Index

• Introduction
• Research Methods
• Research Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• References

Abstract

This paper takes the music class of Fuzhou Preschool Normal College, Jiangxi Province, China as a case study to analyze the different attitudes of students to the traditional Chinese opera—Fuzhou tea-picking opera which has been introduced into the music class of the school, thus affecting the cultural inheritance effect. A total of 150 non-music major local college students were selected from three classes to carry out the music course inheritance practice for four months in Fuzhou Preschool Normal College. This study was divided into three stages, (a) student assessment, (b) teaching the lesson, (c) feedback and assessment. The aim of this study was to study the perceptions of students from Fuzhou Preschool Normal College, Jiangxi Province, China towards the art from of Fuzhou tea-picking opera, and to explore the factors affecting the learning attitudes of these students. Mixed-methods design was employed within the study. The study found that the implementation of the course significantly improved students’ positive attitude towards Fuzhou tea-picking opera. The implementation of the course played a positive role in promoting the inheritance of the tea-picking opera. Although this is a study on the inheritance of traditional Chinese music course, the ideas of course design and research results are applicable to other traditional Chinese music, and even to other countries which have needs for the inheritance of traditional music.

Keywords: Curriculum, Fuzhou tea-picking opera, Kodaly music method, Music culture, Music education, Students attitude.

Received: 27 October 2022 / Revised: 30 December 2022 / Accepted: 13 January 2023 / Published: 20 January 2023

Contribution/ Originality

The innovation of this study is that it is the first time to combine Kodaly music method with traditional Chinese tea-picking opera curriculum, and examine the relationship between the students' attitudes towards the curriculum and music cultural inheritance effect.

1. INTRODUCTION

Before the existence of an institutionalized form of education, culture was disseminated through the rote method of teaching (Jin & Yang, 1997). Over the years, this tradition of teaching has undergone substantial improvement which saw the introduction of more formal types of education system. In a research on interpretation of Curriculum Culture: An Analytical Framework, Huang (2002) argues that curriculum is not only a form of cultural inheritance, but also a cultural phenomenon. He further pointed out that curriculum culture is in essence, a kind of spiritual wealth that is currently in existence within the curriculum design of China. This spiritual wealth refers to education as a holistic whole that involves both the educational and spiritual aspects of education (Huang, 2002).

Music curriculum is an important aspect of music education, and plays a vital role in disseminating the culture to the people. Joseph and van Niekerk (2007) state, “Music education is a powerful tool that can  be used as a platform for understanding cultural differences in a pluralistic society” (Joseph & van Niekerk, 2007). Perakaki (2013) found that a Greek traditional music course was effective in convincing Greek students to accept their traditional music which further shows that music curriculum can help students improve their identity with the traditional culture of the nation.

According to Zhang and Wang (2011) Chinese music education system is "imported" from abroad and therefore, lacks "Chinese characteristics" and "originality". During the late Qing Dynasty (1664–1911) and the period of Republic of China (1912–1949) , Chinese music education valued Western music more than Chinese music due to the impact of the Western Affairs Movement (1861–1895) (Chen, 1986; Ho, 2003). Most Chinese students were educated by a Westernized music education system that led to a gap in the appreciation of traditional Chinese art forms. In China, learning Western music was the main stream in the society. According to Montefiore (2014) there are approximately 40 million students learning the piano (Bo-Wah, 2021). Chinese parents and students prefer learning the piano (and other Western instruments) to learning other Chinese instruments because it is more likely to succeed in the musical journey, more competitive, generate more income, improve their social status, and enjoy a better life (Bai, 2021).

Nowadays, traditional Chinese music is getting more and more attention. Many people have accepted that local traditional music should occupy a place in school music curriculum for sustainability (Moore, 2018; Wang, 2015). In recent decades, China has worked to revive national culture and emphasize the importance of traditional music in music education (Bo-Wah, 2021). According to the Music Curriculum Standards issued by the Ministry of Education (2011) traditional Chinese music should become a major part of the school music curriculum, and schools should focus on cultivating students' awareness and emphasis on Chinese culture and enhancing their national consciousness and patriotism. As a result, traditional Chinese music dominates music textbooks (Wang, 2019).

