A journey comes full circle

Perhaps the most audacious "crossover" project is Peace of Mind: Dongpo, billed as China's first original AI-themed musical. Premiering in November, the production uses AI as a narrative device to connect a modern college student with the exiled polymath, allowing a heartfelt dialogue across time.

Han Chaoguang, chairman of the Hainan Performing Arts Group, said the creative team immersed themselves in historical texts to sharpen Su's transformation from a man who felt "like an untethered boat" to a man who declared, "Hainan, thousands of li away, is truly my hometown."

The play has been so successful that a national tour, starting in Shanghai, is planned for this year, effectively making Su a cultural export from the island that once received him as an exile.

On the ground, the "Dongpo-ization" of Hainan's tourism landscape is palpable. At Haikou's old dock, shopping complexes are illuminated with projections of his verses. In Chengmai's Fushan Coffee Culture Town, marketers invoke his phrase, "the blandest fare is a joyful feast," to elevate a cup of locally grown coffee. In Danzhou city, at the historic Dongpo Academy he founded, students dress in traditional attire for immersive study tours, channeling the "sheer delight of the mighty wind coming from the sea".

"This innovation is the best inheritance of tradition," said writer Peng Tong, quoting Su's words on "creating new ideas within the established rules".