular) Professor Duanmu Ci posted publicly on the forum that students from the School of Humanities should strengthen their classical literature literacy, and then suggested that everyone go to see a Kunqu opera to be immersed in it. He also "incidentally" mentioned that there was a wonderful Kunqu opera performance at the Haishan Grand Theater on Saturday afternoon.
Teacher Wei Yue also contributed greatly to this success. As the vice president of the Changsheng Society, he mobilized almost everyone in the society, which led to the grand occasion at the Haishan Grand Theater today. Otherwise, under normal circumstances, for a performance like Kunqu Opera, selling even a third of the tickets would be considered very good, let alone achieving today's popularity.
In Bu Tongxun's itinerary, accompanying the F delegation to see a play was one of the items, which could also be considered as promoting the country's culture to them. For this purpose, Duanmu Ci specially sent people to Zhejiang to invite actors to perform. In such an occasion, if the theater were empty with few audience members, it would undoubtedly leave an extremely bad impression on the F company people. In order to avoid this situation, a certain teacher could only "abuse his authority" to mobilize students to see the play.
Fortunately, the results were quite good.
After the regular guests entered, Duanmu Ci and Wei Yue led the F Company negotiation delegation through the staff entrance to the central VIP box on the second floor. This was the best spot in the entire theater, offering an unobstructed view. Duanmu Ci had booked the entire theater since sunrise; today, he was the most important person there.
As a Japanese man of Chinese descent, Wei Yue is deeply immersed in classical Chinese culture. Duanmu Ci brought him here today so that he could explain the general meaning of "The Peony Pavilion" to these white people. Otherwise, Joseph and the others would only be able to watch the actors on stage "speaking" without understanding anything.
Duanmu Ci pulled a thin sheet of paper from the table in front of him and handed it to Joseph. It contained a summary of the story of "The Peony Pavilion" written in English. Duanmu Ci showed this to these people so that they would have a basic impression of this beautiful story beforehand, so that they wouldn't have to struggle too much when reading it later.
In the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, all the theater lights were turned off, the curtain slowly rose, and the performance began.
Today's performance is the "Startled Dream" scene from "The Peony Pavilion." First up is the female lead, a woman in white who appears on stage, her water sleeves fluttering lightly, "The dream returns with the warbling of orioles, the fleeting years are scattered everywhere. A person stands in the deep courtyard." Her voice is melodious and soft, like a whisper.
While the actors were performing on stage, the screen on the side of the stage also started recording simultaneously. The screen not only showed the actors' figures, but also the translations in both Chinese and English. This was prepared for the audience, since the lyrics were in a strong classical style and were sung, and it would be difficult for audiences who were not familiar with this aspect to understand what they were saying.
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