"On the Party’s First Congress", Chen Yifei and Ruimin Qiu, 1977, 147.5cm×173cm, China Art Museum.
Art Basel 2021 Hong Kong.
01
Red art classics are deeply rooted in people’s hearts.
The year of 2021 coincides with the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s centenary birthday. While reviewing the glorious course of the founding of the Party, we feel the brand-new vitality of the red culture generate. From literary performances to film and television plays, from book publishing to exhibitions, thousands of stories of the history of the party have merged into a magnificent and vivid red literary galaxy.
For China art circles, this year’s red theme exhibitions have appeared in succession, and the creation of party history themes has become more and more mature since the reform and opening up. In the exhibitions organized by China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and China Artists Association, such as "Do not forget your initiative mind remembers the mission-Celebrating the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC)" and "Ode to the Red Boat and National Exhibition of Fine Art Creation Works", classics of art history such as Crossing the Yalu River, Battle of Shangganling and founding ceremony reproduce the creative pattern of "painting masterpieces handed down from generation to generation with great beauty". A number of recent works, such as Zhang Zhiqing’s "China Core" and Zhang Jing’s "Exploring the Moon in China", which reflect the achievements of scientific and technological innovation in the new era, have also emerged in the "Art Exhibition of Guangdong Province Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC)" held by Guangdong Art Museum.
The spread of red art classics is inseparable from the cross-border help of streaming media. In January, 2021, the 100-episode special program "The History of the Party in Fine Arts Classics" was broadcast by the Central Radio and Television General Station, which presented a magnificent century-old history of the Party to the audience in a multi-dimensional vision by integrating images, literature, photos, animations and interviews in a cross-media way, providing a vivid sample for contemporary red art creation and becoming a "phenomenal" program.
How to tell the history of the Party well with works of art, and how to better interpret and spread the red classic works of art in the new era are the important trends of the "new opening" of red theme art creation in the past century. Today, the spread of "red culture" should closely follow the aesthetic habits of young people, learn from cross-media and multi-dimensional exhibition methods and means of communication, and make the reality of party history and the beauty of art blend with each other. To create red classic works of art in the new era, we should not only pay attention to the form of exhibition, but also show the content of party history with innovative ideas and artistic language close to the times, so that red literary and artistic creation can go out of art galleries and museums and enter people’s lives. (Zhu Rongting)
02
Online art market is testing the water.
In the past two years, the global epidemic has been repeated. It seems that we have long been accustomed to the constant closure and restart of theaters, and the delay or cancellation of art festivals and expositions has brought about new cultural ecology-online drama live broadcast, global online auction, virtual exhibition … How much impact does the new technology spawned by the epidemic have on the art industry?
In the field of performing arts, performers have not stopped exploring, and 2021 can even be said to be a "year of recovery"-the resumption of avignon Drama Festival, the resumption of live performances at Edinburgh International Art Festival and the return of Wuzhen Drama Festival after a two-year absence … It is undoubtedly exciting to bring performances back to the scene.
The offline scale has been reduced, so various types of online art forms have been actively created, and live broadcast and screening have become the most intuitive and timely measures of the festival. For example, the eighth Wuzhen Drama Festival’s "Far Away" unit shows eight works from six major drama festivals (art festivals) such as Edinburgh Art Festival, Berlin Drama Festival, avignon Drama Festival and Salzburg Art Festival. In Europe, the Berlin Drama Festival, which is famous for its professionalism, has even been changed to a full-scale online performance. Although we know that the charm of live art cannot be replaced, these "expedient measures" also inspire us to re-examine the relationship between theater viewing and performance and think about the significance of theater creation.
On the other hand, in the field of art auction, the transaction mode is also changing. Taking Basel, Hong Kong in 2021 as an example, the exhibition "testing the water" was displayed digitally. Artists also began to show or sell their works with the help of virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) technology. Buyers "examine" artworks on the screen of mobile phones, and even can see details such as materials, textures and fine lines that may not be visible to the naked eye. The online auction of the art line began to "anger the sense of existence", and the number of people participating in the online auction and the transaction price hit record highs. In 2021, China Guardian, Beijing Poly, Christie’s, Sotheby’s, etc. launched racquets with new records. Guangdong Chongzheng Autumn Auction 2021, nearly one-fifth of the transaction volume comes from online applets.
Data and phenomena show that the China art trade market is picking up in 2021 with the help of diversified technical communication means. In the future, will online be the "painkiller" in the transitional period, or will it be a brand-new situation that can be opened up? And leave it to time and the market to answer. (Zhu Rongting)
03
One hundred years of modern archaeology in China.
