As the 13th China Art Festival approaches, the 19th Qunxing Award, China's highest award for mass culture and arts, is about to begin its final round. Among the six tracks of dance, music, drama, opera, chorus, and square dance, Beijing has 10 programs in the final, ranking the first in China. At present, in the public cultural facilities in Shijingshan, Xicheng, Tongzhou, and Daxing, you can see Beijing's participating teams sweating for the final sprint rehearsal.

The children's pure voices made even the summer cicadas lose their color as they sang "The Pursuit" and "The Autumn Mountains of Beijing". The Beijing No.4 Middle School Choir has a history of nearly 30 years and has been awarded the title of Golden Sail Choir for 19 years. The self-selected piece for this competition is "The Autumn Mountains of Beijing" composed by Xu Mingjian, once the head of the Choir and now the deputy director of the Peking University Opera Institute. "The song is not only beautiful but also a chorus of 8 parts without accompaniment, which is a great challenge for children." Ming Ziqi, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Culture Museum, said that in order to perform the work at its best, the choir was selected to join the team for training. Some of the members were senior students who had just received their admission letters and had not yet officially crossed the threshold, while others were graduates who had just finished their college entrance exams.

Wang Weibo, director of the Beijing Municipal Culture Museum, said that the preparations for the Qunxing Award were characterized by an early start-up, strong investment, thick collection of works, rapid improvement of level, and a wide range of subjects, and many difficulties to overcome. The Beijing Municipal Culture Museum also reached out to schools, enterprises, the military, and the streets, breaking down the barriers of the industry through multiple channels and digging deeper for creative and performing talents without any restriction. A total of 126 works were eventually collected to participate in the preliminary round of the Qunxing Award, and 30 works were shortlisted for the final round.

According to incomplete statistics, there are currently more than 10,000 mass square dance teams and more than 6,000 mass choir teams in Beijing. Over the years, the series of cultural activities carried out by the citizens of the capital, such as Singing Beijing, Dancing Beijing, Theatre Beijing, and Art Beijing, have also laid the foundation for the flourishing of mass literary and artistic creations, making the finalists for the Qunxing Award in Beijing present a complete range of categories and a wide range of subjects.

Translator: WU Jiayi

Reviewer: YANG Jialin