Culture Entertainment

    The Performance of the Tang Dynasty Music and Dance is one of the most atttactive entertainment activities for tourists to Xi'an.It takes roots from the historical records and folk legends about the Tang Dygasty and shows to the audience the court life and social customs of more than 1,300 years ago through such performances as instrument playing and dancing.The Tang Dynasty Music and Dance Troupe has won warm acclaim in China as well as warm welcome among foreigners who take a profound interest in Chinese culture. 

    In the segment of instrumental playing ,the performers mainly present to the audience pipa, a hand-plucked traditional instrument,and paixiao,a three-thoussand-year blowing instrument.Two of the most representative music articles are :"Happy Spring Outing" and "Spring Orioles Song".The dance segment boasts even greater charm."The Warrior Triumphal Dance," which was about Li Shimin, vividly shows the morale of his powerful commanding troops."The feather Dress Dance" was created by Lady Yang,the fovorite imperial concubine of Emperor Xuan Zong.According to the legend,once Xuan Zong had a dream in which he traveled to the palace of the moon.In the palace he met some celestial women,dressed in feathers and rosy clouds dancing in the sky.After the emperor awoke,Lady Yang created and performed this dance according to the emperior's recollection."TheTage" shows the style of dance that was popular in the palace and among the common people.It represents the Tang people celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival each year in a beautiful area the Huaqing Pool at the foot of the Lishan Mountain.The royal family joined the happy crowd and gave blessings to the subjects in his empire.

     The Tang Palace Dinner is usually served together with the performance.With such enjoyment the audience can gain not only an experience of Tng court life and the social customes,but more importantly, a thorough understanding of the history of the audience be much better acquainted with the age-old Chinese culture.

             The local opera

The local operal or the Shaanxi Opera is the oldest of all the Chinese operas that are still in exsitence today.It is not only popular in Shaanxi,but also in Gansu,Ningxia,Qinghai,Southern Hebei,Western Henan, Inner Mongolia and Northern Sichuan.During its long history,more than 4,000 traditional programs have been accunulated,which outnumbers those of any other local operas.

    Sonorous and exciting singing is the typical feature of Shaanxi Opera.Since falsetto is not praticed,the singing is always real and unsophisticated.

"Shouting when performing" is one of the 10 local peculiarities. 

Folk Paper-cuts though often used as patterns for embroidery, serve as window decorations. When Spring Festival comes, the windows of the gray houses on the Guanzhong Plain and of the caves on the Northern Shaanxi Plateau are decorated with paper-cuts. With bright red paper-cuts of all kinds on snow-white window paper, the atmosphere appears a lot more festive. At the same time, the paper-cuts contain people's good wishes.

The subjects of Shaanxi paper-cuts are considered to be bold and unconstrained, brief and exaggerated. Different parts of the province have styles of their own. The Northern Shaanxi paper-cuts look comparatively simple, honest, vigorous and generous, while the Central Shaanxi Plain's paper-cuts are of simplicity, mingled with exquisiteness, and have boldness, mingled with beauty.

Shaanxi paper-cuts have a long history. Originating in the cradle of ancient Chinese culture, they have been handed down from generation to generation among people. They seem to tell us vividly

of the ancient stories of the Chinese nation and pull at the heartstrings of the Chinese people.