Orchestrating a boom_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Orchestrating a boom

Chinese musicians take comfort from the knowledge that their Western peers also rely on government subsidies for survival. Most have turned it into an art to plead with government officials for an endless stream of "blood transfusions". And they are succeeding.

Many cities in China, flush with cash from the economic boom, want the kind of cachet that cash alone cannot provide. They have found the answer through making official tours of Western countries: the triumvirate of a symphony orchestra, an opera company and a ballet company. They crave the ornate palaces of high art. There are so many grand theaters sprouting in China's cityscapes you'd be forgiven for believing there is an artistic renaissance sweeping across the nation.

The interest in classical music is mainly what they call "hardware-driven". First, we build the state-of-the-art facilities; then we need performers to fill them. Only then is it discovered that it is easier to fill the stage than audience seats.

Hence the development of outreach programs to familiarize the public with this genre of performing arts, usually considered as lofty and aloof. This is like building a castle from top to bottom and, finding it does not have support, reaching down one level at a time until it touches the ground.

More than 20 years ago, then Minister of Culture Wang Meng floated the idea that the State should take care of just one performing arts troupe of each genre - the top one - and leave the rest to the market. However, if each level of government sponsors one orchestra, China would have as many orchestras as television stations.