Hua Mulan, the legendary ancient Chinese heroine who disguised herself as a man and was drafted into the army to replace her father, is now known around the world thanks to the Walt Disney Company’s 1998 animated film. Mulan and the 2020 live-action film of the same title.
The Chinese rediscovered the character in the 1950s, when the story was performed across the country by the famous traditional opera artist Zhang Xiangyu to raise money for military aircraft for the Korean War.
A revamped version of Chan’s 1956 show by Chinese video game and social media giant Tencent Holdings was recently livestreamed and garnered more than 7 million views. Artificial intelligence (AI) was used to improve video quality by correcting scratches, noise, and image discoloration in the initial recording.
Tencent takes control of Chinese game studio behind Swords of Legends franchise
Tencent takes control of Chinese game studio behind Swords of Legends franchise
The live broadcast of the Feb. 2 show also included clips from other decades-old recordings, which are part of an effort by Tencent and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to “use digital technology to This is just the beginning of a larger project: “Reinventing Chinese.” Opera”.
In addition to it, Mulan The show also introduced Tencent’s 6DoF (six degrees of freedom) technology, which is widely used in virtual reality applications to show objects moving through three-dimensional space.
It deciphered the dance moves of Empress Mei, the fictional concubine of the 8th century Tang Dynasty Emperor Xuanzong, who was said to dance beautifully like a goose. Her story became a famous show in Peking Opera, China’s most dominant form of traditional opera.
“If the ancient art of opera wants to catch up with modern times and reach new audiences, it needs to take advantage of new media and technology,” said Wang Kui, director of the Institute of Traditional Opera at the Chinese Academy of Arts. He said the renovation will not only help promote the art of opera, but also help develop young performers.
Tencent has an edge in visual technology due to its expertise in video games and video-sharing social media, but it had to overcome various challenges to complete the makeover. For example, Xu Xiaozhong, technical director at Tencent Media Lab, pointed out that the opera-related data needed to train AI models is “limited and difficult to find.”
Xu said one solution is to “examine the data thoroughly” in different contexts and in different combinations so that it can be analyzed more deeply.
Tencent also plans to establish a digital library where creators and enthusiasts can find and share restored opera content, said Xu Zhang, director of the digital culture laboratory in the company’s sustainable social value department.
A growing number of Chinese companies are focusing on promoting local opera. ByteDance’s Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese sister app with more than 600 million daily active users, has recorded more than 800,000 Peking Opera livestreams in the past year, during the pandemic-restricted period in 2022. It was announced that it had been viewed an average of 3,200 times. Theater business.
In addition, cutting-edge technology is used to highlight traditional culture. For example, Ant Group, the fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, announced two images in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in 2021.
These featured two murals from the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, northwestern Gansu province. The Mogao Caves are a complex of caves decorated with Buddha statues and frescoes. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
NFTs are known as digital collectibles in China, where authorities have declared all cryptocurrency-related transactions illegal.