Peking Opera lights up Carthage in cultural showcase

Peking Opera, one of China’s most celebrated traditional performing arts, was performed in Carthage, the historic coastal town near Tunis, in a cultural exchange event reported by China Daily Global Edition.

The performance reflects the longstanding ties between China and Tunisia, two countries that established diplomatic relations in 1964. Carthage, a UNESCO World Heritage Site famed for its ancient Punic and Roman ruins, served as a symbolic backdrop for the showcase of an art form that has been performed for more than two centuries.

A heritage art form

Peking Opera, known in Chinese as Jingju, emerged in the late 18th century and combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance, and acrobatics into a distinctive theatrical style. It was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010. The art form draws on elaborate costuming, painted face masks, and stylized movements to tell stories drawn largely from Chinese history and folklore.

According to China Daily Global Edition, performances of this kind are intended to introduce Chinese heritage to African audiences while strengthening people-to-people connections between the two regions. Cultural exchanges have become a regular feature of China-Africa relations, which have expanded significantly in recent decades across trade, infrastructure, and education.

A crossroads of civilizations

For Tunisia, hosting such an event aligns with its long tradition of openness to Mediterranean and international cultural influences, a posture shaped by the country’s position at the crossroads of civilizations in antiquity. The Carthage venue itself, situated on the Bay of Tunis, has long been associated with concerts and diplomatic gatherings that draw on the site’s enduring cultural significance, making it a fitting stage for an art form rooted in another ancient civilization.

Sources

This report was written from coverage published by the following news organisations. Follow the links for the original reporting.

• China Daily Global Edition — Peking Opera lights up Carthage