Eric's Beijing Diary

This evening, the Office of Foreign Experts Affairs took us to a presentation of the French opera Carmen by the National Ballet of China. I think I like Russian ballet better, but that is probably because the music appeals to me more. These guys were pretty good dancers. Nothing wrong with their talent.

China is experiencing a remarkcable revival of the arts. This stuff isn't really new for China. Western art forms have been around for quite awhile, at least in Beijing and Shanghai. But there seems to be much more interest now. The debate about the influence of foreign culture is certainly not over, as witnessed by the current ruckass stirred up by the confucian scholars over Christmas. But most reasonable people believe that these things are here to stay, and development of the arts is not likely to see the knd of intermittant resistance such as that which was generated by the Cultural Revolution.