AP PHOTOS: In a modern twist to Cantonese opera, Trump sings in Chinese and wins cheers in Hong Kong

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AP PHOTOS: In a modern twist to Cantonese opera, Trump sings in Chinese and wins cheers in Hong Kong

2025-02-04 17:09 Last Updated At：17:21

HONG KONG (AP) — A traditional Hong Kong theater came alive with an untraditional twist: Donald Trump singing in Chinese.

On Monday night, the Cantonese opera production “Trump on Show” drew crowds to the soon-to-be-closed Sunbeam Theater, which has showcased the art for over half a century. Its latest edition of the show, “Trump, The Twins President,” featured scenes about Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency and the 2024 election.

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Opera playwright Li Kui-Ming and other actors stand on stage at the end of a performance of the Cantonese opera “Trump on Show” at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Booklets of the Cantonese opera “Trump on Show” production are displayed on a table at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin portraying U.S. President Donald Trump performs in the “Trump on Show” production at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Members of the audience applaud after watching the Cantonese opera “Trump on Show” at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin portraying U.S. President Donald Trump performs in the “Trump on Show” production at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

A packed audience watches the Cantonese opera production “Trump on Show” at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Actor Roger Chan portraying U.S. former Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and Lung Koon-tin playing the part of U.S. President Donald Trump perform in a Cantonese opera at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Opera playwright Li Kui-Ming, left, of the Cantonese opera production “Trump on Show,” takes photographs with a member of the audience at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin portraying U.S. President Donald Trump prepares for the “Trump on Show” production at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Members of the audience take photographs with a cutout of an actor portraying U.S. President Donald Trump from the Cantonese opera production “Trump on Show” at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

People stand in a queue to purchase tickets outside the box office at the Sunbeam Theatre playing the Cantonese opera production “Trump on Show” in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin portraying U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to perform in the “Trump on Show” production at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

People queue outside the Sunbeam Theatre that is currently playing the Cantonese opera production “Trump on Show” in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin portraying U.S. President Donald Trump gestures at the end of the “Trump on Show” production at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

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Opera playwright Li Kui-Ming and other actors stand on stage at the end of a performance of the Cantonese opera “Trump on Show” at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Booklets of the Cantonese opera “Trump on Show” production are displayed on a table at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin portraying U.S. President Donald Trump performs in the “Trump on Show” production at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Members of the audience applaud after watching the Cantonese opera “Trump on Show” at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin portraying U.S. President Donald Trump performs in the “Trump on Show” production at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

A packed audience watches the Cantonese opera production “Trump on Show” at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Actor Roger Chan portraying U.S. former Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and Lung Koon-tin playing the part of U.S. President Donald Trump perform in a Cantonese opera at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Opera playwright Li Kui-Ming, left, of the Cantonese opera production “Trump on Show,” takes photographs with a member of the audience at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin portraying U.S. President Donald Trump prepares for the “Trump on Show” production at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Members of the audience take photographs with a cutout of an actor portraying U.S. President Donald Trump from the Cantonese opera production “Trump on Show” at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

People stand in a queue to purchase tickets outside the box office at the Sunbeam Theatre playing the Cantonese opera production “Trump on Show” in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin portraying U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to perform in the “Trump on Show” production at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

People queue outside the Sunbeam Theatre that is currently playing the Cantonese opera production “Trump on Show” in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin portraying U.S. President Donald Trump gestures at the end of the “Trump on Show” production at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Several young people were in attendance to experience the traditional Chinese art, sung in Cantonese, the mother tongue of many Hong Kongers.

During the performance, Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin played Trump, wearing a blond wig. Roger Chan, who wore a blazer and pearl necklaces, played former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump in the election.

The production, which debuted in 2019 during Trump’s first term, sparked laughter and applause from the audience on Monday night.

Hong Kong resident Yvonne Fok saw the show with her friend, hoping for a fun night out.

“This is funny because it brings together different unrelated elements like time traveling, China and the U.S.,” she said inside the theater, which is set to close in March.

Another audience member, Ethan Wu, a university student from mainland China, also found the show unique.

“Cantonese opera and Donald Trump are completely different things and it’s impossible to put them together,” Wu said.

Pope Leo meets families of youth lost to illegal toxic waste dumping in Italy's 'Land of Fires'

ACERRA, Italy (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Saturday greeted one by one families who lost loved ones to illegal toxic dumping in an area near Naples, tied to a multi-billion criminal racket run by the mafia.

Many paused to share photographs and other mementos of children and young people who have died or are battling cancer because of the pollution.

Leo's visit to the so-called Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, came on the eve of the 11th anniversary of Pope Francis’ big ecological encyclical Laudato Si (Praised Be), and indicates Leo’s commitment to carry on his predecessor’s environmental agenda.

“I have come first of all to gather the tears of those who have lost loved ones, killed by environmental pollution caused by unscrupulous people and organizations who for too long were able to act with impunity,” Leo said in remarks to family members and local clergy inside Acerra's cathedral.

The pontiff recalled that the area now dubbed the Land of Fires was once called “Campania felix,” Latin for blessed or fruitful countryside, "capable for enchanting for its fertility, its produce and its culture, like a hymn to life.

"And yet — here is death, of the land and of men,'' the pope said.

The European Court of Human Rights last year validated a generation of residents’ complaints that mafia dumping, burial and burning of toxic waste led to an increased rate of cancer and other ailments in the area of 90 municipalities around Caserta and Naples, encompassing a population of 2.9 million people.