Fuzhou tea-picking opera is a branch of Jiangxi tea-picking opera, China, and originated in Fuzhou, China around in 1912. It is a comprehensive art form that includes singing, text recitation, acrobatics, martial arts and dancing. Fuzhou tea-picking opera was formerly called "Lantern Opera", "Flower Lantern Opera" or "Tea-Picking Deng Opera". Later, it was renamed "Triangle Class" because of the three main professions of tea-picking: "Little Dan", "Little Life" and "Little Flower Face". It is a traditional folk opera with a strong local style that integrates Fuzhou dialect in its music. Most of the singing music of Fuzhou tea-picking opera are based on traditional Chinese pentatonic scales, namely gong (宫), shang (商), jiao (角), zheng (徵) and yu (羽). Music is mostly composed of upper and lower sentences with the same number of words, and generally has two tune styles such as Gong and Zheng (Guo, 2018).

Fuzhou tea-picking opera is the same as other traditional folk arts, and  inherits the living tradition of being people-oriented which continues the life of folk music directly, comprehensively and exquisitely (Lv, 2018). According to a report published in the Fuzhou Daily in 2011, the develop of tea picking in Fuzhou is very bad. Fuzhou tea-picking opera is in a fast declining and worrying state (Lv, 2018). For sustainability, Fuzhou tea-picking opera. was included in the third batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage by China on June 3, 2014. Therefore, under the background that most traditional Chinese traditional art is gradually disappearing, carrying out a systematic Fuzhou tea-picking opera music course may be helpful to cultivate students' national sentiment and cultural identity. Students may like and inherit the excellent Chinese culture through taking Fuzhou tea-picking opera music course. The establishment the research of local traditional music courses will be an important subject for all parts of China and the world. The aim of this paper was to study the perceptions of students from Fuzhou Preschool Normal College, Jiangxi Province, China towards the art from of Fuzhou tea-picking opera, and to explore the factors affecting the learning attitudes of these students. The paper was guided by the following research questions:

1. What are students’ perceptions towards Fuzhou tea-picking opera prior to participating in the lessons?
2. What are the main factors that affect students' perceptions of Fuzhou tea-picking opera?

In this study, the traditional chines folk opera Fuzhou tea-picking opera was designed as a music lesson for the sampled colleges. The study compared the changes in students’ attitudes towards Fuzhou tea-picking opera. before and after the course was opened, and analyzing the factors that affect the changes of students' attitudes, so as to find a more effective way to inherit and protect Fuzhou tea-picking opera. It also provided a more active and effective way for the inheritance and development of intangible cultural heritage. It is hoped that this course design would change the way of inheriting Fuzhou tea-picking opera from folk inheritance to more systematic music curriculum inheritance.

2. RESEARCH METHODS

A survey was conducted, on 150 college students aged between 18 to 21, from Fuzhou Preschool Normal College, which is a university that specializes in training kindergarten and primary school teachers. The school is located in Fuzhou, Jiangxi. These participants were non music major students who had no prior knowledge of Fuzhou tea-picking opera. As part of this research, the students underwent four-months of training on Fuzhou tea-picking opera to introduce the cultural heritage of their hometown. The researcher conducted this study using a mixed-method approach involving quantitative and qualitative data collection via a questionnaire similar to the methods appropriated by Colwell (2006), and Creswell (2015). Semi-structured interviews were used to collect the main factors influencing participants' positive and negative attitudes.

The Fuzhou tea-picking opera course was designed in three stages:(1) The first stage was students assessment. This stage aimed to gather information on the students understanding and awareness towards music and Fuzhou tea-picking opera. Information was gathered through a questionnaire survey. (2) The second stage involved the teaching of the curriculum. In this stage, Kodaly teaching methods were applied to the teaching practice. The goal was for students to achieve the ability to recognize, read, sing, and write music notes and also be able to act out simple scenes of Fuzhou tea-picking opera. (3) The third stage was the assessment stage that gauged the students learning outcome from the four-month program. This stage also involved questionnaire surveys and interviews to gather feedback from students on their opinions of the program. The objective of this stage was to understand students' mastery of the course, and to compare the changes in students' attitudes before and after learning the art form along with the factors affecting the changes in students' attitudes.

2.1. First Stage: Student Assessment

The questionnaire consisted of three components, and required participants to give their response according to the differential scale:

1.  Demographic information, which included age and gender.
2.  Participants' basic knowledge of music, including their ability to read music notation.
3. Participants’ perception, as well as their understanding of the Fuzhou tea-picking opera.

