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News Briefing for Zhejiang Week at 2010 World Expo, Shanghai
Jun 17, 2010
Zhejiang Provincial Government warmly welcomes journalists from home and abroad for attending the press conference for Zhejiang Week at 2010 World Expo, Shanghai.
From June 18 to 22, Zhejiang Week will officially get underway in the Expo Park. In the next five days, we will put on performances and exhibitions with folk and modern characteristics in order to showcase to the world the long history, rich and colorful regional culture, cultural and artistic development, as well as the unique humanistic spirit of Zhejiang.
Hereby, we would like to give you a brief introduction of the activities if Zhejiang Week, which could be summarized as "One Theme", "Five Events" and "Four Features".
I. One Theme
The theme of this week is "Happy Urban and Rural Life, Wonderful and picturesque Homeland". There are several implications to this.
Firstly, it embodies Zhejiang's rich culture and beautiful natural landscape. And Zhejiang has a brilliant culture with a splendid history. Shangshan Civilization, Kua-hu-qiao Civilization, He-mu-du Civilization, and Liangzhu Civilization have been inherited since the Neolithic Period. Wang Chong, Wang Yangming, Lu You, Wang Xizhi, Xu Wei, Wu Changshuo, Cai Yuanpei, Wang Guowei, Lu Xun, Mao Dun are only some of the numerous well-known historical figures produced in Zhejiang. Hangzhou, Ningbo, Shaoxing, Quzhou, Jinhua, and Linhai are also famous cities each with a unique history. If these are not enough, there are 132 National Key Heritage Conservation Sites and 129 National Non-material Cultural Relics. At the same time, the natural landscape and cultural views enhance each other's beauty. Zhejiang has 14 state-level places of interest, one state-level tourist resort, 35 national forest parks, among which the West Lake in Hangzhou is a central spot. These places and spots form a poetic and picturesque environment for human settlement. Secondly, the theme reflects the harmonious lives of Zhejiang people. Since China's opening up to the outside world and the implementation of economic reform in the early 1980s, people of Zhejiang have explored a way of development with its unique characteristics. From 1978 to 2009, Zhejiang's average annual GDP increased by 13%; per capital GDP increased by 11.8%; annual disposable income of urban residents increased by 8.1%; and annual average net income of rural residents increased by 8.5%. Zhejiang with great vitality in its economy has become one of the fastest developing provinces. The province is harmonious and flourishing with balanced urban and rural development for people to enjoy happy and peaceful lives. Thirdly, our theme echoes the Shanghai Expo theme. Focusing on cultural life, the theme of "Happy Urban and Rural Life, Wonderful and picturesque Homeland." will emphasize the happy lives in the process of urban and rural integration. It goes with the theme "Better City, Better Life" of Shanghai Expo, and echoes the theme of Zhejiang "Happy Urban and Rural Life, Wonderful and picturesque Homeland", representing the unique charms of poetic and picturesque homes in the province.
II. Five Events
Five events will be focused in the Zhejiang Week.
Event One: "Spring in Zhejiang -- the Open Space Performance of Zhejiang Folk Art".
This performance showcases the essence of Zhejiang folk dance with drums, lanterns, and dragon as the major means of ornate, using the most representative symbols of Chinese culture to present this artistic glamour of "grassroots culture". More than 300 performers from the whole province will artistically interpret the contemporary style of Zhejiang people. "Spring in Zhejiang" consists of three chapters: "Charm of the Drum", "Beauty of the Lantern", and "Spirit of the Dragon", which are classified according to their different manifestations. The performance is full of twists and turns, and each piece is well structured with a great amount of information and strong visual impact. This section has five parts. The preface is the "Happy Homeland", with the performance of "Colorful Plates", "Qingtian Fishing Lantern", and "Haining Palace Lantern". Chapter One is "Charm of the Drum" performed with "Bass Drum from Xiaojiang", "Flower Drum in Watertown", and "Fishing Drum from Xiangshan Town". Chapter Two is "Beauty of the Lantern" performed by "Haining Palace Lantern", "Qingtian Fishing Lantern on Lotus Flower", "Yuhang Rolling Lantern", and "Lantern Show in the Watertown". Chapter Three is "Spirit of the Dragon", including "Lotus Dragon Dancing of Changxing", "Cloth Dragon Dancing of Fenghua", and "Kowloon Columns". Then, in the epilogue, all the actors will perform "The Sun Rises for Me". This event will last 57 minutes.
Event Two: Winds of Zhejiang: Folk Music Performance.
