How Jesuit China missions shaped Chinese society

Li Xiumei loves snow. “It purifies and silences everything, especially in this part of the campus,” said the associate law professor at the Beijing Administration Institute.

“After one snowy night I came here early in the morning to sink my footsteps into the spotless white sponge cake, footsteps that took me to a group of men that has occupied my imagination and much of my time for the past decade.”

To be precise, it is repeat visits to the tombstones of these men that have kept Li in their thrall. These tombstones, standing quietly on a patch of land measuring about 2,150 sq ft, are in tight formation. The intimacy is evocative, because centuries ago, when those to whom these monuments are dedicated arrived in China after months, or even years, at sea, they were essentially alone, with almost no one to turn to but themselves and their God.

They were Jesuit missionaries who journeyed to China from Europe between the 16th and 19th centuries, and they had at least two things in common: undoubted talent, including personal and diplomatic skills, and unwavering dedication to spreading the gospel.

“The Society of Jesus, a religious congregation of the Catholic Church whose members are known as Jesuits, was founded by Ignatius of Loyola, a nobleman from northern Spain, in the mid-16th century,” Li said.

“More than 1,000 Jesuits, not to mention other missionaries who had come under different banners within the Catholic Church, came to China. But most of those buried here are either the forerunners of the Jesuit mission or its most active members.”

Of all the 63 gravestones on the campus, three stand relatively apart, on a lot separated with the rest by a low wall. Their prominent position is indicated by the symbolic earth mounds behind each monument.

“The middle one belongs to Matteo Ricci, the Italian believed to have been the first Jesuit to enter Beijing,” Li said. “To its left is that of Johann Adam Schall von Bell, a German whose eventful life mirrors the tumults of his time; and to its right is that of Ferdinand Verbiest, a Belgian who became a de facto mentor for Kangxi (1654-1722), one of Chinese history’s greatest emperors and a contemporary of the Sun King of France.

“They shared not only legends, myths and anecdotes, but also triumphs and travails, and here, their final resting place.”

Zhang Xiping, a professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University, has spent most of his academic life researching the cultural exchanges between China and the West and has published books on the Jesuit mission in the country’s history.

“From the very beginning they realised that in recruiting in the name of God they had to be very flexible, to ‘become all things to all,’ to use the words of Loyola himself,” Zhang said.

PyeongChang 2018 unveils podiums, costumes for victory ceremonies

SEOUL, Dec. 27 (Yonhap) -- South Korean organizers have unveiled the podiums, costumes, music and gifts for medalists on Wednesday that will be used during the victory ceremonies at the PyeongChang Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games next year.

The PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG) said the victory ceremonies will be staged under the concept of "convergence and unique."

The POCOG said designs of the victory ceremony items are based on the idea of combining aspects of Western and Eastern culture, as well as modern and traditional. The victory ceremony programs will also deliver the unique beauty of South Korean culture, the organizers said.

The POCOG said the Olympics will have 103 victory ceremonies, while the Paralympics will have 80 medal-awarding events. The ceremonies will be staged at the Medal Plaza inside the Olympic Plaza in PyeongChang, some 180 kilometers east of Seoul.

The white podiums -- designed by Han Kyung-woo, a professor of installation art at Seoul National University of Science & Technology -- were inspired by snow on Korean traditional tiled roofs, also known as "giwa," and applied characteristics of "dancheong," Korean traditional decorative coloring on wooden buildings and artifacts.

The elegant costume designs -- created by Geum Key-sook, a professor of textile arts and fashion design at Hongik University in Seoul -- used the colors of blue and red, which are also used on the South Korean national flag "taegukgi." The costumes also applied designs from Korean traditional winter clothes and hats. They also designed the costumes for medal-bearers and athlete escorts to stay warm against PyeongChang's cold weather.

There will be no floral bouquets at the PyeongChang Games, but the POCOG will give a mini doll of the Games mascots wearing "Usahwa," a paper flower that was bestowed to those who passed national exams during the Joseon Dynasty, to the medal winners.

For the Olympics, the medalists will get a mini doll of Soohorang, along with take-home gift of a wooden artifact with Korean traditional letter "hangeul." The Paralympic medalists will receive a mini doll of Bandabi.

The music that will be used during the medal-awarding ceremony was composed by Cho Young-soo, who previously made songs for K-pop groups like SG Wannabe and T-ara,

Lee Hee-beom, who leads the POCOG, said the victory ceremonies will be a festival for both athletes and fans.

"We will try to show South Korea's unique culture and beauty to the world," he said. "For athletes, it's going to be one of the most important moments in their life, but for fans, it will be a culture festival."

The story behind the patterns

The parasol, golden fish, conch shell, lotus, vase, dharma wheel, victory banner and eternal knots are considered auspicious in Buddhism.

A jifugua (auspicious gown), with such symbols on it, that belonged to a queen during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), was among 10 items of clothing that were on display at a recent exhibition in Beijing.

“People would wear such a gown for festivals in Qing times, and all the symbols have meaning,” said Fang Hongjun, a retired researcher with the embroidery department of the Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, in Beijing.

The lotus, for example, is a symbol of purity and enlightenment.

Matching the eight round patterns, the design at the bottom of the gown is called haishuijiangya, referring to the sea and rugged cliffs. Several small patterns, such as the ruyi (a traditional Chinese symbol of good fortune) and peonies, are on this pattern.

“In fact the one who wears the gown decides what pattern she wants on the piece,” Fang said. “It could be a rhino horn, coral, gourd, silver ingot or some other thing.”

After having been designed by a queen or imperial concubine, the tailor who worked outside the palace would start to sew such a gown. Each piece could take a garment maker several months of needlework. The suture of the gown would be completed by the tailor at the palace right before the owner wore it.

“For different celebrations, the queens and imperial concubines would wear different such gowns,” Fang said. “They would also wear a matching jifupao [auspicious robe] with the same pattern as the main gown.”

“The gown had to be in blue, while the robe could be in any colour.”

A red robe from the reign of Emperor Guangxu (1875-1908) was also on show, and its crane medallion pattern illustrates it was worn for birthday celebrations. “The purple on the red ‘auspicious robe’ was only used in the late Qing Dynasty.”

Experts now can identify the time of Qing clothing through patterns, colours and fabrics, Fang said.

“From the Ming Dynasty (1368- 1644) to the Qing Dynasty, the style and colour turned from calm and solemn to complicated. In late Qing, more saturated colours were used.”

Du Jiayi, 24, curator of the exhibition, and who is studying illustration visual media at the University of the Arts London, picked eight costumes of the ruling Manchu and two from Han people at the time for the show.

“Usually people see clothes from the Qing Dynasty in museums, but I also wanted to show some clothes of that time from common people.

“It’s actually a fusion of Manchu and Han, and you can recognise the mixture of the patterns in the clothes of both races.”

Fang said: “Besides ethnic fusion, the clothing from the West introduced to China is the reason that the costume changed from loose to slim in the late Qing Dynasty.”

The snake-in precious forms and antiquities-beckons in Singapore

Like a serpent that molts and sheds its skin to renew itself, Bulgari's Serpenti Form art, design and jewelry exhibition in Singapore is not exactly like its first instalment in Rome in 2016.

"Such as the snake changes its skin, this exhibit will also be evolving all the time," Lucia Boscaini, Bulgari brand and heritage curator, told Lifestyle at the exhibit's preopening last week at the ArtScience Museum in Marina Bay Sands.