The questionnaire was designed to assess students’ knowledge of music. The purpose of the questionnaire was to test pupils' musical knowledge. A total of 150 students were asked to fill out the questionnaire, resulting in a sample size of 139 people (with a response rate of 92.6 percent), as shown in Table 1.

The reliability of the items in the questionnaire was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 17.0 software, which is a kind of software of Solutions Statistical for the Social Sciences. The questionnaire's reliability was (r=0.840), according to the results. A questionnaire data between (r= 0.800.90) has good reliability, according to Devellis (1991).

Questionnaire topic	Strongly agree	Agree	Neutral	Disagree	Strongly disagree
I can recognize music score.	4.32%	10.07%	10.07%	58.99%	16.55%
Don’t know it’s intangible cultural heritage.	31.65%	32.37%	20.14%	10.79%	5.04%
Unpleasant to hear.	18.71%	23.02%	31.65%	20.86%	5.76%
I like Fuzhou tea-peaking opera.	13.67%	14.36%	42.45%	21.58%	7.91%
I can accept the form of art.	11.51%	19.42%	34.53%	25.18%	9.35%
The melody is good.	12.23%	33.09%	33.09%	16.55%	5.04%
I often listen to Fuzhou tea-peaking opera.	2.88%	11.51%	22.30%	27.34%	35.97%
I like the lyrics.	8.63%	13.67%	35.97%	24.46%	17.27%

The validity of the questionnaire was analyzed using exploratory factor analysis to get three factors: (1) Participants' degree of liking Fuzhou tea-picking opera. (2) Attitudes of participants towards setting up a course on Fuzhou tea-picking opera. (3) Participants' level of musical literacy. The test results of questionnaire validity are shown in Table 2.

KMO and Bartlett’s test
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy.		0.805
Bartlett's test of sphericity	Approx. chi-square	417.353
	df	45
	Sig.	0.000

Based on Table 2, it can be seen that the value of KMO(Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin) and Bartlett's Test obtained was 0.805 with a significance of 0.000. The data was thus  eligible for further analysis in the factor analysis because it met the requirements of KMO greater than 0.5 (>0.5) and significance under 0.05 (<0.05) (Darmawan, Jimmy, & Rahmi, 2017). The questionnaire thus had a good reliability.

2.2. Second Stage：Teaching the Lesson

This course was taught using the Kodaly music teaching method. Kodaly music teaching method is one of the most influential teaching methods in the world, which is based on folk music education (Zhang, 2016). One of the main features of the Kodaly music teaching method is the emphasis on using folk songs to teach music. Therefore, it was most apt to adopt the Kodaly method to teach Fuzhou tea-picking opera to the participants of this research. Singing was an important element that was used to teach this cultural art form which also in line with Kodaly’s method. The use of Tonic sol-fa to teach singing is also part of the Kodaly teaching principle. Kodaly used the Tonic sol-fa, which is consistent with the concept of the traditional Chinese pentatonic scale’s Tonic sol-fa. The researcher used the same Tonic sol-fa concept to teach the notes of Fuzhou tea-picking opera along with John Curwen gestures to help participants establish the concept of pitch. The teaching plan was divided into 4 stages, as explained below.

1. The use of alphabets to represent different pitches. Chinese traditional music uses mostly numeric numbers like 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 to represent the seven different pitches, with the zero for a rest. The Kodaly method used alphabetic music score of do,re,mi,fa,so,la,ti to represent the seven different pitches in the Western music scale. In this research, the researcher used the Kodaly method of teaching of alphabetic music score. 
2.  Pitch recognition. The musical gesture diagrams of John Colvin were used in the course to help participants understand pitch positions, as shown in Figure 1 .
3.  The recognition of rhythm. The rhythm reading method of Chinese musician Du Yaxiong was used to help participants identify rhythm. For example, the whole note "X---" is pronounced "Chang(长)-ang-ang-ang";  the rhythmic representation of the quarter note "X" is pronounced "Chang(长)"; the eighth note with a half beat "X" is pronounced "Duan(短)";  and a quarter beat sixteenth note "X" is pronounced "Cu(促)", etc.  
4.  The singing of Fuzhou tea-picking opera. Most of the singing of Fuzhou tea-picking opera are based on traditional Chinese pentatonic scales, namely "Gong (宫)", "Shang (商)", "Jue (角)", "Zheng (徵)" And "Yu (羽)" which represents do, re, mi, so and la respectively.  The core of this scale organization is a group of three adjacent notes such as the Fu tune "The good life in these few years is because of my intelligence", which is a three adjacent notes with so-mi-re and do-la-so as the core. The participants were trained in three adjacent notes of solfeggio before singing.

