As night descended, we prepared ourselves for the highlight of our Yangshuo visit. In that evening, the temperature in Yangshuo dropped to 10 degrees Celsius. My family bundled up for the famous Impression • Sanjie Liu landscape theatre show.

Impression • Sanjie Liu was directed by the most famous Chinese director, Zhang Yimou. Although it was low season for tourism, we found ourselves in the company of hundreds and hundreds of people that bought tickets to the show. Certainly, it was a full house that evening. The performance venue was itself a sight to behold, featuring classic Chinese gardens with wooden pagodas and architecture.

The idea of a dance and song performance being set against a grand natural landscape is not new in China. It is really a creative idea that draws upon the natural endowment of a rural town as the stage to present a local narrative. Other Impression shows of Zhang Yimou, numbering 8 in total, include the Impression • Lijiang in Yunnan and the Impression • West Lake in Hangzhou.

Suffice to say, that Impression • Sanjie Liu was the very first such show in China. The original performance in 2004 was a project 5 years in the making. Set against the karst peak-environed Lijiang River at night, the show made an enormous impact that rippled through the fields of arts, performance and business in China at its debut in Guilin City. Impression • Sanjie Liu was once run by a company with investments from some very well-known persons. The operating company went bankrupt in 2018 due to the misappropriation of funds. But the show has managed to go on.

The Legend of Liu Sanjie

The Legend of Liu Sanjie may be traced to a number of historical scrolls. In Guangdong Xinyu, of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, it is said that Liu Sanjie lived in the times of the Tang dynasty. It seems to suggest that Liu Sanjie was a person of Han ethnicity, who was famous for being a virtuoso singer. She had the ability to turn any kind of situation into tunes with witty lyrics and perfectly adapted to the occasion, be they the mountain folksongs of ethnic minorities, which have established rhythms and formats, or the love songs that were the “pop equivalent” of those times. She was so good that the people thought of her as “the singing immortal.” Indeed, legend has it that she fell in love with a similarly virtuoso male singer, and they ascended the heavens together.

Different variations of the legend have appeared in the ethnic minority communities and passed on through generations. Since we were in Yangshuo, the local rendition of the Liu Sanjie legend has it that she was a Zhuang minority woman. The legend of Liu Sanjie in the Zhuang minority naturally involved the custom of “mountain singing duo.” The idea is enchanting and romantic: a female voice and a male voice echoing each other amidst the rolling ridges, the evocative melodies of mountain singing reaching the depths of the valleys. In fact, that was the singing performance that we saw when we had the rafting tour on Yulong River.

The story of Liu Sanjie as a Zhuang minority woman has the dramatic element of love prevailing over evil. Liu Sanjie is a beautiful singer. She has feelings for a handsome young man in the village, who is also a great singer. The villain in the village has an eye on Liu Sanjie, and he goes out of his way to stop Liu Sanjie from a happy union.

In some online sources, the story ends in the tragedy of the lovers committing suicide by a river, or otherwise Liu Sanjie jumping off the cliff as the evil villains close in on her. I am very sure, however, that the Impression • Sanjie Liu show concludes with the lovers prevailing against all odds and living happily ever after.

In essence, the Impression • Sanjie Liu show draws upon the art of mountain singing, an age-old custom of the ethnic minorities in China, as the motif. The creators augment the experience by introducing group dancing and singing and using technology for theatrical effects. The modern elements of the show are the retelling of a narrative that is woven in songs and dance, somewhere in between a western styled opera or a musical.

The legend of Liu Sanjie is retold in various art and cultural forms in China, including films, TV series, cultural festivals and compilations of Liu Sanjie’s folksongs. Whether Liu Sanjie was a real person or not, the trove of creative work that was inspired by her persona has become part and parcel of China’s intangible heritage, and the Guangxi Province certainly claims it as its own.

Some Thoughts on the Impression • Sanjie Liu Show

This was the first Impression show of Zhang Yimou that I saw. I had a few expectations. I wanted to see the typical Zhang Yimou forte of leveraging the visual power of group performances. I also expected fantastic lighting effects. Being a Hong Kong Chinese, I did not think I would be able to understand the songs and the storyline from the show, especially that it is performed outdoors.

As the show progressed, I came to see how it met all my expectations.  The show delivered amply on the visuals. The lighting effects came from a variety of sources. All kinds of lights were used, from the large floodlights in the background to the mini-LED-lit costumes of the actors. The fire-lit segments of the show created spurts of theatrics.

Well-orchestrated groups of actors acted in perfect coordination, an aspect of performing arts for which China is renowned. From the vantage of the audience stand, the engagement of group actors brings forth the intentional fusion of the landscape as the stage for a reimagined narrative of a local legend. I did not know how the narrative proceeded, but in each scene a wide variety of stage arrangements shows the meticulous effort to induce awe. The actors moved across the stage, which is a pretty big lake, by means of running, dancing and boating.

Online descriptions of the show say that Impression • Sanjie Liu engages 600 trained actors in the performance, and features the costumes and mountain songs of a few ethnic minorities in the Guangxi Province, including the Dong, Miao, Yao and Zhuang minorities.

Sources

The Wikipedia on Liu Sanjie (Chin).

Baidu baike on Liu Sanjie (Chin).

Baidu baike on Impression Liu Sanjie (Chin).