ICONIC SYMBOL

For starters, the show in the Lion City is nearly three times larger than the first edition in Rome, and boasts over 150 pieces of antiquities, contemporary art, photography, costumes, and jewelry all inspired by the snake.

Serpenti is one of the Italian jeweler's most iconic brand symbols, interpreted in watches and jewelry since the 1940s, and now also appears in leathergoods, accessories and eyewear.

Bulgari's connection with contemporary art is deeply rooted. While putting together a coffee-table book called "Serpenti in Art" two years ago, Boscaini and her team were faced with so many fascinating materials that couldn't go into the tome, that they decided to stage an exhibit.

"A book can be beautiful but static," Boscaini said. "An exhibition is a very immersive and emotional experience. In Rome, we didn't expect the immediate positive feedback from both the press and the audience; we even had it extended. When we saw the interest, that's when we conceived the Singapore exhibit."

With the limited space they had in Rome, Boscaini had to exclude the works by Asian artists. She finally got to show them in Singapore.

POSITIVE INTERPRETATIONS

While the snake is a universal symbol, Boscaini found most interesting in her research the different, sometimes conflicting values linked to it by different cultures.

"In my personal background, it's a negative symbol, [it stands for] temptation," she said. "On the contrary, there are many positive interpretations-a talisman, protector, symbol of fertility, healing, medicine, eternity, circle of life. Frankly I didn't imagine [to find out all of] that at all, it was enriching."

The exhibit, which runs until Oct. 15, features antiquities from the East and the West, like a statue of an Eastern Han dynasty tomb-guardian deity holding snakes and a statue of a young Hercules strangling snakes, both from the 2nd century AD.

There are also snake jewels from ancient Rome.

There are various works by eminent artists, from Joan Miro to Marc Chagall to Keith Haring, as well as photography by Robert Mapplethorpe and Helmut Newton.

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

"Snakes have so many interpretations, not only in terms of value-rebirth, healing, evolution-but the aesthetic interpretations are also so different," Boscaini said.

"That's the main criteria we followed in the selection of artworks here. There had to be different perspectives, and the provenance of the artists was very important-East, West, and by country as well, because the Japanese interpretations are so different from the Chinese. There's also a variety of materials-wood, bronze, marble, paper cuts, textile, photography, ceramics. We also considered the techniques."

A couple of her favorites are those by Chinese artist Wu Jian'an, "The White Snake hid immediately," that appears like a textured oil painting from afar, but is actually of the traditional Chinese art of paper cut, with intricate images of three-headed serpents, dragons, skulls; and contemporary artist Niki de Saint Phalle's playful snake figures of painted fiberglass or polyester.

Boscaini also included various costumes from cinema and theatre-from Jaye Davidson's Ra costume from the 1994 movie "Stargate" and a robe from Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor," to an elaborate opera costume for "Turandot" from 1926 and a snake mask made for Lady Gaga.

"It was so fun. Majority of them were borrowed from private collectors and museums, so it was a mix of everything. We wanted some irony, some lightness to the darkness."

In Bulgari, the Serpenti evolved from the minimalist Tubogas watch with a very tiny head to the more realistic contemporary interpretations featuring the scales of the reptile and, most recently, the focus on its head and eyes in designing jewelry. Now there are also leather bracelets that feature the viper's head.

DELICATE, FEMININE 

At the exhibit opening, guest star and Academy award-winning actress Alicia Vikander wore a Serpenti necklace with a large snake's head pendant. It complemented her earrings-a snake's head on each lobe.

"It's a versatile kind of icon," Boscaini said.

"The snake is very daring, but this ring [featuring a viper's head] is very delicate, very feminine, and wearable. Our Tubogas watch is daring and cool as well but it's very now. It's discreet. I also like that the attention now is all in the head and eyes. It's completely different from the past, but is an example of how Bulgari is able to go farther. The icon is the same, but it's a revolutionary design."

At the Serpenti Form exhibit, one room is devoted to pieces from the brand's heritage collection showing the evolution of the Serpenti. Included also are a couple of one-off high jewelry pieces, a necklace of uniquely cut chalcedony with diamonds and rubies, and a two-headed Serpenti watch of pink gold and diamonds.

Boscaini dispels any ideas that the exhibit is only for jewelry and art connoisseurs and collectors.

"We're not an art foundation or museum, so we don't want to offer a didactic experience," she said. "We want an emotional experience, a form of entertainment but with content. It's not at all addressed toward intellectuals or art historians and art experts, but for anybody interested in beauty."

Those who will see it in Singapore shouldn't expect the same when Serpenti Form moves to Tokyo in November, said its curator.

Charming Beijing tourism event held in Helsinki

A Beijing tourism delegation hosted a promotional event entitled Charming Beijing in Helsinki, Finland on Thursday, in a bid to promote tourism exchange between the two cities.

A full programme was organised aboard the passenger ship Finlandia Princess set amidst the backdrop of Kaapelitehdas, Helsinki's equivalent of the famous Beijing 798 art district.

Finland and China have enjoyed a fruitful relationship over the past few years, with 2017 marking the 11th anniversary of the establishment of the sister cities relationship between the two. Furthermore, the Happy Spring Festival fair has been held in the Finnish capital for the same length of time, alongside a number of other China-related functions and festivities.

During Thursday's event, those in attendance heard a wide range of speeches. Guo Xiaoguang, Cultural Counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Helsinki, opened proceedings, before Song Yu, Director-General of Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development, spoke of the similarities between the two nations.

Song pointed out that 479,000 visitors from Europe landed in Beijing during the first six months of this year, while 1.059m made the trip in 2016. The Nordic region, complete with improved transport links, is seen as an important region for the city and China in general, he concluded.

Outi Pekkinen, Marketing Director at the City of Helsinki's Executive Office, offered a Finnish perspective on the burgeoning relationship between the two cities.

Cui Hua, from the marketing department of Beijing's Municipal Commission of Tourism Development, then gave a visual insight as to what tourists can expect during their visit to China, highlighting the juxtaposition between ancient and modern as well as the opportunities available to visitors.

He also said that the number of European tourists travelling to China is increasing year on year, thanks in part to initiatives such as 72-hour visa-free travel within China.

Following the presentations, there was a multitude of activities and performances designed to offer a flavour and insight into China's capital. Traditional dancing, music and Qing Dynasty costumes were all on display, as well as literature, snacks and the opportunity to paint traditional Peking Opera masks.

To conclude the event, a ‘lucky draw' was conducted, with prizes given away to the fortunate few whose numbers came up. Everyone in attendance was then invited into the hull of the ship for a meal made up entirely of food from the region. Chicken, duck, noodles and dumplings were among the delicacies on offer.

What Does a 2,000-Year-Old Chinese Dynasty Have to Do With Berkeley

As many American universities in the early twenty-first century witness episodes of violent chaos, it is worth recalling that much of what is happening now has happened before. I do not refer to the usual comparisons between the campus Brownshirts and the real ones. Instead, I suggest that we look to China for keys to understanding how we got to, say, April's Battle of Berkeley, and for glimpses of how it will all probably continue to get much worse before it gets any better.

There are broad and disturbing parallels between a ruthless court eunuch named Zhao Gao's aggressive hijacking of a Chinese dynasty more than 2000 years ago, and the New Left's reprisal of that theme in the 1960s in the United States. More than the violence of the counterculture (although there is still plenty of that to go around), what remains most salient are the techniques of herding, culling, and mental disorientation and debilitation—practices perfected in ancient China and now practiced by the academic left.

