Hua Jian: Cultural heritage into cultural assets need to crack the "genetic code"

The picture shows Hua Jian speaking at an academic conference (infographic) Courtesy of the interviewee

Zhengzhou, April 27 (China News Network) -- The 8th Du Fu International Poetry Week will kick off on April 29 in Gongyi City, Henan Province. As the birthplace of Du Fu, Gongyi has been a poet for many years, inviting famous families from all walks of life to visit Du Fu's hometown, explore the cultural heritage of Du Fu's poetry, and explore a new path to build Du Fu's cultural IP.

On the eve of this year's Poetry Week, the reporter interviewed Hua Jian, director and researcher of the Cultural Industry Research Center of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, to listen to his opinions and suggestions on the development of Du Fu's cultural heritage.

From the perspective of sustainable development, pay attention to Du Fu's IP development

Hua Jian proposed that in the post-industrial era, there is an increasingly close and rich connection between culture, creativity and cities. In their 2022 report, Reshaping Policies for Creativity, UNESCO and the World Bank highlighted the importance of cultural creativity in preserving cultural diversity and promoting sustainable human society. He believes that the key to the inheritance of cultural diversity is "gene" and "transformation", that is, to crack the cultural code in the local cultural heritage, to continue the wisdom of the predecessors to overcome various challenges, and to transform into a cultural asset that can be invested, circulated and protected.

Hua Jian said that the large number of poems created by Du Fu, as well as related sites, classics and legends, are precious historical heritage and cultural resources. "But resources are not equal to assets, and it is necessary to extract from them universal themes and popular forms that are of public good significance to the peoples of today, so that they have a clear intellectual property nature, and are combined with more investors, developers and communicators to obtain good transformation benefits."

He believes that this is a social project in itself, and it must invest a lot of resources, including funds, talents, technology and equipment, etc., and obtain sustainable social returns through the wide dissemination of IP, including the recognition of the brand, the reputation of the market, the conversion degree of circulation and other requirements, so that it can become a high-quality cultural asset owned by a city and a country.

Explore Du Fu's IP development from the perspective of international reference

The inspiration provided by many international success stories is that the development of major historical and cultural heritage requires both a penetrating understanding of history itself, a great courage to innovate, and the tireless effort of "sharpening a sword in ten years".

For example, in 2000, after graduating, young artist Felix Barrett and friends founded the Punchdrunk Troupe, and in 2003 created Sleepless Nights (London edition) based on One of Shakespeare's Four Tragedies, Macbeth. This new form of performing arts combines elements such as performance art and scene experience. In 2011, the repeatedly polished "Sleepless Nights" (New York version) debuted on Broadway in New York and quickly became a blockbuster; in 2016, the re-refined "Sleepless Nights" (Shanghai version) debuted in Shanghai Shangyan Valley, performing more than 1,400 times for 5 consecutive years with a new look of immersive experience, maintaining the popular record of "one ticket is hard to find". From the London version to the New York version to the Shanghai version, it has continuously deepened the understanding of Shakespeare's tragedy, and it has integrated with the cultural atmosphere of london, New York and Shanghai, and has become the representative of today's immersive drama.

The ancients said, "Instead of envying the fish, it is better to retreat to the net." Hua Jian believes that the work of developing Du Fu's IP may be inspired by these classic cases. "Du Fu, as a great poet on a par with Dante and Shakespeare, has a deep and heavy connotation and achievement. Today's developers and builders must have this kind of continuous investment in 'twenty years of grinding a sword' if they want to develop Du Fu IP into high-quality cultural products, and also need to absorb the cultural nutrition of countries around the world. If you want to blow the chaff to see the rice and see the immediate effect, then the result can only be the opposite of the north, the hasty end. ”

Promote du fu IP development from the perspective of new cultural formats

Hua Jian mentioned that under the background of the current booming rise of the digital economy, the combination of digital technology and cultural creativity has spawned a large number of new digital culture formats, with online, intelligent, interactive and cross-border as the four major characteristics, and promoted the reconstruction of the elements of the cultural industry, that is, focusing on digital data + computing power, re-evaluating and effectively allocating other elements such as creativity, content, capital, technology, space, etc. Combining virtual and physical spaces has led to digital exhibition displays, digital publishing and reading, digital music, esports games, digital audio, immersive experiences, and more.

"If Gongyi City, Henan Province, where Du Fu was born, wants to become a gathering place and experience place for Du Fu's IP development, it should be combined with these new formats to achieve the visualization, experientiality and accessibility of Du Fu IP." Hua Jian said that du Fu lived in an era of transition from China's prosperous Tang Dynasty to decline, and encountered great turbulence in the Anshi Rebellion. Du Fu's fate is also the same as the fate of the nation, with ups and downs, sorrows and joys. "Lu is white from tonight, the moon is the hometown of Ming", which has become one of Du Fu's most famous nostalgic poems. In the turbulent displacement, Du Fu always missed his hometown, which had a profound impact on his personality formation and aesthetic consciousness. After his death, the mausoleum also returned to his hometown of Gongyi in Henan.

Huajian suggested that it is possible to combine the characteristics of new cultural formats, integrate and integrate a large number of new technologies and new models such as digital exhibitions and displays, plan and upgrade the scenic spots of Du Fu's birthplace as a whole, reproduce the situations that have been obliterated in history, let "architecture be readable", let "landscapes speak", let today's people more intuitively feel Du Fu's humanitarian feelings of compassion and worry, and also better appreciate the vastness and beauty of Du Fu's poetry. (End)