The dance drama “Antique Beauty: National Treasures in Liaoning”, co-created by the Liaoning Provincial Museum and the Liaoning Song and Dance Ensemble, toured Fujian Province’s Fuzhou, Quanzhou, and Putian, and Guangdong Province’s Zhuhai, Foshan, and Shenzhen with ten performances, after it premiered in Shenyang, Liaoning Province. Using national treasures as a medium, the dance drama is aimed at promoting China’s outstanding traditional culture, and fostering a stronger sense of national identity and cultural confidence.

The dance drama features 17 cultural relics carefully selected from the rich and diverse collections of the Liaoning Provincial Museum, spanning from the Neolithic Age to the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and covering calligraphy and painting works, and artifacts. Each of the cultural relics is of extremely high historical, artistic and scientific value.

Due to the special requirements of cultural relic protection, some cultural relics are required to remain “dormant” for proper preservation. Moreover, limited by exhibition space and conditions, some cultural relics are not available for display, making it difficult for many visitors to view them firsthand. The dance drama “Antique Beauty: National Treasures in Liaoning” overcomes these limitations, and through innovative stage performances, it brings the cultural relics to life, allowing more people to appreciate the unique characteristics of Liaoning’s cultural relics.

The dance drama employs a lively “Night at the Museum”-style time-travel structure. By exploring the historical stories and cultural connotations behind the national treasures, the dance drama combines dance, instrumental music, and situational performances with stage technology, to “enliven” the cultural relics on stage. Audiences in Fujian and Guangdong provinces praised the dance drama as a stunning artistic work. Through this dance drama, they have gained a deeper understanding of Liaoning’s cultural relics, and some of them expressed their desire to visit the Liaoning Provincial Museum to view the national treasures.

Speaking of the popularity of the tour of “Antique Beauty: National Treasures in Liaoning” in Southern China, Wang Xiaowen, curator of the Liaoning Provincial Museum, said, “The Liaoning Provincial Museum has rich collections of cultural relics, which is a foundation for us to promote China’s outstanding traditional culture. In recent years, the museum has joined hands with the Liaoning Song and Dance Ensemble to carry out interdisciplinary collaborations. We launch dance dramas by exploring the connotations of the museum’s collections. The initiative aims to promote the creative transformation and innovative development of China’s outstanding traditional culture, and is of great significance for strengthening the publicity of cultural relics and enhancing the cultural influence of Liaoning.”