Today is the last lecture of <i>The Beauty of Kunqu Opera</i>. I propose the topic: “The New Aesthetics of Kunqu: tradition and modernity”. I believe that it is not an accident that Kunqu had its origin in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Because Chinese civilization reached its height during the Ming dynasty. (The Ming dynasty) gave birth to a performing art that combines literature, dance, music… a great synthesis of the arts. In a minute I will explain the basic aesthetics of Kunqu, its abstractness and symbolism. Look at the action in Kunqu: just a movement of the fan tells you the garden is full of colorful flowers. Let yourself imagine; no need to fill the stage with flowers. Instead of filling the stage with flowers, it allows imagination to work. This kind of abstract expressionism is infinite, unconfined in space. It allows for infinite space and time for the imagination. Just like Chinese ink wash paintings, landscape paintings, the blank space, a swath of white space allows you to imagine: is it time space? Is that the sky, or water, or emptiness? It allows you to imagine infinitely. Look at Chinese flower and bird paintings, plum blossoms or bamboo branches, a branch here and there, the rest is empty space. A stem of plum blossoms, a branch of bamboo, yet they represent a world, a universe. These kinds of symbolism in Kunqu are expressive and lyrical. This is an important aspect of Chinese (art)... whether poetry, or graphic art, or music: they all tend toward lyricism, expressionism. Moreover, they reached highest achievement. Chinese poetry, lyrical poetry, our music, are different from Western (arts), different from their achievements. Their (arts) are epic, symphonic, large in scope. Western arts are in large patches of color, different from Chinese aesthetics. Chinese Kunqu opera combines all the traditional arts. After you have seen Kunqu, I hope that you will be inspired to think about other genres of art.