The official shortlist for the student competition category of the 20th Daegu International Musical Festival (DIMF) has been officially announced. Phoenix, an original musical independently created by the Musical Theatre Troupe of the College of Digital Film and Television at Sichuan University of Culture and Arts (SCUCA), stood out from a large number of outstanding domestic and international entries. It secured an official shortlisting spot thanks to its exquisite artistic quality and profound humanistic connotation. This marks the first time that an original stage production of SCUCA has been selected for a major international musical festival, constituting a pivotal breakthrough in the university’s artistic creation and international cultural exchange endeavors.

Launched in 2006, DIMF is currently the largest international musical festival in Asia and the second-largest worldwide, enjoying high prestige and extensive influence in the global musical theatre industry. As a core competitive section of this year’s festival, the student competition unit gathered elite theatrical works from universities across the globe. The shortlisting of Phoenix not only testifies to the work’s strong international artistic competitiveness but also fully demonstrates that SCUCA’s professional capabilities in musical teaching and original creation have met international advanced standards.

As a core practical teaching production with officially authorized teaching adaptation rights at SCUCA, Phoenix is led by Professor Wen Xiaoyan, Dean of the College of Digital Film and Television, who serves as the producer and chief director. Chen Xiongfei acts as the executive director, while a professional faculty team including Wu Yuanmeng, Feng Yi, Lu Zhiyao, Zhang Liang, Zhao Shanshan, Li Peiyang, Liu Yunshu, Zhou Qingqing, Long Yichao and Pang Hao participated in the overall guidance and production work. Integrating students majoring in performance, dance, music and other disciplines, the team completed one year of systematic professional training and three months of intensive polishing for the production.

The musical consists of five acts, with its storyline inspired by the traditional Chinese myth of “Hundreds of Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix”. It features five progressive chapters: The Festival of All Birds, Burgeoning Jealousy, The Avian Wedding, Earthly Catastrophe and Nirvana Through Fire. Skillfully integrating romantic entanglements, ecological crises and the grand imagery of the phoenix’s nirvana and rebirth, the musical conveys the profound core values of embracing positivity in life and advocating harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature. With magnificent stage presentation and delicate emotional expression, the production has won high recognition from international jury members.

This participation also marks the debut of SCUCA’s Musical Theatre Troupe at a top-tier international musical event. To deliver a flawless stage performance, Dean Wen Xiaoyan led all participating teachers and students in exhaustive pre-performance preparations. Beyond rigorous daily rehearsals, the team independently produced stage props, designed custom costumes and optimized lighting arrangements to present immersive and stunning scenes in every act.

During the official overseas performance, the venue was fully packed with no audience leaving ahead of the curtain call. The show concluded with prolonged and thunderous applause, and overseas audiences rose to their feet to pay tribute. Numerous Korean spectators recorded the wonderful moments of the performance and praised the production, remarking that they never expected a student-led musical to achieve such remarkable professional standards. After the show, a large crowd of audience members waited in line to take photos and interact with the cast. Notably, the play’s antagonist “Crow” character unexpectedly gained a huge fan base among overseas viewers.

The organizing committee of DIMF paid a special visit to greet and commend SCUCA’s teachers and students, speaking highly of their rigorous professional attitude and dedicated performance overseas, and presented commemorative gifts to all cast members.

The successful shortlisting at DIMF is a vivid testament to SCUCA’s educational philosophy of “promoting teaching through performance and facilitating learning through creation”. It also serves as an outstanding model of interdisciplinary collaborative education and integration of industry and academia, jointly accomplished by the College of Digital Film and Television, the College of Digital Music Industry, the College of Dance and other faculties.

Building on this landmark achievement, SCUCA will continue to deepen the creation of original stage art works, strengthen exchanges and cooperation with outstanding international art institutions, and develop more high-quality theatrical productions with profound ideological implications, exquisite artistic conception and sophisticated production. The university will strive to contribute its unique strength to prospering socialist cultural undertakings and promoting the international communication of fine traditional Chinese culture.