Reviving China's Cultural Heritage: A Festival Celebrating Ancient Dance Forms In Hongjiang Essay.

The research project will be in the field of arts and cultural management as applied to a single art form or cross-art form projects such as festivals, multimedia projects or international exchange in the arts. The theoretical study will provide a framework for any practical research undertaken.

Forgetting Cultural Roots in Modern World

People in the modern world are forgetting their cultural roots. As it has been discussed in the previous part of the paper, modern civilization and globalization is giving rise to a homogenous world where the population throughout the world are becoming similar in their thought process because of increased connectivity and therefore forgetting their rich cultural past. In the ancient times when it was the time for the rise of different civilizations around the world, each had their own unique characteristic features that set them apart from other civilizations. Chinese civilization is one of the world’s oldest civilizations (Granet, 2013). It has been pioneer in many discoveries including paper and gun powder. The country had its own unique and glorious past where the forefathers of the modern Chinese man had several milestones of success in various fields. This includes, art, culture, science and performing arts. In present times, with modernization Chinese population has started to forget the glorious past legacy, therefore it is now required to take adequate measures in order to reestablish the memories of the ancient past in the mind of the modern Chinese men. This can be done through various means, the most important of which can be organizing festivals that will help the people recollect their ancient past. This will also help in boosting the tourism of the region as many national and international tourists will visit the place for experiencing the particular festival. It will change the economy of the region by increasing the flow of tourists in the region which will directly cause growth of hotels, businesses and similar economic activities. The proposed event will be therefore helpful in the economy of the region and also in making the participants historically more aware. The event must be a balance of culture and historical perspectives. The archeology of the place must be highlighted to the visitors in an entertaining manner so that the memory of the event remains in their mind. This will be helpful in also reaching out to the foreign tourists who will be showing greater interest in the history of China.

In the ancient city of Wuzhen the performing art form of theatre has been revived and utilized to boost the cultural past of the town. This theatre festival in Wuzhen has become one of the most popular festivals in entire China (Eberhard, 2013). There are thousands of tourists and visitors coming in the town of Wuzhen to experience this annual event. It has almost become a yearly carnival when people from all over the country and many foreign tourists visit the place to be a part of the theatre festival and to ensure that the yearly carnival becomes a success (Shiqing & Dawu, 2012). The administration of the city also takes appropriate measures to support the particular theatre festival and carnival in all possible ways so that the festival takes place smoothly without any problems. This theatre festivals is successful in bringing back the memory of the ancient cultural heritage at one hand and in gathering tourists in the region on the other hand.

Chinese Civilization: Pioneers in Discoveries

In the ancient city of Hongjiang a similar festival can be arranged in the similar model in order to get the likely successes which have been achieved in Wuzhen. This particular city is located in the Hunan province and is mostly a city covered with mountains and snow peaks. So this naturally makes it a favorite destination for the tourists. The town Hongjiang is an ancient commercial town which currently boasts of about 380 ancient architectures which are intact and important for reconstruction of the ancient Chinese history. The most of the ancient structures has been erected during the Qing dynasty and Ming dynasty. The city boasts of a long vibrant history of different Chinese dynasties is a commercial port, and is a major fireworks town, with more than 3000 years history of civilization (Zhang, Fyall & Zheng, 2015). The city was a destination for the merchants dealing with tung oil, wood, ash, opium.

The proposed project for the revival of the ancient historical memory of the Chinese population in this city will include a festival where there will be large scale presentation of the ancient Chinese dance forms and various other performing arts. The venues will be the various historical spots where the ancient architectures still stand. This will at one hand revive the ancient dance forms and also draw more international and national tourists to the ancient architectural sites of Hongjiang. The ancient architectural sites are located at various places of Hongjiang. Therefore, the events organized in various areas of the ancient town will almost recreate the carnival like mood which is found in Wuzhen during the theatre festival. In Wuzhen as well the theater festival takes place in various locations of the city. The city is enlivened with theatres happening all over the city at various locations. In the same way the city of Hongjiang can be decorated properly and stages can be erected in the ancient architectural sites where people can go and experience the dance festivals, and all the dance forms will be traditional ancient Chinese dance which will depict the Chinese history. The ancient Chinese dance forms are Folk dances of Han Chinese, Ritualistic dances, Folk dances of various minority groups in China and various others. The ancient dance forms in China mainly took place in the court rituals and ceremonies. The various rulers in the ancient China had been engaged in developing and picking various folk dance rituals. It also often happened that many future emperor who came banned previous dance forms. These historical events that took place in the past will be presented to the people in the dance forms and contemporary dance forms will also be presented along with the ancient dance form to contrast and show the people the evolution of dance through the ages.

