The 21st China Shanghai International Art Festival (CSIAF), which lasted 31 days, came to a close with a concert by Andrew Manze, Muang Mengla, and the NDR Radiophilharmonie at the Shanghai Grand Theater on November 17.

During this year's festival, more than 15,000 artists from 65 countries and regions gathered in Shanghai for more than 350 activities, entertaining over 5.6 million people online and offline. A total of 42 sets of Chinese and foreign stage plays were successively performed in the dynamic and cosmopolitan city.

So for culture lovers in Shanghai, the past month had been full of interesting events.   

The performance by Qingyi Zhang Huoding and her students, named "Lucky Purse," left the audience thrilled.

Behind the hard-to-get popularity, the show also conveyed the ingenuity of traditional culture inheritance.

Italy's Teatro Alla Scala, which gathered the complete lineup to come to China for the first time, received an overwhelming response. Wonderful performances by "La Finta Giardiniera" and "The Magic Flute" attracted more people toward opera.

As a major part of the festival, the CSIAF performing arts fair (ChinaSPAF) is the leading annual marketplace for new work from China, connecting creators and art professionals worldwide.

ChinaSPAF has become an event that is desperately awaited every year. More and more Chinese and foreign artists and producers take this platform to trade and promote their new works.

It was revealed that representatives from 44 countries and regions participated in the fair, and a total of 26 recommended performances and 14 venture capital projects were presented. Also, a total of 510 trading intentions were achieved in various forms.

This year, the VR performance section was added to the fair, which became one of the top highlights of the event. Take the VR contemporary dance "Film or Bit" by the young artist Zhang Daming as an example, the performance originally scheduled for just one day was extended by one more day due to high demand on the booking website, and 62 cooperation intentions were obtained within two days, including 26 cooperation intentions with foreign countries.

Chinese and foreign musicians joined hands to create a spectacular closing performance. Violinist Huang Mengla said: "As a musician who grew up in Shanghai, I feel very proud to present Brahms' great work to the audience of CSIAF in my home city along with an excellent Western symphony orchestra."

(Cover image made by Du Chenxin)