China News Service, Taiyuan, February 18th. Title: Member Miao Jie's voice of performing her duties: Perseverance in the torch of opera

China News Service reporter Yang Jing

On the stage, she is the heroic Jin Opera Dao Ma Dan. With her solid boy skills and delicate performance, she won the 23rd China Drama Plum Blossom Award; on the podium, she is an opera educator who has taught her all, and has cultivated hundreds of new seedlings in Pear Garden in the past ten years. In the performance of her duties, she is a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference who is running on the front line, and she is a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference for the survival of traditional opera and the cultural roots of rural revitalization.

For more than 40 years of art and more than 10 years of teaching, from stage to podium, Miao Jie, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and vice president of Shanxi Art Vocational College, is concerned about the inheritance and development of opera culture, and strives to cultivate opera talents, and devotes his efforts and sweat to the inheritance of Shanxi opera.

The 2025 National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference is about to be held, and Miao Jie is still repeatedly improving the proposal.

Shanxi is a major opera province with the largest number of opera operas in China. Miao Jie has always paid attention to the protection, development and talent training of opera. At the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference last year, Miao Jie focused on the fields of education and opera art and submitted three proposals: "Several Opinions on Promoting the Training and Use of Art Talents", "Suggestions on Promoting the Entering of Classic Opera Repertoire into Textbooks", and "Suggestions on Supporting Shanxi to Be the First in the Country to Establish a Vocational University for Cultural and Tourism Integration".

"At present, all three proposals have been completed. The "Suggestions on Promoting the Introduction of Classic Opera Reperts into Textbooks" have received positive feedback from relevant departments. Many provinces have piloted the compilation of "Beating Golden Branches" and "Counting Grain" into textbooks, supplemented by the three-dimensional guided model of "Observation + Explanation", which has benefited more than one million students." Miao Jie said, "This is a great encouragement for me." Miao Jie told reporters that in the past year, her footprints have spanned many Chinese provinces such as Shanxi, Zhejiang, Henan, and countries such as Morocco and Spain.

At Chaoyang School in Taigu, Jinzhong, Shanxi, Miao Jie witnessed the practice of balancing the study and academic work of primary school students; at Yue Opera Theater in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, Miao Jie held a cross-type dialogue with the classic short play "Da Shen Gu Temple". At the same time, Miao Jie also went to Rabat, Morocco and Barcelona, ​​Spain to attend the "Good Scenery of Shanxi in Ancient Civilization" - "Shanxi Japan" cultural and tourism promotion conference to spread opera culture.

This year, as the representative inheritor of Jin Opera, the sixth batch of national intangible cultural heritage representative projects, Miao Jie is still paying attention to the inheritance of opera culture and focusing on the deep integration of rural revitalization and cultural heritage.

"Opera is not only a skill, but also a spiritual gene of the Chinese people." Miao Jie said. From giving more than 1,700 free plays to the countryside to the government investing 21 million yuan to protecting rare dramas, Shanxi's practice made her firmly believe that the vitality of traditional art lies among the people. Miao Jie hopes to use opera as a link to connect cities and villages, so that cultural heritage and rural revitalization can resonate with each other.

Now, Miao Jie is still running around on the road to research. She said that she will further strengthen her studies, improve her political quality and ability to perform her duties; go deep into the grassroots, contact the masses widely, understand their true needs and expectations; conscientiously perform her duties as a member and make greater contributions to promoting national and social development.

[Reporter's Notes: Artists are also pioneers]

In Taiyuan in the chilly spring, in the rehearsal hall of Shanxi Art Vocational College, the Jin Opera singing style is covered with the vitality of young people. Miao Jie stood among the students, and her wrist was still as cool as her sword and Ma Dan was still proud of her - the three identities of a famous actor, an opera teacher, and a member of the CPPCC were all natural in her.

"The light on the stage is carried by generations of people holding candlelights." Miao Jie's vision has never been limited to the stage. Going abroad and taking root in the countryside. In her eyes, opera is not only a skill, but also a cultural key to rural revitalization. Only by allowing urban and rural areas to resonate in the play rhymes can traditional art truly "live" among the people.

What touched me the most were the old photos of famous opera artists performing in her mobile phone album and her newly recorded performance video. The interweaving of tradition and modernity is just like her life trajectory, which contains the old artist's persistence of "playing is bigger than the sky" and the broader horizons of members of the new era.

When I left, the tender singing style of the rehearsal hall continued. Looking at Miao Jie bent down to tie the play boots for the students, I suddenly realized that the so-called cultural heritage is just the eternity built up by countless such moments. Artists are also pioneers. At the intersection between traditional opera and contemporary society, we need such a "cross-border" guardian who knows singing, reciting and beating, and writing proposals, so that the ancient artistic genes can be revitalized in the new era. (China News Service reporter Yang Jing)