Life and Leisure

Reformist culture vulture is earning his wings

By Chen Jie (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-17 13:55

Gu Xin's vision, courage and ambition to carry out reform prompted the Ministry of Culture to appoint him as head of the Oriental Performing Arts Group last November.

As director of Jiangsu culture bureau, Gu restructured the province's State-owned performing arts troupes in 2004 to create the Jiangsu Performing Arts Group. It was the country's first reform of a cultural institution.

If he hadn't become an administrative dynamo, Gu could have instead been a Chinese Pavarotti. Born in Jiangsu's Suzhou in 1956, Gu learned vocals at the Nanjing Arts Institute at age 17 and joined the Jiangsu Provincial Song and Dance Ensemble in 1977.

He enrolled in the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1981 to advance his career. The breakthrough for his singing career came two years later, when he took first place at the CCTV National Young Singer Contest. Gu went on to win several more competitions abroad and joined the Shanghai Opera House in 1987.

Tosca, Rigoletto, La Traviata, La Boheme - Gu sang in most of the classical Western operas and gradually became a mature tenor on stage. He was at the peak of his career when the Jiangsu culture bureau was seeking a talented artist to become director of the new Jiangsu Ballet and Opera House in 1991.

"I had to think about whether I should continue singing or direct the opera house," Gu says.

"A good theater manager need not necessarily be an artist, but an artist would definitely be familiar with artists and how to manage them."

He finally decided to accept the new mission to "offer better services for many more artists".

Gu displayed versatile management abilities and leadership, and was selected to become director of Jiangsu's culture bureau in 1995.

The artist-cum-official saw many problems with the State-owned ensembles, which were fettered by outdated systems. This led him to initiate reform in 2004.

But reinventing old institutions proved challenging, especially when they touched upon myriad divergent interests.

"So many people blamed me for starting the reform, and I encountered lots of difficulties," he recalls.

But time proved him right, and the reform's success prompted the central government to extend it nationwide. Consequently, Gu became the ideal candidate for overhauling the country's leading performing arts troupe.

China Daily