[ { "id": 212552, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 106, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "86\n\nLike the visit of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1973, the significance of the BSO's tour lay more in political consequences than in artistic accomplishment. Though the quality of the BSO's first Beijing concert was controversial to some Americans, due to some flaws in performance, all of its four concerts in China were fully attended and two of the three in Beijing were transmitted by China Central Television (CCTV). The media, musicians, music critics and journalists all offered praise. The atmosphere around the BSO's visit was so warm that the U.S. ambassador claimed the event pushed U.S.-China relations 20 years ahead.\n\nWhat made the BSO's trip different from that of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1973 was that, though overshadowed by political significance, this tour did bring a chance for Chinese artists to exchange artistically with their American guests, due to the improvement in China's political and cultural environments. By 1979, many artists in China had returned to their former posts. Artistic activities were normalized to a significant extent. Artistically, the BSO's visit generated several concrete results: the Central Philharmonic Orchestra performed with the BSO under the baton of Seiji Ozawa; two of China's most prominent musicians, Liu Dehai and Liu Shikun, toured the United States along with the BSO when it went home in March 1979 and performed with the BSO in the United States; in December, Seiji Ozawa came to China again and conducted the CPO. This event was thus successful both politically and artistically.\n\nThe impetus of Sino-American cultural exchanges resulting from the BSO's tour to China was reinforced in August 1979 when Vice President Mondale visited China and signed the first implementing accord under the cultural agreement. In his visit, Mondale praised Deng Xiaoping's visit to the United States in January for resparking the friendship of the American towards the Chinese people. This atmosphere of Sino-American cultural intimacy created by top political leaders received a new impulse in 1980 when the two governments exchanged high-level cultural delegations. In July, Chinese Vice Minister of Culture Liu Fuzhi visited the United States and the USICA director John E. Reinhardt returned his visit in October. In the latter's visit to China, both parties expressed hopes for more high-level exchanges, and confirmed the policy, agreed upon in Liu's earlier visit to the United States, to encourage and support private sector activities in cultural exchanges.\n\nTraditionally, China's cultural relations with Western countries have", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212560, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 114, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "94\n\nperfected in the United States, Stevenson adopts an approach which gives great emphasis to the expression of the inner, emotional state of the characters, an alternative to the approach Chinese dancers were familiar with. In the summer of 1979, he trained two Chinese student dancers at the Houston Ballet Academy. At the end of the summer, the students returned to China with a pas-de-deux Stevenson choreographed for them. In China, the performance of that piece caused a stir among the audiences and a revision of the approach Chinese dancers took towards their profession. In the succeeding years, Chinese artists choreographed some pieces, such as the Spirit of the Yellow River, which also suggests Stevenson's influence on dance in China.6\n\nObviously, the contributions American Cultural presence made to cultural pluralism are twofold: direct presentations gave a different feature to the cultural life of the Chinese people while they introduce new ideas. The latter, therefore, is of more significance as it is more persistent and penetrating. As for exchanges in arts education and exchanges of specialists, the consequences were also twofold: the influx of new ideas and the improvement in China's artistic activities.\n\nIn this context, the work of David Gilbert can be taken as an example of how American specialists helped Chinese artists in the improvement of artistic quality. David Gilbert, music director and conductor of the Greenwich Philharmonia in the United States, began to serve as principal guest conductor of the Central Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO, affiliated to the CPS) in June 1980. At the conclusion of his first term, he reflected: \"The players (of the CPO) are fine professional musicians but they have no repertory and no experience.” “The orchestra itself had never done Beethoven's Eighth Symphony, and when I scheduled the overture to 'Die Meistersinger' I discovered it was their first Wagner of any kind.\"37 Nonetheless, in mid-1981, he was able to tour with the CPO to Mudan Jiang, Harbin, and Changchun for two weeks with a repertoire made up largely of pieces learnt by the orchestra from him, and since then the orchestra had presented one concert every two weeks, rehearsing six days a week.\n\nIn evaluating the consequences of Sino-American arts exchanges in the 15 years since 1972, and particularly in the eight years since 1979, one important aspect to discuss is whether these exchanges have affected domestic socio-political development of China. It is important, and even vital, to the further development of China's arts exchanges with the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 } ]