The Forbidden City family musical "Lu Duan" will be staged at the New Tsinghua Academy of Tsinghua University during the National Day and will be performed for 14 performances over seven days

China News Service, Beijing, September 25th. The family musical "Lu Duan" produced by the Palace Museum will be stationed at the New Tsinghua Academy of Tsinghua University during the National Day, bringing 14 exciting performances for seven consecutive days.

Stills from the musical "Lu Duan". Photo courtesy of the crew

The play is based on the Ming Wanli cloisonné enamel Luduan aromatherapy collection in the Forbidden City as the core creative prototype. The script was carefully guided and polished by experts on cultural relics from the Forbidden City. The core plot is based on the shocking history of the relocation of cultural relics from the Forbidden City to the south. In the turbulent years, generations of cultural scholars have moved forward with sincerity and burden, carrying thousands of national treasures on their backs, traveling thousands of miles, going through hardships and dangers, and guarding the fire of Chinese culture throughout their lives, so that the thousand-year-old national treasures can survive safely and be passed down from generation to generation. This magnificent journey of protecting the treasure demonstrates the Chinese nation’s ever-lasting cultural persistence and righteousness for the country, and gives the play a profound historical heritage and a sincere patriotism.

Since its premiere at the Central Opera House in Beijing in 2022, the musical "Lu Duan" has successively appeared on the Spring Festival Gala stage of CCTV and the National Center for the Performing Arts; the animated short film of the play has appeared in the MIFA market of the Annecy International Animation Festival in France, with the title of "Cultural Relicist" The distinctive portrait of "National Mobilization" shows the charm of Chinese cultural relics IP to the global industry. Cultural relics characters such as Luduan, Jinou Yonggu Cup, "Pingfu Tie", and Kesi Plum Magpie Pictures collectively appear, forming a character matrix with the temperament of a Chinese museum. The national tour has covered more than a dozen cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hefei, Xiamen, Nanjing, Urumqi, Xining, Nanchang, and Chengdu; it has also traveled to Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan to promote cultural exchanges and mutual learning between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong and Macao, and has received wide acclaim. The play has currently toured 177 times, benefiting hundreds of thousands of family audiences, and has quickly become a benchmark for museum stage plays that "bring cultural relics to life".

Stills from the musical "Lu Duan". Photo courtesy of the crew

In terms of content creation, "Lu Duan" breaks through the traditional popular science preaching model and adopts a warm and healing anthropomorphic narrative method of cultural relics. The national treasure in the play is transformed into a vivid character and follows the auspicious beast Luduan on his journey of growth. The whole drama is based on the character of the auspicious beast who is knowledgeable, brave, responsible, tolerant and good-hearted, and connects the themed stories of cultural relics preservation, cultural heritage protection and cultural inheritance. The plot is relaxed, the emotions are sincere and delicate, and it is suitable for families of all ages to watch.

On the stage, the play deeply integrates Chinese aesthetics and modern digital technology. With naked-eye 3D immersive stage design, elegant Chinese arrangement, and the highly popular original theme song "The Ballad of the Forbidden City", it vividly restores the majestic charm of the Forbidden City and transforms static cultural relics into dynamic stage art that can be seen, heard, and felt.

The relevant person in charge of the production team said that the play has landed on the Tsinghua campus for the third time, achieving in-depth linkage between top cultural and museum resources and top university aesthetic education platforms, and building an innovative education platform of "Forbidden City Museum + College Aesthetic Education + Family Co-education". It will be performed for seven consecutive days during the National Day holiday, with performances at 10 am and 15 pm every day. (over)