2021 is the centenary of the discovery of Yangshao culture and the birth of modern archaeology in China. On October 17th, "The Centenary Commemorative Meeting of Yangshao Culture Discovery and the Birth of Modern Archaeology in China" was held in Sanmenxia City, Henan Province. The next day, the third China Archaeological Congress was held, and the "Top 100 Archaeological Discoveries in a Hundred Years" was announced. One hundred discoveries including Zhoukoudian Site in Beijing and Nihewan Site Group in Yangyuan, Hebei Province were selected, and the site of Nanyue National Palace Office in Guangdong Province, Nanyue King’s Tomb and Nanhai I shipwreck were also on the list.
Yinxu, Erlitou, Liangzhu, Zhoukoudian, Mawangdui and Sanxingdui … Over the past century, modern archaeology in China has made remarkable achievements. Archaeological discoveries have rewritten people’s traditional cognition of Chinese history and culture, described the action marks of our ancestors on the vast land, and answered "Who are we, where are we from and where are we going" with physical evidence.
Since the beginning of the new century, the archaeological cause has flourished. With the continuous growth of archaeological institutions and professional teams, new important archaeological achievements have emerged one after another, and the mystery of Chinese civilization has been unveiled step by step. No matter the confirmation of the Chinese Emperor Ba Ling or the exposure of Princess Taiping’s "mansion" in Zhengpingfang site, every new discovery brings many reflections and surprises.
Archaeology was originally a little-known knowledge. In recent years, it has "flown into the homes of ordinary people" with the wings of science and technology. Cultural and creative products such as "archaeological blind box" are also on fire. Variety shows such as "National Treasures" and "China Archaeological Congress" unlock archaeological codes and explore Chinese civilization in a lively way, and they will become explosions after they are broadcast. Popular science books with the theme of archaeology are also widely welcomed by readers, and scholars such as Li Ling, Qi Dongfang, Xu Hong, Yang Hong and Zheng Yan have become the industry stars sought after by the public. With the high-frequency attention of the public and the help of science and technology, the cultural IP that is popular all over the world will be born in the future archaeological field. (Huang Xi)
04
Sanxingdui site shocked "Shangxin"
With the announcement of major archaeological discoveries at Sanxingdui Site in Guanghan, Sichuan Province on March 20th, 2021, information about Sanxingdui’s "Shangxin" frequently appeared in hot searches and became a veritable "online celebrity" in archaeology. As one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century, six Sanxingdui cultural "sacrificial pits" have been newly discovered in Sanxingdui site, and more than 500 important cultural relics have been unearthed, including the largest complete Jin Mianju to date, three bronze statues that have never been seen before, bronze shrines that can be called national treasures, bronze figurines that look like Altman, and so on.
If the archaeological excavation and research of Sanxingdui in the 21st century are different from those in the past, first of all, science and technology help archaeology, and modern scientific and technological means are used to build an archaeological excavation cabin, an integrated excavation platform and a multifunctional excavation operating system, which provide an effective guarantee for archaeological information collection and cultural relics safety protection. In addition, a special information platform was set up to comprehensively record and scientifically manage Sanxingdui cultural relics data, image data and environmental monitoring data. Secondly, more and more archaeologists from outside Sichuan are involved, and the international color of Sanxingdui is becoming more and more obvious and strong.
At present, the excavation area of Sanxingdui site only accounts for two thousandths of the total area! There is no doubt that Sanxingdui will be an important site in the second century of China archaeology. Professor Xu Jian, director of the History Department of Shanghai University, who is in charge of the excavation of the No.3 pit of Sanxingdui site, said in an exclusive interview with Nandu reporter that from the unearthed relics so far and even the overall cultural features of the site, Sanxingdui is not lost to any other place or culture in global archaeology. (Zhou Peiwen)
05
"Net writing goes to sea" becomes a heavyweight phenomenon.
After more than 20 years of development, online literature not only has many fans in China, but also attracts readers from all over the world. More and more "crooked nuts" have joined the army of urging more people to express their obsession with online writing in various ways, such as leaving messages, praising and rewarding.
On September 26th, 2021, "2021 China International Network Literature Week" was held in Wuzhen, Zhejiang Province, and the Chinese Writers Association released "China Network Literature International Communication Development Report". The report shows that by 2020, China’s online literature has exported more than 10,000 online works overseas. Among them, more than 4,000 physical books were authorized, and more than 3,000 works were translated online. There are more than 100 million users who subscribe to and read APP, covering most countries and regions in the world, and the international communication has achieved remarkable results.
In 2020, the scale of China’s online market will be 1.13 billion yuan, with a growth rate of 145%, and the growth rate of users will reach 160.4%. It is estimated that by the end of 2021, the scale of China’s online texts in overseas markets will increase exponentially, which is expected to exceed 3 billion yuan, and the scale of overseas users of China’s online texts may reach 145 million.
