Two halves of the same soul Traditional cultural gathering makes a comeback, merging Kunqu Opera and poetry to create a harmonious event, Yang Feiyue reports in Kunshan, Jiangsu. By Yang Feiyue | HK edition | Updated: 2026-05-23 13:12

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202605/23/WS6a113769a310d6866eb4a500.html In the long history of Chinese literati culture, three gatherings are remembered above all others. The first was the Lanting Yaji, or the Orchid Pavilion Gathering, in the year 353. On that day, master calligrapher Wang Xizhi and more than 40 scholars gathered in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, to compose poetry beside a winding stream. Wang, slightly drunk, wrote a preface after the gathering while compiling the collected poems. It became known as one of the greatest works of Chinese calligraphy, the Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion.