The classic Chinese dance drama "Flower Rain on the Silk Road", known as "the milestone of Chinese folk dance drama", is based on the murals of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, with the theme of peace and friendship on the Silk Road, and has been performed since 1979. By the end of 2023, the play has been performed 3,952 times in more than 40 countries and regions.
How does "Silk Road Flower Rain" reflect Chinese and Western elements? Why is it popular with overseas audiences? "45 years old", how can it always be new? Wang Qiong, a national first-class actor, first-class choreographer, and vice president of the Gansu Provincial Song and Dance Theater, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Service's "East and West Question" to explain.
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The transcript of the interview is summarized below:
China News Service: What is the background of the creation of "Silk Road Flower Rain"? How to reflect Chinese and Western elements in the process of creation and arrangement?
Wang Qiong: I have a secret relationship with the dance drama "Silk Road Flower Rain", which was first performed in 1979, and I was just born, the same age as it; I am the 12th Yingniang in this play, and I am also the Yingniang who dances on the stage for the longest time. According to the predecessors, in 1977, the creative team of the Gansu Provincial Song and Dance Troupe (now the Gansu Provincial Song and Dance Theater) rehearsed the repertoire, and Chen Shunyao, then deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Gansu Provincial Party Committee, suggested that they set their sights on Dunhuang, an "artistic bonanza" deep in the Hexi Desert of Gansu.
At that time, Dunhuang became a breakthrough for Gansu artists to create new dramas and explore changes. Dunhuang in the Tang Dynasty, with convenient transportation, frequent economic and trade exchanges, and prosperous culture, was the place where Eastern and Western civilizations converged, and the period was the heyday of Dunhuang's development, and the script creation was determined in the Tang Dynasty. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, China exchanged envoys and friendly exchanges with many countries, the most prominent of which was Persia. The Persian merchant Inus was created as a symbol of friendship between China and foreign countries.
No conflict is no drama. The artists excavated according to historical materials, and created villains such as Zhang, Yingniang, and the righteous Hexi Jiedu envoy who represented the unknown craftsmen of ancient times, as well as the city Cao and the robber Dou Hu who were in charge of the Dunhuang market. With the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty as the historical background, and the Silk Road and Dunhuang murals as the main line of creation, it tells the touching story of the kindness and simplicity of the ancient Silk Road, Zhang and Yingniang, father and daughter, in order to rescue foreign merchants.
On the evening of February 23, 2024, the classic Chinese dance drama "Silk Road Flower Rain" was performed in Lanzhou, Gansu Province to celebrate the New Year. Photo by Li Yalong
"Silk Road Flower Rain" draws on the strengths of others, integrating Chinese neon clothes and feather dances, Dunhuang dances, Indian dances, black scarf dances, and Persian horse bell dances, presenting a large-scale dance drama with diverse dance types and novel dance shapes. The 27-nation trade fair was grandly held on the stage, and the dance drama tried its best to restore the grand occasion of economic and trade exchanges between the East and the West on the ancient Silk Road at that time in terms of music and costumes.
The predecessors went to Dunhuang seven times, changed their drafts several times, constantly explored and modified, and the name of the dance drama was changed from "Dunhuang Song" and "Silk Road" to "Silk Road Flower Rain", which has been performed to this day. On May 23, 1979, "Silk Road Flower Rain" premiered at the Yellow River Theater in Lanzhou, which was a "gorgeous turn" of Chinese dance drama.
On the evening of February 23, 2024, the classic Chinese dance drama "Silk Road Flower Rain" was performed in Lanzhou, Gansu Province to celebrate the New Year. Photo by Li Yalong
China News Service: In the 80s and early 90s of the 20th century, "Silk Road Flower Rain" opened a way for Chinese culture to "travel overseas" to the world.
Wang Qiong: On October 1, 1979, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, "Silk Road Flower Rain" was performed in Beijing, which shocked the literary and art circles at home and abroad, and then was invited to perform in Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Shanghai and other places. The actors never came back, and they were gone for months, and the clothes for the changing seasons could only be purchased locally. The crew was invited to perform in Hong Kong, and finally performed 15 performances, and the local media and audiences commented that "the camel is on stage, and the flying sky is resurrected".
On the evening of April 17, 2023, the classic Chinese dance drama "Flower Rain on the Silk Road" was performed at the Broadway Theatre in Macau. Photo courtesy of Gansu Performing Arts Group
When they went to perform overseas, the seniors were also apprehensive at first, worried about whether overseas audiences could understand the emotions that Chinese culture wanted to express just by relying on the body language of the actors. In 1982, the crew was invited to perform at the Teatro alla Scala in Italy, and at the end of the performance, there was silence in the audience, and after 30 seconds, the audience burst into enthusiastic applause, and the curtain call lasted for 25 minutes. This was an early exploration of Chinese art from the East entering the overseas market.
"Flower Rain on the Silk Road" not only "resurrects" Dunhuang, which has been silent for thousands of years, but also acts like a mobile "cultural and art museum", touring around the world like a station wagon, becoming a window for foreign friends to understand Chinese history and culture. "Flower Rain on the Silk Road" has experienced the process of Chinese culture going global, and it has also opened the prelude to the Chinese art performance team's visit to the world to carry out cultural exchanges.
In 2012, when the crew performed at the Kennedy Center in the United States, I sat next to an American, and I asked him if he could understand it, and he said, "No problem, after watching it, I'm going to Dunhuang, I'm going to China." ”
China News Service: What versions of "Silk Road Flower Rain" have been launched? How to always play and always new?
Wang Qiong: According to market changes and the aesthetic needs of the audience, we must continue to innovate and upgrade. Up to now, the play has the original version in 1979, the 2008 Olympic version, the 2016 enhanced version and the resident performance tourism version. The crew implements the international standards of dance dramas in terms of costumes, stage art, music, and performance duration, and boldly tries to meet the needs of the current audience through modern digital technologies such as projection technology and large screen technology.
The tourism version of the dance drama "Silk Road Flower Rain" was performed at the Yellow River Theater in Lanzhou, Gansu Province. Photo by Yang Yanmin
In order to shorten the distance with young people, the play is also presented through traditional TV and online platforms, making the dance drama more grounded. In 2021, "Silk Road Flower Rain" will appear in the new dance variety show "Dance Millennium" jointly produced by Henan Satellite TV and Bilibili (Station B), with wonderful dance performances, immersive stage space, and top visual effects skills, highly restore historical scenes. In 2022, "Silk Road Flower Rain" will have its global premiere in the cloud, attracting more than 200,000 people to watch it online.
In 2017, in order to meet the market demand, the tourism version of "Silk Road Flower Rain" was launched, and the regular performance was started at the Dunhuang Grand Theater, and a group of foreign actors were introduced. Especially in the third scene of the dance drama, Yingniang follows Inus to his country and gets along with the local people day and night, and the foreign people in the play are performed by foreign actors. In 2018, the tourist version of "Silk Road Flower Rain" was then performed at the Yellow River Theater in Lanzhou.
In 2024, we plan to create an international version of "Silk Road Flower Rain" for audiences all over the world, hoping to recruit actors from all over the world to participate in the "Belt and Road" countries, especially in the dance drama "27 Nations Trade Fair Grand Held", reproducing the smooth Silk Road and the everlasting friendship between China and foreign countries.
"Silk Road Flower Rain" foreign actors lead the dance in the Persian wine dance. Photo by Yang Yanmin
China News Service: Nowadays, many Chinese dance dramas such as "Silk Road Flower Rain", "Confucius" and "Only This Green" are going overseas, what role do they play in promoting people-to-people exchanges around the world? What enlightenment does this bring to telling the "China story" overseas?
Wang Qiong: In the past ten years, Chinese dance drama has made a qualitative leap, and the quality has continued. Zhejiang Ningbo Song and Dance Theater created the dance drama "Mulan", which has the market foundation of the animated film "Mulan" filmed in the United States before, and has attracted much attention overseas; Chinese dance dramas such as "Confucius" and "Only This Green" rely on Chinese classic culture to enter the international market, and are accepted and loved by overseas audiences, which not only highlights the process of Chinese art and culture being continuously seen and understood by the world, but also embodies the beauty of art without borders.
On the evening of February 29, 2024, the dance and poetry drama "Only This Green" was staged in Beijing, and many envoys in China and representatives of international organizations came to watch. Photo by Han Haidan
Dance is an art with the imprint of world culture, for example, the "Dunhuang Dance" born on the soil of Gansu Province vividly shows the collision and exchange of music and dance cultures of various ethnic groups on the ancient Silk Road, and brings cultural and artistic enjoyment to audiences from all over the world with its unique artistic characteristics.
Through dance, when facing different cultures, we must find the humanistic spirit that has commonality and interconnectedness, and express it sincerely. When we go overseas to perform, we should also take the initiative to absorb and learn from the excellent local culture, constantly broaden the international vision of the main creative team and actors, and learn from the strengths of others. (Text/China News Service reporter Ding Si)
(Source: China News Network)