By Ji Lina
Co-hosted by Hongkou District Culture Bureau, Shanghai Mass Art Center and Hongkou Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Yu Zhiqing Shanghai-style Sketch Show was staged at Hongkou Worker’s Culture and Sports Center on November 22, where Song Yan, Vice Chairman of Shanghai Federation of Literary and Art Circles and Guan Weiyong, Chairman of CPPCC Hongkou Committee inaugurated Yu’s sketch studio. Top district publicity official Liu Ke addressed the event in the presence of Hongkou people’s congress official Hua Dongping and CPPCC Hongkou Committee official Wu Genming. It was also announced in the event that Hongkou Culture Center was designated to be “Exemplary People-centered Sketch Creation Base in Shanghai” by Shanghai Mass Art Center.
Yu Zhiqing has been deemed a leader of people’s art and Shanghai-style sketches and honored to be “master scriptwriter amid lanes and alleys”. He has been trying to embody the trend of the time in descriptions of trivial life, which endows his works with profundity to be contemplated. The recent show presented many of his masterpieces, including those staged on CCTV galas for Spring Festival and Lantern Festival, both popular cultural events in China.
Since the founding of Shanghai Sketch Creation Base of China Theatre Association in 2007, a creation team led by Yu Zhiqing created and rehearsed over 100 quality sketches to portray people’s life in the current era from different perspectives, with 55 winning awards at different administrative levels and 15 getting the gold medal. Frequently shown on important nationwide galas, such Shanghai-style sketches have become a knockout among Hongkou’s literary and artistic products.