Li Jingfang wins the Golden Melody Award for Traditional Arts. Nantou County Magistrate Xu Shuhua will be invited to co-star at next year's lantern festival

Li Jingfang (left) won the Chuanyi Golden Melody Award and shared the honor with Nantou County Magistrate Xu Shuhua (right). (Provided by Nantou County Government)

Li Jingfang, a famous Nantou County opera performer, was shortlisted for six awards in the 37th Golden Melody Awards for her work "Gezai Cao Qiqiao: Taiwanese Jazz Opera Album" and won three awards: Best Cross-border Music Album, Best Singing Award and Best Lyrics Award. At the invitation of Nantou County Magistrate Xu Shuhua, Li Jingfang will serve as the curator of the "Performance Demonstration Project for Outstanding Performing Arts Teams" to connect Nantou art teams and showcase the energy of local culture.

Li Jingfang said that the Nantou Lantern Festival plans to invite outstanding performing groups in the county to perform together at the Nantou Lantern Festival next year, and invites County Magistrate Xu to participate in the performance. Xu Shuhua also laughed and said that she had agreed with Teacher Li to learn a short piece of Gezi opera and looked forward to performing the performance with the team to the villagers and inviting people from all over the country to Nantou to enjoy the lanterns and watch the performance.

Li Jingfang was born into a family of opera performers in Caotun, Nantou. Her mother, Xu Suzhu, was the director of the Pearl Women's Opera Troupe. She had been exposed to the opera since she was a child, laying a solid foundation for opera performance. Over the years, he has not only displayed exquisite performing arts on the stage, but has also devoted himself to writing, directing, orchestrating and teaching work, passing on what he has learned to the younger generation. Through theater, campus and community performances, he has made more people aware of Gezi Opera, and has made great contributions to the preservation and inheritance of traditional culture.

When meeting with Li Jingfang a few days ago, Xu Shuhua pointed out that Li Jingfang has won many important awards over the years, and has also led teams to participate in overseas cultural exchanges with the county government, making Nantou's artistic strength visible to more people. It is the pride of Nantou and a precious cultural asset of Taiwan. She hopes to leverage her professional, creative and performance experience to promote team exchanges and resource sharing, and introduce external resources to enhance the visibility of Nantou's performing arts.

Li Jingfang said that the team has been working in Nantou for more than ten years, continuously cultivating talents, performing in various counties and cities, and attracting audiences to come to Nantou to watch the opera. This time they try "Jazz Vocalist", hoping to attract more young people to like the opera through cross-border creation, so that Taiwanese culture can develop more diverse expressions in the inheritance.

Li Jingfang's (left) mother Xu Suzhu (middle) is a senior opera singer, and her second sister Li Jing'er (right) is the mainstay of the Pearl Women's Opera Troupe. (Provided by Nantou County Government)

Li Jingfang won the "Best Vocalist Award" at the Golden Melody Award for "Singer Cao Qiqiao: Taiwan Jazz Opera Album". (File photo, taken by reporter Chen Yiquan)

Li Jingfang (left) invites Nantou County Magistrate Xu Shuhua (right) to perform at the Nantou Lantern Festival next year. (Provided by Nantou County Government)