The court found Italian authorities had known since 1988 about the toxic pollution, blamed on the Camorra crime syndicate that controls waste disposal, but failed to take necessary steps to protect the residents. The binding ruling gave Italy two years to set up a database about the toxic waste and verified health risks associated with living there.

Bishop Antonio Di Donna estimated 150 young people had died in the city of some 58,000 over the past three decades — emphasizing in his opening remarks that the number didn't take into account adults and victims in other municipalities.

He urged the pope to admonish those who continue to pollute, noting that the dumping of tons of toxic waste was reported a day earlier near Castera. Di Donna said that Italian officials had identified dozens more human-caused contamination sites throughout the country, including the Venetian port of Marghera, and the leaching of PFAS forever chemicals into groundwater near Vicenza.

"We say to those brothers of ours ensnared in evil and seized by a mirage of fabulous earnings: Convert, change your ways, because what you are doing is not only a crime, it is a sin that cries out to God for vengeance,'' the bishop said.

The pope later greeted the mayors of the 90 communities impacted by the toxic dumping, and greeted thousands of people waving yellow flags and chanting “Papa Leone” along the route of his popemobile and in a central piazza.

The victims include Maria Venturato, who died of cancer in 2016 at the age of 25. Her father, Angelo, said he hopes to speak with the pope to explain their reality, “not for me … for the next generation.”

“I’d like to give these young people a future, so I’m asking for the pope’s help with this. That is, I’m making a strong appeal to him to go to those in power and say, ‘Look, let’s heal this land of fires,’" he said on the eve of the pope's visit.

Inside the cathedral, Filomena Carolla presented the pope with a book containing memories from the life of her daughter, Tina De Angelis, who died of cancer at the age of 24.

“I’m just angry at the people who poisoned the soil, because what did our children have to do with it? What did they have to do with it, so young,” Carolla told The Associated Press on Friday.

Francis' plans to visit the area in 2020 were canceled due to the pandemic.

AP PHOTOS: In a modern twist to Cantonese opera, Trump sings in Chinese and wins cheers in Hong Kong

AP PHOTOS: In a modern twist to Cantonese opera, Trump sings in Chinese and wins cheers in Hong Kong

Opera playwright Li Kui-Ming and other actors stand on stage at the end of a performance of the Cantonese opera “Trump on Show” at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Booklets of the Cantonese opera “Trump on Show” production are displayed on a table at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin portraying U.S. President Donald Trump performs in the “Trump on Show” production at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin portraying U.S. President Donald Trump performs in the “Trump on Show” production at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Members of the audience applaud after watching the Cantonese opera “Trump on Show” at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin portraying U.S. President Donald Trump performs in the “Trump on Show” production at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

A packed audience watches the Cantonese opera production “Trump on Show” at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Actor Roger Chan portraying U.S. former Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and Lung Koon-tin playing the part of U.S. President Donald Trump perform in a Cantonese opera at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Opera playwright Li Kui-Ming, left, of the Cantonese opera production “Trump on Show,” takes photographs with a member of the audience at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin portraying U.S. President Donald Trump prepares for the “Trump on Show” production at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin portraying U.S. President Donald Trump prepares for the “Trump on Show” production at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Members of the audience take photographs with a cutout of an actor portraying U.S. President Donald Trump from the Cantonese opera production “Trump on Show” at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

People stand in a queue to purchase tickets outside the box office at the Sunbeam Theatre playing the Cantonese opera production “Trump on Show” in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin portraying U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to perform in the “Trump on Show” production at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

People queue outside the Sunbeam Theatre that is currently playing the Cantonese opera production “Trump on Show” in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin portraying U.S. President Donald Trump gestures at the end of the “Trump on Show” production at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Opera playwright Li Kui-Ming and other actors stand on stage at the end of a performance of the Cantonese opera “Trump on Show” at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Booklets of the Cantonese opera “Trump on Show” production are displayed on a table at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin portraying U.S. President Donald Trump performs in the “Trump on Show” production at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin portraying U.S. President Donald Trump performs in the “Trump on Show” production at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Members of the audience applaud after watching the Cantonese opera “Trump on Show” at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin portraying U.S. President Donald Trump performs in the “Trump on Show” production at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

A packed audience watches the Cantonese opera production “Trump on Show” at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Actor Roger Chan portraying U.S. former Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and Lung Koon-tin playing the part of U.S. President Donald Trump perform in a Cantonese opera at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Opera playwright Li Kui-Ming, left, of the Cantonese opera production “Trump on Show,” takes photographs with a member of the audience at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin portraying U.S. President Donald Trump prepares for the “Trump on Show” production at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin portraying U.S. President Donald Trump prepares for the “Trump on Show” production at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Members of the audience take photographs with a cutout of an actor portraying U.S. President Donald Trump from the Cantonese opera production “Trump on Show” at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

People stand in a queue to purchase tickets outside the box office at the Sunbeam Theatre playing the Cantonese opera production “Trump on Show” in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin portraying U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to perform in the “Trump on Show” production at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

People queue outside the Sunbeam Theatre that is currently playing the Cantonese opera production “Trump on Show” in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Cantonese opera actor Lung Koon-tin portraying U.S. President Donald Trump gestures at the end of the “Trump on Show” production at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

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