(Yicai) Sept. 21 -- The 48th WorldSkills Competition will kick off in Shanghai tomorrow evening with a spectacular opening ceremony featuring nearly 1,300 young performers who will take audiences on an immersive journey through "skills and civilization,” tracing connections between ancient and modern times and linking China with the wider world.

The 90-minute performance, which is hosted by Shanghai Media Group, was created by a core creative team mainly made up of young professionals. Most of the performers are young artists from professional troupes across China, as well as specialist opera and martial arts schools. The youngest performer is just seven years old.

The performance space is multidimensional with the central stage built around the competition’s core visual concept of ‘sunmao,’ a traditional Chinese mortise-and-tenon joinery technique, the production crew told a Yicai reporter who had come to watch the rehearsals at the Mercedez-Benz arena. The entire floor has also been raised to create a vast performance platform.

Audiences will be treated to a performance in which a number of ancient Chinese masters of traditional skills appear to “come to life” from ancient texts and perform a rich panorama of skills that have been passed down for thousands of years in front of nearly 10,000 competitors and spectators.

The WorldSkills Competition is an event centered on young people. Under the rules of WorldSkills International, the vast majority of competitors must be no older than 22 in the year of the competition, while the age limit is relaxed to 25 for certain disciplines. Each competitor can only participate in one edition of a single competition.

The opening ceremony highlights this defining characteristic by placing young people at the center of the entire production. Skilled young professionals from five continents will take the stage one after another to share their personal journeys of developing their skills.

Chief writer Liu Jiawei said the stories do not portray these young people simply as “winners of glory.” Instead, they focus on their experiences as ordinary people growing, with the aim of conveying how skills can genuinely change a person’s life and prospects.

Performers will share the stage with the latest generation of humanoid robots. Executive director Bao Shutong said that, in this performance, the robots are no longer simply stage props, but partners of the human performers in the show.

During months of rehearsals, specialists responsible for robot positioning, lighting coordination and other technical areas worked together to overcome a range of technical challenges.

Artificial intelligence was used to handle extensive calculations and error correction, while the core elements involving emotion and creativity remained the work of people. This reflects the central message of the performance, which is that while robots provide support, human beings remain the protagonists of the world.

Young acrobats hone their moves before the performance.

Actors dressed in uniforms representing different professions take center stage.

Choreographers guide a group of contemporary dancers as they strike bold, expressive poses.

Animated versions of Shanghai’s iconic Pearl Tower lead the procession down the catwalk.

Editor: Kim Taylor