OLYMPICS /
Spotlight
Harmony can be so stressful
By Raymond Zhou
China Daily Staff Writer
Updated: 2008-07-31 09:35
Not everything can fit snugly into the all-encompassing concept of harmony, however.
A set of bronze bells, known as bianzhong, hangs in the Beijing Olympic Park. [China Daily] |
Take the Great Wall, for instance. The First Qin Emperor built it to ward off aggression from northern tribes and the human cost was so staggering that the wails of Meng Jiangnu, whose husband was conscripted to be a slave laborer and died there, still reverberate in public consciousness.
In modern times, the Wall morphed from a defense mechanism that kept people apart to China's star attraction that brings tourists from all corners of the world. So, what seems contradictory on the surface can be shown to actually be in synch.
The terracotta army, from ceremony director Zhang Yimou's hometown, is another case in point. They guard the mausoleum of the First Emperor, who does not have a good reputation among ordinary Chinese but whose image was polished in Zhang's epic film Hero.
The funerary statues are not exactly serene and endearing. On the contrary, they are supposed to protect the dead emperor from hostile spirits. As objects of art, they are awe-inspiring.
There have been many dance numbers, even dance dramas, based on the figures and Zhang himself played a revived Qin soldier encased in such a statue in a 1980s Hong Kong movie.
In the final analysis, harmony is a concept that cannot be turned into a style. In terms of production, the Athens Games was extremely harmonious, with paper boat, blue sea and floating statues. Of course, Greek mythology does not lack battles or conflicts of every conceivable kind. Kunqu, a UNESCO-ordained World Heritage opera, conveys more harmony than Peking Opera, yet it is Peking Opera that is likely to make an appearance at the gigantic show.
To borrow musical terms, harmonic progressions involve the use of different pitches simultaneously, but it is the melodic line that will steal the show. And everything that cannot fall neatly into the category of harmony will probably be a component of the "melody".
Coincidentally, the term "main melody" is often used in the context of ideology-dominated arts and entertainment. A project with as much visibility as the Olympics opening ceremony has no chance of giving up the melody for the harmony.
