This attraction introduction is compiled from historical materials in the "Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network" (33519.com · Scenic Spots section). Ticket prices, opening hours, transportation, and contact information mentioned in the text may be outdated. Please refer to the latest official announcements from the scenic area before traveling; some content consists of historical background/cultural introductions and is for reference only.
A thousand-year mystic fox, crossing the chasm of love between the mortal world and the immortal realm
Ten thousand years of watching, a song of life and death love that moves the desperate pass of Tianmen
Introduction
The plot of Tianmen Fox Fairy is drawn from the folk story and flower-drum opera Liu Hai Cuts Firewood, which are known to every household in Hunan, and on this basis it has been artistically recreated, with sorrow, joy, laughter, and tears interwoven into a twisting and touching story. The entire performance reflects character details and, with a personalized narrative structure, gives the audience a sense of intimacy and a complete feeling with the ending echoing the beginning. It draws on the rich musical and cultural elements and expressive forms of the world, supplemented by modern high-tech stage special effects technology. It is a successful innovation in the world of musical song-and-dance drama and a landmark masterpiece of China's real-scenery mountain-and-water performances.
It is currently the world's first real-scenery mountain-and-water musical song-and-dance drama with a complete storyline. The stage is located in the entire canyon from inside the entrance of the Tianmen Mountain Scenic Area to the summit of Tianmen Mountain, with a total investment of 120 million yuan and a cast of more than 530 performers. The main stage is built from 10,000 square meters of fiberglass-reinforced plastic, making it the world's largest panoramic fiberglass stage at present.
This production is directed by Mei Shuaiyuan, founder of China's real-scenery mountain-and-water performances and chief producer of Impression · Liu Sanjie, as chief director; Tan Dun, the Chinese composer who won an Academy Award for music, serves as music art director; and the famous dancer Yang Liping serves as dance director. It is the world's first musical song-and-dance drama with high mountains and fantastic peaks as its stage backdrop, mountain streams and canyons as its performance stage, and a complete storyline. The production's greatest feature is that it emotionalizes mountains, waters, and trees, achieving unity between humanity and nature. The whole production is divided into four acts,
Scene One: The Fox King Chooses a Consort
Scene Two: A Chance Encounter on the Immortal Mountain
Scene Three: The Whirlwind of Betrayal
Scene Four: A Thousand Years of Watching
Through music, song and dance, magic, acrobatics, imagery, and other performance forms, it integrates the ethnic characteristics of Xiangxi and presents an ancient legendary love story and a feast of magical visual effects.
Story Background:
The story of "Tianmen Fox Fairy -- New Liu Hai Chops Wood" is based on the traditional Hunan flower-drum opera "Liu Hai Chops Wood," and carries out artistic re-creation on this foundation. The Fox King selects a consort and chooses the White Fox Fairy, who has cultivated for a thousand years. Yearning for life in the mortal world, she falls in love with the poor but happy woodcutter Liu Hai. The two meet unexpectedly at Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie, and a moving human-fox romance begins. The confrontation between the demon realm and the mortal world, the choice between Dao and emotion, and the contradiction between immortality and worldly life are like great mountains separating the two loving hearts. Sorrow, joy, smiles, and tears combine into a twisting and touching story. In the performance, the wooden door of a stilted house in a mountain village is pushed open in the morning light. Laboring men, flirting women, happy and simple woodcutters and hunters, beautiful and affectionate young women washing clothes, and the pleasant Sangzhi folk songs form a picturesque scene of life in western Hunan, where men farm and women weave, making the audience feel as if they are there and immersed in it. The entire performance reflects character details and, through a personalized narrative structure, gives people a sense of intimacy and a complete feeling with the ending echoing the beginning.
