A Japanese folk art group dispatched by the Min-On Concert Association of Japan visited China from October 29 to November 7 at the invitation of the CPAFFC. It held two performances in Beijing and Tianjin and conducted an exchange performance in Beijing Foreign Studies University, which were warmly received and highly acclaimed by the Chinese audience. Mr. Tang Jiaxuan, President of the China-Japan Friendship Association and Mr. Xie Yuan, Vice President of the CPAFFC watched the performance in Beijing and met with the leading members of the delegation.
Featuring Japanese folk customs, the group presented such traditional art items as folk dances, Shamisen (Japanese traditional string instrument), Taiko (Japanese drum) and Japanese pop songs. The dances covered the most representative regional styles from Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa in the south, expressing the joy of people at work and at harvest, as well as their wishes for a good harvest. The artist who played Shamisen, a three-stringed instrument similar to Chinese sanxian, had high artistic attainment and had won many awards in Japan. His superb performance brought the audience to the scene of fishermen from the north braving the stormy sea. Taiko resembles the Chinese drum. The drum beating and the sonorous sound produced showed the masculine beauty of the male performers. The Japanese songs Kawa no Nagare no Y ni and Subaru which were well known to the Chinese audient enjoyed great popularity. The last item of the performance, a dance created on the poem to Madam Deng Yingchao by Mr. Ikeda Daisaku, founder of the Min-On, expressed the sincere wish of the people of the two countries for China-Japan friendship. An atmosphere of friendship and harmony permeated the theatre throughout the performance.
The Min-On, founded in 1963, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. It is a major partner of the CPAFFC in carrying out culture exchanges with Japan. In its contact with China over the past 38 years, it has invited quite a number of prestigious Chinese art troupes to make performance tours of Japan. They have traveled to almost all the prefectures of the country. This was the first time that the Min-On sent an art group to China.