Since 2019, the IP adaptation of the net text has been further popular overseas. Nowadays, China’s online literature, as an important carrier of "Chinese culture going out", has become the "four major cultural phenomena in the world" alongside American Hollywood movies, Japanese cartoons and Korean TV dramas. On the one hand, online literature has opened a window for overseas readers to learn about ancient Chinese civilization through "cool" plots, humorous or beautiful language and immersive reader interaction mode. On the other hand, from translation and output to overseas originality, and then to the cultivation and development of web IP with global industrial partners, the mode of web going to sea is more and more flexible and diverse. In the future, online literature will permeate all aspects of contemporary culture in various forms. (Huang Xi)
06
Cantonese Opera Movie White Snake "Out of Circle"
In 2021, the biggest "out-of-the-box" of China opera circle should be the release of White Snake, the first Cantonese opera film in China. The film has been popular all over the country. It has not only won several awards at major film festivals at home and abroad, but also easily set a record for the highest box office of China’s film history. It is also regarded as a masterpiece that led China’s drama films into the "blockbuster era".
The artistic basis of White Snake, a Cantonese opera film, is the newly edited Cantonese opera of the same name in 2017. The "emotion" cited in the title of the drama is actually a modern interpretation of this classic drama in the history of Chinese opera by the writers and creative teams. Obviously, the film creation of the play fully understood the new theme of the play, and fully publicized the modernity of the play with the lens language. Zeng Xiaomin, the starring actor, adjusted and combined the traditional sleeves in the film under the guidance of the director to achieve extraordinary artistic effects, which is an example.
Through focus plane’s language and stunts, a brand-new artistic life experience and sensory and emotional experience can be created, so that the traditional opera film can become a work that pays tribute to tradition, inherits culture and shows the taste of the times. Valuably, the exploration of traditional Cantonese opera’s filmization is not limited to White Snake. On the last day of 2021, the Cantonese opera film "Nanyue Palace Ci" won the Best opera film Award in the 34th Chinese Film Golden Rooster Award, which added another surprise. (Zhou Peiwen)
07
China e-sports team EDG won the championship globally.
In the early morning of November 7th, 2021, in the League of Legends S11 finals held in Iceland, China team EDG won the global finals. In the face of DK, the last champion of South Korea, who was in the limelight, EDG, who was not optimistic, finally won the championship after falling behind 1-2.
The major social platforms boiled at midnight, and the official account of CCTV News Weibo issued a congratulatory message for the first time; Weibo topic #EDG wins the championship # The reading volume is 3.35 billion, and the discussion volume is 4.218 million … Hundreds of millions of young people are so excited that they even stay up all night to celebrate. This lively scene is only comparable to the national football team’s promotion to the World Cup finals in South Korea and Japan 20 years ago.
But in the other corner of this carnival night, there are countless non-players eagerly "seeking science": what is EDG? What is League of Legends S11?
Behind EDG’s destruction, Guangming Daily commented: "The grand intention of’ China Champion’ has also been carried by e-sports. As a subculture, e-sports is gradually becoming mainstream. With the penetration of technology, it breaks the social circle and geographical barriers, showing greater possibilities, and then connecting everyone into a worldwide network. "
Since China IG team won the League of Legends championship for the first time in 2018, e-sports, once regarded as "doing nothing", has gradually broken through the game circle and entered the public eye. The 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee announced that eight e-sports events were selected for the Hangzhou Asian Games, and e-sports became the official event of the Asian Games for the first time.
Behind actively embracing e-sports is a huge audience base and commercial value. The 2021 China E-sports Industry Trend Report shows that the number of e-sports users in China has exceeded 489 million in March 2021. Huge e-sports enthusiasts have gradually deepened their identity recognition, value recognition and group affiliation, and developed into an e-sports culture. (Tao Xinlei)
08
Amazing innovation of Henan Satellite TV’s "Tang Gong Night Banquet"
At the Spring Festival party of Henan Satellite TV in 2021, the dance "Tang Palace Banquet" became an instant hit. "The Banquet at the Tang Palace" uses VR technology, and takes cultural objects such as Tang Sancai, Jia Hu Bone Flute, and "The Picture of Zanhua Ladies" as the background of the program, so that the young ladies of the Tang Dynasty can shuttle through these Tang elements and make the traditional culture "live" in an instant. The wonderful tour of the Dragon Boat Festival, which was broadcast later, is a story-based program based on The Banquet in Tang Palace. It adopts the mode of "online drama+online synthesis", with the little sister of the Tang Dynasty performing in the palace as the main line, interspersed with traditional cultures such as dragon boat racing and eating zongzi, as well as puppet shows, trying to fit in with the development of modern society from the social perspective of the Tang Dynasty.
