Young Icon For Chinese Opera

Chinese Theatre Circle

All the World's an Opera Stage
for Chinese Theatre Circle

On 5 September 2004 CTC sent a eight member team to New York, USA to vie for the World Culture Open Awards in the category of creative arts inaugurated by the World Culture Open (WCO).

WCO is a non profit international organization based in New York and with a office in Seoul, Korea. Established in early 2003 in New York, WCO is devoted to preserving and innovating the world’s diverse culture through the creation of forums and events which promote, honour, and celebrate the creative, healing, and humanitarian arts around the world.

The award scheme, billed by WCO as “the Olympics for culture” recognizes and celebrates individuals and arts groups from around the world that engage in preserving traditional artforms with a view to reaching new audiences.

So far, the WCO Awards are probably the most prestigious for the arts in the world.

CTC was selected as one of the twelve finalists by the WCO Organising Committee after a three tier selection from 180 nominations from 120 countries.

In New York, on 10 September CTC presented a traditional Cantonese Opera excerpt “The Patriotic Princess” performed by Wong Kum Yeng and Lo Siu Ling, and an excerpt from CTC’s innovative Chinese Opera sung in English “Intrigues In The Qing Imperial Court” written by Leslie Wong and featuring Joanna Wong, CTC’s Artistic Director Cultural Medallion winner as Empress Dowager Ci Xi, See Too Hoi Siang, winner of “The Outstanding Young Person In The Word Award” for cultural achievement as Zhen Fei (Pearl Concubine), Wong Kum Yeng as Emperor Guang Xu, and Dr Wong Kwok Onn (PhD) as Li Lian Ying, at the Diversity Festival in Lincoln Center. After the performance, Joanna Wong also conducted a workshop for the American audience.

Besides being a finalist, CTC was also invited by WCO to Korea where WCO could “publicly honour” CTC’s works.

On 14 September CTC present the same programme at Ilsan Lake Park in Gyeonggi, South Korea.

CTC has done Singapore proud. CTC is the only arts company from East Asia and South East Asia to have gained a place in the finals of the WCO Awards.

:: Compliment from Singapore Consul in New York
Dated 29 September 2004