Heroism Without Borders
Liaoning Ballet of China’s original work on iconic woman warrior builds rapport abroad By Zhao Wei
If you didn't know that you were in the David H. Koch Theater in New York, you would think you had been transported to a village in ancient China, thanks to the ambience. Gently undulating mountains, hazy as though they were seen through a mist, stood sentinel at the back while a giant branch, with flowers slowly dropping down to the accompaniment of melodious flute music formed the foreground. All the elements of stage décor spoke of China as did the performance that began to unfold, with the story of Hua Mulan, the girl who became a byword for her love for her family and her bravery, told by the Liaoning Ballet of China, based in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province in the northeast.
The story of how Mulan, a village girl who took the place of her aging father in the army to fi ght off invaders from the north, is now known outside China, especially after the animated movie produced by Disney in 1998. Still, delineating the transformation of a naïve girl into a national icon through ballet in two hours is not an easy task.
“Mulan is the most challenging role I have ever played. She is both feminine and with a soldier's prowess. To depict the transformation and her inner thoughts while she was undergoing the change was a tough task,” said Yu Chuanya, the ballerina who played the protagonist in Hua Mulan . “It was different from the classic ballets I usually do and I had to forget some of the techniques I use and fi nd a new way to be Mulan, making her moves quick, punchy and straightforward.”
The ballet required martial art performances as well since Mulan, who disguised herself as a man and fought as a soldier, has some fi ghting scenes. Yu spent a lot of time learning martial art moves and training with the male dancers, who are her companions in the ballet. It required formidable skills to portray convincingly the journey of a village girl who was lost during the fi rst military training she received to the confi dent and deft warrior who would later strike terror in the hearts of the enemy.
The story of Hua Mulan, the amazing Chinese heroine who fought against invaders, has been the subject of ballads, plays and animated fi lms. On August 23, it hit the David H. Koch Theater in New York as a ballet for the fi rst time. Qu Zijiao, Art Director and President of Liaoning Ballet, which will also tour Canada with Hua Mulan , was in candid conversation with Beijing Review about how the art form can be used to tell the stories of China's heroes to an international audience. This is an edited excerpt of the conversation:
2.2.3 对铁磁性材质类植入物，或说明书未标明材质性质并且未说明若行MRI检查的条件或注意事项的植入物，归于MRI禁忌类。
Li said he had told the story to his grandson but had never thought he would have the chance to bring him to watch a ballet on the legendary warrior in New York. The performance was an occasion of cultural and peopleto-people interchanges, with New York's Chinese community chipping in to help. Li's daughter was a volunteer at the performance.
Hua Mulan and her male companions in action in a scene from Hua Mulan , a ballet by Liaoning Ballet of China
New Yorker Robert Almanzar, who came with his wife, was emotional after the show. “Everything was beautiful. It was very moving,” he said. The Chinese stage props, he thought, were both familiar and helpful to understand the Chinese culture, which is now very popular in New York.
D.J. McDonald, festival and New York City performance manager of Battery Dance, a Broadway dance company, saw it through professional eyes. “I love the minimalism of some of the set designs. The scene painting is sort of Chinese calligraphy, very spare, very good,” he said. “You can see elements taking in Western ballet and then changi ng it by using Chinese design elements. I thought that was quite ingenious. We hope to have cooperation with Chinese artists. That will be very interesting. There are so many ways we can collaborate.”
As the art director of Liaoning Ballet, I have directed many world classics featuring various foreign heroic fi gures. However, there are no Chinese heroes and heroines on the ballet stage as the art form comes from abroad. In order to present Chinese heroes and heroines and tell China's stories to an international audience, we embarked on the task to develop original Chinese ballets.
3.1 本次试验显示每隔6天输精一次受精率最高，间隔8天输精一次受精率最低。分析原因认为精子在母鸡体内一般存活6～7天，因此6天输精一次受精率较高。
After the fi rst stop in New York, Hua Mulan 's itinerary includes Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, D.C., followed by Montreal and Toronto in Canada.
2018年8月2日，美国博物馆与图书馆服务署发布《2015财年美国公共图书馆调查报告》。报告显示，在2015财年：
(Reporting from New York )
Copyedited by Sudeshna Sarkar
When I started working on the project, the scenes of Mulan going to the battlefi eld and returning home after victory, as depicted in the Ballad of Mulan , unfolded before my eyes. I hope to present Mulan's story using the form of the ballet to offer an interpretation from a modern perspective. I hope the audience will have a new understanding of the heroine and her deeds after watching the ballet.
