On May 31^st, the NCPA signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the China Welfare Institute. WANG Ning, Secretary of CPC Leading Group and President of the NCPA, and ZHANG Xiaomin, Vice Chairman, Secretary of CPC Leading Group and Secretary-General of the China Welfare Institute, signed the agreements as the representatives of both sides and delivered the speeches. WANG Jiarui, Vice Chairman of the 12^th National Committee of the CPPCC and Chairman of the China Welfare Institute, ZHU Jing, Vice President of the NCPA, WANG Cheng, Vice President of the NCPA, and SONG Zhongbei, a member of CPC Leading Group and Deputy Secretary-General of the China Welfare Institute, attended the signing ceremony.

The China Welfare Institute was founded in 1938 by Soong Ching Ling, one of the founders of the PRC and Honorary Chairman of the PRC. Over the past 85 years, the China Welfare Institute has inherited and carried forward Soong Ching Ling’s tenet, “serving women and children wholeheartedly”. It stands committed to promoting the development of children’s theatre arts, cultivating native theatrical commissions, promoting traditional culture, diversifying children’s theatrical themes, and building a platform for exchanges of views on children’ theatre arts among different countries and regions, in order to enrich the connotation of Soong Ching Ling’s cultural brand.

WANG Ning, Secretary of CPC Leading Group and President of the NCPA, said that The NCPA and China Welfare Institute share a common mission of promoting the cultural literacy of youngsters. Over the years, both sides have maintained a close partnership with each other. Thematic performance ‘Growing with My Motherland,’ co-hosted by the two sides and China Soong Ching Ling Foundation has been held five times since its launch in 2019. It has become a new model for patriotic education and an influential branded commonweal project for children in China. The NCPA hopes that both sides will jointly promote the development of juvenile aesthetic education in the new era and make greater contributions to the construction of China into a powerful cultural country.

ZHANG Xiaomin, Vice Chairman, Secretary of CPC Leading Group and Secretary-General of the China Welfare Institute, pointed out that this year marks the 130^th anniversary of Soong Ching Ling’s birth. Both sides will establish an all-round and multi-level cooperation and give full play to their advantages in talents, content, professionalism and platforms. Continuous efforts will be made in creating cultural and artistic works for children, promoting the innovation and development of children’s culture and arts, taking Chinese children’s theatre arts to the world stage, driving the prosperous development of cultural undertakings and juvenile aesthetic education in Beijing and Shanghai, and contributing to the development of Chinese culture.

According to the strategic cooperation agreement, the two sides will rely on their superior resources to jointly build a platform for the creation and staging of children’s theatre arts, a platform for the popularisation and education of children’s culture and arts, and a platform for international exchanges of views on children’s culture and arts, to promote the prosperous development of culture and arts and aesthetic education for children. After the signing ceremony, the guests watched “Growing with My Motherland” at the NCPA Opera House.