Inside the cave, light and shadow are intertwined. Every word, every beat, every sound and music echo for a long time in the ancient stone walls. The long dragon was danced, its scales twinkling with the dim lights. The old country artist stretched his muscles and bones, but the falling drumsticks followed the rap beats, singing and dancing together, and the dragon scales rolled. Family, friends, ancestors; past, present, and myths are all blended together in this ancient and mysterious cave.
documentary "Longyou Grottoes: The Endless Cave" has recently premiered in Germany, Japan and Southeast Asia. The film is a new attempt by Discovery Channel and the cultural tourism marketing of a small town in western Hunan, China. In an innovative form, it empowers people through documentaries The brand-new experience and endless imagination space of Longyou Grottoes, a tourist destination, attract audiences, especially young people, to visit Longyou.
The cave is the first permanent container owned by human beings. It can store the old, young, sick, weak, tools, food, and even human thoughts. The most primitive human settlement so far is a hollow dug underground in the soil, which is as hard as bricks after being exposed to wind and sun. The cave is also an excellent place for worshiping the gods. The respect for the dead of the same kind is more powerful than actual life in prompting people to find a fixed gathering place. From temples to astronomical observations, from theaters to universities, they all originated from the ancient gatherings held by humans around ancient tombs or cave paintings in ancient times. In the process of people gathering together, the emperor gradually occupied the central position and became the magnetic pole of the magnet. As a result, the cave witnessed the changes of human dynasties and experienced countless bloody storms.
Many animals need to live in groups in order to survive. However, the gathering of humans has an additional layer of spiritual needs above survival. The seemingly empty Longyou Grottoes are filled with a rich history. It is like a cultural field. Every exchange, discussion, and dispute that takes place there has carved a clear mark on this ancient cave. And this encounter was so strange that this little-known town in western Zhejiang, which was once hidden in the mountains, actually led to an archaeologist and a rapper traveling together.
"Longyou Grottoes: The Endless Cave" does not explore the reasons for the existence of the grottoes. Instead, it brings together a rigorous scholar and an unrestrained rapper, making two completely different fields that seem to have no intersection collide and blend. Serious science meets willful free play, and all kinds of fantastic ideas continue to emerge. Rapper Xiaohu and American musician Liang Kailun teamed up with folk artists from Longyou to launch a unique new media performance at the Longyou Grottoes in Quzhou, Zhejiang.
American archaeologist Shi Hanwen, who works at the Dunhuang Academy, also hopes to join this gathering at Longyou. Since villagers discovered numerous underwater caves in the 1990s, Longyou has sparked heated discussions in the archaeological community: Who built them, why were they built, and how should they be used? The densely distributed large and small caves are like a group of underground pyramids, inspiring people's endless imagination about ancient civilizations and even outer space. However, Shi Hanwen's imagination is based on physical evidence. What he paid attention to were the chiseled marks on the roof of the cave that were as regular as razor blades, the tall columns formed by triangular fans inside the cave, and the red sandstone evidence scattered in the Yuan Dynasty courtyard and the Ming Dynasty city wall. After visiting villages, will the story about King Xu Yan hiding his soldiers in the small paintings on the walls of houses become another kind of historical evidence?
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Xiao Yang
editor/Qiao Ying
