China News Service, Jilin, September 10th. Title: University student team helps revitalize Jilin’s “ancient post station”
China News Service reporter Cang Yan Shi Hongyu
In the golden autumn, the rice fields in Yilemen Village, Jinjia Manchu Township, Yongji County, Jilin Province are covered with golden colors. In front of the restored ancient post station wall in the village, several college students bent over to adjust colors and outline lines. Stagecoach horses, figures in official uniforms and Manchu folk patterns from the Qing Dynasty were gradually laid out. On the side, several villagers stopped to identify the post road scene in the painting.
This ancient inn-themed wall painting was created by a team of teachers and students from the Animation School of Jilin University of the Arts. "We made original drawings based on documents, Qing Dynasty official dress regulations and Wu Dacheng's remaining portrait materials, rather than copying old photos or ancient paintings." said Xu Naidan, director and instructor of Jiyu Cultural Creative IP Studio.
Yilermen Village has a history of more than 360 years. It was an important post station in Jilin during the Qing Dynasty. Two generations of emperors stayed here three times. National hero Wu Dachang must pass through this village when demarcating the eastern border, and left poems there. There are a large number of historical relics and intangible cultural heritage resources preserved in the village, and the Manchu folk customs are rich.
In order to activate the historical resources of Qing Dynasty post roads and support the integration of rural culture and tourism, the team from the Animation School of Jilin University of the Arts learned through visits and surveys and discussions with village collectives that Yilemen Village lacks a visual display carrier for the history of post roads. On the premise of complying with cultural relics protection laws and regulations, both parties decided to implement the ancient inn-themed wall painting project.
The reporter saw at the scene that stage horses, figures in official uniforms, post road scenes and Manchu folk patterns vividly appeared on the walls, echoing the restored ancient post station in the village. Xu Naidan introduced that the team combined the surveying and mapping of the post site with the current situation data and compared the characters, official uniforms, and the environment of the post in many ways to ensure that the artistic creation was well-founded.
It is understood that the team has been deeply involved in Northeastern non-heritage context, Qing Dynasty post road culture and frontier patriotic IP creation. It has established a school-site co-construction relationship with Yilemen Village and has carried out public welfare practices such as excavation of ancient post road historical materials, cultural revitalization of heritage sites, rural aesthetic education, and creation of cultural tourism IP.
Li Ji, a teacher who instructs students in painting, believes that wall painting is not only an environmental decoration, but also integrates the history of post road transportation, patriotic historical facts and ethnic minority folk customs, connects with the cultural heritage background of linear post roads in Jilin Province, and has the function of popularizing research and science.
Previously, Jiyu Cultural Creative IP Studio has carried out school-site cooperation with ethnic areas such as Shigatse in Tibet and Changbai Korean Autonomous County in the development of animation cultural creative IP and the digital dissemination of intangible cultural heritage. Li Shu, deputy secretary of the Party Branch of the Animation College, said that this wall painting project in cooperation with Yilemen Village is an practice for the college to combine Yilu cultural research with rural public art.
According to reports, the team will subsequently develop cultural and creative products, design rural study routes, and carry out online promotion of cultural tourism to help farmers around national culture, ancient post road history and culture, and frontier red patriotic culture, transform historical resources into cultural tourism advantages, and create a practical and sustainable demonstration model for universities to help revitalize ethnic villages.
