Drawn from abroad

Illustrations for different reading materials, such as books and magazines, help readers of many ages better understand the content. Meanwhile they also stand alone as quality works of art for fine techniques and colors. Image of the West, an illustration exhibition at Tsinghua University Art Museum, gathers such works by acclaimed artists in Europe and the United States. It is a celebration of imagination. The paintings on show reinterpret fairy tales and literary works, many of which are also quite familiar to Chinese audiences. Some were for original stories created by the illustrators themselves. The bulk of the works, on show until Feb 28, are from the collection of Fondation Les Maitres de l'Imaginaire, an organization based in Lausanne, Switzerland, which seeks to collect works by renowned illustrators of children's books from around the world. The rest are works by Etienne Delessert, the foundation's founder and a graphic artist in his own right.

9 am-5 pm, closed on Mondays. Tsinghua University, Haidian district, Beijing. 010-6278-1012.

Mountains of opera

Visitors on the Snow Mountains, an original Chinese opera based on the 1963 domestic movie of the same name, will be staged in December. Set in the early 1950s on the borders of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, it involves the love story between a 16-year-old girl and a young man, both from Xinjiang, and how they helped the soldiers of the People's Liberation Army suppress spies. Soprano Dilber will play the leading female role in the opera. Born in Kashgar, Xinjiang, she has performed with the National Opera House of Finland since 1988. The creative team behind the opera includes composer Lei Lei, director Chen Xinyi and librettist Yi Ming.

7 pm, Dec 3 to 6. National Center for the Performing Arts. No 2 West Chang'an Avenue, Xicheng district, Beijing. 010-6655-0000.