The first Chikan International Arts Festival kicks off in Chikan Ancient Town, Kaiping, Jiangmen. Nearly 200 artists will perform 186 special performances

China News Service, Jiangmen, October 2 (Reporter Cheng Jingwei) The first Chikan International Art Festival kicked off on October 1 at the Chikan Ancient Town International Tourism Resort in Kaiping, Jiangmen, Guangdong. Nearly 200 artists from France, Italy, Russia, Bulgaria and other countries around the world will present 186 special performances in 15 days.

On that day, the three-kilometer-long century-old arcade block in Chikan Ancient Town was transformed into a "world stage without walls." The performances were not held in the palace, but were staged under the arcade corridors, in front of the watchtowers, and on the banks of the Tanjiang River. This invitation was extended to everyone who walked into Chikan Ancient Town: Here, everyone has something to play.

Exotic dance show performance. Photo courtesy of Chikan Ancient Town

At this year's Chikan International Arts Festival, a ballet company from Bulgaria presented classic excerpts from "Swan Lake" and "The Nutcracker"; 33 dancers from Russia used throat singing and national plucked music to perform "Yakut Dance: Ark", which recreated the survival scenes of Siberian ancestors. "Bunivac Style" with a 32-member cast from Croatia, "Pictures of Old Town Tbilisi" with a 27-member cast from Georgia, and "I am a Boy from Maipu Town" with a 28-member cast from Chile, all use complete performance paradigms to present the multicultural customs of the Eurasian and South American continents.

Performance scene. Photo courtesy of Chikan Ancient Town

At the same time, immersive performing arts, intangible cultural heritage experience, night tour economy and other business formats are fully linked with the festival content, allowing tourists to not only watch performances, but also experience cultural holiday products such as overseas Chinese culture, watchtower architecture, Lingnan cuisine, and eight shows created in Chikan Ancient Town in recent years.

During the festival, the stage play "The Grandmaster" originally created by Chikan Ancient Town will premiere. The play uses the triple progression of "seeing oneself, seeing the world, and seeing all sentient beings" as the main narrative line. It tells the story of Ip Man from a boy to a generation of Wing Chun masters. It incorporates all the Lingnan characteristics of lion dancing, Cantonese opera, southern martial arts and other styles into the play to interpret the master's way of "strengthening one's own heart, embracing the world with one's heart, and benefiting all living beings with virtue".

Chikan Ancient Town International Tourism Resort in Kaiping, Jiangmen, Guangdong. Photo courtesy of Chikan Ancient Town

Chikan Ancient Town has a history of more than 370 years and has more than 600 existing arcades. It is one of the largest and best-preserved arcade buildings in the hometown of overseas Chinese in the country. A hundred years ago, generations of Chikan people traveled to Southeast Asia and traveled around the world from here, bringing architecture, commerce and lifestyles from around the world back to their homeland, and built a three-kilometer-long arcade complex.

Using the culture of overseas Chinese as a medium, the first Chikan International Art Festival builds a bridge for mutual learning between Chinese and foreign civilizations: it enhances people-to-people connections through folk cultural exchanges, promotes living inheritance through intensive performances of intangible cultural heritage, and uses the open attitude of an ancient town to three-dimensionally present Jiangmen’s profound overseas Chinese heritage and international and modern city image. (over)