A total of four-month program of Fuzhou tea-picking opera course included recognition of music score, recognition of rhythm, vocal coaching, performance coaching. The overarching mission of the program, one that all members of the participants learned four songs of Fuzhou tea-picking opera, which will help Fuzhou tea-picking opera develop in the future.

2.3. Feedback and Assessment

This stage involved two aspects. One was the feedback from the participants and the other was the assessment on their overall performance. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used to gather feedback from the participants. The same number of participants were asked to complete a follow up questionnaire on their experience after completing the course on Fuzhou tea-picking opera. The 139 participants who completed the questionnaire the first time were asked to complete the second questionnaire. The resulting sample comprised 138 participants (with a response rate of 99.28%). The questionnaire aimed to elicit information from the following three main areas:

1. Assess participants’ mastery of the course. 
2.  Compare the changes of participants' attitudes before and after learning.

Data from this questionnaire was also used to provide preliminary findings on the participants understanding of the program.

Further to this, tests were administered after teaching every song to gauge their accuracy in terms of melody, rhythm and ability to memorize the song’s lyrics. A total of four songs were taught throughout the entire program, as shown in Table 3.

Questionnaire topic	Strongly agree	Agree	Neutral	Disagree	Strongly disagree
I dislike Fuzhou tea-picking opera.	3.62%	7.25%	39.86%	34.78%	14.49%
I can sing 4 kinds of singing	17.93%	23.91%	35.51%	12.32%	10.87%
I can singing not because of cultural recognition	10.14%	23.19%	31.16%	22.46%	13.04%
I can singing not because of simple course design	6.52%	18.84%	36.96%	28.99%	8.07%
The melody is not good	2.9%	5.07%	39.13%	36.23%	16.67%
I hope to set up a course on Fuzhou tea-picking opera	6.52%	30.43%	40.58%	13.04%	9.42%

3. RESEARCH RESULTS

The results of this study are retrieved from the data gathered from the questionnaire during the first and third stages. The data of strongly agree and agree represents a positive attitude to the question, and neutral represents a neutral attitude to the question, and disagree, and strongly disagree represents a negative attitude to the question.

3.1. Results of the First Stage Questionnaire

The results of the questionnaire reflected the basic musical ability of participants. The summary of all the questions revealed a total of six aspects of competence of the participants, which are summarized below:

1.  Ability to read music score. According to the results of the survey from students in three different classes, only 14.39% of the participants indicated that they were able to read any kind of music score, while 85.61% were unable to music score. The cognition and proficiency of music knowledge of participants is low, as many of them do not have basic music knowledge.
2.  Knowledge on the intangible cultural heritage of Fuzhou tea-picking opera. Only 36.08% of the participants indicated having any knowledge of Fuzhou tea-picking opera as an intangible cultural heritage, while 63.92% of the participants are not aware of this local intangible cultural heritage. This further illustrates the lack of traditional culture and music education and awareness even among teachers who will eventually be educating the young children in schools.
3. The degree of acceptance of Fuzhou tea-picking opera. Prior to this research, 71.94% of the participants did not have a positive attitude towards tea picking performances in Fuzhou, as only 28.06% of them liked it. Demographic information, which included the age and gender.
4. Views on the melody of Fuzhou tea-picking opera. Before the course began, 54.68% of the participants were not in favor of the music of the tea-picking art form as many indicated that the melody of Fuzhou tea-picking opera was too traditional and did not appeal to the modern ear, while 45.32% of the participants thought the melody was acceptable and pleasing. From here we can conclude that opinions about the music was equally divided among the participants. From the initial survey conducted, it can be concluded that most participants did not like Fuzhou tea-picking opera.
5. Views on the lyrics of Fuzhou tea-picking opera. To this question, 77.7% of the participants showed a dislike towards the lyrics as they felt it was old-fashioned and outdated.
6.  To offer Fuzhou tea-picking opera as a course within Fuzhou Preschool Normal. Before the course was offered, 71% of participants indicated that they were not in favor to set up a course on tea-picking opera as they did not see the need for it. Only 28.78% of the participants were in favor of setting up a course. This indicated a rather low awareness and regard for their cultural heritage. 