Zhao Gao was central to the rise and fall of the Qin Dynasty in China in the third century BC. An expert in criminal law, Zhao's advice on using brute force to corral a wary population under the iron authority of the first Qin emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi, was instrumental to Qin Shi Huangdi's success in turning a bloody revolution into something resembling a dynasty.

But as Zhao and Qin pushed deeper into the maelstrom of recrimination, retribution, and paranoia, in an attempt to shore up political power, they found that they had to kill an increasing number of people in order to maintain what they called "order" among the court and the realm. When Qin Shi Huangdi died, Zhao forged documents commanding Zhao's potential rivals to commit ritual suicide. Zhao also used the emperor's death as an occasion to exact revenge upon his former tormentors, the Meng family. Zhao then arranged for Qin Er Shi, Zhao's protégé, to become Qin Shi Huangdi's successor, thus ensuring a pliant presence on the Son of Heaven's throne.

Soon, however, the inevitable rebellions against the Qin dynasty's monumental cruelties began to overtake the ability of the central government to suppress them. Zhao Gao, the real power behind the throne, rightly feared that he would be blamed for the breakdown of military discipline in the borderlands. So he preemptively had his protégé Qin Er Shi killed, too. The replacement whom Zhao selected was understandably wary of what Zhao intended to do to him, and so, finally, Zhao himself was assassinated by enemy forces inside the imperial court. Just as Zhao had done to his own victims, Zhao's family line was annihilated, root and branch, in order to erase both the danger and the memory of Zhao's dark influence over Chinese politics.

This hijacking of institutions did not end with the downfall of Zhao Gao. At the 1969 meeting of the American Historical Association (AHA), for instance, Howard Zinn, a radical leftist historian, and John King Fairbank, an apolitical scholar of Ming history, famously wrestled over the use of a microphone. Zinn, along with fellow far-left activist historians Jesse Lemisch and Staughton Lynd, were attempting to drive through resolutions on overtly political issues such as the American bombing of North Vietnam. (Earlier proposals, which died in committee, also called for supporting the terrorist activities of the Black Panthers.)

Many other historians, Fairbank included, thought it would cheapen the profession to turn the annual meeting of scholars into a platform for political grandstanding. Even slavery historian Eugene Genovese, himself a Marxist-Socialist who had caused trouble in the past for publicly supporting North Vietnam, warned against the politicization of a body of scholars holding diverse views. When Zinn became impatient with parliamentary rules, he simply grabbed the meeting's microphone from Fairbank's hands and attempted to browbeat the committee through sheer volume of voice.

Fairbank won the battle but lost the war. Zinn's forces were defeated, and the apolitical candidate, historian (ironically) of the French Revolution Robert Palmer, was elected president, but the avalanche of politics continued to pour into both the AHA and the wider historical profession as a whole. Even before the contentious AHA meeting in 1969, for example, the 1968 meeting of the Association for Asian Studies witnessed its own civil war and bitter secession, as a radical contingent of younger scholars broke away from the AAS due to that organization's failure to "take a stand" against the war in Vietnam. The Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars—the flagship vessel of the radicals—was only the beginning of the tidal wave of politics that finally swept over the bulwarks of scholarship and swamped the academy in its current quagmire of self-righteousness.

This hostile takeover of the academy, while less spectacularly violent than Zhao Gao's "long knives"-style takeover of the Qin court, was effected through similar methods of intimidation and score-settling. One method in particular shared by Zhao and the New Left stands out: the use of obvious absurdities and highly contentious positions as a means of gauging who among the intellectuals is pliable enough to be easily controlled. For Zinn, pinning the academy down on the questions dearest to the New Left's political program was essential to mapping out the academic takeover. In Zhao's case, he once famously led a deer into a hall of officials engaged an imperial audience and insisted that the deer was really a horse. Everyone who pointed out the obvious to Zhao—that the quadruped was cervine and not equine—was later targeted for assassination.

Zhao preferred to work with the easily duped, and had no spare time for critical thinkers. Those who were willing to commit intellectual suicide in order to maintain their positions were precisely the kinds of people whom Zhao Gao knew he could manipulate into doing his bidding.

This method of introducing an offensive proposition in order to identify and eliminate potential resistance to one's hostile takeover of an institution hardly ended with the downfall of Zhao Gao. Time and again, beginning with the politicization efforts of Howard Zinn and the New Left, waves of de facto purges have swept through American academe, each purge more violently transformative than the last. After tiring of the direct confrontations that rocked campuses in the late 60s and early 70s, the left adopted Zhao Gao's tactic of pressing shibboleths—usually the sacred cows of identity politics—on faculties in order to mark for elimination any who seemed willing to fight.

For example, over the past few years, scholars at U.S. institutions have increasingly been faced with a Zhaoian dilemma. On the one hand, it is certainly possible to acquiesce in the insistence by administrators, gender and women's studies departments, and other members of the faculty, that human beings can become anything they wish simply by willing it to be so. Men are women, women are men—or anything else one might imagine, the Zhaoian proposition goes. One visiting scholar at the University of Arizona who publicly identifies as a hippopotamus (yes, the giant pinkish-gray creature which enjoys floating around in lazy rivers) was warmly welcomed by his colleagues as such. (No word on whether he received an extra stipend for bushels of watercress.)

On the other hand, some foolhardy scholars may run the gamut and point out that these kinds of assertions fly in the face of reality. The price for doing so, however, is steep. Usually, such protestations are rewarded with Star Chamber Title IX trials, public pillorying by a thoroughly Zhaoist press, and immediate dismissal from one's place of employment. Those who manage to survive the initial wave of political correctness are left to face years of ostracism and shunning, until, inevitably, they are denied tenure and sent quietly on their way. Everyone else quickly learns that it is far, far easier just to call a deer a horse.

Here's another one for the bucket list!

From line dancing to rockabilly, you'll see it all. Young and old. Construction workers and bank tellers alongside uni students, mums and toddlers. Even in 40C-plus heat.

Music and dancing are just two of the rich cultural connections to the arts you see everywhere in this central Chinese city. People meet in groups daily, mostly in the evenings, to take part in whatever form of dance they fancy. It is exercise, but also an opportunity to socialise and be outdoors in a city of nine million plus where most live in units.

In one large square in front of Xi'an's Great Wild Goose Pagoda on a hot Sunday night, several hundred people are out and about. It is after 9pm and around 33C, much cooler than the 43C in the middle of the day.

In one corner, a group of about 50 people, aged from young teens to well into in their 80s, is participating in local folk dancing with large fans, flags and streamers as a band plays music from various traditional instruments.

Metres away, a similar sized group waltz, tango and foxtrot as they ballroom dance on the pavement. A smaller pack of about 15 cool teenagers have an old school ghetto blaster in another corner where they break dance. The largest group performs as big speakers' belt out very loud techno music with rows of eager line dancers in synch.

Overwhelmingly, everyone is getting involved. No one is self-conscious. It is a beautiful thing to watch … and take part in as the locals encourage you to pick up a fan and have a go.

Jinbao Lin, 22, who works at a phone shop during the day, comes every night to take part in the techno line dancing with loud blaring music. He's a relatively new recruit, having joined the crew about a month ago. The group meet between 9pm and midnight seven nights a week.

"It is good exercise and I get to make new friends," Mr Lin says of the group that consists of young kids to the (very) elderly. "This is something for everyone. It keeps you happy. It gives me more energy for work every day to earn a living. Sometimes international travellers join us — they just can't help it because it is infectious."

Antique dealer Yanteng Chang, 57, leads the folk dancing group daily between 8pm and 10pm.

