China was launching an ambitious digitization plan to help save traditional Chinese operas from dying out amid the country's rapid modernization, State media reported.

The project, spearheaded by the Chinese Academy of Arts, will spend 18 months building a national database of audio and video recordings mainly from its existing collection of Beijing and Kunqu operas.

The recordings would then be converted into digital form and put onto the Internet to allow enthusiasts around the world to access them, the report said.

The 500-year-old Kunqu, known for its graceful acting movements and poetic lyrics, is China's oldest opera form. It is recognized as the forefather of Beijing opera, which did not evolve until the mid-19th century.

"The rapid globalization and the influence of foreign cultures in China have caused unprecedented challenges to the survival of Chinese traditional opera," the report said.

"If we do not take practical measures to preserve the existing traditional operas, some will disappear very soon," said Liu Wenfeng, deputy director of the academy's opera research institute.

There were 367 types of Chinese opera by the end of the 1950s but only 267 survived to this day, the report said.

The academy is also inviting provincial art research institutes to take part in the project as its current collection lacks recordings of lesser-known operas.

Provincial opera forms include Qin opera from Shaanxi Province, Huangmei opera from Anhui Province, Yue opera from Zhejiang Province, and Yue opera, or Cantonese opera, from Guangdong Province.

Editor: Catherine