Premiere
On the evening of September 13, the 2009 China Hunan International Tourism Festival Zhangjiajie Ethnic Culture Week grandly opened. Vice Governor Gan Lin, Deputy Director of the Publicity Department of the Provincial Party Committee Li Famei, Director of the Hunan Provincial Tourism Bureau Yang Guangrong, Municipal Party Secretary Hu Bojun, Deputy Municipal Party Secretary and Mayor Zhao Xiaoming, and other provincial and municipal leaders attended the opening ceremony. Qu Qingshan, member of the Standing Committee of the Qinghai Provincial Party Committee and Director of the Publicity Department of the Provincial Party Committee, attended as an invited guest. Nearly 3,000 people participated, including travel agent representatives and tourists from the United States, Australia, Japan, and other countries, as well as media reporters from within and outside the province.
The opening ceremony was presided over by Zhao Xiaoming. Hu Bojun delivered the opening speech on behalf of the Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government. He said that Zhangjiajie possesses world-class breathtaking scenery, with karst peak forests and cave landscapes rich in aesthetic, ecological, and scientific value, and is a treasure of the world. This land has a history of more than 2,200 years and is home to 33 ethnic minorities. Its brilliant and highly distinctive ethnic culture and art are being conveyed to the whole world. It is a world-class tourist destination of great appeal. Zhangjiajie combines the beauty of nature and the beauty of culture, and we are proud of Zhangjiajie.
Vice Governor Gan Lin announced the opening of the 2009 China Hunan International Tourism Festival Zhangjiajie Ethnic Culture Week.
On the world's largest fiberglass stage at the Tianmen Mountain Scenic Area, the world's first large-scale real-scenery mountain-and-water musical, Tianmen Fox Fairy, which was given a trial performance at the opening ceremony, opened the prelude to the 2009 China Hunan International Tourism Festival Zhangjiajie Ethnic Culture Week.
With a majestic mountain-and-water stage, beautiful and brilliant lighting effects, and exquisite music and dance, combined with a touching plot drawn from the Hunan flower-drum opera Liu Hai Cuts Firewood, the performance of Tianmen Fox Fairy left the audience spellbound. The production has an investment of 120 million yuan. Mei Shuaiyuan, founder of China's real-scenery mountain-and-water performances and producer of productions such as Impression · Liu Sanjie, serves as planner and chief director; Tan Dun, the world's most influential Chinese composer, serves as music art director; and Min Rui, executive director of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, serves as executive director. With the magnificent and gorgeous fantastic peaks and perilous ravines of Tianmen Mountain as the backdrop, and through top-level lighting, sound, stage machinery, digital imagery, and other facilities, it presents a grand and dreamlike artistic feast. This is the world's first real-scenery mountain-and-water performance with high mountains and fantastic peaks as its stage backdrop and mountain streams and canyons as its performance stage, and it is also currently the world's first real-scenery mountain-and-water musical song-and-dance drama with a complete storyline. Its rich musical and cultural elements and expressive forms are breathtaking.
Tianmen Fox Fairy in September 2009On the evening of September 17, "Zhangjiajie's large-scale real-scenery mountain-and-water musical Tianmen Fox Fairy officially began performances," and the world's first large-scale real-scenery mountain-and-water musical formally met audiences at home and abroad.
Introduction to relevant information about the large-scale real-scenery mountain-and-water musical Tianmen Fox Fairy -- New Liu Hai Cuts Firewood:
1. Production Team
Planning and Chief Director: Mei Shuaiyuan, founder of China's live landscape performances. Chief producer of the performance series "Impression? Liu Sanjie," "Zen Shaolin? Music Ceremony," "Jinggangshan," "Great Song? Dongjing Dream," "Genghis Khan," and "Chinese Mount Tai? Fengshan Ceremony."
Music Art Director: Tan Dun, the most influential Chinese composer in the world, winner of Grammy and Academy Awards for original music.
Composer: Zhang Xiao, young composer, one of the composers of "Impression? Liu Sanjie," and composer of "Jinggangshan" and "Great Song? Dongjing Dream."
Scriptwriter: Zhang Rensheng, renowned playwright. He has won the Five-One Project Award of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and the Wenhua Drama Award of the Ministry of Culture multiple times.
Executive Director and Choreographer: Min Rui, one of the executive directors of the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies.
Chief Stage Design: Yan Wenlong, renowned art designer, chief stage designer for the opening ceremony of the Shanghai Special Olympics and other large-scale performances. Stage designer for large-scale performances such as "Chinese Mount Tai Fengshan Ceremony" and "Dao Jie Dujiangyan."
