Musical and performing arts of China and Ukraine in the student educational project: At the crossing of opposites

Abstract

The article describes the idea and course of an experimental student artistic educational project that took place within the framework of the author’s dissertation research. Moreover, it united representatives of Ukrainian and Chinese national cultures such as students of general secondary education institutions based on mutual knowledge of traditions and aimed at deepening one’s own national cultural identity.

The purpose of the article is to demonstrate the cognitive possibilities of searching educational dialogue as interpersonal communication and as a comparison of the means of music and theater art in China and Ukraine, which can be used in the educational process of general secondary education institutions for national and cultural identity in each country. For instance, we chose the brightest phenomena of musical and stage art of each culture such as Chinese opera, as well as Ukrainian opera and ballet based on national plots with a reliance on folklore, etc.

The project is presented through the mutual educational activity, when the participants were given the task to identify the priority uniqueness of their native culture and, at the same time, establishing points of contact between the artistic phenomena of different countries. The mechanism of mutual enlightenment was chosen through mutual consultation of the parties who understood the “strange” culture. The form of artistic communication of project participants is defined as online communication in real-time or in a remote format. It is demonstrated the samples of how to master specific works and how to deepen students’ knowledge about native musical and stage traditions. Ukrainian folk dance hopak, which is found in many musical and stage performance as well as the Chinese martial art of wushu, is considered a unifying factor. The elements of wushu are mastered and demonstrated by Chinese opera artists as an integral component of the artistic language of the performance. In the context of the experimental part of the dissertation research, the author of the article was a moderator. Possible vectors of further mutual enlightenment are outlined.