Eight female artists perform at the second Jiangnan poetry meeting, a part of the fourth Jiangnan Culture and Arts & International Tourism Festival, on Sept 12 in Suzhou, Jiangsu province. [Photo/China Daily]

Event comes in five sessions and provides more than 300 performances and some 30 exhibits to promote integration of culture and tourism

The fourth Jiangnan Culture and Arts & International Tourism Festival, which kicked off on Aug 30 and will close in mid-October in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, is hosting various activities in efforts to promote the integration of culture and tourism while accelerating the brand-building of Jiangnan's distinctive culture.

Jiangnan, a region south of the Yangtze River Delta, boasts a long history of traditional Chinese culture. The host city of the event, Suzhou, is often associated with Jiangnan and has witnessed the cultural diversity of the region.

Presented as "a feast of culture and arts, and a festival for the people", this year's event is divided into five sessions and provides more than 300 performances and around 30 exhibits, forums and activities.

Elegant Jiangnan

One of the sessions, Elegant Jiangnan, highlights stage performances, which is the most important part of the annual festival.

The session showcases the stage craft of Jiangnan culture with many famous troupes and plays during the festival. There is the dance drama The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting, which was inspired by a well-known Song Dynasty (960-1279) painting by Wang Ximeng called A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains.

Choreographed by Zhou Liya and Han Zhen, the dance drama, produced by the China Oriental Performing Arts Group, was performed from Sept 10-12 in Suzhou.

Another dance drama choreographed by Zhou Liya and Han Zhen — Dragon Boat Racing — was presented on Sept 13 and 14.

A dance drama called The Eternal Wave, a ballet named Dunhuang performed by the National Ballet of China, and a drama adapted by the novel The Family written by Ba Jin, one of China's most acclaimed writers, and other modern dramas provided the audience with a feast of the arts.

Jiangnan Little Theater also presented several special performances featuring both modern dramas and traditional operas.

The Jiangnan Youth Theater Festival, another part of Elegant Jiangnan, also provided various kinds of dramas in theaters, including the comic dialogue also known as crosstalk, immersive interactive drama and others.

The performances have showcased the charm of Jiangnan culture and increased the popularity of the "Jiangnan Culture" brand among the audience.

Literary Jiangnan

The session aims to showcase the latest achievements of Jiangnan culture in films, paintings and calligraphy as well as others.

The fourth Jiangnan film conference is to be held later this month as efforts to promote the high-quality development of Suzhou films.

An academic forum invited experts and scholars from famous universities to discuss Jiangnan culture and its historic role, value and importance.

Focusing on the construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Grand Canal Cultural Belt, a series of activities were held to show the unique charm of Jiangnan culture.

A roundtable conference invited well-known experts from the Yangtze River Delta region to discuss the inheritance, protection and development of Jiangnan culture and the Yangtze River Delta culture. Some new books about Jiangnan culture research were issued at the conference.

Besides, a Jiangnan poetry meeting, a dialogue on world heritage protection and development in the Yangtze River Delta, an international academic seminar on the history of book collection and carving between the 10th and 20th centuries of the Jiangnan area in China attracted global experts.

Silken Jiangnan

The session, just established this year, aims to present the silk culture and its intangible cultural heritage in Jiangnan.

The session contains three events, the Jiangnan silk culture and tourism festival, the 14th China embroidery culture and art festival, and the second silk clothing design competition.

The events highlight the charm of Suzhou silk culture, the inheritance and protection of silk skills and the promotion and application of silk design.

The silk design competition attracted well-known designers, silk companies and universities to take part, integrate designs with Jiangnan culture, and create high-quality, comfortable and joyful silk clothing products.

During the Tang (618-907) and Song dynasties, the region was at a confluence of the Grant Canal, the Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road, having gradually become the economic and cultural center of the country. Booming businesses and cultural exchanges gave the Jiangnan culture a firm foundation.

Exquisite Jiangnan

The Exquisite Jiangnan session hosted a series of art exchange events, including an art and photography exhibition whose theme is an ode to a new era, an academic invitational exhibition of Chinese painting masters from the Yangtze River Delta region, a folk art performance by children, and others.

The Classic Film Festival went on to display classic films at home and abroad and served to build a bridge of light and shadow for Sino-foreign cooperation and exchanges. The event organizers also invited experts to talk about film restoration techniques, which is expected to promote development in the film restoration field.

The Poetic Jiangnan National Painting Exhibition is displaying 120 oil paintings, with the aim to explore the spiritual value and cultural connotation of Jiangnan culture.

It is the fourth cooperation between Suzhou and the China Artists Association to launch a national art exhibition.

The 23rd Huqiu Kunqu Opera gathering was held on Sept 24. The annual event was the largest Kunqu Opera gathering in the history of Suzhou. The literati, famous writers and professional artists gathered in Huqiu Mountain to chant and communicate with one another.

Kunqu Opera, one of the oldest extant forms of Chinese opera, originated in Kunshan, a county in Jiangsu.

Using poignant lines from poetry classics and through melodious singing, it gained ground in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and spontaneously reached other parts of the country.

The 20th Suzhou folk art festival is to run from Oct 21-25. People can watch an art performance, visit a craft exhibition, eat local snacks and guess the lantern riddles at the festival.

Jiangnan Tour

The monthlong Jiangnan Tour launches various tourism activities across Suzhou in multiple counties and districts, including Zhangjiagang, Taicang, Wujiang, Xiangcheng and Suzhou New District.

The organizers invited foreigners and purchasers to investigate the tourism resources in the city and promote the local consumption of cultural tourism.

From Huqiu Mountain to Shihu Lake, from Kunqu Opera to folk custom activities, visitors can experience not only sightseeing but travel back 1,000 years to ancient Suzhou.

To promote subway culture construction, Suzhou Rail Transit Group launched a series of activities themed with taking the subway to visit Suzhou.

In accordance with the requirement for pandemic prevention and control, the fourth Jiangnan Culture and Arts & International Tourism Festival is being held both online and offline.

The organizers also set up online livestreaming rooms and virtual reality art exhibitions so that local residents can participate in the festival without leaving home.

To encourage more residents to watch the performances, the local government distributed cultural and tourism consumption subsidies along with movie vouchers.

Over the past three festivals, more than 100 million yuan ($13.8 million) of subsidies for cultural and tourism consumption, more than 500,000 movie tickets and 200,000 free tickets to parks were provided. A total of 100,000 residents enjoyed the performances in the theaters and more than 50 exhibitions attracted more than 2 million visitors.