Excellent Speech of Huangmei Opera on the International Academic Conference
Dr. Linda Dwyer Delivered a Speech of Huangmei Opera on the International Academic Conference
October 9 to 11, the forty-fourth session of Mid-Atlantic Region Association for Asian Studies held in Pennsylvania , University of Pittsburgh . Scholars from across the country and internationally present their research related to Asia at this yearly conference. Dr. Linda Dwyer delivered a speech of “Huangmei Opera in Anqing: Negotiation of Art and Identity ", which based on Huangmei Opera and the data collected in ANU and Anqing city ， causing the hot discussion between experts.
During her time at Salisbury University , Linda has repeatedly visited ANU. When exposed to the Huangmei Opera, she was deeply attracted by it. With the support of ANU and SU, Dr. Dwyer stayed in our university for a whole month in the summer of 2014, collecting Huangmei Opera information and data, visiting School of Huangmei Opera , School of Liberal Arts , Huangmei Opera Art Vocational College , Huangmei Opera Research Center and many famous experts and scholars and performers. They discussed Huangmei Opera's origin, development history, current situation and future development trend, and collected a large amount of research on valuable information of Huangmei opera. At the same time, she visited many folk art groups, experienced the atmosphere of Huangmei Opera in Anqing and people's love for it.
Dr.Linda Dwyer introduced performance, production, the history and background understanding of Huangmei Opera on the conference. She pointed out that Anqing city was always the keypoint of the Huangmei opera on the way of development, which has become a national treasure of China . Dr. Dwyer also described the negotiation of art and identity in this city: buskers in the parks and streets; karaoke performance in restaurants; variety shows in teahouses; educational programs in specialized middle schools; development of college majors; lavish productions in concert halls; and in the physical landscape of the city itself. In so doing, she explore the challenges of rapid social transformation in globalization processes.
Dr Dwyer' speech introduced Huangmei Opera, known as the " China country music" and the National Intangible Cultural Heritage. She was very grateful to ANU leadership for her research, and her next plan is to translate the relevant works of Huangmei Opera.