Reviving Cultural Past in Modern Times

The project will include programs and events that will be evenly distributed in the whole town of Hongjiang and the primary locations will be the ancient architectural sites. The backdrop of the mountains and snowy peaks will add extra attraction (Refer to image 4 and image 5 in Appendix). The organizers will ensure that there are stages, sitting arrangements, bathrooms, resting places and medical care facilities in each of the locations where the events will take place. Before the commencement of the event that will run for a week, there will be advertisements and announcements in the entire country and also in important international platforms. In national perspective advertisement can be given in the national television, in various popular news and entertainment channels, and hoardings and billboards all over the country. In the national radio channels there can be programs and advertisements dedicated  to this program. In the international arena the organizers can rely on heavy online advertisements in international websites especially the ones dedicated to travel websites. The international travelers who are interested in Chinese cultural history and architectural history can come and experience both of these aspects of history together in this one single event. The cultural history will be depicted by the ancient dance forms which will be performed by expert professionals hired for the purpose. When the populations will come to attend the dance festivals they will also be visiting the ancient cultural sites which will make them aware about the ancient architectural history of China.

The historical forgetfulness seen in most of the countries throughout the world is a trend which has worried many, especially those who deal with the historical studies. The countries around the world have started investing in the field of historical studies and to encourage people to grow interest in the cultural and historical roots of their past through various cultural programs and historically motivated events. The idea and objective of such awareness programs is to make the general people aware about their historical past through entertaining means. This encourages people to get educated about history in lighter ways and also increases the tourism revenue of the area where such project is implemented.  

In the world the various places where important historical sites have been transformed into tourism destinations from where millions of revenue is earned include Machu Picchu, Great Pyramids, Angkor Wat, Petra, Stonehenge, Colosseum. Easter Islands, Taj Mahal, The Great Wall. The historical tourism which takes place in various parts of the world are also known as the heritage tourism (Park, 2013). According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States heritage tourism is defined as "traveling to experience the places, artifacts and activities that authentically represent the stories and people of the past". The cultural aspect has always been one important aspect of the historical tourism, tourists from foreign countries visiting a particular region to experience the cultural essence of the place, including the ancient lifestyle of the people of that place, the indigenous style of livelihood of the people. There is also theories that cultural tourism is a thing of past now, and now tourism itself has become a part of the culture, therefore tourism itself is culture now (Sahlins, 2013). Therefore the rationale behind the organization of the program constituting ancient dance forms of China is the growing popularity behind the tourism dedicated to culture and lifestyle of the indigenous people of the region.

The Success of Theatre Festival in Wuzhen

On the other hand the rationale behind the inclusion of the archeological and ancient architectural aspect of the ancient history by arranging the ancient dance programs in the ancient archeological and architectural sites in the city, is the great interest of the people in exploring the various archeological sites as a part of their tourism all over the years throughout ages. The most common form of historical tourism is the exploration of archeological areas of a particular region. The ancient architectures including the palaces, ancient buildings, caves, statues play very important role for the tourists (Su & Wall, 2014).

In this particular project therefore both the aspects of culture and history has been brought together to give the tourists and history enthusiasts a composite experience where both the cultural and archeological aspect of Chinese history will be covered. The rationale of the project is therefore to increase the interest of the general Chinese people and the international tourists in ancient Chinese history, and by the increased tourism to gain more revenue that will help in the development of the ancient town.

