Qingming, when the sky is clear and the breeze is gentle, is the perfect time for Chinese people to enjoy the beautiful springtime scenery with friends or return to hometown to pay respects to ancestors. At the same time, the festival allows us to appreciate the cultural connotation of Qingming as one of the “Four Major Traditional Chinese Festivals”. Adventures on Qingming Festival 2023, to be aired on Henan TV and Elephant News at 19:30 on April 4, features celebrities from the circles of music, dance, and culture, such as Fu Jing, Güldiyar Anaryit, Liu Jie, Luo Wenbo, Tu Honggang, Wu Bixia, Zi De Guqin Studio, and Zhao Liang, who will take the audience on a magical springtime journey.
As one of the 24 solar terms, Qingming is when the weather turns warm and brings abundant rainfall, which makes it ideal for sowing. The lovely springtime views and clear skies are also pleasing to every heart and soul. As Wang wrote in the Lantingji Xu, “As our eyes wander, so do our minds. Indeed, it is a pure delight for all our senses.” In the women’s group dance Lyrical Life in Spring Days, dancers dressed in elegant and soft qipao (cheongsam) saunter and dance through the gardens of Suzhou. Their lithe and graceful figures, bathed in the glory of spring, bespeak the classical charm of the East without compromising modernity. Life in a Cup of Tea incorporates mini landscape and other visual effects, presenting in one song the traditional Chinese tea-making techniques that have just been successfully inscribed on the World Heritage List and related customs. It takes the audience back to the time of Lu Yu, who is respected as the Sage of Tea for his contribution to Chinese tea culture, to resonate with Chinese philosophical thought of “Pleasure derived from simplicity is the true happiness in life.”
Since the Spring Festival Gala in 2021, Henan TV has been refining its shows themed on Chinese festivals, bringing out the cultural connotations of traditional festivals and innovating new ways of presentation, leaving the audience eagerly awaiting what comes next. Lu Hongli, chief director of Adventures on Qingming Festival 2023who produced serial programs for the Lantern Festival, the Qixi Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the Double Ninth Festival, elaborated sensational shows such as Guardian Warriors of Longmen, Shaolin Kung Fu, and The Lantern Festival Fairin the Song Dynasty. This time, Lu and her team will showcase the art and culture of Qingming, tapping deeper into the dynamics and hope of Qingming and the emotional value that is unique to the festival through a multitude of songs, dances and instrumental performances.
