The fifth China Kunqu Opera Art Festival was held in Soochow. The festival was co-hosted by the Ministry of Culture of the People‘s Republic of China and the People’s Government of Soochow. Dong Wei, director of the Art Department of the Ministry of Culture, Wang Fuzhou, deputy-director of the Department of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture, Gao Yun and Wu Xiaolin, deputy directors of the Culture Department of Jiangsu Province, Zhou Naixiang, mayor of Soochow city, Cai Lixin, minister of the Department of Publicity, Wang Hongsheng, vice mayor of the municipal government of Soochow and experts and artists of Soochow were present at the opening ceremony. The art festival was a challenge and opportunity for the development for the city.

In the duration which lasted for night days, the top seven Kunqu theaters which included the North Kunqu Theater, Shanghai Kunqu Theater, Jiangsu Kunqu Theater, Zhejiang Kunqu Theater, Soochow Kunqu Theater, Hunan Kunqu Theater and Zhejiang Yongjia Kunqu Theater would present different kinds Kunwu operas to the audience. The new generation of Kunqu operas in the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts, Shanghai Theater Academy China, Soochow Arts School and Soochow Kunqu Museum performed on the stage and presented many wonderful plays to the audience.

The history of Kunqu was long which witnessed a process of over 600 years. As many foreign students who took the qualified Mandarin program knew that it was the treasure of the traditional arts of Chinese nation. It played an important role in the history of Chinese literature, Chinese traditional operas, Chinese music and Chinese dancing. It influenced the Beijing operas and many local operas in China and it was called the master of the different kinds of operas in China.

In year 2001, Chinese Kunqu was proclaimed a masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. More and more foreign students came to study in China and learned the traditional Kunqu from then. As the rapid development of the modern society, the inheritance of Kunqu was threatened. The Kunqu art festival played an impelling role to propagandize the traditional art form.