"It is good exercise," Mr Chang explains. "You can build up the body health but it is also letting people know about the culture of our province. There is no limitation for the ages of people to get involved, from old people to young kids, everyone can do this. We have many different dances."

Tour guide Shi Yang, 27, loves to dance too. She's not part of any particular group but loves to join in when she can.

"It keeps me healthy, it keeps me happy," she says, saying the Wild Goose Pagoda square is just one of many areas where locals meet to dance.

"Any time I go around and see them dancing on the street I stop and dance with them."

For a deeper understanding of China's rich cultural heritage and the link between music and dance, a visit to the Shaanxi History Museum is a must. Tourists there can learn about the famous 13 dynasties of China, as well as how the city Xi'an got its name, which translates to "Forever Peaceful" or "Western Peace".

Ms Yang suggests those wanting a greater experience of Chinese culture should take part in the famous Chang'an Impression — Tang Dynasty Grand Welcoming Ceremony at Xian's City Wall South Gate.

Previously performed only for special international dignitaries such as former US First Lady Michelle Obama, former US President Bill Clinton and Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the ceremony is now held several times a week for the public. A special event will be held on September 14 to mark the China-Australia Year of Tourism.

In a jam-packed hour, the spectacular ceremony includes a traditional welcome in front of the gates before guests are ushered in to the city wall and treated to a cultural performance of dancing and music from some 200 or so actors wearing colourful and intricate costumes from the Tang dynasty.

"The performance is based on the origin of city, how we built it, how we maintained it and our culture and history," Chang'an Impression director Ning Su says.

"Music and dance is very much a part of that history."
MUST DO's IN XI'AN

1 Try Biangbiang noodles at First Noodle Under The Sun restaurant, near Wild Goose Pagoda.

2 Eat dumplings at Defachang Dumpling House near Xian's historical Bell and Drum Towers.

3 Ride a bike around the 14km city wall, China's most intact city wall ageing back more than 1200 years.

4 Take part in the Chang'an Impression, a Tang style welcome ceremony for visitors and dignitaries.

5 Visit the world famous Terracotta Warriors.

6 Take a dip at the Huaqing Hot Springs, followed by the Song of Everlasting Sorrow cultural show.

7 Climb to the top of the Great Wild Goose Pagoda.

8 Bargain for goodies (silk, handicrafts and yummy food) on the city's famous Muslim Street.

9 Day trip to Mount Hua, China's most precipitous mountain.

10 Take a day trip to Hukou Waterfall, the only yellow waterfall in the world and China's second largest waterfall.

Cultural construction boom aims to offset Hong Kong's business-like image

The theater stage is bathed in a luscious lavender hue, a color that in Chinese tradition signifies nobility and mystery — and portends things to come. A young couple, pure of heart, fall in love only to see their romance thwarted by the machinations of a corrupt bureaucrat. They declare their devotion to each other, expressing themselves in song and precisely choreographed hand movements and poses.

I am watching a snippet of the Cantonese opera "The Story of the Purple Hairpin," written in 1957 by Tong Tik-sang. It's part of a taster program that includes narrative singing, musical performances and excerpts from 20th-century versions of traditional dramas. The audience is served oolong tea and morsels of dim sum and as English subtitles appear on an LED panel above the action, I reflect on similar efforts in Japan to capitalize on culture.

The venue for this event is the Hong Kong Academy of the Performing Arts, the atrium of which bears a strong resemblance to the cozy 1970s vibe of London's Royal National Theatre on the South Bank. The troupe, however, are looking forward to moving into a spanking new home, the Xiqu Centre, set to open late 2018.

In the meantime, "Forty Years of Cherished Love," a drama based on the life of Northern Song Dynasty poet Lu You, and "Mu Guiying Routing Hongzhou," a more martial tale of legendary female warrior Mu Guiying, can be seen at the Ko Shan Theatre, Kowloon, in July.

The spectacle of the mask-like painted faces, the bright colors and ornamentation of the costumes, the wailing of the music and the crash of percussive accompaniment can be bewildering to uninitiated tourists. The abridged format of the taster performance, however, is aimed at the younger generation of Hong Kong natives, for whom there is concern that the local identity, in the face of mainland China, the British colonial legacy, Japanese anime, Justin Beiber or what have you, needs reinforcing.

Up to 1997, that is to say until the U.K.'s lease ran out, the image of Hong Kong as a place that focused its energy on making money was a popular one, not least among the Hong Kongese themselves. But the regional tourist board, after a survey conducted in 1996, cottoned on to the fact that Hong Kong being considered a cultural desert might not be good for business. An area on the southwestern edge of the Kowloon peninsula that had previously been set aside for private development was repurposed by the Hong Kong government in 1998. The result, which is still under construction, is the establishment of several high-profile visual and performing arts venues.

The West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD) is by any standards one of the world's most ambitious art and culture projects currently in development. Besides the Xiqu Centre for Cantonese opera there will be a Lyric Theatre Complex for dance and theater, the M+ Museum of visual culture, and a Hong Kong branch of the Beijing Palace Museum. An Art Park, waterfront promenade and Freespace, a combination open-air venue for large-scale festivals and black box theater, are also part of the development. A total of 15 venues are planned, with openings staggered over the next few years.

Of course, there has been controversy. Covering an overall area of 40 hectares, and granted a budget of HK$ 21.6 billion (¥310.5 billion) in 2008, WKCD is still mostly a huge building site, and Hong Kong residents have been collectively drumming their fingers on the table as the project has gone through various growing pains, only to get stuck in an extended adolescence. Changing plans and management personnel, cost and schedule overruns, concerns about transparency — the WKCD has provided plenty of drama over the years, and it's not even open yet.

While the prestige buildings are being constructed, interim events have been organized by the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA), the project's administrative body, using resources as they become available. Last year saw an all-female cast from the Beijing-based Baigung Theatre Studio, directed by Hong Kong director Tang Shu-Wing, perform the Greek tragedy Antigone at dusk on the roof of a WKCD office building. For the scene alone, with the sun setting over the harbor, this must have been an extraordinary event. The other big idea was to livestream the performance so that it could reach a wider audience — "futureproofing" is a key concept in the development of the district.

The Freespace open-air venue was used to help ring in the Lunar New Year this February with performances by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, all-women Hong Kong taiko drumming group O Daiko and a variety of community and kids events. A two-day program of music, poetry, market stalls and creative workshops in March attracted over 50,000 visitors, and will run again later this year, starting in September.

The head of theatre in the Performing Arts wing of the WKCDA, Low Kee Hong, who cut his arts management teeth in his native Singapore as general manager of the Arts Festival between 2009 and 2012, is keen that the great adventure of transforming Hong Kong's cultural landscape is not only unique to the region, but also inclusive and open. "Generally speaking, in Asian countries the audience for cultural events is (only) around 10 percent, and we're interested in the other 90 (percent)."

Amid state-sponsored drives to define regional identity and promote wider public engagement with the arts, how do the mission of WKCD and the recent increase in support for cultural programs in Japan compare? Both mix local and traditional practices with an international reach into the honey pot of cosmopolitan contemporary art, promoting a taste of homegrown culture for foreign tourists, encouraging an appreciation of heritage for locals, and giving the impression that they are down with the cool kids.

The growth in biennales, art festivals or events in Japan in the last three years is the result of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry taking a page of out former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair's "Cool Britannia" playbook and mobilizing culture through the "Cool Japan" initiative.

