The China National Peking Opera Company has launched a mentoring program that will see masters of their craft impart skills to young artists when performing classic plays.

Renowned Peking opera masters including Yu Kuizhi, Ye Shaolan and Li Shengsu will join in the program as tutors to share their personal performing experience, explain the motivations and beliefs of the characters and instruct the students in the complex skills involved in the traditional stage art.

Up-and-coming performers will have opportunities to learn how to bring a number of classics such as "The General and the Prime Minister" – "Jiang Xiang He" in Chinese – to life.

The program aims to cultivate a group of young talent to make up for a shortage of top performers in this kind of traditional art, said Song Chen, president of the company.

Peking opera performers should be well-versed in numerous skills such as vocal performance, mime, dance, and acrobatics, which they have to work for years to practice and perfect.

Only after long periods of training and apprenticeship can they stage the classic works. As the old proverb goes: "To perform onstage for one minute demands ten years of practice backstage."

Earlier this year, a similar mentoring program was organized on a smaller scale; 22 Peking opera masters and experts instructed a total of 42 young performers in 20 plays, according to Song.

"The program has proved to be an effective method in cultivating talented Peking Opera performers as many young actors have seen improvements in their performances and become more professional," said Song.

(Cover: Peking opera master Li Shengsu (R2) plays ancient Chinese heroine Mu Guiying, a prominent figure in the Generals of the Yang Family legends, at the Mei Lanfang Grand Theatre in Beijing, China, March 10, 2014. /VCG Photo)

(With input from Xinhua)