The dance-poem drama The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting is a "poetic drama" that comprises a number of parts including "Scroll Unfolding, Seal Script Asking, Silk Singing, Stone Search, Penmanship Practice, Ink Milling and Drawing". The audience will follow a modern researcher from the Palace Museum, i.e., from the perspective of the scroll opener, to roam through the legendary traditional Chinese aesthetic charm.

The whole drama boasts a narrative structure constructed by the time-space crisscrossing technique. The story is set in the days when the Thousands Miles of Mountains and Rivers is about to be exhibited in reality, and the days when the teen painter WANG Ximeng was about to finish his drawing a thousand years ago. Having delved into the Picture of Vast Land, the opener walked into the heart of Ximeng and stayed with him when he drew the Thousands Miles of Mountains and Rivers in those precious days. Sharing the same feeling with this talented youngster, whose life experience is just recorded in a few words, the opener figured out the occasional and necessary causes why it could be peerless for about one thousand years, thereby understanding the emotional ties between treasured national cultural relics and modern people.

To be outlined on the stage is a thick-stratified picturesque scene: A bright moon has shone for a thousand years, with the opener and Ximeng staring at each other; with assiduity, the cultural workers of the Palace Museum have worked with the industrious ancient craftsmen in creating a vivid humanistic picture scroll.

Dates: from 30 January 2025 to February 04 2025

Venue: Opera House, NCPA

Duration: Approximate 120 mins (Intermission Included)

Photo by NCPA