‘Pingtan Impression’: The ocean journey of the peacock princess ‘Yang Liping’ in a new oriental aesthetic dance drama. ‘Pingtan Impression’ uses romantic classical mythological narrative methods to reinterpret and re-express China’s long-standing traditional folk culture in the contemporary era, constructing a common marine cultural scene and context on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. With the imagistic new oriental aesthetics as the aesthetic concept and integrating intangible cultural heritage inheritance, it is jointly created and performed by artists from both sides of the Taiwan Strait. It creates wonders and illusions, telling a classical mythological epic with strong oriental colors, depicting an artistic scroll with dance as the pen and culture as the ink, and presenting a stage masterpiece of cross-strait cultural exchanges and integration. The self-transcendence of the peacock princess. ‘Pingtan Impression’ is the eighth large-scale stage play directed by the famous dance artist Yang Liping and the first stage play with traditional folk culture and marine culture as the theme. It is also the third work in the ‘Impression’ series after ‘Yunnan Impression’ and ‘Huangshan Impression’. It is an innovative breakthrough and bold attempt by Yang Liping, known as the ‘peacock princess’. While achieving self-transcendence in themes, Yang Liping also maintains and shows her consistently high-level dance art and high-pursuit stage effects. She deeply integrates the Maritime Silk Road culture, Taiwan Strait culture and Pingtan local culture to create a Taiwan Strait cultural masterpiece with an international perspective and a high artistic level. New oriental aesthetics, rejuvenating tradition. ‘Pingtan Impression’ embodies Yang Liping’s一如既往 high-level pursuit of artistic aesthetics and presentation of artistic philosophy. With Yang Liping’s long-held creative concept of new oriental aesthetics that ‘what is national is global’, it fuses the rich traditional oriental aesthetics with modern art, breaks the conventional forms of expression, changes the old, and uses the modern way of dance imagery to interpret the marine culture and folk culture on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. ‘How to show the connotation of local traditional culture and refine the marine and island culture in ‘Pingtan Impression’ is the soul of this play! There are too many good things buried deep in this land. We respect this land and water.’ Yang Liping said so. She insists on returning to nature and human nature in creation, exploring the possibilities of art, and expressing the connotation of local traditional culture in a modern way. In dance choreography and stage design, Yang Liping creatively arranges characteristic Taiwan Strait folk culture, Fujian folk music singing, folk dances and other art forms. Each scene incorporates Pingtan elements such as the historical building of stone houses and the natural scenery of ‘blue tears’. She explores and confirms an artistic expression form with nationality and natural beauty, rejuvenating traditional culture.
The dance drama interprets an oriental story. The story background is derived from after Pangu created the world. The land of Kyushu was born, auspicious signs descended from the sky, and all living beings were born.
There is an overseas fairy island – Pingtan Island. Known as ‘Qilin Island’ because it resembles a mythical beast qilin. The islanders live and work in peace and contentment, making a living by fishing. They are watched over by the local god ‘City God’ and protected by the ‘Goddess of the Sea’ Mazu. The White Dragon Prince ‘Junshan King’ and the daughter of the sea ‘Pingtan Blue’ meet unexpectedly on the island, fall in love, and join hands with the islanders to weather storms and resist typhoons. Whenever there is good weather, they release sky lanterns together to pray for health and safety. However, the peaceful and serene Qilin Island, like a fairyland, is coveted by foreign troops with ambitions and greed. After a long-planned conspiracy, they launch an invasion on Qilin Island, and a dangerous situation is imminent. Since then, the brave and kind Junshan King and Pingtan Blue, the just and resolute rattan shield defenders, the benevolent and loving gods, and the extremely vicious foreign troops have jointly written a magnificent classical mythological epic about guardianship and justice on Qilin Island. ‘Impression of Pingtan’ showcases the original ecological natural scenery and human customs of Pingtan from four aspects: nature, history, humanity, and modernity. In each chapter, traditional culture, art forms are combined with modern high-tech stage effects technology and popular elements. Through art, the origins and folk cultures on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are sublimated, triggering everyone’s impression thinking and presenting a scene of harmony between heaven and man in a paradise. Based on Pingtan, rooted in the nation, and conveyed to the world. ‘Impression of Pingtan’ is mainly based on the Minnan and Taiwan regions with marine culture. It integrates the natural elements and humanistic accumulations of Pingtan Island in Fujian. Based on the unique island scenery, it runs through the historical and cultural context of more than 7,000 years from ancient times to the present through a fantasy mythological story line. It showcases cultural elements such as marine culture, Maritime Silk Road culture, coastal defense culture, and the prehistoric cultural site of Keqiutou, as well as totem culture of Austronesian language families. It also presents traditional folk cultures with strong regional characteristics such as rattan shield exercises, Mazu belief, and City God culture. At the same time, it also presents Yang Liping’s consistent artistic pursuit of ‘national style’. Rooted in the oriental charm intertwined with traditional culture and the Chinese nation, it uses a modern aesthetic perspective to reinterpret the oriental spiritual expression to the world. Through the beauty of dance, it tells the essence of national culture and presents the aesthetic feeling of oriental cultural context. Tracing back to the origins on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and expressing national culture. Renowned dance critic Liang Geyi once used Xin Qiji’s words to evaluate ‘Impression of Pingtan’: ‘The east wind brings thousands of flowers at night. And then it blows down the stars like rain… The sound of the phoenix flute moves, the jade pot turns, and there is a night of fish and dragon dances.’ ‘Impression of Pingtan’ not only shows the traditional cultural features of Minnan and Taiwan to the public with beautiful and elegant dance language and magnificent stage scenes, but also vividly shows the common source of beliefs and ecological essence on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. It promotes the image of national culture, deepens artistic and cultural exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, promotes compatriots on both sides to trace their roots, and promotes the spiritual connection between people on both sides.
This event not only showcased the ethnic artistic pursuits of dancer Yang Liping, but also the New Oriental Aesthetics of the stage play ‘Pingtan Image,’ and the profound cultural heritage of the Chinese nation spanning five thousand years. The full performance is open on November 29th to November 30th, lasting approximately 120 minutes (subject to the actual performance).