Established in 2014, this strategy, somewhat predictably given the bureaucratic context in which it was spawned, views creativity as something that must be ranked on an international scale. In this model, success is gauged by the extent of global dissemination regardless of either the nature or quality of the culture in question. The domestic goal is not really related to culture at all, but simply, as stated in the 2012 Cool Japan Strategy report, to "increase national wealth."

Louis Yu, WKCDA Executive Director of Performing Arts and previously Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Arts Council, says it was his dream job to be involved in the design of a new theater: "I wished for that … now I have three theaters to build. This is not an easy job. But I'm from here, I was educated here, I've only [ever] worked here in Hong Kong, so I feel I'm lucky that Hong Kong has started its biggest cultural project ever, when I am ready to be involved. It's the opportunity of a lifetime. … Mind you, as arts people in Hong Kong, yes, we're excited about this project, but we've been ‘excited' by this project for 20 years already."

I asked Louis what he thought was behind the conception of the WKCD, to which he replied, "I can only give you my personal opinion, because there's no official answer to this. For me, in the 1990's the idea of ‘creative industries' started in the U.K. first. This discussion spread to Hong Kong … and culture was then considered as a positive element for the economy. The other reason is that Hong Kong was known as a ‘business paradise,' and the government wanted to change this — culture should play an important role in any big city. Also, after the colonial period, the government wanted to face the question of who we are. It's about identity."

Exhibited relics point to rich Silk Road history

EVER since President Xi Jinping proposed the Silk Road Eco­nomic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiatives, also known as “One Belt, One Road,” in September 2013, China and countries along the ancient routes have launched a series of cooperative projects.

Belt and Road aims to revive the eco­nomic ties and connectivity in Eurasia. In return, many cities have held exhi­bitions that showcase the history of the Silk Road.

Hangzhou is no exception.

An exhibition that displays relics excavated along the Silk Road is un­derway at China National Silk Museum and will run until September 24. The items on display are from museums in Shaanxi, Qinghai, Gansu and Xin­jiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Kazakhstan.

In 2014, the UNESCO listed “Silk Road — the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor” as world's heritage site. This 5,000-kilometer section stretches from Chang'an (present-day Xi'an) in Shaanxi Province to the Zhe­tysu region in Central Asia.

It took shape between the 2nd century BC and 1st century AD, and remained in use until the 16th centu­ry. It linked multiple civilizations and remained a platform for exchanges in trade, religions, technology, cultures and arts.

Along the route, relics of empires and kingdoms, ancient temples, pago­das, antique buildings and tombs were discovered that reflected on the glory days of Silk Road.

Now, some of the archeological discoveries are on display at the ex­hibition, which is divided into three parts and according to different peri­ods and regions. Most of the exhibits came into being between the 5th cen­tury BC and 8th century AD.

The origin of Silk Road was Tian­shan corridor, which was a prairie road that connected Oriental country and ancient civilizations including Persia, Greek and Assyria during the 10th century and 3rd century BC.

Sarmatians were nomadic people that dominated the southern Russian grassland dating back to 2,200 years. A batch of costumes, accessories, glass vessels and other burial objects were excavated from a Sarmatian tomb in Kazakhstan. The finely weaved cos­tumes showcased the tomb owner was a woman of high social status.

The replica of Golden Warrior un­earthed from Kazakhstan's Issyk burial mound is one of the highlights. He was dressed in an arrow-shaped headdress and chain-mail armor richly decorated with foils. His belt and weapons were of pure gold. The costume consisted of 4,000 gold ornaments in typical Sacae style. The young warrior's ornamented funeral armor is priceless.

This section also displays antiqued wagons from ancient Rong people's tombs in Gansu Province. During Warring States Period (475-221BC), the manufacturing level of wagons epitomized the then mechanical tech­nology. The buried wagons symbolized people's social status.

The road began to flourish when long distance trade of high-valued products, particularly silk, tea and porcelains, began to expand between Chinese and Western empires. The second and third sections display artifacts from Qin (221-206 BC), Han (206 BC-AD 220) and Tang (AD 618-907) along the road.

Ever since Qin Dynasty came into being, the original steppe road began to be an official route linking Ori­ental China and Western countries. Starting from Xi'an, the capital of Han and Tang dynasties, the route passed westwards through the Hexi Corridor across the Qilian Mountain Range to Dunhuang, and then continued along the northern and southern flanks of Tianshan Mountain Range until reach­ing Zhetysu region of Central Asia.

The exhibition also displays a restored terracotta warrior using modern technology. Visitors can see the original appearance of the soldier through the exhibit.

Terracotta army was a form of funerary art that was buried with Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of Qin Dynasty. The soldiers and horses were placed to protect the emperor in his afterlife.

Originally, the figures were painted with bright pigments, variously col­ored pink, red, green, blue, black, brown, white and lilac. The colorful lacquer finish and individual facial features would have given the figures a realistic feel. However, much of the color coating had flaked off or badly faded.

The Silk Road within China was mainly in Gansu Province and Xinji­ang Uygur Autonomous Region, where a large number of silk relics have been excavated.

Dunhuang of Gansu Province was an ancient transportation hub along the Silk Road. At the exhibition, a Mogao Grotto painting repaired through digital technology is characterized by diverse floral patterns in red, yellow and green.

The highlight of the section was the burial objects from Xinjiang's Panying relic, a prosperous hub along the Silk Road that later vanished. The exhibi­tion displays delicate textile artifacts featuring exotic and central Chinese styles, which proved it was a commu­nication center of the silk route during Han and Jin (AD 265-420) dynasties.

Centuries-old Chinese opera resounding at foot of Athens Acropolis

Melodies and tunes centuries old from ancient China resounded at the foot of the Athens Acropolis, a citadel of ancient Greece, Wednesday evening, giving the audience a marvelous night of the meeting of two great civilizations traversing both the distance and time.

As part of celebrations for the China-Greece Cultural Exchanges and Culture Industry Cooperation Year, a troupe from China's Suzhou Kun Opera Theatre of east China's Jiangsu Province presented the opera, one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, at the foot of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The exquisite performance of six scenes from the Peony Pavilion, a play written by playwright Tang Xianzu in the Ming Dynasty in the 16th century was staged at the impressive Roman-era Herod Atticus Theater in the context of the Athens and Epidaurus Festival, the most prestigious annual cultural festival in Greece since 1955.

A total of 36 performers, musicians and technical crew staged the impeccable performance of the classic masterpiece of Kun Opera, one of the oldest extant forms of Chinese opera with over 600 years of history.

Despite the long history, the powerful plot of the extraordinary tale of love between two young people, the beautiful melodies, the elegant costumes, and the grace and skills of the performers fall no short of enthralling the audience today.

"We are so happy that on the occasion of the Year of Greece-China friendship we watch this performance. Since I come from the theater field, as a director, I feel that the affinity between the two civilizations in theater is so intense... I think it is precious for us, people involved in theater, to watch such performances," Vangelis Theodoropoulos, artistic director of the Athens and Epidaurus Festival, told Xinhua following the performance.

"I think the Greek audience has a very good understanding of opera in general and I think they comprehend our Kun opera. Kun opera is a masterpiece of UNESCO intangible cultural heritage," the director Cai Shaohua told Xinhua, shortly before the show.

"I think that opera is a very good art form for communication and exchanges between different cultures and different peoples. This time apart from the performance we are going to the Athens School of Fine Arts to do a workshop and we are looking forward to exchange ideas with students, with professors and with the general public," Cai said.

