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Many traditional Chinese operas have their roots in the countryside. The singing and dancing traditions have gradually lost resonance with the younger generation. They have to fight for attention with modern forms of entertainment, such as movies, television and video games.

"It is not easy for these old operas to win the hearts of modern people, especially the youngsters, who are spoiled for choice," says Fu Caiwu, director of the research and innovation center of national culture at Wuhan University.

"In contrast, the number of players of an online game on any typical day can easily reach several million."

With free tickets handed out during the festival and lots of publicity, the recent popularity of these operas is "atypical" and only "a flash in the pan"," he adds.

Peng knows this too well. He organized a staging of The Peony Pavilion at Wuhan University in 2008. It was an instant sensation, but the phenomenal success of the famous Kun Opera piece on campus has never been repeated by other traditional operas.

"Students were curious, and the tickets were free thanks to a government project known as Elegant Art Goes to Campus, which is why we had full attendance," says Peng. "When their curiosity wore off, even free tickets could not work their magic. There are way too many distractions these days."

"Traditional operas saw their heyday in the 1980s when people were hungry for traditional things after the decade long 'cultural revolution' (1966-76)," Yang says.

Named one of the "Five Golden Flowers" of the Huangmei Opera, Yang came to stardom in the 1980s after studying in Anhui province, where the opera genre was popular. She is now head of the Hubei Traditional Opera Art Troupe, whose repertoire includes Huangmei Opera, Chu Opera and Han Opera.

Some of the festival performances were judged and awarded prizes, which Yang saw as a good opportunity for her protegees to make a mark.

"Let this also be a festival for the young artists, who have toiled in this not very lucrative business for years but remained obscure," Yang says. "Winning an award can be a life-changing (experience) and encourage them to stay in the business."

According to Yang, fewer than half of the young graduates from opera academies in China are working in the profession after ten years. Salaries are low because of poor ticket sales. Government subsidies for the artists' performances are meager and have to be spread out to cover all troupe employees, including those who have retired.

Though prizes and awards may be life-changing for young artists, Peng says too much attention on awards harms the industry.

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