Unique focus on different cultures

A photo exhibition brings together the Chinese opera Kunqu and a South American dance form, Liu Xiangrui reports.

After flying across the planet to Argentina twice and visiting Suzhou in East China many times, photographer Zhao Hui has recently completed his project on creating a "dialogue" between China's age-old opera art Kunqu, which originated in Suzhou, and Argentina's popular dance form tango, using images.

Altogether 60 of his pictures will be showcased at an exhibition called Kunqu VS Tango, to be held in Buenos Aires from Friday through Dec 10.

The exhibition period also covers the G20 summit, which will be held in Buenos Aires on Nov 30 and Dec 1.

The photos will be carefully arranged in pairs to compare Kunqu and tango, to show both their similarities and their differences, and a small number of pictures that compare Suzhou and Buenos Aires.

According to Zhao, by placing pictures of Kunqu next to those of tango, it is easier to reflect the characteristics of both art forms. Kunqu is graceful and restrained, while tango is passionate and untrammeled-showing the differences in cultures and people's lifestyles.

"Both Kunqu and tango are important cultural heritage and have great artistic power. So, I want to show their charm and let people love them by telling stories with my lens," Zhao says.