敦煌盛典
Text by Rani Singh, videos and photos by Tim Winter
In the past few years the city of Dunhuang has lured tourists through its spectacular nightly desert shows. In 2015, the multi-million US dollar Dunhuang Celebration launched, a show that celebrates the city’s central role in the Silk Road story. The show is a metaphor for a tunnel of time and space aestheticising history and geography. Set up in the background of singing sand dunes mingshashan, the performance uses a 360 degrees rotating steel structure that can move backwards and forward, and a semi-circular open-air auditorium accommodating more than 1000 people. A grand theatrical impact is created by 3D holographic imaging, 3000 aerial lighting effects spread across 33,000 square meters of line theaters, and hundreds of mural lamplights, all of which provide the backdrop for several camel teams and more than 200 professional actors drawn from across China.
Composed of six scenes, Dunhuang Celebration tells the legendary love story of a princess and painter living in the heart of a Silk Road thriving through trade and exchange. Primarily aimed at domestic tourist audience, the show is designed to instill a sense of pride; where reconstructed ‘Silk Road Journeys’ are portrayed as peace, harmony, and the exchanges and cooperation that give Dunhuang its cosmopolitan personality.
The videos below show how such themes are depicted through hybrid forms of music and dance, and vigorous interactions among traders, merchants, cultural religious envoys, and warriors making journeys from afar.
Prologue
In 138 BC, Zhang Qian cored out the western region and opened up the Silk Road. The princess was forced into a peace-making marriage, even though she had promised to marry Mo Ding, her beloved painter.
Scene 1 - Mingshashan Singing Sand Dunes - Opening up of Silk Road
The grand stage opens up with chiming sand dunes summoning souls, jingling camel bells and drumming reflecting hardships and risks experienced by painter Mo Ding. He reaches his final destination Dunhuang - hub of Silk Road to keep his promise to the princess.
Scene 2 - Dunhuang Town - Prosperous trade
This scene portrays the lively spirit of Dunhuang. Hustle and bustle, lively chatter in the markets, and life flows through the streets. The princess dares to disguise herself as the maid and escapes from Hushou’s wedding ceremony to hang out with Mo Ding in the lively town of Dunhuang.
Scene 3 - Mogao Caves - Miseries on Silk Road
The scene unfolds the vastness of the desert, where these two lovers are inflicted by fear. The hardships they face reflect the diseases and harshness that Silk Road travelers suffered. Hushou captures princess and Mo Ding is left alone. She dies of depression in the palace. Later, Mo Ding immerses himself in meditation, spirituality, mural painting and a life of Buddhist scriptures in the caves. Such paintings and carved Buddhas are the deep manifestations of his devoted love.
Scene 4 - Crescent Spring-Life Pursuits
Mo Ding gazes at starry nights and visualizes his mystical dreams where the crescent moon rises over the spring. Mo Ding holds his beloved and dances over the crescent with a life-long pursuit of nights without dreams and stars full of dreams.
Scene 5 - Dunhuang Dream
The moonlight dazzles over the desert, bonfires reflect the ancient dream city - Dunhuang.