The proposed location of the event project will be spread across the city of Hongjiang, in the various ancient archeological locations in the city. The city is located in the Hunan district of China in picturesque location with mountains and snow peaks in the background. The Hunan province is located in the Western part of China and is famous for various tourist locations that dot many parts of it. Apart from Hongjiang there are various other famous historical sites in the region as well, the Liye ancient city is one of the ancient archeological sites in the region. The Liye town was the seat of the Qianling County and is famous for the 37,400 Qin bamboo slips discovered in underground in 2002 (Blumenfield & Silverman, 2013). The Liye ancient city was built by the Kingdom of Chu. In Hunan there are various other historical locations and sites that are important to the historians but not known by the common people. In the Hongjiang city there are more than 380 intact ancient structures built during the Ming and Qing Dynasties (Benton and Pieke, 2016). All these sites can be destinations of tourism from international regions as well as tourists from various parts of the country. The proposed locations of the events that will take place in various parts of the Hongjiang city will be around the ancient structures so that the unknown archeological sites will get popular attention from the people. There are some ancient sites where the structures are vulnerable and it would not be possible to get permission in arranging the event, therefore there must be a prior discussion with the government in details about the possibility of such events and in which if the ancient locations such events will be allowed by the government. Prior permission must be taken from the required departments to successfully conduct the project.

Arranging a Similar Festival in Hongjiang

It is advisable that the best time people should visit the various cities of Hunan including the Hongjiang city is the spring and autumn season (Wang, 2018). This is the time when the weather remains at its best, and all the locations of tourist interest is accessible for the general public. Therefore the time when the events can be arranged is from April to June. The best time to visit the place is May and hence this festival will be arranged in the middle of May.

Therefore the proposed location of the event will be all the accessible ancient archeological sites where permission will be available from the end of the Government. A dedicated team of the management of the event will do their own research in ensuring that which of the ancient archeological locations are feasible and viable for the events to be conducted. Then a detailed proposal for the event will be given to the government so that permission can be taken from the government authorities easily. The proposal must be designed in a way that the government is convinced about the benefits of the project. The multiple benefits must be highlighted properly.

The proposed time of the event is in the middle of May, from, 15^th to 21^st May, 1 week.

The proposed location and time will have great impact on the success of the project. The people who will be showing interest must be given a comfortable and entertaining experience so that they may return every year. The performers must also be kept in a very comfortable environment so that they can perform their best. This is the reason that such location and such timing is chosen for the proposed festival.

The two aspects of the proposed project includes tourism and history. Therefore the institutions that can be a part of the project may include the prestigious historical organizations in China and the big tourism companies that arrange for international tourism.

In China tourism is one of the most important industries from which the government collects a lot of revenue and in the last few decades the countries tourism has grown a number times due to the governmental reforms and international exposure (Shepherd & Yu, 2012). China is one of the fastest growing economies of the world and fast becoming a superpower giving the powerful countries of the world a close competition. Therefore this is a reason that there is more investment in the field of tourism and historical conservation from the Chinese government.

Programs and Events for the Festival

Some of the important cultural institutional partners of the country are World History Research of China, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, The Confucius Institute, the Peking University, Hunan University and Central South University.

The city of Hongjiang is located in the Hunan province of China. Therefore it is advisable that the History department of the Hunan University may be kept as a partner. This will help the event to take place smoothly and also an advisory board can be created who will be guiding the whole event and also giving suggestions about the proposed sites of the events. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the prestigious Confucius Institute may also be kept as partners of the whole project (Hayhoe, 2016).

Other cultural institutions that must be kept in close partnership with the project would include the prestigious and famous dance academies in China that deal with traditional Chinese dance form. The Beijing Dance Academy is one of the foremost and most prestigious dance academy in China, this institute not only deals with the ancient dance forms of China but also blends the Chinese traditional dance forms with the modern dance forms from various foreign origins.  The proposed events would be featuring best performers of the traditional dance forms from various parts of China. The organization of such performances may be done from the end of the Beijing Dance Academy who will be in the responsibility of managing the performers, and finalizing the performances.

Therefore the above two partnerships with the cultural institutes will ensure that the archeological and cultural aspects of the events are taken care of. The partnership with the History department of the Hunan University, The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the prestigious Confucius Institute, will make sure that the historical and archeological aspects of the project is taken care of. The partnership with the Beijing Dance Academy will ensure that the cultural aspect of the ancient dance forms of China are taken care of.

Also it is required to keep close contact with the national and international tourism companies so that the interested people from national and international scenario who wants to take the experience of the event may do so with ease. There will be a. active customer helpline that will cater to the national and international customer groups who are interested.

