An increasing number of Beijingers are choosing to mark the lunar new year with a visit to a highbrow musical event instead of a gathering around the family meal table.
Around 100 concerts and 50 dance performances have been slated for the capital between Christmas and the end of Spring Festival. The busy performance window accounts for about one-third of all shows in the capital this year, according to the Mirror Evening News.
Figures provided by several large online ticket sales agencies, including piao.com and 228.com.cn, show symphony concerts are the most popular draw, accounting for 80 percent of concert tickets. The other major attractions are vocal performances and folk music events.
Gao Yan, chief director of the 2011 Dragon and Phoenix Global Chinese Spring Festival Concert, an annual classical musical event that will be held in the National Center for the Performing Arts, said audiences have been growing in recent years.
"More than 2,000 tickets have been sold in one week," she said. "It's really very encouraging.
"When we held the first concert four years ago, most of the audience was middle-aged and senior people who were loyal highbrow music fans. However, families with teenagers now make up a large part of the audience, which suggests more and more Beijingers are developing an interest in classical music."
Zhang Haochen, a renowned pianist who was the first Chinese performer to win a gold medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, said Beijing audiences have a "city-oriented enthusiasm" for high quality music.
"Beijing was one of the first cities in China to introduce symphony concerts and a growing number of Beijingers have cultivated an interest in music," he said. "Most of the audience applauds and cheers at the right times and I feel a connection with them."
Zhang Liping, a famous soprano known as China's Madama Butterfly, told METRO it would have been "impossible to imagine" a decade ago that Chinese people would come to regard such musical events as routine.
"An obvious trend shows that residents in Beijing have increasing demands for cultural events," she said. "And economic development in the capital means that local residents can afford the high-priced tickets."
Zhang added that her schedule was packed with four shows during the week before Spring Festival.
"More Chinese artists may come back to Beijing's theaters because the size of the audience here is becoming more and more attractive," she said.
She added that the concert-watching etiquette of Beijing's audiences has also improved and impolite behavior, such as receiving phone calls during concerts and leaving before a show is finished, have largely disappeared.
Tian Guang, a classical music lover who lives in Chaoyang district, said he has made it a habit to buy concert tickets for his family for lunar new year's eve.
"I became a little tired of gathering in a group at a restaurant and toasting each other and now I try to spend the evening in a comparatively elegant way," he said.
"Despite the fact that the tickets, which cost between 500 yuan and 1,000 yuan, are a bit expensive, I think it is a worthwhile investment in cultivating my child's interest in art."
