Kunqu Opera 昆曲
Kunqu Opera ranks among the most splendid and miraculous cultural art forms  created by the Chinese people in their long history. Ever since it came into being at the district of Kunshan near Suzhou in the mid-14th century, Kunqu has been artistically refined over a period of 200 years and has stood out prominently among the various competing schools of opera in China for its “delicate tunes and elegant melodies”. With Suzhou as its base, Kunqu Opera soon became fashionable both at home and aboard, forming, for hundreds of years, the spectacular scene of “all operas taking Kunqu as their ancestor”.
After China entered the modern age, Kunqu Opera underwent a gradual decline from its zenith, due to the dramatic changes in Chinese society. As time goes by, Kunqu Opera lost favor with a large part of its audiences, and its popularity and social influence diminished year after year. Fortunately, Kunqu Opera was not ousted form the stage of history. It survived and remained to be the most influential traditional opera owing to the profound foundation it had laid in the areas of script writing, performing art and theoretical research. In fact, other schools of Chinese opera all take Kunqu Opera as the master and ancestor and benefit a lot from it. There is no denying that Kunqu Opera embodies the highest artistic achievements that the traditional Chinese drama has ever accomplished and retains a unique position in the history of the world culture. Kunqu Opera was honored by UNESCO as one of 19 outstanding cultural forms of expression from different regions of the “Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity” in May 2001. and Kunqu Opera was one of the four items that won full votes by a panel of 18 international experts.
昆 曲
昆曲称得上是中华民族有史以来所创造的最瑰丽、最奇妙的文化现象之一。自14世纪中叶在苏州民间萌发以来，经过将近200年的加工磨砺，它终于以不可遏制之势在诸腔并起的剧烈竞争中脱颖而出，很快占据了“正声雅乐”的至高位置，进而以吴中之地为基础，风靡全国，辐射海外，形成了数百年间“四方歌曲，必宗吴门”的壮观场面。
中国社会进入近代以来，随着时代变迁，昆曲原有的生存空间和社会影响日渐削减萎缩。但是它不仅衰而不亡，足以自守，而且仍然凭借自身在案头创作、场上表演、理论研究等诸多方面长期积累的殷实家底傲视菊潭。昆曲代表着中国古典戏曲艺术曾经达到的最高成就、最高品位，并在世界文化总格局中占有不可替代的重要一席。2001年5月，联合国教科文组织授予世界不同地区的首批19个文化社区和文化表现形式以人类口属于非物质遗产代表作称号，中国昆曲赫然名列榜首，它是得由18名专家组成的国际评审委员会全票通过的4项代表作之一。
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