At present, the rehearsal of Qinshuhuang, a large-scale music and dance historical drama is going smoothly in Xi n, Shaanxi province. The drama will be played in a theater nearby the Qinshihuang Mausoleum Museum, the terracotta warriors and horses of which are reputed as the ighth miracle of the world?. With the reproduction of the Qin Empire history through international high-tech video and film techniques, the drama will provide a dazzling visual experience for the domestic and overseas tourists.
Qinshihuang well-known around the world
On Oct 22, the winner of the Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences was announced by the jury in Ovieda, a famous historical and cultural city of Spain. This year winner is the Chinese archaeologist team who has been excavating the terracotta warriors of the Qin Dynasty (221 BC-206 BC) in Xi n.
As the mausoleum of Qinshihuang, the first emperor in Chinese history, the Qinshihuang Mausoleum is reputed as the ighth miracle of the world? for its spectacular scale and remarkable artistic value.
As relevant statistics show, more than 60 million domestic and overseas tourists, including 179 heads of states and governments, have visited the Museum of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qinshihuang by now. Each year the museum receives more than 3.6 million visitors, among which overseas visitors totaled 700,000, Meng Jianming, director of publicity and education of the museum, said.
Until now, the archeologists have located three burial pits of the Qinshihuang Mausoleum and unearthed thousands of life-size vivid terracotta warriors, with the images covering generals, military officers, coat armors, plate armors, kneeling archers, standing archers, and chariot horsemen.
Since its opening in October 1979, the Museum of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qinshihuang has attracted numerous travelers and politicians from across the world.
A lot of famous politicians such as former US president Ronald Reagan, late former French president Fran is Mitterrand, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kindom, former Germany chancellor Helmut Kohl, and former Japanese prime ministers Takeshita Noboru and Ohira Masayoshi spoke highly of the museum after their visits.
This is a marvelous miracle, and the whole world should come have a look, Reagan once said. Margrethe II, Queen of Denmark, said she had never seen such exhilarating scenes in her career of more than a dozen years as an archeologist. All of the scenes have become her eternal memory, she added.
However, some tourists complained that visit of the Qinshihuang terracotta warriors and horses merely focused on the exhibition of still cultural relics and they couldn feel and experience the epic scenes of the Qin Empire as well as the splendid civilization of the Qin Dynasty.
As a result, the local government gradually realized that the world-renowned Qinshihuang terracotta warriors and horses had not generated proportionate social benefits and economic benefits.
Nowadays, with the development of market economy, more and more enterprises are improving their market awareness. Shaanxi BST Investment Co., Ltd, a private enterprise, together with China Oceanwide Holdings Group, one of the largest private enterprises in China, noticed the huge business opportunities arising from the terracotta warriors and horses, and jointly established the Shaanxi Jiuzhouyinghong Industrial Development Co in 2003 to promote the development of relevant cultural industry.
To that end, they jointly invested a total of 300 million yuan on Qinshihuang, an indoor large-scale music &dance drama, beside the Museum of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qinshihuang. With the international elements and high-tech video and film techniques, the drama is expected to reproduce the history of the Qin Dynasty.
Qinshihuang: reproducing the history
As Pan Yang, chief art director of Qinshihuang, introduced, the drama has attracted a top-class production team. Kluse Badelt, the world famous composer who has composed for more than 20 Hollywood award-winning films such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Miami Vice, The Promise, and X-Man, is in charge of the composition of the drama.
Sun Haohui, director of the hit TV series The Qin Empire, will depict the historical story of Qinshihuang conquering the other six kingdoms in 60 minutes. Other professionals including Sha Xiaolan, who was in charge of the lightning design of the Beijing Olympics opening and closing ceremonies, Zhao Ming, national first-level choreographer, Li Wenxin, a well-known stage designer, and Li Ruiding, a costume designer, will also join the production team.
Kluse Badelt said: inshihuang is one of the most famous Chinese in the world. It is a great honor for me to rejuvenate his story and broadcast it across the world with music. Meanwhile, I will combine the elements of traditional Chinese music with those of international music and let the people around the world remember the drama and Qinshihuang.?
TV audience of the latest World Cup live broadcast must have been impressed with the modern 4D visual technology. According to Pan Yang, the technology will also be applied the drama Qinshihuang. In the drama, the virtual terracotta warriors created by the technology and the warriors performed by actors will bring the audience back to the battlefield in the ancient times.
With the application of high-tech sound, light, and electric technologies, such large-scale equipments as advanced revolving elevators and single elevators, and the LEDs, the stage will have no blackout signals for scene change, and the audience will naturally follow the next scene.
The production team designed the costumes for the warriors and horses with props, apparels, and body colored painting as well as the mirrors and characters of Qin Dynasty. Moreover, the coins the dynasty will be used in head ornaments. Reflecting major historical events and historical civilization of the dynasty, these designs have never been used on the Chinese stage before.
On the construction site of the Qinhuang Theater, Yu Zhongchen, chief engineer of the project, told the reporter that a total of 250 million yuan has been invested on the project, which is supposed to complete in the spring of 2011. Covering a construction area of 18,000 square meters and boasting a total of 1,800 seats, the theater will be the largest theater with most advanced facilities for such activities as opera, dance performance, music performance, fashion show and international high-levels meetings.
With the appealing Chinese music and the spectacular performances of lightning, special effects, and sound, the theater will surely present the magnificent scene of Qinshihuang initiating a united Chinese empire in the ancient times for the domestic and overseas tourists.
Brand-new experience for the visitors
As Ren Junhao, Party chief of Lintong district of Xi n, said, the drama will extend the tourism cultural performance of historical capital Xi n from the wonderful dancing of Tang Dynasty to the magnificent scenes of Qin Dynasty. With the tourism strategy of promoting the cultures of Qin and Tang dynasties, the number of tourists visiting the terracotta warriors and horses is increasing by 15% each year, indicating huge business opportunities.
The development plan of the Shaanxi Jiuzhouyinghong Industrial Development Co will definitely not end with the drama. Wang Yong, president of the company, said it will invest 3 billion yuan to establish a tourism and culture industrial chain that suits the tourism consumption demand in the 21st century with the top-class tourism and culture resources of the terracotta and horses museum.
Besides the key projects of Qinhuang Theater and the drama Qinshihuang, the company will also build a 60,000-sq-m Qinhuang Hot Spring Resort Hotel. With 1,200 suites featuring structure-type landscape and courtyard-style buildings, conference &exhibition zone, cultural relics exhibition zone, hot spring recreation zone and business service zone, the hotel will improve the service quality of the tourism zone and accommodate new consumer groups.
Pei Jingyu, member of the Lintong CPC Standing Committee and publicity director of Lintong district, said the drama Qinshihuang will become the image product of Shaanxi as well as China culture tourism industry and the soul of the Qin Culture Industrial Park in Lintong district.