Lighting Design: Wang Yugang, lighting designer for live landscape performances such as "Impression? Liu Sanjie" and "Great Song? Dongjing Dream."
Digital Video Content Production: Beijing Crystal Digital Technology Co., Ltd., digital special effects production for the Olympic opening ceremony.
2. Project Location and Stage Design
"New? Liu Hai Cuts Firewood" is located in the entire canyon from inside the entrance of Tianmen Mountain Scenic Area to the top of Tianmen Mountain. The canyon is about 5 kilometers long, with an elevation difference of 1,100 meters. The main stage is built at the lower end of the canyon inside the entrance. Dozens of towering peaks and ridges on both sides of the entire canyon, as well as the Tianmen Cave suspended high in the air, all serve as the deep backdrop of the main stage. The main performance platform blends with the canyon, peaks, forests, streams and waterfalls, together forming a super-large stage several kilometers deep, with both width and elevation difference exceeding one thousand meters.
The audience theater and main stage of this project cover a total area of 19,880 square meters, of which the panoramic stage covers 10,000 square meters. It is designed with fiberglass-reinforced plastic and can be illuminated throughout via lighting effects, creating a fantastical scene. The entire performance area includes: the central stage, the human world on the left, the fox world on the right, the choir stage at the front left, and the terraced fields and wooden bridge live scene in the rear performance area, totaling five performance zones.
The central stage is built above a stream valley, where fallen ancient trees float on the murmuring stream and combine with protruding stone beds to form a naturally integrated live stage. On the left is the human world, where numerous Tujia wooden houses serving as stage scenery are built along the mountain. The houses have black tiles, carved small windows, and wooden railings, presenting a simple and rustic atmosphere, forming a village with Xiangxi characteristics in a continuous stretch. On the right is the fox world, where fantastic rocks and mountain cliffs are built among the trees, interspersed with exotic flowers and plants, forming a wonderful and fantastical natural paradise for foxes. The singing stage is placed high in the air on a small hill, where more than 100 young girls dressed in traditional Tujia clothing and wearing silver ornaments and silver bells sing together, giving an incomparably wonderful auditory enjoyment. The terraced fields and wooden bridge in the rear performance area present a fully pastoral scene, echoing the village from afar. The entire stage is naturally formed, as if it had stood at the foot of the magical Tianmen Mountain for thousands of years, telling a legendary story.
3. Stage and Stage Design Facilities
The stage and stage design facilities of this project represent the largest investment among live landscape performances worldwide, with the most complex and largest-scale stage machinery, and the greatest number and widest distribution of lighting facilities. In addition, the main stage is also the world's largest panoramic fiberglass-reinforced plastic stage (10,000 square meters). Among the stage machinery facilities, especially the retractable flying bridge with a span of 60 meters and a height of 32 meters, is a large-scale stage machinery installation unmatched among performance projects worldwide. Number of lights: 1,100 large lights and 2,800 small and medium-sized lights; the performance sound system uses specially customized American EAW outdoor rainproof and moisture-proof audio equipment, also the largest investment among domestic performance projects at present.
Brief Notes
Before the concert began, Tan Dun made a special trip back from the United States to support the grand public performance of "Tianmen Fox Fairy." Tan Dun said that love is the most desired part of a person's life and the only thing that can move the world. This musical will show people the most affectionate fox in Zhangjiajie.
When a reporter asked how many points he would give to the music of "Tianmen Fox Fairy," for which he personally served as music director, Tan Dun said he could give it 90 points. He modestly stated that generally when a musical opens, considering how much everyone has contributed to it, a high score is usually given. But he also said that the team responsible for producing this musical truly created genius-level music and deserved 90 points.
After the public performance ended, planning and chief director Mei Shuaiyuan accepted an interview with reporters. He was very happy that after more than a year of preparation, this work into which he had poured his heart finally met the audience today. He introduced that "Tianmen Fox Fairy" was produced with a 10-year goal in mind, and that this live landscape performance still has great room for improvement.
Wonderful Photos:
