Henan TV has once again succeeded in promoting traditional culture across the Chinese web with the Dragon Boat Festival Gala. More performances from the night can be viewed here.
Dance: Pray
Dancer: He Yinghao as Luoshen, best known for being the epitome of beauty in Cao Zhi’s poem Ode to the Nymph of the Luo River 洛神赋.
Director: Chen Jia
Executive / creative Director: Xiao Mada (also the brains behind Henan’s Spring Festival gala dance)
Henan TV’s Spring Festival Gala has been making waves online for its creative dance performance that showcased the best of Chinese culture. Titled Tang Dynasty Banquet 唐宫夜宴, it showcases 14 female musicians passing several renowned artefacts as they make their way to the palace.
(Clicking on the third icon from the right turns off the danmaku)
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A painting by China’s most well-known donkey artist, Huang Zhou
This Funeral Address for Donkey 祭驴文 from the Dunhuang Library Cave made me tear up, so here’s the translation.
The scroll is dated to be from the 7th to the 10th Century and is currently at the British Library. See the original here.
While Wang Kai’s leading role in the Held in the Lonely Castle is most well-known as Song Renzong in Chinese, his last name is Zhao and first name is Zhen. Instead, Song Renzong is his temple name that translates into Emperor Renzong of Song.
Even for fluent speakers, watching an ancient drama can often be confusing because of how many names everyone has. Here’s a mini-guide to the different parts of a Chinese name, starting with simpler modern names and moving onto complicated historical names. There’s also some information on non-Chinese names and how we at Cfensi translate names.
Chinese names are grouped into two – 姓(xing)氏(shi) and 名(ming)字(zi) . You can think of 姓氏 as last names that you inherit, and the later as given names. Nowadays , they’re shortened into your last name 姓(xing) and your first name 名(ming). Historically, they were once distinct.
Emperor Kangxi endorses this eyeshadow palette.
The Forbidden Palace aka one of China’s hottest IP (they have their own variety show promoting merch and collaborations with everything from a mobile game with Tencent to pickled goods with Li Ziqi) has another make-up collection, this time for Mao Geping’s new Eastern Charms collection containing blush, eye shadow, all-purpose color palettes, lipsticks and perfumes.
Timetravelling series Tang Dynasty Tour 唐砖 is the first time I’ve seen an ancient drama directly lift an already popular dance to be performed in the show. The dance, An Outing with Beauties 丽人行, is adapted from award-winning dance drama Du Fu, is based off a poem that uses descriptions of the nonchalance and beauty of the women picnicking in the spring to criticize the lives of the rich in the Tang dynasty.
Inspired by The Thousand Li of Mountains and Rivers by Song Dynasty artist Wang Ximeng as well as creatures from The Classic of Mountains and Seas , The Forbidden Palace‘s first app (in collaboration with Netease) is now available for free on Apple app stores world wide.
The click-and-point adventure game takes the player through four paintings, each exploring a different theme with a different legend. Despite simple gameplay, the artwork and music are gorgeous that you can just enjoy it as an interactive animated film. Several of the stories are also quite creative. There’s also a mini-story for many of the story elements where you can learn about the objects and creatures and their legends. Plus, the translations are solid.
Search for “Ink,Mountains and Mystery” or 妙笔千山 in your app store. iPhones link here.
The premise of entering a painting is actually perfect for this particular painting. Painted by the then eighteen-year-old Wang Ximeng for the Song Emperor Huizong. His outrageous demands was appeased by the emperor earlier on, but eventually he angered the emperor and was sentenced to death. Before his execution, he asked to be left alone with his painting one last time. He entered the room that house the painting and was never seen again. Rumors has it he entered the world of his painting, and lives there still.
On top of that, the game also collaborated with several hanfu companies to release limited edition outfits based on the characters.
The Forbidden Palace Museum store transacted over 1 billion RMB last year, and yet it’s still coming up with new ways to take all my money
After fans repeatedly asking for an original makeup line, The Forbidden Palace Museum has finally delivered with two beautiful makeup sets and two single items with both packaging and colors by the Forbidden Palace itself and the museum’s collections. Each piece costs between 66 – 160 RMB and can be brought on their taobao store (which now takes foreign credit cards and ships abroad).
P.S. I know it’s not Sunday but this news was too exciting to wait.
Couple @三兽sanso and @小姬joy spent half a year traveling across China to take wedding photos in the style of all 56 officially recognized ethnic groups. They usually asked locals to help them get as authentic clothing as possible (some accessories they used are family heirlooms, some are museum pieces) , although some are more touristy costumes. They also said that given the choice, they usually opted for less religious clothing.
It’s really a pity that only like five of them are regularly represented in TV series. I would love to see more historical and modern dramas exploring their stories.
Vlogger Li Ziqi uses traditional Chinese methods to make food, clothes, furniture, and cosmetics.
If you’ve ever wondered how those pieces of paper used as lipstick in ancient drama works, here’s a video demonstration by Weibo star and vlogger Li Ziqi. Li Ziqi is famous for using traditional methods to make mostly food, but she also occasionally does other videos like making traditional Chinese cloth shoes, paper, and even a swing. She recently signed a deal with the Forbidden Palace Museum for her own line of traditional snacks.