CHICAGO ARTS AND CULTURAL ASSOCIATION

by Elizabeth Jia “Are we alive or dead?” The line arrives like an incantation, hammering its way into the spectator’s consciousness. At long last, I made my way to Lookingglass Theatre’s world premiere of White Rooster—a production that, had it not extended its run by an additional month, might well have eluded my calendar entirely. Ghost Town, Ghost Marriage, One White Rooster The story unfolds in a post–Gold Rush ghost town of the American West, where “ghost” operates in a

By Elizabeth Jia As the curtain rises on Lyric Opera of Chicago's "Madama Butterfly," the audience is met not with a traditional Japanese house but with a sleek, modern apartment. Pinkerton lounges in a T-shirt and casual pants, a VR headset resting on his head—just as Puccini's immortal melody begins to play. It's a provocative opening, and it poses an unavoidable question: Should classic opera move with the times, or remain faithful to tradition? Purists may bristle at such

By Elizabeth Jia Before attending the dress rehearsal of Salome at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, I had braced myself. Having been forewarned that the opera isn’t exactly “easy on the ears,” I had playfully pre-translated its title using a Chinese pun. The standard Chinese transliteration of Salome is “莎乐美” (Shā Lè Měi). By shifting the tones and characters slightly, it becomes “杀了美” (Shāle Měi), which literally means “Killing Beauty”—a fitting jab at my anticipated aural assaul

By Elizabeth Jia Introduction: When Fairy Tale Meets Modern History The melody of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker is solidified in Western cultural memory as the soundtrack of the Christmas season, much like drinking eggnog and eating Gingerbread men – a must-see ballet every holiday season, a production that sustains many ballet companies. However, Christopher Wheeldon's Chicago World's Fair edition of The Nutcracker for The Joffrey Ballet does not present the traditional dream

By Elizabeth Jia The Capulets, choreographed and directed by Wade Schaaf, Artistic Director of the Chicago Repertory Ballet (CRB), stands as one of the most audacious deconstructions and reconstructions of Shakespeare's classic Romeo and Juliet. Recognized as one of the top ten dance productions of the year in Chicago, this work shifts the focus away from the central tragic romance, instead turning a brutally precise spotlight onto the internal dynamics of the Capulet family.

by Elizabeth Jia Having attended the global premiere at the San Francisco Opera and reflected for less than twenty-four hours, those initially startling adaptations have begun to ferment in my mind, forming a peculiar aftertaste. This opera, with an almost reckless courage, has recast one of China's Four Great Classical Novels, Journey to the West, in the crucible of contemporary American culture. At first glance, it felt jarring; upon further thought, this seems to be the ex

Mr. Yuanwei Yang was born in 1943 in Jiangsu Province, China. He is an artist at the American Arts Research Institute and a member of the...

Teresa Teng (29 January 1953 – 8 May 1995) was a Chinese singer. She was known for her folk songs and romantic ballads. She recorded...

Fifteen design professionals and educators from different areas in China spent 13-day in New York and Chicago successfully attended...

Wei Wang was born in Huzhou, Zhejiang, China and is the vice chairman of China Intangible Cultural Heritage Alliance. Wei is also the...