Reviving Heritage, Redefining Cool: The Unstoppable Fusion of Traditional Culture and Pop Culture Icons
Hanfu Latin dance, “History Cat” Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival, Shuaifu Cheongsam Festival… Do these activities centered around traditional culture sound unique? Guangzhou Daily Omnimedia reporters found that during this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival, many traditional cultural activities of various forms appeared in Guangzhou, and there will be many similar activities during the upcoming National Day holiday. It is worth mentioning that many activities have added popular innovative elements to the branches of “tradition”, bringing new ideas to ancient folk customs and making contemporary popular IP and traditional culture win-win.
Text/Guangzhou Daily Omnimedia Reporter Bu Songzhu
Photo/Guangzhou Daily Omnimedia reporters Bu Songzhu and Wang Weixuan (some photos provided by JC Animation Museum)
Traditional lanterns meet the popular comics
During the Mid-Autumn Festival, Yuntai Garden was occupied by “historical cats”. Ramen, steamed buns, oolong, glutinous rice balls, dumplings, pancakes… A group of “historical cats” from the popular comic “If History Were a Group of Cats” made a shining appearance, transformed into huge colorful lights, shining brightly. A large number of tourists came to “chase stars”, and Yuntai Garden was extremely popular. The most excited were the children and comic fans, who walked all the way to the highest point to check in and take photos, and did not let go of any “historical cats”.
This time, “History Cat” joined hands with traditional lanterns, which were vigorously promoted by JC Animation Museum and Guangzhou Animation Artists Association, and supported by Foshan Folk Art Society. It is an innovative attempt to activate Lingnan intangible cultural heritage with artistic IP. The specific undertaking and creation of the lanterns were completed by the Qingjiang Studio team from Foshan. Based on the historic Foshan lanterns, they integrated the phenomenal comic IP to create a unique garden lantern festival.
This interesting idea successfully won the support of big names such as Jincheng, Feizhi, and Tango. The art club also spent a lot of time designing the content and gameplay, using the garden-style art experience to string together multiple landscapes in the scenic area, allowing people to participate and record together, becoming part of the landscape, and thus creating a fun new interactive scene. In addition to the huge “historical cat” group portrait, impressive passages in comics such as “The Burning of Red Cliffs” are also displayed in the lantern festival, providing a magnificent atmosphere. The gameplay of the lantern festival also introduced the mode of real-life games. Many “interesting points” and “story-like” details are hidden in different corners of the park, and with many “randomly triggered” plots, each visitor can get a different experience.
The person in charge of the production team introduced that in their creative and practical process, they always strive to achieve the harmony between cultural diversity and urban nature. “For any culture, perhaps the stronger its compatibility, the stronger its vitality. Without development, inheritance probably loses its meaning.” In fact, in the process of this creation, the artists and the production team of the intangible cultural heritage lanterns also encountered huge collisions and challenges in conveying their respective ideas, which also provided valuable brainstorming for how to use new materials, new content and new themes to interpret and inherit traditional culture.
Fei Zhi, the creator of If History Were a Group of Cats, said in an interview with a reporter from Guangzhou Daily All Media that the positioning of If History Were a Group of Cats has always been to promote excellent traditional culture to readers, such as my country’s history, humanities and art. “There are a lot of traditional folk customs, poems and other contents in our books and magazines. Our team also actively participates in the promotion of related intangible cultural heritage. We hope that more surplus productivity can be invested in this in the future.”
Fei Zhi said that it is a very good thing that contemporary IP can work hand in hand with traditional intangible cultural heritage. “Traditional intangible cultural heritage can be revitalized with the help of contemporary IP and be more widely spread. Contemporary IP can absorb the connotation of traditional intangible cultural heritage and enhance the ‘texture’ of the work. This is a win-win situation. Contemporary IP going abroad is a powerful way to spread traditional intangible cultural heritage.”
“Hanfu Latin” dances into Shawan Ancient Town
Recently, a group of tourists dressed in Hanfu came to the square in front of Liugeng Hall in Shawan Ancient Town, Panyu. Suddenly, they stopped, and then the music started, and they swayed to the rhythm. Many passers-by stopped in surprise, applauded, took photos, and cheered.
This is a “easter egg” in the “Red Fish is Coming” Mid-Autumn Festival held in Shawan Ancient Town – a Latin Salsa dance flash mob. The passionate and unrestrained movements of the Salsa dance lift up the fluttering sleeves of the Hanfu, which is quite interesting.
