Dance from past
Spring Festival performance set during Tang Dynasty goes viral
Adance starts with a scene where a group of young women are on their way to attend a banquet, with clothes and hairdo inspired by royal court style from some 1,300 years ago.
The women act like they are playing musical instruments such as the bamboo flute, hand drum and pipa (four-stringed lute) as they walk through a garden, laughing along the way.
The piece, titled A Tang Dynasty Banquet, which is less than six minutes long, was staged during a gala aired on Henan TV Station on Feb 13 marking Spring Festival, and has since gone viral on social media, viewed more than 500 million times.
Other than the performances of the 14 dancers, viewers are attracted by the combination of live dance with technology like 5G and augmented reality, which supported the display of national treasures such as Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk by Tang Dynasty (618907) painter Zhang Xuan and a bone flute with a history of over 8,000 years.
“The performance brings us back to the Tang Dynasty, which is beautiful and amazing. The dancers portray the maids so vividly that it feels as if they are real Tang Dynasty maids from the painting,” one viewer writes on Sina Weibo.
“Supported by technology, the show is like the movie, Night at the Museum, which enables viewers to appreciate great cultural relics in a fresh way,” another viewer writes.
Besides positive comments, some viewers also interpreted the dance piece with cartoon drawings and animation, which garnered attention on social media.
A Tang Dynasty Banquet, formerly titled Tang Yong (“Tang Dynasty pottery figurines”), was performed and choreographed by artists of Zhengzhou Song and Dance Theater. It premiered during the 12th Lotus Awards, the highest dance awards in China, in Luoyang, Central China’s Henan province, on Oct 16.
According to the dance’s choreographer, Chen Lin, the production was inspired by the tangsancai, or tricolored glazed pottery, displayed at a museum in Luoyang, especially the figurines of instrument-players and dancers.
“We thought it would be interesting to bring the Tang Dynasty pottery figurines to life and tell their stories onstage, which would also be a creative approach to showcase the treasures. That’s how we started to create the dance piece,” says Chen.
“The women portrayed in Tang Dynasty paintings are full-figured, which indicates good living conditions and wealth. We want to showcase the aesthetic vision of the Tang Dynasty, so we got the dancers to put on makeup and clothes just like the women in the painting.
“I think it stood out because, unlike the traditional beauties we portray in dance pieces, who are surreal, these Tang Dynasty maids we put on stage are closer to real life.”
The dancers put cotton balls in their mouths and wore padded clothes to look as full-figured as the ancient women.
Besides the beautiful movements of traditional Chinese dance, the choreographer also designed some moves with a sense of humor, which received positive feedback from viewers.
“We worked very hard on the looks because it’s crucial for bringing the characters to life onstage. It was uncomfortable to perform with cotton balls in our mouths in the beginning, but we soon got used to it,” says the principal dancer Yi Xingyan of Zhengzhou Song and Dance Theater, who performed in the dance piece.
“From the clothes, headwear and makeup to our dance movements and facial expressions, all the details made our performance successful.”
Chen Lei, director of Henan TV Station’s Spring Festival gala, says: “It came as a surprise when we learned that the dance won lots of attention and praise. Our goal was to present a show which is fun and warm, and we are glad that we achieved that.”
The award-winning choreographer, Chen Lin, who was born and grew up in Zhengzhou, graduated from Beijing Dance Academy and has been working with Zhengzhou Song and Dance Theater since 2009. Her work is inspired by her hometown’s folk tales, historic heroes and the iconic Shaolin Temple, the birthplace of Chinese kung fu.
“I like to visit museums in my hometown as many cultural relics, unearthed in Henan, are exhibited there, which also make me imagine the stories behind them,” says Chen Lin.
With a stunning 10-day box-office haul surpassing 4 billion yuan ($619.2 million), the long-awaited Detective Chinatown 3, directed by former actor Chen Sicheng, has become a hot topic among moviegoers since Spring Festival.
The franchise follows the adventures of a detective duo comprising an uncle and his nephew, played by actors Wang Baoqiang and Liu Haoran, respectively, as they travel the world looking to solve a series of mysteries, from Bangkok in the first film to New York in the second installment and now Tokyo.
The newly released third chapter sees the pair being invited to try and solve a tricky case, in which murder is committed in a locked room, despite several witnesses supposedly watching the door of the room from the outside. The suspect and the victim are both heads of separate Japanese gangs. As the detectives probe more into the case to figure out who the culprit actually is, an unexpected tale about the tragic lives of war orphans and their offspring unfolds.
“The movie features anti-war sentiment,” Chen, the director, says in a promotional video for the film.
He notes that although it’s been a long time since the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), what it left behind still affects the lives of many people.
“I just want to show the longterm, harmful impact of wars on us as people,” he says.
A symposium was held recently to gather scholars, film experts and critics to comment on this latest installment in the series.
Wu Yajun, director of the department of film and TV art at the Central Academy of Drama, said at the event that the movie tries to cater to the mass-market, as a variety of age groups will see in it cultural elements with which they are familiar.
For instance, the plot revolves around the investigation and solving of a locked-room mystery, a genre which is popular among young fans of crime fiction.
The movie also presents a cosplay show where the audience can see characters from Calabash Brothers, Saint Seiya, Chibi Maruko-chan and other Chinese or Japanese animations that are ingrained in the childhood memories of the post1990s generation, he says.
Older audience members, such as those born after 1970, can also discern an air of nostalgia from seeing some iconic Japanese stars in the latest Chinese detective movie, including Tomokazu Miura and Honami Suzuki, known to Chinese fans for their roles in the runaway hit Akai Giwaku, and the 1991 TV series Tokyo Love Story, respectively.
“These icons of yesteryear help to recall the beautiful memories of many middle-aged audience members,” says Wu, adding that the movie’s producers have a clear understanding of the demands of moviegoers.
China’s film industry is also exploring the creation of its own film IP as it matures, and the Detective Chinatown franchise is an important step in that exploration.”
Yin Hong, vice-chairman of China Film Association, pointed out that franchises like The Fast and the Furious, James Bond, the Marvel Cinematic Universe and other renowned films have laid the foundation of the thriving Hollywood business and fueled its sustainable development.
“Their continuity somehow meets the emotional needs of the audience,” he says.
As more characters and clues emerge in Detective Chinatown 3, two opposing camps, the good and the evil, have been gradually forming to shape a “cinematic detective universe” in a Chinese style. A larger picture of stories that fits in with people’s common values will unfold, he adds.
“China’s film industry is also exploring the creation of its own film IP as it matures, and the Detective Chinatown franchise is an important step in that exploration,” he says, adding that the popularity of the franchise has also been enhanced by a 12-episode online series of the same title, which has gained 7.5 points out of 10 on the review site Douban, considered a barometer of domestic popularity.
“I hope the franchise will give a well-rounded portrayal of Chinese detectives, grow into a carrier of the wisdom, lifestyles and values of Chinese people and become a successful IP for Chinese-style detective films.”
Yin Hong, vice-chairman, China Film Association