How a Beijing community learns about law through Peking Opera

"No country is strong or weak forever. When those who uphold the law are strong, the country is strong; when they are weak, the country is weak." 

This is a 2,000-year-old Chinese proverb, which directly links the strength of a country to its effectiveness in upholding the law. It means that a nation doesn't always stay strong or weak – it is strong when the law is practiced with firmness, and it is weak when the law is practiced with fragility.

The ancient proverb was quoted by Chinese President Xi Jinping at a conference celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the National People's Congress in September 2014. He said that a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics has taken shape after years of hard work, and that China's legal system must evolve with time and practice. 

Among the important improvements in China's legal system was the first-ever Civil Code, which took effect in January 2021. 

China's grassroots-level judicial workers have tried various methods to help people better understand the code as the wide-ranging legislative package is closely related to people's daily lives. Dubbed as "an encyclopedia on social life," it aims to provide a systematic legal protection of private rights including property, contracts, personality, inheritance, marriage and family. 

In Dashilar, a sprawling community that's home to Peking Opera and also some of the most bustling and distinctive hutongs in Beijing, local judicial workers employed the beauty of Peking Opera as a vehicle to help local residents better understand the rule of law and spread the word about people's rights and obligations.

"The essence of Peking Opera features filial piety, fraternity, loyalty, honesty, courtesy, justice, integrity and shame, which are consistent with the core of the law," Li Jingming, head of Dashilar Sub-district Judicial Office in Beijing, told CGTN.

He said that they invited some lawyers to explain relevant laws to the audience after staging a performance of the opera, which is more interesting and can attract people to "join such activities, listening and learning."

Taking the play "Chisang Town" as an example, it tells the story of Bao Zheng, an orphan who was raised by his sister-in-law and became a magistrate in central China's Henan. 

As a man known to always uphold justice, Bao did not spare his sister-in-law's only son when he got involved in corruption. After he sentenced the criminal to death, Bao cared for his sister-in-law until the last moment of her life. The main civil legal issue brought out by this opera is the duty to support elderly siblings, which is related to Article 1075 of the Civil Code.

According to local judicial workers, using Peking Opera to popularize legal knowledge came about because of the demographic makeup of Dashilar, where the elderly make up 28 percent of residents.

"Given the unique characteristic of our area, we combined Peking Opera with the popularization of laws, making education about the laws more vivid. So the elderly can enjoy the operas and learn about some laws and regulations related to themselves," Li Xiaohui, Party Secretary of the Baishun Residential Community, told CGTN.