China’s post-Covid performing arts scene is poised for ‘explosive growth’ in concerts and festivals
- China’s performing arts industry is showing signs of recovery after a massive wave of coronavirus outbreaks rattled the country early this year
- Beijing resumed approval of commercial shows from abroad on Monday after a three-year suspension, much to the delight of music and arts fans
On a recent midweek evening, a stand-up comedy club inside a shopping centre on Shanghai’s Nanjing Road roared with laughter.
On stage, a comedian delivered punchline after punchline, drawing howls of approval from the 100 or so people in the crowd.
Alice Ni, who was in the audience that night, was lapping up the atmosphere. It had been about a year since she had been to a live show.
“There’s plenty of stuff to watch online at home, but the atmosphere here is much different,” said the 25 year old.
“Now that Covid is behind and there are no health control measures, I hope there can be more offline performances, especially renowned art troupes from overseas.”
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China resumed approval of commercial shows from abroad on Monday after three years of suspension. The move followed a greenlight for shows by artists from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau last month.
While fans are happy, industry insiders say it will take at least a couple of months for international artists and productions to return.
Shanghai Oriental Art Centre (SHOAC), a leading Chinese concert hall famous for hosting international orchestras, has scheduled 91 performances between March and early August, but only a few will be from international artists.
“This is almost the same level compared with the same period before the pandemic, although there’s still a lack of international projects because Covid restrictions on overseas performing groups were only just lifted,” said the centre’s general manager Lei Wen.
French violinist Renaud Capucon, who is well-known in China for performing in a duo with his cellist brother Gautier, will be one of the first foreign artists to perform at the centre on May 19 in a solo concert.
“In the past, individuals or groups from abroad contributed at least half of the performances at our centre, but now most of them are from domestic ones,” she said.
Pan Yan, secretary general of China Association of Performing Arts (CAPA), said industry insiders mostly expect a robust recovery in the remainder of the year, especially an “explosive growth rate” in large-scale outdoor performances such as concerts and music festivals.
In the longer run, “when we look at the coming couple of years, we’re not only seeing a rebound back to the pre-pandemic level, but extra, steady growth”, she said.
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Shao Yu, chief economist of Orient Securities, said growth will be heavily tilted towards private consumption, as activities that were disrupted by stringent Covid control measures in the past three years return to normal.
“Recent data showed there are already signs of rapid recovery mainly in the service sector and offline spending,” he said.
During the Lunar New Year holiday, which fell in late January, audiences returned to live shows, generating receipts of 378 million yuan (US$54.9 million), according to data from the CAPA.
More than 9,400 commercial performances were held during the week-long holiday, an increase of over 40 per cent from last year and more than 20 per cent from 2019, before the pandemic.
Pan said the reintroduction of entertainment shows from abroad will restart international cooperation and boost public spending on culture.
“It will bring more options for Chinese audiences, and make it easier for domestic shows to go overseas, too,” she said.
“Major booking agencies have scheduled more outdoor events later this year than before the pandemic. There will be a boom after May, when the weather gets warmer.”
Stadium performances and open-air concerts almost disappeared during the pandemic, accounting for just 0.26 per cent of all offline shows in China in 2021, according to an annual market report by the CAPA.
There were 190,000 offline performances in 2021, down 3.75 per cent on 2019, with theatrical plays the top contributor, it found.
“But the long-awaited comeback of concerts and other large-scale shows may lead to problems such as high ticket prices,” said Pan. “So recently we’ve been urging our member companies to adopt reasonable pricing.”
Tickets to see Taiwanese singer Jay Chou – the “king of Mandopop” – in the mainland sold out in 30 seconds recently, triggering widespread complaints on Chinese social media.
Scalpers have driven ticket prices up by several times their original value, while some fans have been tricked out of thousands of yuan through fraudulent booking services, according to an article published by the cyber police bureau of the Ministry of Public Security on WeChat earlier this month.
A series of other celebrities, including the “prince of love ballads” Jeff Chang and iconic rock star Zhao Chuan – who are also both from Taiwan – have postponed mainland concerts that were scheduled for later this year.
Rachel Zhang, a university student in Shanghai, said many of her friends were looking forward to live shows from their idols. “After three years, it is a must to go back to such events for some liveliness,” she said.
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As a theatre lover, she has noticed a growing number of young people travelling from outside the city to dramas and musicals in recent months.
“Previously, most university students were banned from leaving their city, or simply confined on campus, due to Covid concerns. Now they’re free to travel,” she said.
The absence of overseas theatrical productions in the past few years has pushed local producers to commission more local work, but many productions have been hastily put together and are of low quality, she said.
“It took some dramas just two months from officially announcing the plan to bringing them onto stage. I feel that they were hurriedly made just to lure certain actors’ fans,” Zhang said.
China is also adapting Western classics into Chinese versions to fill the gap in the market. Following an adaptation of classic musical The Count Of Monte Cristo in Beijing at the end of last year, a Chinese version of The Phantom of the Opera will make its debut in May in Shanghai, according to its producer, SMG Performing Arts Group.
The rise in home-made shows is still not enough to meet market demand, said Lei from the SHOAC.
“Shanghai may have one of the world’s best audiences after nearly two decades of public education … as long as a performance is good enough, it can attract all types of people, whether young or old, male or female,” she said.
Learning a musical instrument or a type of dance is now so common for children in major cities, especially girls, so there’s no question of whether they will be willing to enter a theatre.”
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Yu Shifu, one of the stand-up comedians performing at the Shanghai mall, said the tastes of young Chinese were driving the performing arts sector.
“Take stand-up comedy for example, it has grown in China for about a decade, but we keep receiving new viewers, mainly post-90s and Gen Z,” he said.
“About 80 per cent of the audience would tell me it was their first live comedy show when I asked them during my performances.
“According to my observation and analysis, at least a half of Chinese youths today haven’t gone to such a performance yet, so there’s still big potential.”
