Animated Qingming Scroll Exhibited in Taipei

Visitors watch the animated version of ancient painting Riverside Scene at the Qingming Festival in Taipei, southeast China's Taiwan, June 30, 2011. The animated version of the Qingming scroll, a highly renowned piece of Chinese painting dating back some 900 years ago, started to be exhibited in Taipei on Thursday. The painting will be projected onto a six-meter-high and 110-meter-wide screen, magnified by 10 times of the scroll's original size. (Xinhua/Li Mingfang)

Along the River During the Qingming Festival (simplified Chinese: 清明上河图; traditional Chinese: 清明上河圖; pinyin: Qīngmíng Shànghé Tú) is a panoramic painting by Song Dynasty artist Zhang Zeduan (1085–1145). It captures the daily life of people from the Song period at the capital, Bianjing, today's Kaifeng. The theme celebrates the festive spirit and worldly commotion at the Qingming Festival, rather than the holiday's ceremonial aspects, such as tomb sweeping and prayers. The entire piece was painted in hand scroll format and the content reveals the lifestyle of all levels of the society from rich to poor as well as different economic activities in rural areas and the city. It offers glimpses of period clothing and architecture. As an artistic creation, the piece has been revered and court artists of subsequent dynasties have made several re-interpretive replicas. The painting is also known for its geometrically accurate images of variety natural elements and architectures, boats and bridges, market place and stores, people and scenery. It is one of the most precious document ever survived, being a unique existing example of the traditional Chinese painting. The original painting is valued highly not only for its rich and sophisticated content derived pure aesthetics value, but also as an important evidence for study the civilization, historiography, technology development and anthropology of ancient China.