According to the director, to present a beautiful Chinese love story in a beautiful Chinese opera before the audience, the troupe has been fully prepared.

This is not the first time for the Suzhou Kun Opera Theatre to perform in Athens. In 2008, they performed in three nights in the Megaron Concert Hall and also won a big success.

Angeliki Pagoni, a Greek teacher who is also staging theater shows for children, watched Wednesday's performance with her daughter. She was impressed by the artistic techniques and told Xinhua she will attempt to use them in her future shows.

"It is the first time I am watching a Chinese cultural performance. I came out of curiosity, because my daughter is fond of Chinese culture. She took the initiative to buy the tickets and I came along," she said.

"It is great getting acquainted with the culture and the art techniques of different peoples. It is so enriching," she added, underlining the significance of further enhancing cultural exchanges between peoples.

Godseekers - How to Change Your Character's Outfit

CHANGING OUTFITS – DYNASTY WARRIORS GODSEEKERS

While having the strongest fighter on the battlefield is incredibly important in Dynasty Warriors Godseekers, you'll also want to make sure they look good while doing it too. Enter the various alternative outfits that are available for virtually every character in the entire game that pay tribute to the past entries in the series. For those who are bored with their officer's current outfit, you can actually alter this, which will not only change their in-game look but their appearance in cutscenes as well.

To unlock these outfits all you need to do is obtain that character as a permanent member to your roster of fighters. This can be done by completing the Path of Destiny for each officer, which includes reading dialogue exchanges and completing specific missions for that character.

When you obtain a new hero, you can then go into the Officer menu and hit triangle to bring up their selectable outfits. These costumes span almost all of the Dynasty Warriors franchise, allowing players to take a stroll down memory lane when playing. Simply highlight which of the costumes you want to wear and press X, this will confirm the outfit and instantly apply it to your Dynasty Warriors Godseekers' hero of choice.

There are also alternative costumes for certain main characters like Lei Bin and Li Xia, however, the latter can only be unlocked by pre-ordering the game itself. Yet, it's nice that developer Omega Force allows users to mix and match a character's outfit depending on which title they liked most. After all, what's the point of destroying hundreds of soldiers if you aren't looking stylish while doing it?

Couple says 'I do' to tradition

Chris Chuang was not Claudia Lam's first choice as the perfect date for her sorority formal. But with her top pick unavailable that night, she figured the friendly guy from her Chinese class would do.

"I wanted someone good-looking and nice as an escort," said Claudia, noting that she had one other qualification that Chris also met: no frat guys.

To say that Chris was excited is an understatement. The two attended UC Davis, and he first noticed Claudia in 2007 in an advanced Chinese class (neither of them really needed it), and the entire quarter passed without him summoning the courage to talk to her.

"I didn't think I'd have a chance," he said. "She wore her sorority letters, so you'd assume that she hangs out with lots of eligible dudes."

The next quarter, they were assigned to a project together, and he realized she wasn't that intimidating after all.

While they attended Claudia's formal as acquaintances, by the end of the night, they were well on their way to falling in love.

"We had a chemistry I had never felt before," Chris said. "With other girls I always had to put in a lot of effort, thinking about what we're going to do next or talk about next. But everything felt so natural that by the end of that night, I felt I had known her for a long time. I just knew."

Claudia said she felt similarly, and she was further convinced when she brought him to her sorority; how quickly her sisters took to him was a true test.

"He got along with everyone so well," she said. "He's one of those people that everyone likes right away."

Chris, 30, grew up in Fremont, the son of immigrants from Taiwan. He is head of business development at a startup called MixRank. Claudia, also 30, grew up in Hong Kong but came to live with relatives to attend high school in Moraga, and then stayed to attend UC Davis. After graduating in 2009, she felt it was time to return home, and the couple faced the prospect of a long-distance relationship. They weathered the distance for one year, meeting up at a family wedding or other occasions, until Chris got a job in Beijing. That meant they were only four hours apart instead of 12. Finally, after almost two years of commuting by plane, they decided they would make their home in San Francisco and moved in together. Claudia is a human resources manager for Dome Cleaning.

"Claudia is the only person who really gets me," Chris said. "Even when we were apart for two years, we were still together."

In November 2015, they attended the wedding of Claudia's sister in Bali. There, Chris told Claudia's father that he intended to propose the following week.

He made good on his promise, getting a friend to document her surprise as she found him on bended knee on the roof of their condo complex at sunset.

They married on Nov. 5, 2016, at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.

While it is common for couples of Chinese heritage to incorporate a Chinese tea ceremony, that was not enough for this pair.

"Somehow I came up with the idea that we should have an ancient imperial Chinese wedding," said Chris, who admits he got much more involved with the planning than most grooms.

They wed on the stairs of the museum looking like any American couple — but their reception was a different story. They entered the reception in red satin Hanfu outfits with gold brocade — a dragon for him, a phoenix for her — that they had custom-made in China; the style is the historical dress of the Han Chinese (although Claudia went through five wardrobe changes throughout the evening). Meanwhile, the wedding party donned outfits of bright yellow; the groomsmen held banners with their names in Chinese as they entered and the bridesmaids carried red lanterns.

Paintings by Chris' uncle, a fine arts painter in Taiwan now deceased, decorated the cocktail hour, and wedding favors were an ancient three-pronged shot glass from the Shang dynasty. Rather than flowers, a 3-D puzzle replica of an ancient Chinese building decorated each table.

Later, guests were treated to a performance by the China Dance Theatre, a Richmond District organization that teaches traditional Chinese dance to young girls. The group doesn't usually do private events but agreed to perform at the wedding because of its unique nature.

While some in the wedding party initially balked at the costumes they had to don for the reception, saying, "Do we really have to wear this?" the end result was worth it.

"Everyone thought it was really cool," Claudia said.

Apparently, the museum agreed. Their wedding was featured on its blog, and it was covered in ChinaDaily.com.

"They definitely took a much deeper dive into history than most couples do," said Minda Quickel, facility rental program manager of the Asian Art Museum. "We have lots of weddings that celebrate a particular culture, but Chris and Claudia were dynasty-specific, going back more than a thousand years, which was very original."

Digital technology brings Palace Museum back to life

As one of the first museums in the world to display its whole collections online, the Palace Museum of China spent three years in building its digital community.

It has now realized a variety of functions such as public education, cultural presentation, virtual tour, entertainment, academic exchange and e-commerce.

In recent years, the museum has launched nine APPs in total, winning a high praise from the media -- APPs by the Palace Museum are of best quality”.

With the Night Revels of Han Xizai APP, users are welcomed to explore the famous Chinese painting of the same title that vividly depicts the luxurious court life during the Five Dynasty period (906--960AD).

The APP offers insightful explanations on the painting's history, main characters and artistic skills.

What's more, the music and dance performances recorded in the APP bring the painting back to life, giving users a rare chance to appreciate ancient performance art.

From the Qing Emperor's Wardrobe APP, users will understand the difference between imperial dress of Qing dynasty(1644-1911AD) and the costumes in the current popular TV dramas.

Users can also learn about the function, ritual use and symbolism behind the imperial dress and accessories.

The Palace Museum Exhibitions APP allows users to experience the museum's past and current exhibitions through their phones.

The Palace Museum plans to spend another three years in building an intelligent museum with stronger security system and communicating ability.

With new technology and advanced equipment, the museum has developed a digital museum consisting of original projects that dig deep into the data of collections and ancient architecture.

A good example is the Digital Map of the museum, which contains information regarding its 1,200 buildings and 9,371 rooms.