According to the data of strongly  agree and agree represents a positive attitude to the question, disagree and strongly disagree represents a negative attitude to the question, the visual chart results of the questionnaire results from the above six aspects are shown in Figure 2.

3.2. Results of the Third Stage Questionnaire

1. Comparison of Acceptability of Fuzhou Tea-Picking Opera

Before the course began, the participants’ enthusiasm for Fuzhou tea-picking opera was not high. However, as the course progressed there was an increase in the enthusiasm level among the participants. By the end of the program, 89.13% of participants showed a positive attitude towards Fuzhou tea-picking opera. The data was increased about 3 times as much as before the course began, as the acceptance level of participants increased significantly. It can be seen that the course has a positive effect on improving participants' acceptance of Fuzhou tea-picking opera as shown in Figure 3.

In this practice, participants learned 4 different Fuzhou tea-picking opera singing, and the course therefore achieved good learning effects. 77.35% of participants showed a positive attitude because the level of 40%-100% means they can sing more than 2 kinds of singing.

2. Factors Affecting Students' Learning Attitude

From a semi-structured interview with 138 participants after the course, it was concluded that cultural identity, curriculum design, teachers' factors, students' internal factors and others five aspects are the main factors which have influenced participants' positive attitude towards learning. A further investigation of the five factors showed that 35% of the participants were motivated by the simple course design, while 32% of the participants were motivated by the recognition of the culture. 21% of the participants thought that the key factor in increasing an appreciation for Fuzhou tea-picking opera was in the ability of the teacher to sing well and demonstrate the right techniques. After the program, 9% of the participants indicated that they were interested to perform tea-picking opera.

From a semi-structured interview with 138 participants after the course, it was concluded that the respondents found melody boring, the lyrics as old fashioned, there was a lack of practice time, lack of interest and others five aspects were the other main factor affecting participants' learning. A further investigation of the five factors showed that 37% of the participants cited lack of practice time, while 32% of the participants cited the melody was boring. 19% of the participants cited the lyrics was old fashioned and did not appeal to the modern ear. 11% of the participants cited lack of interest.

3. Comparison of Fuzhou Tea-Picking Opera

The questionnaires also asked participants on their willingness to set up a Fuzhou tea-picking opera courses. At the end of the course, the willingness of participants increased. The number of participants who specifically opposed to set up courses decreased from 15.11% to 9.42%. Participants who opposed to take the course decreased from 28.78% to 13.04%, indicating that the program had a positive impact on participants’ perception towards Fuzhou tea-picking opera.  

The questionnaire is based on the design of the Ricke scale. The data were based on the results of questionnaires one and two as shown in Figure 4.

4. DISCUSSION

Attitude is not an innate human attribute, but rather a state of preparing nerves, exerting a command or dynamic influence on the reactions of all objects and situations to which it relates" (Allport, 2008). This study used Kodaly teaching method to carry on Chinese traditional music teaching.  The change of participants' attitude towards Fuzhou tea-picking opera. was analyzed by questionnaire survey before and after the opening of the course. The aim was to look for factors that affect the change in participants' attitudes. The traditional Chinese aesthetic idea of "Sound perception and emotional experience, emotional experience and associative imagination, integrated perception and rational knowledge basis" runs through the teaching, which creates a positive attitude of music acceptance for students.

1. I Just Want them to Like the Fuzhou Tea-Picking Opera

After the Fuzhou tea-picking opera curriculum, the attitude of participants towards Fuzhou tea-picking opera has changed from negative to positive. The results of the participants’ assessment questionnaire in the first stage showed that before the course was set up, 85.61% of the participants could not read music score and 64.02% were not familiar with Fuzhou tea-picking opera, which led to 71% of the participants indicating a lack of interest towards the course. For a long time, the context in which we learn the music of our mother tongue has been "replaced" this is because music education in schools tends to use western major and minor scales instead of traditional Chinese pentatonic scales for practice of Chinese traditional music. As students learn Chinese music in the western language environment, they become unfamiliar and repelled to traditional Chinese music (Guan, 2002). 

This course of Fuzhou tea-picking opera. which used the Kodaly teaching method was supplemented by the Curwen gesture for teaching. It showed a tremendous impact on the way the participants improved their musical ability. Participants not only understand the traditional Chinese scale system but also have the concept of traditional Chinese melody. During the teaching periods, the aesthetic thought of "watching, tasting and consciousness" of Chinese traditional aesthetics has been always permeated, which creates a positive attitude of music acceptance for students.

