Thelma Parker Library Hosting Xiqu Performance and Demonstration

In celebration of the Chinese New Year of the Dog, Thelma Parker Memorial Public Library is hosting a performance/demonstration by master Chinese artists and University of Hawai‘i student performers from Fights & Delights: Three Chinese/Xiqu Comedies from noon to 1 p.m. on Friday, March 2. The event is free and open to the public.

Courtesy Photo

Showcasing the vibrancy of indigenous Chinese theater, this presentation highlights the rich and multifaceted art of xiqu (pronounced “shee-chew,” commonly called Chinese “opera”), and the upcoming production of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s Fights & Delights, a celebration of the chou (comic/clown) character. Master artists from China will perform snippets of traditional xiqu—singing songs, demonstrating instruments from the xiqu orchestra, and presenting short scenes—while students from the UHM Department of Theater + Dance share the result of eight months of training in this rigorous form, presenting xiqu excerpts in English.

Fights & Delights: Three Chinese/Xiqu Comedies will be presented at 7 p.m at Kahilu Theatre on Friday, March 2.

Courtesy photo

This program is produced by the UH Mānoa Outreach College’s Statewide Cultural Extension Program with funding provided by the Friends of the Library Hawai‘i, Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts and National Endowment for the Arts.

For more information, call (808) 887-6067. The Thelma Parker Memorial Public Library is open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and from 12:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday.