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The full cast of a basement production of the musical Rent, made up of Chinese aficionados who devote their lives to this art form. Shen Huiwei When amateur actors have more passion and authenticity than their professional counterparts you have to question the validity of China's management of the performing arts. On the sixth day of the Chinese New Year, I was invited to a reading of the Broadway musical Rent. What a strange time for a rehearsal, I thought. The streets in Beijing were almost empty and the buses that ran had few passengers. The reading took place in one of the nine small theaters of Beijing's Chaoyang Culture Center. The first thing that struck me was the high quality of the Chinese translation. It was so idiomatic the parallels with China's starving and aspiring artists were inescapable. The performance oozed with raw energy. The uniformly young actors threw themselves into their roles. Sure, the chorus numbers were obviously under-rehearsed and there were a few minor roles that were miscast, with college students impersonating - not very convincingly - heroin-addicted hippies. But overall, I was really surprised by the passion and professionalism displayed. My biggest surprise came at the end when I learned they were not students or graduates of the Central Drama Academy, but a ragtag team of musical lovers. They did not have the money to rent the theater for a complete day, just two blocks of time. The previous afternoon they were almost kicked out by the landlord before they could finish their only on-site run-through. | 
