By SCOTT CANTRELL [The Dallas Morning News, 6 February 2008]

RICHARDSON – That the largest contingent of contestants in the last Van Cliburn International Piano Competition came from the People's Republic of China said a good deal about the huge and growing popularity of Western classical music there.

Further evidence surfaced Tuesday evening at the Eisemann Center, with a fully-staged, more-or-less Western-style opera by a Chinese composer, produced and performed by the China National Opera House.