Society for Conservation Biology 2009 Annual Meeting

Evening Program
Cultural Evening
Sports contest
Opening Reception
Closing Reception

An invitation to:
Members, Sponsors, Exhibitors, Advertises
The Chinese Academy of Sciences, State Forestry Adminstration P.R.China and the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) invite you to Beijing, China 11-16 July 2009 for the International Congress for Conservation Biology (23rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology), it is recognized as the most important global meeting for conservation professionals and students.

Social Events - Cultural Evening

Time: 18:00 13^th July 2009
Price: USD50/person

♣ Dining
Chinese Traditional Cuisine
Western Snacks

♣ Cultural performance
    Peking Opera
    Face changing
    Folk Music
    Waist-Drum Dancing
    Acrobatics

♣ Dining

There are so many traditional and special Chinese foods, according to the folk culture, district, religion, and festival. For the famous classes divided by district, there are style of Guangdong, Beijing, Shanghai, Sichuan, North-West, and so on… or by folk, there are kajia, Yunan, Fujian, etc. During that special night, we will enjoy around ten typical dishes such as Peking duck.

♣ Cultural performance

Peking Opera

The Drunken Concubine

The story happened in Tang Dynasty around 745-755 AD. This is one of the masterpieces by Mei Lan-Fang. It is almost a one-person show. The story is quite simple. Mei had made this play famous by his vivid performance reflecting the concubine's disappointment, her drunken charming, and her intentional show-off of her beauty. There are many movements difficult to perform, including drinking a cup with the performer's teeth only and placing the cup on the tray by bending over backwards.

The story is about Yang Guifei. She was the favorite concubine of Tang Emperor, Ming Huang. One day the Emperor promised to see her. After waiting for a long time, Yang was told the emperor had gone to visit another concubine. She was so depressed and she drank herself deeply and returned to her quarter in sorrow alone, mourning her bitter fate.

Monkey King Uproar in Heaven

Monkey King Uproar in Heaven is adapted from Chinese classic mythology "Journey to the West" which is commonly known to the western readers as Monkey. The hero Monkey King "Sun Wu kong" and his Uproar in Heaven ( 大闹天宫) have been known by every Chinese.

Sichuan Opera - Face Changing

China has an abundance of 1,300 local operas, Sichuan opera is one of the China's oldest local operas and is popular in Sichuan province and some regions of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces. It is the most significant and most interesting opera form from Southwestern China. As a stage entertainment, it conveys the idea of time and space to the audience through performances.

The opera is characterized by its unique solo singing, refined acting, rich percussion and irresistibly funny come-dians, Sichuan opera also displays its unique skills: the changing faces, spitting fire, and rolling light. Numerous Sichuan opera troupes are active throughout the province, both in the countryside and in the cities. The troupes in Chengdu are rate artistically top level.

The face changing, or "bianlian" in Chinese, is an important intangible cultural heritage in China. Only a few masters have grasped this skill. they know how to change Sichuan opera masks in magically quick succession. As they flourish their arms and twist their heads, their painted masks change again and again and again.

Folk Music by Chinese Traditional Instruments

The music of China dates back to the dawn of Chinese civilization with documents and artifacts providing evidence of a well-developed musical culture as early as the Zhou Dynasty (1122 BC – 256 BC). Today, the music continues a rich traditional heritage in one aspect, while emerging into a more contemporary form at the same time. Music has become somewhat commercialized in Hong Kong and Taiwan, while in mainland China music has been built more on tradition.

Traditional music in China is played on solo instruments or in small ensembles of plucked and bowed stringed instruments, flutes, and various cymbals, gongs, and drums. The scale is pentatonic. Bamboo pipes and qin are among the oldest known musical instruments from China; instruments are traditionally divided into categories based on their material of composition: animal skins, gourd, bamboo, wood, silk, earth/clay, metal and stone. Chinese orchestras traditionally consist of bowed strings, woodwinds, plucked strings and percussion.

Jasmine Flower The Jiangsu folk song Beautiful Jasmine Flower (also known as Jasmine Flower) is one of the most popular of all Chinese folk songs. The "flower" has migrated within a region, across the country and also cross-pollinated around the world. We can find it in Puccini's Turendot, Tan Dun's Symphony 1997, in a numerous arrangements by Chinese and Western composers, and even a version by Kenny G. 'Jasmine Flower' delineates the beautiful and fragrant jasmine flowers and the state of mind of a na?ve and lovely girl.

Boisterous Elation It expresses the happy life of local people. The well-known song was originally composed for Banhu by Master Liu Ming-Yuan (刘明源).

The An Sai Waist-Drum Dancing

The dancing boasts a long-standing tradition and enjoys great popularity in Ansai, northern Shaanxi Province. Characterized by a variety of drumbeats tempi and accompanied with folk songs, percussion instruments and wind instruments, the unique drum dancing can be generally classified into "soft-swing dancing" and "martial arts dancing". The performance scene is quite impressive with diversified arrays which integrate dance, song, gymnastics, and vigorous martial arts movements. It serves as a display of the traits in the character of Northern Shaanxi villagers, who are known far and wide as being valiant, heroic, straightforward and uninhibited.

Acrobatics

Acrobatics is an interactive art form. Everyone, young or old, educated or not, can easily appreciate it while watching or seeing the acrobats perform. There is no language barrier and borders of culture do not limit it.

As early as in the Spring and Autumn Period, the art of acrobatics made its debut in China. In the Han Dynasty, acrobatic shows became important amusements frequently enjoyed at palace banquets as well as celebrations of the common people. Ancient acrobatics was handed down from generation to generation.

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