Past masters

The main historical cultures in the city include Fu Hsi Culture, Dadiwan Primal Tribe Culture, the early culture of the Qin State (one of the vassal states from 900-206 BC), the Maiji Mountain Grottoes artistic culture and ancient war culture during the Three Kingdoms period (220-280).

The co-directors and the co-writers of the show, Zhang Dong and Cong Mingling, were invited to create the show in 2017. When the couple first visited Tianshui, they were impressed by the elegance and long history of the city.

To compress 8,000 years of history into a 100-minute show was not easy. "They have five main cultures that last for 8,000 years, and every single one is an epic story," Cong says.

"At first we wanted to write a show about only Fu Hsi Culture, but as we came to know Tianshui more and stay here longer, we realized that the culture of Fu Hsi alone can't convey a full picture of the city, so in the end we included all five cultures in the show," she says.

Cong and Zhang took three years to finish writing the show. "The creation process was also a process of learning more about Chinese civilization," Cong says, adding that she had read three thick county annals of Tianshui to learn about its history.

Cong thinks even though the city has a long history, the way they present it is modern and young. Take music as an example, besides guqin, a seven-string traditional Chinese instrument, rock 'n' roll is also used in the show.

Cong says she hopes the show can arouse young people's interest in learning more about the history of Tianshui.

"It's like a history class for children. It's not a full view but a window for them to learn more about Tianshui," she says.

"The audience, especially tourists, may just hear about Fu Hsi as a mythological figure, through watching the show they can have an idea of what kind of person Fu Hsi was," Cong says.