Tourism sector in China as already mentioned is one of the most vibrant and growing sectors. The government of China has taken a keen interest in developing this particular sector. The tourism market in China has become one of the world's most-watched inbound and outbound tourist markets. “It was estimated that the number of domestic trips in China would increase to about 2.38 billion trips by 2020, indicating an increase of over 50 percent compared to the number of trips made within China ten years ago. The total revenue of Chinese travel and tourism industry amounted to 3.94 trillion yuan as of 2016, up 15.2 percent compared to the previous year. The industry contributed 2.1 percent to China's gross domestic product (GDP) and provided around 22.5 million jobs” (Statista.com, 2018). It is estimated that the number of people appointed in the various jobs related to tourism in China amounted to more than 65 million in the year 2015. In the same year the number of foreign tourists coming in the country amounted to about 26 millions, the highest number of foreign tourists in the recent years came in 2012 which amounted to 27.19 million. In 2012 the revenue collected from the international tourism China amounted to 50 billion in US dollar, in 2016 the numbers reduced to 44.43 billion US Dollars. (Refer to Image 1 to Image 3 in Appendix). Therefore by the sheer volume of revenue and number of foreign and national tourists it can be stated that there will be no dearth of investors who will be interested in investing in the project. Apart from that the project is solely dedicated to the uplifting of historical awareness among the general public, therefore it is expected that the Chinese government will also play a crucial role in helping the organizers with some funds or facilities that will be helpful.  

Advertisement and Announcement for the Festival

China has a huge investment history in the field of education. The government has been encouraging the academic endeavors, and aims to bring in more than half million international students within the country by the year of 2020. This particular project is dedicated solely to the encouragement of historical tourism and to increase the awareness about the ancient glorious past of China. Therefore the particular project will be getting government support because of the objective it has. A detailed proposal will be given to the government and possible institutes that invest and donate for educational purpose. It is expected that the local administrative authority of the city of Hongjiang will also be showing interest in facilitating the project. The project will increase the revenue flow in the city, this carnival will be ensuring that a huge number of national and international tourists will be coming in the city to experience the carnival. The whole city will be decorated and there will be help desks and kiosks to guide the students.

The particular idea of historical events are mainly intended for the younger population, the school and college students mainly. However that doesn’t mean that the other age groups would not be included in the list of target group. The events will be designed compositely for all age groups. Having said that it must be emphasized that the main target group is the secondary and higher studies group of student. The primary target group of the project are those who do not have enough knowledge about Chinese history. The wholesome package of entertainment and knowledge will be helpful in enticing the target group in coming and experiencing the event. The target group comprising of girls and boys of the age between 15 and 25 are more interested in learning through entertainment rather than dry theoretical learning. This is the reason that the cultural programs constituting of ancient Chinese dance forms will be interesting for the target group.

There will be audio visual presentations in the historical sites that will explain the historical importance of the particular site where the dance program is taking place (Marcus et al., 2018). This will make the experience even more interesting for the people visiting. Audio visual methods are very effective in imparting historical knowledge (Rosenstone, 2014). They will be taking a tour of the historical sites, they will be watching a short documentary on the subject and they will also be experiencing the live dance program featuring ancient Chinese dance forms which includes many tribes like the Kazaks (Benson & Svanberg, 2016). This will be giving a wholesome historical experience to the audience and their historical awareness will also increase. This kind of programs will take place all around the town and there will be a perfect carnival atmosphere that will be great for the revenue generation of the town as well. The intended target group will also constitute of international tourists who will be coming through various renowned international tourism companies with whom there will be a partnership of the project.

Encouraging Interest in Cultural and Historical Roots

As mentioned before, there will be an advisory board who will be keeping a tab on the appropriateness of the project on in the intended target group. It will be seen that whether the designed composite programs will be helpful for the people to understand history and become aware about their past glories. Before the commencement of the program there will be a survey among the sample group of the target population to understand what the exact interests of this target group are. The events will be advertised in mediums where the message will most effectively reach the target audience, for example in the social media the age group selected will focus on the younger population for whom knowing historical knowledge is most important.

After the 7 days long carnival gets over there will be a system to collect feedback from the participants to understand their point of view and how much effective is the whole carnival in bringing back the historical memory of the people in general. The feedback will be analyzed to improve the future carnivals.

The realistic logistics required for this project include the materials required for building the stage and sitting arrangements at the locations, which include rods, bars, tools, machines, chairs, platforms, lights, sound systems, crowd management equipment, drinking water facilities, temporary toilet facilities, projectors, screens and similar items. There must be a dedicated transportation partner for transporting the items from one location to the other.

