Wulishu Elementary School students practice Peking Opera. [Photo by Xu Peiqin for nantong.gov.cn]

Wulishu Elementary School in Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province, has started teaching its students Peking Opera since 2007.

The elementary school offers first-grade students a Peking Opera training class per week and has also established a Peking Opera club to recreate classic Peking Opera performances.

Wulishu Elementary School students practice Peking Opera performance after school. [Photo by Xu Peiqin for nantong.gov.cn]

"Peking Opera is the quintessence of Chinese culture and schools should familiarize their students with Chinese culture as an effort to cultivate their cultural identity and improve their humane accomplishment," noted Lu Zhimin, principle of Wulishu Elementary School.

Students at Wulishu Elementary School have performed Peking Opera in many art performances at provincial and national levels and the school itself has been selected as the Jiangsu provincial characteristic school.

Wulishu Elementary School students practice during the recently-concluded Peking Opera summer camp. [Photo/Nantong Daily]

Recently, the week-long Peking Opera summer camp concluded in the school, which hired professional performers to teach its students the basic skill and knowledge about the traditional Chinese art.

Li Pengshan, former player at Nantong Peking Opera Theater who was invited to instruct Wulishu students, was positive about the summer camp, saying that it not only enriched students' holiday life, but also helped them learn about outstanding traditional Chinese culture and enhanced their cultural confidence.