This is a concert in celebration of the lifestyle and aesthetics of southern China in general and Zhejiang in particular. The concert is staged by Butterflies, a band of young women instrumentalists specialized in Chinese folk music. These women are members of the folk music orchestra of Zhejiang Song and Dance Troupe. The program includes "The Song of Joy" and "The Song of the South", two representative folk music pieces of Jiangnan Silk and Bamboo, a regional music popular in the south of the Yangtze River Delta. Also on the program are "Three, Five and Seven" and "Boat Song of My River Hometown" (two bamboo flute solo masterpieces), "Words of Bamboo" played on music instruments made of bamboo, "Minor Rainbow Costumes", a performance of dance and music. The 50-minute visual and audio gala will surely wow the audience. The All Women Band Butterflies has staged performances in 20 some countries and regions in America, Europe and Southeast Asia. Their musical achievement is highly appreciated.
Event Three: Rich Resources and Fine Craftsmanship Exhibition
The exhibition not only showcases the traditional handicrafts of Zhejiang also designs to pass on the skills to younger generations, aiming to reflect the achievement of intangible cultural heritage in Zhejiang and to present the unique charms of Zhejiang folk handicrafts to the audiences. The art exhibition contains 12 National Intangible Cultural Heritages and traditional handicrafts of fork custom, including Dongyang Woodcarving, Chinese Boxwood Carving in Yueqing, Qingtian Stone Carving, Lotus Dragon Dancing, Xiaoshan Lacework, and so on.
Qingtian Stone Carving is exhibited in the center of the exhibition hall accompanied by two giant writing brushes with a height of almost 2 meters hung on the front gate of the hall, and 32 Haining's Xiashi Palace Lantern as well as Changxing Lotus Dragon Dancing and colorful lantern without "bones". Pujiang Wheat-straw Pictures -- the Riverside Scene at Moon Festival, 2.2 meters in length and 0.9 meter in width, is a highlight. It took one year to complete and many techniques were used such as cutting, weaving, engraving, carving and burning, in which over 1000 figures were depicted lively and vividly. Moreover, craft masters will perform their great techniques like Kunqu Opera, tea making, crafts on the wheat-straw, Hangzhou embroidery, rice modeling, Hangzhou Wang Xinji Paper Fans, silk making, Xiling Seal Engraving, Xiaoshan Lacework, making of writing brushes, Pinghu Watermelon Lantern. Spectators are encouraged to participate in these activities.
Event Four: Dragon in the Flourishing Age -- a Cruise Show of Zhejiang Folk Art".
This show will be filled with a lively atmosphere of rich colors and unique local features. There are 10 programs, including "Colorful Butterflies", "Haining Palace Lanterns", "Lantern Light and Moonlight", "Nine-Colored Dragon", "Nine-Lion Puppet Show", "Yuhang Rolling Lanterns", "Lotus Dragon Dancing", "Qingtian Fishing Lantern", "Cloth Dragon Dancing of Fenghua" and "Pujiang Fair Show". All of these programs will be in high artistry and worth appreciating, some of which have won prizes at home and abroad. The dance of "Haining Palace Lanterns" will be performed by a group of charismatic and creative girls, holding their self-made lanterns. The program "Nine-colored Dragon" demonstrates the rich regional culture of dragon dance by drums and gongs. This performance also depicts several distinct attributes, masculinity and femininity, power and peace, joy and excitement, rhythm and harmony. The "Yuhang Rolling Lantern Dancing" has a history of over 800 years. It is a combination of dance as well as skills and sports with nine series of twenty-seven movements, which is a good presentation to the great creativity of Zhejiang folk dance. "Lotus Dragon Dancing" originated in the "Flower Dragon Lantern" in early Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty(1644-1911). The lotus flowers will turn into a dragon in a sudden. The magnificent artistic conception will be shown by the changing movements and appealing plots, such as rippling of the lake water, swaying of the lotus leaves, blooming of the lotus flowers, coming of the butterflies, lotus flowers turning into dragon, dragon playing, and dragon turning back into lotus flowers. The "Pujiang Fair Show" has a history of more than a thousand yeas. It is based on the legendary figures in Chinese folk with careful artistic design characteristic of surprise, peril, oddity and wonder. In this show, there are 16 strong men lifting up a long table, above which 18 additional actors will give an acrobatic performance of the "Oriental Unique Stunts on the Table".
