Top Chinese leaders watched a New Year gala featuring traditional opera on Tuesday evening in Beijing.

Leaders of the Communist Party of China and the state, Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli, joined an audience of nearly a thousand in the National Center for the Performing Arts.

The show featured various forms of traditional opera, including Peking, Kunqu, Henan, Hunan and Shanxi operas.

There are literally hundreds of forms of local Chinese opera, of which Peking Opera is the most popular. Peking Opera and Kunqu Opera are listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as intangible cultural heritage.

The program included classic opera excerpts featuring martial heros, righteous and incorrupt officials and modern excerpts featuring a beloved Party official Jiao Yulu, among others.

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