Another project is Digital Calligraphy where users have the chance to practice after the example of the 7,500 masterpieces treasured in the museum, and receive feedbacks such as "brilliant" or "horrible".

With Digital Handscrolls where valuable scroll paintings are exhibited, viewers can get a closer look at many works of art that are too fragile to display.

The Digital Treasury program presents users with a diverse selection of magnificent Chinese cultural heritage in 3D models.

Thanks to virtual reality technology, viewers can get a glimpse of the rooms that are not yet open to the public, such as the Hall of Supreme Harmony and Sanxitang (the Room of Three Rare Treasures).

At the core of building Intelligent Palace is the program of World Cultural Heritage Monitoring. There are 3,500 high definition cameras in use to monitor the museum.

However, the concealed spaces above the ceiling or underneath the roof tiles are still waiting to be monitored.

The Palace Museum is determined to upgrade itself in the digital era to offer the world an easily accessed goldmine of cultural treasures.

New Chinese costume drama becomes internet sensation

Among the dynasties in China's 5,000 years of history, the Three Kingdoms, Wei, Shu and Wu dynasties (220-280) were periods that have always attracted a lot of attention.

The historical book The Records of the Three Kingdoms (San Guo Zhi) from the Western Jin Dynasty (265-316) recorded the era. Later Luo Guanzhong from the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) wrote a fiction Romance of the Three Kingdoms (San Guo Yan Yi) based on history, which later became one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature.

In modern times, the stories during this period have been adapted into many operas, films, TV series, comics, computer games and even a popular card game called Legend of the Three Kingdoms (San Guo Sha).

Heroes from that period such as warlord Cao Cao and his two sons Cao Zhi and Cao Pi, as well as Zhuge Liang, Zhang Fei, Guan Yu and Liu Bei are all well-known characters in China.

Recently, a new internet costume drama The Advisor Alliance based on these characters became a hit. Produced by online video platform Youku, the two-part series was broadcast on the internet, Jiangsu TV and Anhui TV from June 22.

The drama unfolds around Sima Yi, a military counselor who helped Cao Cao and his two sons during the fights among the three kingdoms.

Currently, the first part has received 4 billion hits on Youku and 8.3 points out of 10 on Douban, China's major film and TV review website. A mobile game adapted from the drama.

Called by internet users as a Chinese version of House of Cards, the drama was highly praised for its exciting stories and film style.

Han Zhong, art designer of the series, said most of the money was spent on the sets. They used more than 6,000 costumes and took 20,000 hours to complete the props.

The elaborate drama attracted audiences from all ages.

According to guduomedia.com, an internet media data website, 33 per cent of the series' viewers are people aged from 20-29 and 50 per cent are 30-39 years old.

"The drama beautifully featured many details in history. The acting skills of actors and actresses also highlight the series," 22-year-old student Li Tao from Beijing Institute of Technology said. "The casting is not ideal, though. Some of the actors lack the charisma of the historical figures that they played. For example, actor Li Chen looks too soft for the role Cao Pi."

The drama was also criticised for not faithfully portraying history. The series infused many small events that happened at different points in history, yet featured them in the same period.

And the actors' lines sounded slightly too modern for the roles. For instance "the medicine should not be stopped", a popular saying in recent years, was said in the drama. The original meaning of the saying is: "you are ignorant, please have something to make you clever", and many audiences said the use of it spoiled the mood in the drama.

Unlike young people who cared more about the plot and set design, the older audiences paid more attention to what they could learn from the drama.

"I learned some ways to deal with things from the drama. Whether you are a high-profile person or a low-key fellow, you must be knowledgeable if you really want to succeed," 58-year-old viewer Daheqidan said.

Celebrating 70 Years of Christian Dior

On Monday night, on one of those spectacular Paris summer evenings when the light shimmers off every surface and the sun doesn't set until around 10, hundreds of fashionably dressed people gathered in the garden of the Musée des Art Décoratifs, enjoying Champagne and hors d'oeuvres as a newly shorn and platinum blond Cara Delevingne looked on from above, standing in the open French doors of a second-floor reception room.

Although the guests (who included the actor Robert Pattinson and the model Bella Hadid) mingled among topiary versions of now-classic fashion designs, few people seemed to actually make it inside to the exhibition itself: "Christian Dior: Couturier du Rêve," a retrospective of 70 years of the house of Dior.

And that's too bad, because the show is a stunner.

Billed as the largest fashion exhibition ever staged by the museum, the show, which officially opens on Wednesday and runs through Jan. 7, features more than 300 haute couture gowns from the seven designers who led this fashion house, from Christian Dior himself to Maria Grazia Chiuri, who presented her second couture collection earlier on Monday.

Each of the designers who followed Dior and who preceded Ms. Chiuri have their own exhibition rooms: Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano and Raf Simons. And each grouping offers a bit of revelation, from the awe-inspiring Trapeze collection by Saint Laurent, done when he was just 21 years old, to the way that Mr. Simon both honored and modernized the classic Dior look when he showed his first collection in 2012.

But perhaps the biggest surprise is the reverence given to the Galliano years. The House of Dior has had a understandably complicated relationship with the Galliano era ever since the designer was fired in 2011 after making drunken anti-Semitic comments in a Paris bistro. But here the genius of his work — there is no other word for it — is given its due, and one is again reminded how the Galliano Dior shows were typically the most anticipated of couture week.

But it all comes back to Dior himself. And his designs, placed strategically throughout the show, are a reminder of what a revolutionary figure he was in the fashion world and how the Bar Jacket — which holds a place of pride at the exhibition's entrance — remains both an inspiration and a challenge to all who have come after him.

Builder unearths ancient tomb full of silks

WHEN a Yang-surnamed resident began to build his farmhouse in Qianqiao Village of Huangyan County, he could never have imagined that the location was just right over an ancient tomb. A red colored coffin appeared during the construction and shocked the man. He quickly stopped building and reported to local authorities.

Archaeologists soon gathered around and found it was protected so well that the wooden coffin looked much newer than other similar ancient tombs.

The relic site excited these archeologists but soon made them anxious — water spilled out when they drilled the coffin, which meant they must rescue excavating it immediately.

The coffin was then sent to China National Silk Museum, where there is a high-tech lab for further research. Scientists spent several months working on the burial objects, discovering a batch of silk garments, including 58 burial costumes and 19 sets of clothes worn by the corpse.

The tomb quickly caused a stir across the country. Whose tomb it is? When was the tomb dug? These questions lingered on in people’s mind.

After a year of excavation and protection, the answer was revealed that the coffin belonged to the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) and was the tomb of Zhao Boyun, from the seventh generation of the imperial Zhao family.

His ancestor, Zhao Kuangyin, established the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) in Beijing, and then the royal court retreated to southern China and made Hangzhou the capital of Southern Song Dynasty.

Zhao Boyun moved to Huangyan County when his father was appointed as chief of the county. During his lifetime, in the small county, he constructed a stone bridge over the Xi River and named it Wudong. Locals used the bridge until the 1960s. Today, it still silently stands across the river but is now listed as protected relic.

Now, 23 burial silk costumes are on display in the China National Silk Museum through September 3. Visitors can get close to the antiqued apparel and learn about the ancient costume styles through exhibits on view.

Costumes from most Southern Song Dynasty tombs were destroyed after being buried underground for centuries. Therefore, it is uncommon to unearth so many intact silk clothes from that era.

Historians considered them as the epitome of Zhejiang Province’s silk products dating back 800 years. Their weaving techniques, patterns, motifs and designs provide archaeologists with ample materials to research ancient costumes.