Event Five: Charms of Yue Porcelain -- Special Concert of Green Porcelain
This is the highlight in Chinese music history. Green porcelain baked from Yue Kiln, mainly the Yueou porcelain, is used as a musical instrument. Traditionally, the Chinese have been using ceramics and daily utensils to play music. However, through the transitions of new era, especially since the decline of Yue kilns and the limitation of the oral instruction, Yue Kilns, Celadon, and Bowel Music are going into extinction. In 1998, there were a batch of celadon musical instrument, Yue bell, Yue xun, and Yue drum, unearthed in Longkou Kiln in the Temple of Shangling Lake, Cixi, Zhejiang province. They then became a landmark in China's archaeological history of music. In order to protect and develop the traditional culture of Celadon and porcelain Music, the Cixi national orchestra troupe and Cixi Research Institute of Yue Kilns and Celadon established a close cooperation relationship with each other. They worked hard together and made a copy of porcelain bowels, porcelain clocks, porcelain drums, porcelain xun, and bird whistles which could be used for performing music. They also formed ceramic musical instrument with four series over twenty kinds. Moreover, the Art Troupe for Celadon and Bowel Music in Cixi of Zhejiang Province was established. Performances such as the "charms of the Yue China", "flute under the moon", which once won the national "Stars' Prize" will be presented during the Zhejiang Week. The whole performance of this section will last 30 minutes, showing the magic power of porcelain music and dancing.
III. Four Features
Zhejiang Week can be summarized as the following four features:
First, Zhejiang Province boasts a rich and unique regional culture. This week, the play will display the regional cultural advantages, integrate all cultural resources, and fully demonstrate the distinctive features so as to entertain our guests from home and abroad with a feast of culture and art. The five comprehensive exhibitions will be presented from multiple levels and angles showing the unique regional natural and cultural flavors of this water town, south of the Yangtze River. "Zhejiang Trend" will display several culture shows. Apart from the dancing that embodies strong regional characteristics, the stage design applies the freehand landscape painting of Zhejiang as the background, with the shifts of scenes reflecting the emotional changes and the emotion similarly affected by the scenes, which stands for the reflection of the excellent blending of scenes and emotions. The music style combines the modern notion with Zhejiang musical elements like the Yue Opera. "Rich Resources and Fine Craftsmanship and Kun Opera" and "Tea Ceremony" will demonstrate the tea culture of Zhejiang Province. Adapted from "The Peony Pavilion: Persuasion of the Farmer" and accompanied by Kun Opera, the ceremonies of tea leaves plucking, tea intoning, tea picking, tea making, and tea offering will all be depicted.
Second, its folklore culture. The folklore culture of Zhejiang is inherited and developed generation after generation in the long course of history. In the recent years, it has been effectively preserved and succeeded under the support and concern of the party committees, the government at different levels, and all walks of life. "Spring in Zhejiang" contains a list of the National Intangible Culture Protection programs. "Rich Resources and Fine Craftsmanship" covers 18 traditional handicrafts items selected throughout the province and are with high standards. "Dragon Dancing in the Flourishing Era" is a collection of folklore performances including Qingtian Fishing Lanterns" which shows the traditional folk dance of the area, which illustrates the living habits of freshwater fish and military formation with the movements along the scheme chart. Another part of the dragon dance, the "Cloth Dragon of Fenghua" is evolved from the activities of god worshiping, inviting, and god entertaining into a distinctive folk dance in its history of over 300 years.
Third, the participation of the great mass. One of the emphases of the Zhejiang Week is to build a platform for the general public to give artistic performances and hereby to enhance the prosperity of popular culture and art. As a matter of fact, many performances are collected from the folk and therefore fairly popular among the general public. Besides, most of the performers are from all walks of life. The performers of "Spring in Zhejiang" and "Dragon Dancing in the Flourishing Era" are mostly farmers and ordinary people from 11 cities and over 20 counties within the province. Furthermore, some interactive activities are planned to encourage more participation from the public.
Fourth, the artistic features. All five chapters of Zhejiang Week possess high artistic values. Most performances have been carefully revised, winning top prizes during recent years and gaining tremendous popularity.
The latest edition of "The Romance of Butterfly Lovers" is selected as the key opera funded by the National Best Stage Art Project. As a Chinese Operas Academy Award winner, it was once awarded the first prize in the National Performance of Excellent Local Operas. "Haining Palace Lantern" once participated in the parade of the 50th anniversary of the New China, and was awarded gold in the Thirteenth Stars Award by the Ministry of Culture. On behalf of Zhejiang Province, the "Nine-Lion Puppet Show " has been exhibited several times in France and New Zealand for cultural exchanges, winning praise from both the public and professionals. "Lotus Dragon Dancing of Changxing County", which was awarded the top prize in the 2nd Joint National Performance of Folk Music and Dance, honored with a gold prize in the dancing competition of the 10th Stars Award by the Ministry of Culture, and won the Award of Outstanding Contribution in the Gala Party of the 60th anniversary for the founding of New China as well. The "Cloth Dragon Dancing of Fenghua" won the Silver Prize of the National Dragon Dancing Competition. It also won the third prize in the Dragon Dancing event of the 5th National Farmer Games and was honored with a golden prize in the 7th Chinese Art Festival. It is no exaggeration to say that the Zhejiang Week is a comprehensive exhibition week of the fine arts of the province.
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