Creative accounting

China National Arts Fund celebrates landmark anniversary of successful financing, Fang Aiqing reports.

Zhou Liya and Han Zhen, the women behind hit dance dramas like Poetic Dance: The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting and The Eternal Wave, have just celebrated the 10th anniversary of Dragon Boat Racing, the first joint project the duo choreographed and directed.

Two performances of the production were restaged in late August at the Guangzhou Opera House in Guangdong province, where it was premiered a decade ago.

The drama, created in June 2013 and sponsored by the China National Arts Fund in 2014, follows the fortunes of the He clan of Shawan ancient town in Guangzhou's Panyu district in the 1930s — their love stories, inheritance and development of local musical styles, and the perseverance they presented during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45).

Over the past decade, the drama has toured 60 domestic and overseas cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macao, as well as Washington and New York, with around 300 performances, and won several national and provincial honors.

Since Dragon Boat Racing, the duo has created more works with the support of the fund, including the aforementioned pair of hit dramas and Du Fu and Wing Chun.

In 2016 and 2018, Zhou was supported by the fund to create some separate, smaller dance works.

At a news conference held by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Aug 31, Zhou said that the past decade saw remarkable progress and development in Chinese dance dramas, and the fund, with its all-around support and guidance, has helped the endeavors of many young art creators.

This year also marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the China National Arts Fund.