AI-generated reconstruction of Zhang Zeduan's "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" takes you back to the real Song Dynasty a thousand years ago.
This poem was composed in 816 by Bai Juyi, one of the greatest poets in Chinese history. The poem contains a description of a pipa performance during a chance encounter with a performer near present day Jiujiang, in Jiangxi Province. The poem has a total of 616 Chinese characters (not including the 138-character preface), and is known for the skilled artistry with which it describes sound.
Our concept for this production was to use the orchestra as a whole to convey the feeling expressed in the poem. There is no pipa to hear directly, you have to imagine the pipa based on the music as well as the narration, as we felt that was the best way to experience the poem. No individual pipa performance could live up to the magical experience described by Bai Juyi.
This artist specializes in the traditional Chinese art of water marbling, referred to as 流沙箋 (liúshājiān), meaning "drifting-sand notepaper".
By skillfully applying pigments to the water's surface and immersing objects like bags, he creates stunning landscapes that emerge upon lifting the items, showcasing the delicate interplay of colors and patterns.
Historical Context: The earliest known mention of Liu Sha Jian is in a 10th-century text called Wen Fang Si Pu ("Four Treasures of the Scholar's Study") by Su Yijian. This text describes the process as being used to create decorative paper in the Sichuan region of China.