Peking Opera-iPad Show features a sequence where dozens of dancers walk onto stage, each covering their face with an iPad that shows a magnified deadpan face.[Photo provided to China Daily]
Peking Opera marries new technology with surprising results in 2047 Apologue, Cheng Yuezhu reports.
Peking Opera, an icon of traditional culture, and iPad, a digital invention of the 21st century, hardly fit into the same context, yet a concept theater show, directed by filmmaker Zhang Yimou, manages to combine the two seamlessly.
One of the performances in his 2047 Apologue features the gripping Peking Opera scene Sanchakou (The Crossroads Inn), where two characters get into a fight in a pitch-dark room. With only one table on stage, the performers mime finding and fighting one another without giving away their own location, exhibiting agile acrobatic and martial arts skills.
The sequence is followed by an eerie scene in which dozens of dancers walk onto stage, each covering their face with an iPad that shows a magnified deadpan face.
That these two scenes should appear in the same performance is not random, but an exploration of the evolving social interaction with the development of science and technology, according to He Lulu, chief executive director of the show.
"In ancient times when there was no electricity, people had to feel their way in the dark and try to find each other. Now we can see one another, but do we really 'see' them? We might not see our friends in person as often as we read their social media posts, and even at gatherings, many people are communicating through their phones," He says.
With similarly curious amalgams between the traditional and the modern, 2047 Apologue uses advanced multimedia stage technology, including lasers and holograms, and a diverse range of Chinese traditional and folk art forms, to explore and present the relationship between humans and technology.
In the show, viewers can see mechanical arms on stage, their movements creating shadows which interact with a dancer; a 79-year-old folk opera singer performing alongside a hologram of modern dancers; and a confrontation of, and synergy between, Western and Chinese percussion instruments.
From May 21 to June 12, the show is touring Chengdu in Sichuan province, Shenzhen in Guangdong province, Shanghai, and Hefei in Anhui province, with eight performances selected from its previous three seasons.
One of the performances,
Work Song-Dye, presents a giant mobile phone projection on the stage and modern dancers representing "smartphone zombies".[Photo provided to China Daily]
These performances, ranging from vocal and dance to those with an emphasis on visual and high-tech presentation, offer the audience an eclectic experience, according to He.
"Although the eight programs seem distinct from one another, each and every one of them is actually telling a short philosophical story. With these performances, we would like to present a dialogue between traditional Chinese culture and modern and high-tech visual art," He says.
Such a dialogue can also be seen from the Chinese Zither-Laser Show, where the performer Qiu Jirong gives a solo dance performance to the accompaniment of a guqin (seven-stringed zither), and his dance moves interact with, and are gradually confined by, the blue laser beams on stage.
The performance comes from the first season of 2047 Apologue in 2017. While it retains the original format and movements, Qiu says that his interpretation of the dance has changed slightly.
"My own understanding of the dance is that the character has a growing number of desires, but gradually the desires start to restrain him, and in the end lead him to despair," Qiu says.
Despite coming from a long line of Peking Opera performers, Qiu is now known as a crossover performer who experiments with innovative and modernized ways of presenting traditional art forms.
"I feel that our generation has the duty to think about how to convey something deeper on a spiritual level, how to show the audience the gist of Chinese culture, and how to give young people a sort of philosophical reflection," Qiu says.
Most of the Chinese traditional art forms featured in the performances are those of intangible cultural heritage, such as folk opera styles including Peking Opera and Wanwanqiang Opera from Shaanxi province, and traditional instruments including sheng (a free reed instrument) and morin khuur (horse-headed fiddle).
To help the audience understand the art forms and the themes, a brief audio introduction is added before each program, offering information on the program's form and content, as well as giving credit to the performers.
One of the performances, Work Song-Dye, presents a giant mobile phone projection on the stage, where the twisted movements of dozens of modern dancers representing "smartphone zombies" interlace with the crude and rhythmic singing of three work song performers from the mountains of Fujian province.
Crossover performer Qiu Jirong gives a solo dance while interacting with the blue laser beams on stage.[Photo provided to China Daily]
The work song they perform is a type of folk song which, for hundreds of years, has been sung by loggers to keep pace with one another.
"Seeing the performance only, audiences may not understand what the three old men are singing, but when they have been introduced to the art form, they will see the beauty and wisdom involved in the traditional way of labor," He says.
"Some traditional art forms seem out of step with contemporary culture insofar as that they might seem too slow in rhythm or use mostly dialects. But another reason is that not many people are patient enough to learn about the culture behind them."
Therefore, for future productions, she says that she wants to present more intangible cultural heritage elements on stage, with the hope that the team will be able to go on field trips around the country and find folk art forms to introduce to the public.
Having participated in all three seasons of the production, He says that the show felt advanced and progressive for the team and the audience alike when they worked on the first season in 2017, and over the years she has observed that more TV programs are now adopting similar technology and forms.
She says it will be difficult to find new technological methods that will bring striking visual experience to the audience, but the team always aims to create experimental performances that will stand the test of time.
The dialectics between the traditional and the modern, as well as human and technology will continue to be the show's core subject matter, as is reinforced by director Zhang.
"Throughout human history, it has been a common practice to look back to tradition and look forward to the future. We are now living in an era that's quickly evolving, a world of the internet, images and information, with a lot of technology in our lives," Zhang says.
"For example, as presented in the performance Work Song-Dye, it seems that no one can live without their mobile phones, and there's this issue of 'smartphone zombies'.Although we created it several years ago, the performance is still very much relevant for today's society, so is the relationship between humans and technology."