Comments to zhaowei@bjreview.com
Bold and Dutiful
“There was a moment when I felt I am neither woman nor man, but simply Mulan,” Yu said. The applause that followed showed that the audience also perceived this complete immersion in her character.
I fi rst read the story of Hua Mulan, a legendary Chinese warrior woman who lived during the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420-589), in my textbook when I was a teenager. There was a war and she joined the army in place of her father, as he was old.
Although I couldn't entirely understand her fi lial piety and loyalty at that time, the heroic fi gure who dressed herself up as a man to fi ght courageously in her father's place left an indelible impression on me.
“I brought my grandson to the show, he is 9, and he understood the story very well,” Li Lingyan, a retired professor from Beijing who came to visit his daughter in New York, said. “Both of us laughed during the lighthearted moments and grew tense as the performance progressed. Though a modern ballet, it was easy to follow and I liked it very much.”
该领域的专利申请通常涉及算法、模型的改进，利用数学公式和参数来描述发明方案及其技术效果较为清楚和便捷，而专利审查过程中则需要着重考察这些数学相关特征是否符合《专利法》第26条第3款的规定。在新颖性及创造性判断中也需要慎重考量相关特征在整体方案中的作用。
After our work Eight Females Jumping Into River , the story of eight women soldiers who committed suicide on being besieged by the enemy during the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), became a success, we wanted to produce more such ballets. Mulan came to my mind. She was also a defender of peace as she took part in the war to defend peace in her country.
7.2.13炭疽叶枯病是近年来我国苹果广泛发生的突发性新病害，在贵州中部苹果产区已经发现有该病危害。炭疽叶枯病在高温高湿的气候条件下发病较重，叶片和果实都会受害，且传播速度很快，炭疽病菌在病果、落叶和病枝上越冬，来年降雨后传染开来，比其他叶部病害更难防治，目前处于可防不可治的阶段，主要本着预防控制为主，防治为辅的方针。
Liaoning Ballet carries out extensive market surveys every time it starts a new project. I conducted a survey of the U.S. performance market while I was visiting the U.S. for cultural exchanges in 2016. Both the producers and audiences I spoke with applauded the idea of turning Mulan's story into a ballet.
In 1998, the story was adapted into an animated fi lm by Walt Disney, making her an iconic fi gure representing the Chinese culture and loved by people from all over the world.
Mulan has a widespread infl uence and appeal not only in China but also in the rest of the world. As early as 1921, Chinese diplomat and educator Zhang Pengchun, also known as P. C. Chang, adapted her story into an English play and staged it in New York and Washington, D.C. It was the fi rst time that Mulan was presented on the American stage and the play was highly acclaimed by media outlets such as The New York Times .
Cultural exchanges help people from different cultural backgrounds communicate with each other so as to bring countries closer. Using a universal art form to represent traditional Chinese culture as well as Chinese values is the most effective way of conducting cultural exchanges.
Our principle is to produce works of art that can be understood by all. To realize this goal, we fi lled in the gaps in the original ballad the ballet is based on with depictions of Mulan's military life and added some jokes to give the show some lighthearted moments.
In addition, we added Chinese martial arts and ethnic dances to make it a mixture of the East and the West.
总之，开发装配式建筑结构是一条比较艰辛的路。施工方法的转换不能一蹴而就，它需要耐心、积累和时间。它还需要关注行业发展，注重创新精神。
As Chinese artists, we have the responsibility and duty to promote Chinese culture. Our tours to the U.S. and Canada this time are both commercial projects. There are no discounted or free tickets because we want to know if the U.S. showbiz market really accepts our show.
在新课程改革的要求下，在高中历史教学的过程中，重视对学生综合素质的培养，其中学生的历史核心素质对学生的终身学习与发展有着积极作用，教师要在正确认识核心素养重要性的基础上，对学生进行历史核心素养的培养。
Art knows no boundaries. It is our constant pursuit to bring art that combines China's national characteristics and contemporary aesthetics to the world. We will continue to tell the story of Mulan and spread her heroic spirit.
为了充分发挥出城市综合客运枢纽的功能，政府应该注重枢纽位置等因素，实现对城市综合客运枢纽的有效整合，其主要是在对外客运枢纽的基础上，整合城市轨道交通枢纽、公交枢纽、出租车、停车换乘等，有效地将城市客运和对外客运进行衔接，为城市内部客运的快速换乘提供保障。