Excavated costume varieties cover traditional jackets, coats, robes, trousers, pants, boots, shoes and accessories. They compose a complete set of Southern Song official clothes, which is believed the first case discovered in Zhejiang and also rare in the country.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, costumes were no more fancy like previous dynasties, but still divided according to social class. Acceptable apparel for officials was rigidly defined by ranking system. But high-level officials could choose to wear more ornate clothing and male blouses that came down below the waist.

The highlight of the grave was a brown silk robe ornamented with lotus patterns. It features broad sleeves and belted waists. The pattern shows that Zhao might be a devout Buddhism believer, as the flower symbolized Buddha in Chinese culture.

Collar edges and sleeve edges of Southern Song-style costumes were often decorated with embroidered patterns, as the robe showcased. Such clothes were decorated with patterns of peony, camellia, plum blossom, and chrysanthemum. These floral motifs epitomized auspiciousness in ancient culture.

According to the then ritual system, people must wear clothes for four seasons before being buried. Therefore, Zhao wore eight traditional jackets and eight pairs of trousers, reflecting the then burial folklore.

Southern Song was a vital period for Zhejiang because the royal court moved from Beijing to this province, which in return made it evolve into the silk production center.

At the time, silk had already developed into many types, including brocade, damask, satin and luo, according to different weaving techniques and methods. The luo variety accounts for a large part of the exhibits, which to some extent proved the prosperous market of silk production in Zhejiang.

Cannes Film Review: ‘The Lady in the Portrait’

An empress commissions a painting of herself from a Fresh outsider in hopes of stirring her husband's interest in this lavish period piece.

East meets West, and the two gingerly fall in love through art in Charles de Meaux's "The Lady in the Portrait," a period yarn evoking the unique rapport between a French missionary and the Manchurian Empress whose portrait he's ordered to paint. Exquisitely-costumed and voluptuously shot, the film evokes life in the Qing Dynasty court with studied elegance and rare intimacy that make it more than just another Bertolucci or Zhang Yimou wannabe. Added last minute to the Cannes official selection as a tribute to Chinese diva Fan Bingbing, who's serving on the jury, the film will definitely pique art-house interest in Europe, but isn't likely to make a dent in China's commercially driven market.

If anything, the story itself serves as an allegory of Chinese-Western co-productions, in which both sides are simultaneously turned on and put off by each other's values and working methods. However, the narrative is too languorous and low-key to fully convey its motif of cultural collision or to analyze the aesthetic impulses behind Orientalism with any depth.

The Emperor Qianlong (who lived from 1711-1799) reigned over what many historians considered the Golden Age of the Qing Dynasty, the Manchurian conquest of China. He enlisted European missionaries to introduce Western knowledge and art into his court, with Italian Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione wielding the most influence. The story takes place circa 1755, when French missionary-painter Jean Denis Attiret (Melvil Poupaud) catches the eye of the emperor (Huang Jue) for his drawing of exotic European flora and fauna.

Fan, at perhaps her most imperious and brittle, plays the beautiful Ulanara, second empress to Qianlong. Not only is she jealous about the emperor's favors to other consorts, but she is deeply insecure about his undying love for his late wife. When she sees (or imagines) his longing at the sight of the portrait of the late Empress Xiaoxian drawn by Castiglione, she entreats Qianlong to commission one of herself as well. She hopes the painting will arouse the same desire in him — a commentary on the power of the image and the cultural differences between the East and the West regarding art's purpose, whether to interpret or reproduce reality.

While there are quite a few films that dwell on the attraction between famous painters and their muses (among them "Girl with a Pearl Earing," "Caravaggio" and so on), what makes De Meaux's version interesting, if not exactly original, is that Ulanara is not positioned as a passive object of the male gaze, nor put on a pedestal. As much as Attiret studies her, for technical purposes, Ulanara is the one who expresses curiosity about his occidental theories of art, his faith and views on love, including his vow of chastity. The way the two look at one another is dramatized to probe whether art and beauty have universal standards, as implied in a scene when the Chief Eunuch Chen (King Shih-chieh) asks Attiret if the imperial consorts and their ladies-in-waiting look attractive to Western eyes. There's also a meta-connection to filmmaking, when Ulanara, tired of posing all day, orders a maid to be her stand-in.

On a dramatic level, the film mostly spans the few months of portrait painting, before jumping to a poignant finale that takes place two years later. The process by which the Empress and painter warm to each other is slow-moving since their emotions don't seem to intensify in the process, while their physical overtures to one another are somewhat awkwardly staged, perhaps too obliquely nuanced to generate tension.

De Meaux, who previously co-produced three Apichatpong Weerasethakul features, reveals his experimental leanings via occasional flights into abstract visuals, animation and interior monologues. Some of these flourishes add a contemporary sensibility, as in a Daliesque opening sequence depicting the battlefield where Attiret was sent to paint. Less effective are scenes in which Ulanara converses with her inner voice, also played by Fan and superimposed onscreen as a semi-transparent cutout.

Fan, whose performances often have an arch, opaque quality, comes across as unusually human here as she gives an unassuming but quite moving portrayal of a proud woman gravely hurt by her husband's neglect. Poupaud ("Laurence Anyways") is severely hamstrung by having to speak (or dub over) Mandarin dialogue. Veteran Taiwanese actor King is creepily inscrutable as a eunuch, as is Huang, who conveys the monarch's absolute power by making neither his wrath nor his pleasure discernible, when he sees her portrait by Attiret.

Across the board, the below-the-line contributions show a tastefulness often missing in the lavish but gaudy court epics seen in Chinese film and TV. Production design by Francois-Renaud Labarthe and costumes by Sandra Berrebi sport radiant color textures. Acting as his own cinematographer, de Meaux aptly conveys an outsider's vision of Chinese art and culture, meticulously framing every shot like a painting. His beautiful approach recalls Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon," while the delicate lighting doesn't overdo chiaroscuro effects.

Inscriptions showcasing history of Marwar dynasty discovered

As many as 50 inscriptions from 11th to 14th century have been discovered at Karwar, a village 25 kilometers away from Jodhpur. These inscriptions are said to be from the time before the Rathore dynasty was established. They are said to be from the clans of Guhil, Hul, Sankhala, Padihar, and Dahiya.

Director of Rajasthan Shodh Sansthan, Dr Vikramsingh Bhati, informed that inscription from vikram samwat 1056 is from Hul Saawant, and the ones from vikram samwat 1120 belongs to Guhil Muhande. Inscriptions have also been found belonging to Guhil Laakhu from vikram samwat 1230. Also, inscriptions have been found from vikram samwat 1373, which belong to Padihar Jagasi.

"Discovery of these inscriptions is important as people were doubtful about the existence of these dynasties as there was nothing to substantiate it," Bhati said. These inscriptions depict men riding on horsebacks and women standing with their hands folded. Some women are shown worshipping Lord Shiva while fighter women are seen standing with swords and shields in their hands.

"They not only showcase the history of Marwar dynasty but also display the detailed handwork on the men and women. The details provide information about the kind of costumes worn by the people during that time along with the kind of jeweller matched with it. These inscriptions are very important to maintain the history of time and it is very important to keep them safe. They are on the verge of being destroyed," Bhati added.

INSCRIPTIONS ON VERGE OF DESTRUCTION

These inscriptions not only showcase the history of Marwar dynasty but also display the detailed handwork on the men and women. They are also very important to maintain the history of time and it is very important to keep them safe.