The lead dancer of “Hanfu Latin” is Lin Tao, deputy director of the Button Museum in Shawan Ancient Town and president of Guangdong Elite Dance Academy. He said that the flash mob event hopes to combine the traditional Hanfu show with contemporary professional Latin dance, so that the unique charm of “Hanfu Latin” can light up the night of the ancient town.
Lin Tao said that Salsa dance is highly professional and competitive, and is also a very social dance. The movements are simple and easy to learn, and scenes of hundreds or thousands of people dancing together are often seen. It has many rotating movements, which can show the unrestrained beauty of Hanfu with wide robes and large sleeves in addition to its dignified and majestic appearance. “We hope to show everyone another form of expression of Hanfu, which does not have to be static, and can also be moved in the vast world!”
Lin Tao introduced that in the coming period, “Hanfu Latin” flash mob events will be staged from time to time in various places in Shawan Ancient Town, and he looks forward to meeting everyone unexpectedly.
In addition, the red fish in “Red Fish is Coming” is a new IP designed by Professor Li Jian’s team of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts after refining and recreating the traditional fish lantern folk custom of Shawan. As the person in charge of the Shawan Ancient Town project of Guangzhou Grassroots Public Cultural Community, Li Jian introduced that Guangzhou first proposed the concept of “public cultural community” in the country, aiming to activate the endogenous power of grassroots public culture through effective cultivation and incubation by government and professional forces, truly mobilize local forces and community residents, and build a grassroots “self-organized” public cultural operation mechanism, which will then give birth to a sustainable and high-quality grassroots cultural ecology and shape a diverse and wonderful urban and rural cultural landscape. At present, there are 12 teams joining the “Red Fish Club” cooperation alliance, covering homestays, catering, medical care, travel photography, handicrafts, collection exhibitions and other fields, many of which are representative or emerging formats in the ancient town. It is hoped that this swimming “red fish” can stir up the spring water of Shawan Ancient Town, so that local merchants and operators related to intangible cultural heritage can participate and enrich the cultural life of the ancient town.
Promote cheongsam culture with new media
“The 100-year-old Marshal’s Mansion, the ‘flag’ meets the beauty”: the second “Marshal’s Mansion Cheongsam Festival” series of activities was recently held at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. In the cheongsam photo experience event, many cheongsam lovers left their beautiful figures here.
Zeng Qiaolan, a curator of the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall and the planner of this cheongsam festival, introduced that this event attempts to introduce traditional cheongsam into the scenes of contemporary life and popular culture. In early September, the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall combined short video popular culture with short video to launch the second “Marshal’s Mansion Cheongsam Festival” album short video to promote the Chinese culture contained in cheongsam. The cheongsam photo experience event also focuses on new media gameplay. The organizer cleverly set up scenes based on the characteristics of the venue’s compatibility with both Chinese and Western cultures to provide the audience with a photo shooting experience. On the day of the event, many women came to the Generalissimo Memorial Hall wearing cheongsams and took photos based on the life and work scenes in the building. Among them are retirees, elites in the workplace, and energetic students and children. Cheongsams are accompanied by foreign buildings, leaning on the railings and looking out at each other. The beauty of the cheongsam’s shape appears more vivid against the backdrop of the environment, and the life aesthetics of the cheongsam has also become concrete. It is reported that more than 3,000 photos were taken in the event, more than 8,000 photos were downloaded, and more than 290,000 photos were viewed. Next, the museum will also launch a campaign to recruit promotion ambassadors for the “Shuai Mansion Cheongsam Festival” to bring cheongsam culture into the vision of more young people.
Some designers said that the charm of traditional cheongsam mainly comes from its profound cultural heritage and unique artistic style. The appeal of modern cheongsam lies in the fact that designers skillfully combine this traditional charm with modern elements to create a fashionable appeal with diverse personalities. On the one hand, designers have successfully broken the style restrictions of traditional cheongsam by changing the length, cut, color, etc. On the other hand, new technologies such as 3D printing and smart weaving have also been added to the design of modern cheongsam, making the production of cheongsam more refined and personalized.
Tourists who participated in the event said that many people think that cheongsam is not “daily wear”, but a traditional dress with the nature of a formal dress, or a uniform in specific places such as restaurants and hotels. In fact, this is not the case. Today’s cheongsam can be both an elegant and outstanding formal dress and a natural and casual daily wear, carrying a variety of fashion trends. Through activities like the Cheongsam Festival, more application scenarios with high adaptability to cheongsam can be promoted, allowing traditional clothing culture to accompany everyone in a more natural form.
(Source: Guangzhou Daily)
Source: Guangzhou Daily
Original title: Traditional culture and popular IP work together for a win-win situation
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