In addition, Dance Millennium, a dance variety jointly created by Henan Satellite TV and bilibili, is a series of Chinese stories in dance with the performance mode of "plot+repertoire". Dance and story are combined and connected with each other.
Earlier, Guangdong Satellite TV launched a large-scale acrobatic program "Amazing Four", which took the form of "acrobatics+dance+martial arts+national music" and combined with high-tech dance beauty and VR immersion experience, and also presented an acrobatic audio-visual feast to the audience. There are also cultural variety shows that shine in this respect. The China Archaeological Congress turned the studio into a 3D naked-eye archaeological site, which can instantly generate different virtual scenes and reproduce the real archaeological environment.
The new initiative of combining variety and culture, with variety entertainment as the carrier, makes all kinds of traditional cultures organically combined, no longer just "acting", but also more artistic processing, which greatly enriches the connotation of culture and its deductive form. It can be seen that the integration of traditional culture and the trend of the new era has become the new trend of variety show production. The new form of "culture+variety" will also be recognized by more audiences. (Xu Xiaolei, Chen Qian)
09
First year of NFT encryption art
On March 11th, 2021, for the first time in Christie’s history, digital artist Beeple’s NFT work "Everydays:The First 5000 Days" (as shown below) was auctioned in NFT form, with a reserve price of $100, and finally it was sold for $69.346 million, which jumped to the third highest transaction price of living artists’ works in one fell swoop, and the concept of NFT broke the circle.
NFT is called Non-Fungible Token, which is translated into non-homogeneous token. It is a digital asset encrypted by blockchain technology and has unique and inseparable characteristics. Digital artworks blessed by NFT encryption technology suddenly overtook the curve, which became the market explosion point to break the monopoly of traditional art forms and expanded the new field of art collection.
Moreover, the rise of NFT is not limited to the art circle. Business giants and celebrity stars have tried different ways of playing NFT, such as virtual sneakers, NFT game cards, NFT music albums, Twitter messages, and short videos of wonderful moments … NFT appears almost like a blowout in all kinds of news, forming a hot situation that "everything can be NFT". According to statistics, the size of the entire NFT market did not exceed $42 million three years ago. By the end of 2020, the market value of NFT has increased by 705% to reach $338 million. In the first three quarters of 2021, the sales of works of art using NFT reached $3.5 billion, which was almost an explosive growth.
NFT technology makes a brand-new digital art collection market that can’t be estimated appear. On the investment level, NFT makes art a digital asset that can be purchased by share. However, one thing that needs to be kept awake is that no matter how much the concept of NFT is hyped, NFT is technology, art is art, and it is the part of art that really determines the value of art. As Beeple said, "If all NFTs disappear tomorrow, I will still be engaged in digital art creation." (Zhou Peiwen)
10
Cultural and cultural institutions "cloud tour" broke the circle
In recent years, major cultural institutions are trying to promote themselves and enhance interaction and communication with the public in an "online experience" way. The epidemic prevention and control pressed the "fast forward button" for the live broadcast of the museum.
On December 21st, 2021, version 2.0 of the "Digital Forbidden City" applet jointly created by the Palace Museum and Tencent was launched. The "online celebrity", a well-versed broken Hongqiao, officially took up his post, showing the audience around the Palace Museum and revealing the past of the Forbidden City. In addition to the newly hired "tour guide", the applet also optimized and added practical sections such as online ticket purchase, exhibition reservation and in-hospital shopping. At the same time, more accurate open area route navigation, visit comfort index and other important open service functions are added to support users to check the visit comfort of the main open areas of the Forbidden City in real time, and seven interesting "customized tour routes" are built in.
In fact, the "Digital Forbidden City" was launched a year ago, and it is more deeply rooted in people’s hearts in 2021, and 5 million netizens have taken this opportunity to "play online in the Forbidden City". Some "online games" experience is far from offline. For example, you can enjoy the details of ancient famous paintings with hundreds of billions of pixels online.
In 2021, the live broadcast of the museum reached its climax. Take the Guangdong Provincial Museum as an example, there will be 30 live broadcasts in 2021. The theme of International Museum Day in 2021 is "The Future of Museums: Restoration and Remodeling". On that day, museums in China adopted the online and offline communication mode, and all the key events were webcast. The live broadcast of the museum and the "cloud tour" show the cultural heritage and charm by using new technical means, which not only maximizes the integration and development of cultural resources, but also adapts traditional culture to the development of the new era. (Xu Xiaolei, Chen Qian)