As discussed in the above, the cultural program will be held in the historical spots of the city of Hongjiang. Since the historical spots are scattered throughout the ancient city, several programs will be organized in different corners of the city.  All of the historical spots are ancient and are in a vulnerable condition. On the other hand, a huge gathering can be expected there during the cultural program as the programs will be organized in a grand manner in a form of carnival. It can be expected that a wide range of people irrespective of age will mark their presence during the programs. Hence, there will be a risk that the ancient structures of these spots can be adversely affected. For example, as the places are already in a vulnerable condition, setting up of stage and other temporary structures can further damage the ancient buildings and the structures (Van der Wagen & White, 2018). On the other hand, careless behavior of the people who will attend the programs will be another threat to the historical spots. To be more specific, often it is seen that people litter here and there and among them littering of plastic bags is the most common issue that causes damage of the historical spots. As per Van der Wagen and White, (2018), the littering will not only pollute the areas but will also damage the scenic beauty of the historical architectures.

Increasing Tourism Revenue with the Festival

However, as per Andersson and Lundberg, (2013), the major threat is that due to vibration during setting up of the stage and sitting arrangements for the audience, the ancient architectures might collapse any time. If that happens, not only the historical spots will lose its significance, the audience’s lives will be at stake also amid such disaster. Thus it is strongly recommended that the precautions must be taken in a serious manner before organizing the cultural programs in order to avoid any unpleasant situations (Jones, 2017). Since hammering can be the cause of major damage, it must be avoided. Even if it is required, special attention must be given the precautionary measures. As per Jones, (2017), the other major issue is related to the audio-visual part of the cultural program. While visualizing the whole program, screening machinery will be required to set up on the wall of historical structures which might cause damage and can even cause collapse. Hence, it is suggested that while organizing such a grand festival these above mentioned aspects must be considered in order to assure success.

Several organizations will be partnered for the successful organization of the festival like cultural program so that it can surely evoke an urge within the audience to know about the history of China. The major organizations which will be the part of the projects are the government’s tourism wing, private tourism and travel agencies of China, World History Research of China, and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, The Confucius Institute, the Peking University, Hunan University, Central South University, international tourism companies and the event organizing companies.

Once the project achieves success, the engagement with the above mentioned organizations will be stronger. The partners will be further encouraged in doing  more such events together so that the partnership increases more. As per Quinn, (2013), in respect to that, it needs to be mentioned that funding is the major concern for such a grand cultural program. Hence after successful organization of the program, the institutes mainly the Universities can invest more since such programs are generally considered to be very beneficial for the students of history (Jones, 2017). More than class room based theoretical knowledge; students prefer studying in practical way. Hence, it can be said that for the interest of students, these educational institutions can be expected to invest more in a considerable manner.

On the other hand the tourism companies and the tourism sector of the government might extend their partnership for more such programs since it is a major tourism attraction for both the domestic tourists as well as international tourists (Rojek, 2014). International tourists often show more importance in the eastern countries like China and India because of their rich historical past. It is often seen that Chinese history and culture is of high importance among the international tourists. Hence such a program which will recreate the Chinese history through audio-visualization and dance programs must be able to satisfy the interest of tourists while increasing a greater scope so that the tourism of the country will be flourished. Beside of government, the tourism agencies will be highly benefitted by the partnership as it can be a significant tourist attraction of Chine, mainly for those tourists who are history lovers (Quinn, 2013).

It deserves mention that this partnership will also be beneficial for the event organizing agencies. Such grand series of cultural program will surely require more than one event organizing companies since the several programs will be held in different part of the city of Hongjiang. As the cultural program is a grand natured festival like project, it cannot be managed properly without the help of event organizing companies. According to Jones, (2017), as a result there is a scope for the event management companies to generate more profit from such big project which is of historical importance.

On the other hand the television and media centers can also be partnered so that they will be able air the programs over television (Quinn, 2013). The media such as news papers, news channels and radio channels can be partnered in order to promote the organization of the project. Macau Lotus Television, Macau Asia Satellite Television, China Daily, 88.3 Jia FM and similar media companies can be partnered so that the cultural project will be successful in attracting the audience to attend it.

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