Questionnaire data before the opening of the course showed that participants who opposed taking the course decreased from 28.78% before the course started to 13.04% after the course began. The participants’ negative attitude towards this course declined. This process took four months. It attests that attitude is shaped by an individual’s experience; it is stable but can be modified (Han & Leung, 2017).

2. Curriculum Identity Influences Students' Learning Attitude

The design of music course is factor that can influence students’ acquisition of Chinese folk music. Xi (2007) the course of Fuzhou tea-picking opera is committed to shaping the spirit and culture of Fuzhou tea-picking opera, at the same time, emphasizing the music quality and national spirit of learners.

The teacher designed the music lesson is not merely providing students with relaxation but it is also about nurturing students’ musical identities through learning Chinese folk music (Green, 2011; Walker, 2007). The data collected before this course showed that 71.94% of the participants did not like or approve the Fuzhou tea-picking opera, but with the deepening of teaching, this figure began to decrease. At the end of the course, there were only 10.87% of the participants who continued disliking Fuzhou tea-picking opera. This can be attributed to the participants’ personal preference towards the music. As for the reasons for the positive change in participants' attitude, 74.02% of the participants thought it was related to the simple course design.

3. Cultural Identity Influences Students' Learning Attitude

Music reflects people's lifestyle, cultural values and social norms. The establishment of students' cultural cognition influences their learning and cognition of Chinese folk music (Walker, 2001). Students' positive attitude plays a positive role in protecting the cultural heritage and cultivating their cultural identity (Shah, 2006). Music, as Green (2006) argued: “is not simply a train of “sounds and silences”; rather, it has its own “delineated meaning,” and conveys “social, cultural, religious, political or other such associations.” In a similar vein, Fuzhou tea-picking opera is social-culturally based and constructed. In a specific society or culture, music can reflect different aspects of the society and reflect the social problems of a particular time (Meizel, 2006; Shah, 2006).

The design of Fuzhou tea-picking opera course is to impart the most important traditions, experiences and skills in music culture to the educators so that they can obtain systematic music knowledge to the maximum extent in the shortest time, and ensure the relative stability of local style characteristics in the continuation and inheritance of Fuzhou tea-picking opera. Before the opening of the course, 45.32% of the participants thought the melody was good, while 54.68% thought the melody was boring and old fashioned. However, by the end of the course, only 7.97% of participants thought the melody was not good. Participants' recognition of the melody of Fuzhou tea-picking opera has been conducive to the popularization and inheritance of Fuzhou tea-picking art.

The design of the music class of Fuzhou tea-picking opera emphasizes the combination of music culture and local culture to cultivate students’ love for national culture, thus affirming Hoffer’s claims about the relationship between music and culture. Among the reasons for the change of participants' attitude towards Fuzhou tea-picking opera, 66.66% of the participants thought it was the result of identification with the local folk music culture. It could be seen that the establishment of students' cultural recognition was another key factor affecting students' learning attitude.

5. CONCLUSION

There is a natural connection between curriculum and culture. In terms of historical development, curriculum originates from the need of cultural inheritance, and there would be no curriculum without culture (Li, 2011). This study shows that students' attitude to the curriculum influences the curriculum effect and cultural inheritance. The more positive the students' attitude towards the course, the better the effect of the course, and vice versa. Implementation of Fuzhou tea-picking opera course has acted a positive role in promoting the inheritance of Fuzhou tea-picking opera. Education promotes the development of culture and human beings by selecting culture, inheriting culture and creating culture. The content conveyed by Fuzhou tea-picking opera course not only to learners has a high degree of generality, but also improves students' positive attitude towards Fuzhou tea-picking opera. Fuzhou tea-picking opera curriculum is conducive to the development of culture by education, and it is the unavoidable mission of education to cultivate people who have unified with local culture.

The research also reveals how culture and music are intertwined and when presented in the right manner has the potential to garner positive results. The aim of introducing and changing the perception of participants towards Fuzhou tea-picking opera revealed that through prolonged exposure and though the correct methods, a person’s perception about traditional art forms can be altered.

Funding: This research is supported by Jiangxi Provincial Higher Education Reform Research Provincial-level Project 2020 (Grant number: JXJG-20-107-4).

Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Authors’ Contributions: All authors contributed equally to the conception and design of the study.

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