Amidst the transformative waves of the entertainment industry during the prosperous era, Ling Yichen, Jun Mozhan, and Lu Zixuan were not content with merely achieving fame and success. They harbored a grander vision—to promote the deep integration and widespread dissemination of modern and ancient cultures, to build a cultural bridge that transcends time and space, and to allow the wisdom of both eras to shine even more brilliantly through exchange and collision.
In the course of operating his opera troupe, Ling Yichen skillfully integrated modern story elements into the creation of ancient opera scripts. He deeply understands that opera, as a popular art form, possesses powerful narrative and emotional appeal, making it an excellent vehicle for cultural dissemination. Therefore, he used modern views on love and friendship, as well as reflections on human nature, as a blueprint to create a series of novel and unique opera stories. In an opera titled "Love Across a Thousand Years," he tells the story of a couple separated by a time-space distortion, yet steadfastly upholding their love through a thousand-year pursuit. This story not only celebrates the unwavering loyalty of love found in ancient opera but also incorporates the respect for individual emotions and the pursuit of freedom inherent in modern concepts of love. When this opera was performed in theaters, audiences were captivated by its dramatic plot, experiencing the charm of ancient opera while also gaining new insights and reflections on modern emotional concepts.
To make these modern cultural elements more accessible and appealing to a wider audience, Ling Yichen also conducted popularization activities within the troupe. He personally explained the modern storylines within the operas to the audience, guiding them to appreciate the opera from different perspectives. He would hold small lectures before performances, introducing the character traits, social phenomena, and values within a modern cultural context, enabling the audience to better understand the modern cultural information hidden behind the plot. In this way, Ling Yichen not only enriched the expressive content of ancient opera but also provided fertile ground for the dissemination of modern culture within ancient society, promoting the organic integration of the two cultures in opera art.
Jun Mo Ran, leveraging her embroidery workshop and her collaboration with the imperial court, vigorously promoted modern aesthetic concepts and design culture. She established aesthetics classes in her workshop, inviting women from the city to learn. In her classes, she showcased various styles and schools of modern art, from abstract art to realism, from minimalism to ornate styles, broadening the horizons of the ancient women. She explained in detail the principles of color matching, composition rules, and innovative ideas in design within modern aesthetics. For example, she taught students how to use color contrast and harmony to create different visual effects, how to highlight the subject and express emotions through variations in composition density, and how to combine modern geometric shapes with traditional floral patterns to create novel and unique embroidery designs.
Jun Mo Ran also blended modern design culture with ancient etiquette culture, creating a series of clothing and accessories suitable for ancient ceremonial occasions. At a grand palace banquet, the costumes she designed for the concubines stunned the audience. These garments borrowed design concepts from modern evening gowns, employing fitted cuts, floor-length skirts, and off-the-shoulder and backless designs to showcase the graceful curves of women. In terms of pattern design, they combined ancient auspicious patterns with modern abstract designs, such as combining dragon and phoenix motifs with modern line art, giving the patterns both traditional cultural connotations and a modern sense of style. In terms of color selection, she used sophisticated grays and Morandi colors from modern fashion, paired with traditional palace colors such as gold and red, creating a noble, elegant, and refreshingly refined atmosphere. The appearance of these costumes not only caused a sensation in the palace but also quickly spread among the common people, becoming objects of imitation. Jun Mo Ran, through her designs, has deeply embedded modern aesthetics and design culture into the cultural soil of ancient society, promoting the exchange and integration of ancient clothing culture and modern design culture.
In planning and directing court performances, Lu Zixuan fully leveraged the advantages of modern stage art, disseminating modern cultural creativity and performance concepts. He introduced modern musical elements into ancient opera performances, combining them with ancient instrumental performances to create a unique musical style. In an opera performance depicting a war scene, he incorporated modern drum rhythms and strong chordal effects, coupled with the playing of ancient instruments such as horns and gongs, creating a tense, intense, and magnificent war atmosphere. This opera music, incorporating modern musical elements, provided audiences with an unprecedented auditory experience and injected new vitality into the development of ancient opera music.
Lu Zixuan also emphasized incorporating modern body language and performance styles into stage performances. He drew inspiration from modern dance movements and expressions, designing new dance segments and performance actions for opera actors. In a mythological opera performance, when depicting a scene of immortals flying, the actors used leaps, spins, and graceful movements from modern dance, combined with stage smoke effects and lighting changes, making it seem as if they were truly soaring through the sky. This novel performance style not only enhanced the visual impact of the stage performance but also made ancient opera performances more appealing to modern audiences. Through these innovations and integrations in stage art, Lu Zixuan disseminated modern cultural creativity and performance concepts to the court and throughout ancient society, promoting the development and transformation of ancient stage art.
In the process of cultural dissemination, the three also actively engaged in exchanges and collaborations with ancient literati and scholars. They held cultural seminars, inviting people from all walks of life to discuss the similarities and differences between modern and ancient cultures, and how to integrate them. At the seminars, Ling Yichen shared with ancient playwrights the structure and narrative techniques of modern drama creation, such as how to use suspense, conflict, and plot twists to build exciting storylines, and how to create multi-dimensional characters. Jun Moran exchanged ideas with ancient painters and calligraphers about the sources of inspiration and expressive techniques for modern aesthetics and artistic creation, and explored how to integrate modern innovative elements into traditional art forms. Lu Zixuan discussed with ancient musicians and dancers the ways in which music and dance are integrated in modern stage art, and how to enhance the artistic appeal of performances through the use of stage space.
The holding of these cultural seminars promoted the exchange and dissemination of modern and ancient cultures among the intellectual class. Ancient literati gained new creative inspiration and ideas from their sharing, and began to try to incorporate modern cultural elements into their works; while the three of them also drew nourishment from the insights and wisdom of ancient cultural figures, further enriching and improving their own cultural dissemination strategies.
As time passed, the social and cultural landscape of the prosperous dynasties underwent significant changes under their influence. Folk art became more diversified, and people's aesthetic concepts gradually aligned with modern trends; court culture also became more open and inclusive, actively absorbing the essence of modern culture. Modern and ancient cultures achieved a profound integration and widespread dissemination in this ancient era, forming a unique cultural landscape.
The cultural journey of Ling Yichen, Jun Moran, and Lu Zixuan, like a seed, took root, sprouted, and flourished on the land of the prosperous dynasty. With their wisdom and hard work, they broke down the boundaries of time and space, allowing modern and ancient cultures to learn from and promote each other through exchange, writing a brilliant chapter in the development and inheritance of human culture. Their story will forever be etched in the annals of history, becoming a model of cross-temporal cultural integration, inspiring future generations to continuously explore the infinite possibilities of cultural exchange and innovation.
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