Zhou Weishi, a pioneer of the performing arts in China, dies aged 98
Throughout the ups and downs of a turbulent era, Zhou Weishi kept his passion for the arts
1916-2014
Zhou Weishi, a key driver of the performing arts in China and a protégé of the late premier Zhou Enlai , has died in Beijing. He was 98.
Zhou Weishi's interest in the performing arts, especially music, was cultivated in the 1930s in Shanghai. He harboured the dream of creating an all-Chinese symphony orchestra and began to teach himself music. In 1936, he conducted a children's choir at the funeral of literary giant Lu Xun .
During the war with Japan, the Jiangsu native went to Yanan in Shaanxi province, the then headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party, and led the Western Front Regiment, a drama and music propaganda group. He went on to become a key adviser for the 1945 premiere of the socialist opera, The White-haired Girl, in which his wife, Wang Kun, sang the title role.
After 1949, Zhou, as head of the Ministry of Culture's arts bureau, began to establish performing arts companies that embraced not just socialist works but the best from around the world.
In 1951, he headed China's contingent to the showcase Third World Festival of Youth and Students in East Berlin, Germany, where, for the first time, a Chinese ensemble played Western instruments for a European audience. In 1956, those performers realised Zhou's dream by becoming the founding members of the Central Philharmonic Orchestra.