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For instance, in giving an innovative interpretive spin to the painting Travelers Among Mountains and Streams by Fan Kuan of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), veteran actor Li Guangfu and two young dancers, Zhu Fengwei and Gong Zhonghui, were invited to portray the travelers in the painting and stage an imaginary rendezvous between them.

Digital 3D reconstruction of the woods, mountains, stones and waterfalls in the painting was realized using postproduction effects to depict the three characters in an environment strikingly similar to that in Fan Kuan's masterpiece.

One of the keywords in all of this is collaboration, with some of the brightest artistic minds in varied art fields, Tian says. These include playwrights and directors of the Beijing People's Art Theater and drama costume designer Cui Xiaodong.

To better deliver the aesthetic enjoyment brought by the painting scroll Miscellaneous Flowers by Xu Wei of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the show invited pianist Lang Lang to perform with the International Master Philharmonic Orchestra, playing a symphony that synthesizes the Chinese ballad Moli Hua (Jasmine Flower) with Claude Debussy's Moonlight and Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto.

Lang says he was impressed by the ink-painted scroll, which is more than 10 meters long. "Beyond the static artwork, I seem to have seen all plants flourishing and heard the melody from the ink strokes. This symphony really pierces the heart."

As the music begins, bold strokes appear in a virtual space and then gradually form the shape of 13 plants that are depicted in Xu Wei's painting, including peonies, pomegranates, wisterias, pumpkins, plum blossoms, lotus leaves and bamboos.