GUANGZHOU, May 16 (Xinhua) - Deng Jun's dream is to make the well-known Chinese scroll painting "Along the River during Qingming Festival" alive on the international stage of performing arts.

The scroll painting, which had been done by the Northern Song (960-1127) painter Zhang Zeduan, offers glimpses of the institutions, economy, culture and customs in the Song capital, Bianjing, the most prosperous metropolis in the world then.

Deng, general manager of Guangdong Southern Cultural Development Co. Ltd, is planning to bring his company's dance performance based on the painting to Canada.

The dance troupe is currently touring China, and will give performances on the Canadian stage in July next year.

"The dance has been targeting international audience from the very beginning," Deng told Xinhua.

Analysts say the global performing arts market has great potentials.

Toby Simkin, vice president and executive producer of the U.S. Broadway-based Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment, told a forum in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, that the profitable market is worthy of big investment.

A veteran Broadway producer, Simkin has produced, managed or marketed over 150 productions over the past two decades, including various Tony Award winning shows.

With the expansion of the cultural industry reform, China' s state-run art troupes and performing companies, including that of Deng's, have gradually abandoned the "iron rice bowl" concept and become participants of market competitions.

They set eyes on the international arena and choreographed an increasing number of Chinese dramas, acrobatics, ballet and musicals to target international audience and earn more profits through overseas box office.

Domestic performing companies struck 25 deals with overseas stage performance agents at a week-long trade fair of performing arts in Guangzhou that ended Sunday, with contracts involving more than 100 million yuan (14.7 million U.S. dollars), organizers say.

The deals include introducing the Chinese original musical "Butterfly Lovers" to Europe and U.S., a traditional opera costume show to Australia, the Cantonese opera "Red Boat," or "Hua Yue Ying," to Qatar, a puppet show to Germany, Kungfu drama "The Soul of Shaolin" and acrobatic show "Journey to the West" to Europe.

Zhang Ning, art director of a cultural and media company in east China's Shandong Province, will lead a troupe to give the traditional Chinese opera costume show in Australia.

"We've considered overseas tours when we were choreographing the show, so we have chosen costumes as the theme because there will be no language barrier," said Zhang.

He said they had conducted thorough investigations on overseas viewers and their viewing habits for seven years before the show was introduced overseas. "This process was very tough," he said.

"China will not export low-quality cultural products. The export channel for Chinese arts must be improved so that they could compete in the global market," he said.

GLOBAL INTEREST IN CHINA STORY

Many domestic performing companies believe stage performances featuring Chinese ethnic minorities are popular with overseas audience.

Prof. Gerhard Feltl, president of Vienna-based Wiener Stadthalle Ltd, a major art performance company of Austria and organizer of the Vienna Art Festival, said Shaolin Kungfu and Chinese acrobatics are welcomed by European audiences.

However, Feltl said, "It was much easier ten years ago (to promote Chinese art performances in Europe) since everything was new." He said as there are now so many Chinese shows and due to expansion of globalization and progress in telecommunication technologies, performances staged in Europe should have" unique selling points."

"What is the difference from the other shows? That is the crucial point. I think in the future Chinese productions must focus on that," he said, adding productions staged overseas should be "diversified."

He is currently visiting China to see "what they can add to his business," as there are big opportunities in China. His Vienna-based company headquarters attracts 1.2 million visitors annually, including big names.

"Soul of Shaolin" will tour Europe and stage 100 shows because Feltl struck a deal with its Chinese producer, China Heaven Creation, at the Guangzhou performance fair. He said interesting Chinese stories and mythology are selling points.

He recommended that European companies hoping to enter the Chinese market should cooperate with a Chinese company which is familiar with the market and "knows all, both the written and unwritten rules."

Broadway's Simkin said his company is trying to make western audiences knowing little about China understand Chinese shows. His business consulting company, based in Shanghai and set up six years ago, is helping Chinese companies to stage successful shows in the West and help western producers who want to bring their shows to China. "I' m a bridge between the two and trying to assist the cultural and audience differences."

Last year, Simkin brought "Soul of Shaolin" to Broadway and he received Tony nomination for that show. He also brought "Dream of Red Mansion" of Shanghai Ballet to New York' s Lincoln Center last year. The ballet show was a huge success.

Currently, Simkin is working on a show that will be "very exiting and possibly would be China' s first musical on Broadway."

"We want China's first big show in America to be something that is so strong and so good and open a ground that people would love it. We want to pick the right show and develop the right way."