The third season of Everlasting Classics is coming to an end, but its fascinating melodies will remain in people’s memories for a long time.
When the inaugural season of this successful variety exhibition was launched at China Central Television in 2018, its exclusive format temporarily gained audience and won much praise.
The display format is attractive, educational and simple. Modern melodies are added to the chapters of classical texts, basically ancient poems, to highlight the good look of literature.
“We focus on the cultural importance of classics to people,” Tian Mei, the program’s manufacturer, told China Daily. “The adaptation of the ancient chapters introduces classical culture into popularity.”
The diversity of the participants, from the country’s veteran musicians to the top pop singers of the younger generation, to fans, who surprise the audience only with their glorious voices, but with their moving non-public stories.
This permanent season of classics scored 8.7 out of 10 issues on Douban, the leading film and television critics’ website in China.
Tian says the production team does not need to “borrow elements of the classics on a surface level.”
“The key is to get other people to recognize our beautiful classical culture,” he says. “You will have to introduce the hearts of other people and descend to the earth. As a result, we have tended to link our program largely with existing news and topics.”
Due to the popularity of cultural heritage in recent years, some singers offer their new works as adaptations of Ming dynasty poems (1368-1644) about the Forbidden City of Beijing. This is touching because this year marks the 600th anniversary of its creation. Another favorite is Dunhuang, in Gansu Province, a crossroads of the ancient Silk Road and more productive known for its World Heritage site of the Mogao Caves. And it is The Book of Rites, the 2500-year-old harvest that emphasizes the importance of the ritual.
The world’s most important news, the COVID-19 epidemic, is noted.
Created in January and originally scheduled to release a new episode each week, Everlasting Classics, like many others, interrupted the epidemic in February and did not resume broadcasting until the end of June.
After the pandemic, Tian’s team promptly released those songs highlighting patriotism and the circle of family unions, such as Yueyang Pavilion, the well-known verse of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) originally written through Fan Zhongyan.
Fan once wrote, “They are involved in the country before everyone else and only laugh when everyone else finds their pleasure.”
In Tian’s view, this describes doctors who have been instrumental in the fight against the virus.
However, when pre-recorded curtains run out and the screen has to be interrupted, Tian says he understands that the audience wants more to resonate with those fighting viruses.
“When we were home for 40 years, we continued to look for imaginable links between ancient poems and the pandemic,” he recalls. “We need to salute the courage and strength of the people.”
To highlight this approach, an organization of medical personnel from Beijing that traveled to Wuhan, China’s hardest-hit city through COVID-19, invited the stage. Without the show, the general public would not be able to realize their musical talent. They adapted a verse about the Battle of Wen Tianxiang, a patriotic general of the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) that eventually executed the enemy for his loyalty to the home country, in an original song and expressed solidarity by remaining on the front line. line and excitement towards their own families.
And a choir from a number one school in Wuhan also featured A Small Pond, adapted from a poem from the Southern Song dynasty, a webcam. The verse shows the wonderful hope that awaits these children:
“A thin lotus leaf, still unfolded, barely appears.
When a dragonfly is lit on its sharp tip. “
According to Guo Tong, ceo of Everlasting Classics, the third season is bringing a broader global horizon. For example, Happy and Bee, two daughters of American money investor Jim Rogers, gave the impression in the last season of the exhibition and surprised the audience with their perfect mandarin.
Its popularity encourages more foreign faces who love Chinese culture to level up and vocalize the classics. Piccolo Coro Dell’Antoniano, a famous children’s choir in Bologna, Italy, sang a poem from Du Fu’s Tang Dynasty (618-907) greeting spring. And several Southeast Asian students examining in China skillfully turn Confucius Analects into ballads.
“The philosophy, the emotional reflected image and the cultural culture of other cultures are components of the classics,” says Liao Changyong, baritone and commentator on the show. “No matter east or west, other people share the same quest for beauty. Array so they can break the barrier of language and time, and feel moved in their hearts.”
Thus, an even braver hybrid includes chapters of Romeo and Juliet and The Peony Pavilion in one song, citing William Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu, two playwrights from the same ancient period.
“Classical poetry is one of the most representative genres of Chinese culture, but it is not easy for a foreign audience to perceive its profound meaning,” Guo says. “However, music is a language that can be used without problems around the world. And it can help publicize Chinese poems to a greater extent.”