The only painting existing to depict life in Bianjing, the capital Northern Song Dynasty, is Along the River During the Qingming Festival painted by Zhang Zeduan. On January 20, the “Along the River During Qingming Festival — A Moving Masterpiece” National Tour Exhibition was held in Nothingness Space of Xiu709 Media Park in Jing’an District, Shanghai. This multimedia art exhibition integrates the latest technological achievements and provides various interactive experiences, attracting many visitors.
The digitalized version is a 1:1 restoration of the art piece exhibited at the China Pavilion during the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. It has four special exhibition areas with different features, namely “Explain — Creation Inspirations”, “Appreciate — Great Masterpiece”, “Admire — World Expo” and “Comprehend — Chinese Wisdom”. Visitors can gain knowledge with interactive experiences and feel the charm of traditional Chinese culture and technological development.
In the section “Admire — World Expo”, advanced digital technology brings new vitality to the time-honored masterpiece. The outskirts in spring, the sceneries along the Bian River, and the buzzing streets constitute a magnificent painting. There are 1,068 figures in the painting, revealing the prosperity of the capital, Bianjing, today’s Kaifeng in Henan. There are 73 cattle, horses, donkeys, and mules in the painting, as well as various birds and animals, all coming back to life with great vitality. Through the alternation of day and night, the painting transcends boundaries of time and space, taking visitors back to a thousand years ago. The unique storylines of every figure converge into a grand picture vividly presenting the life and history of the Song Dynasty in finely wrought detail and leaving visitors with its aesthetic value and historical connotations.
At the Expo 2010 Shanghai China, visitors were impressed by the moving Along the River During Qingming Festival. With a length of 128 meters and a height of 6.5 meters, this multimedia artwork was the digitalized version of Along the River During Qingming Festival by Zhang Zeduan in the Northern Song Dynasty. It has two versions: day and night, with 1,068 figures, including 691 for the day and 377 for the night. The digitalized version went through modeling, coloring, animation, and rendering, showing the prosperity and people’s lives during the Song Dynasty. Since 2010, the artwork has been exhibited in 24 cities in 5 countries, attracting more than 26 million visitors. Now 14 years have passed and this exhibition presents the unparalleled beauty of the Song Dynasty with more advanced technologies.
In the section “Appreciate — Great Masterpiece”, visitors can learn about more than 50 versions of the painting. Apart from the most famous one by Zhang Zeduan, visitors can also see the one created by Qiu Ying in the Ming Dynasty and the one by a royal painter in the Qing Dynasty, all of which have annotations.
Several interactive exhibition areas are worth paying attention to. In the AI painting area jointly established by the interactive area and Baidu Wenxin Yige, AI technology is applied to create paintings based on Song poems. Visitors can print these paintings as souvenirs. In the parent-child section, cultural interaction and cultural creation exhibition areas are set up to immerse parents and children in the profound traditional culture and the infinite charm of modern technology.
Venue: Nothingness Space, Building No.50, Xiu709 Media Park, 897 Wanrong Road, Jing’an District, Shanghai
Duration: January 20 – March 31
Opening Hours: 10:00-21:00 on Monday to Sunday