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In May 2023, I made a brief stop in Suzhou to see the dance drama Poetic Dance: The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting, and there I created a series of photographs that I truly love. In the following month or two, I also visited Taicang and Nantong for intangible cultural heritage project investigations.
Since then, it feels as though Jiangsu has unfurled before me like a piece of plain silk — with the green of bamboo and the indigo of dyed fabrics blending together — forming, to a large extent, my vivid impression of early summer during my years of learning and living in Jiangnan.
In primary school, I was deeply captivated by the text on Suzhou gardens in Chinese class. Later, in middle school, I lost in the imagination of Jiangnan through classical Chinese phrases describing that each step in the garden reveals a new scene. Rather than merely being curious about a particular architectural art, I was eager to understand how people here coexist with nature. Therefore, during my time in Suzhou, I devoted my time primarily to exploring its renowned gardens and natural landscapes.
Temples are always surrounded by curling incense smoke; within the wisps that slowly rise lie countless hopes and prayers.
Red ribbons hang from the old trees in temples, bearing wishes for happy marriage and prosperous careers.
The patterned windows are the wisdom of Suzhou gardens; each window is a frame of living scenery. The delicate latticework makes the view gently loom behind, echoing the Chinese philosophy that “beauty lies in subtlety.”
Sunlight filtered through the bamboo path, scattering in fragments. It was so quiet that every footstep sounded extraordinarily clear. Amid the soft rustling of bamboo leaves, came the clear and lingering tone of a hulusi — perhaps the most spiritual moment of the day.
More and more children prefer wearing modernized Hanfu, with skirts that flutter in modern winds while preserving patterns from the past.
The park has long become part of local life, where you can see scenes of all kinds of daily activities, among which football is a universal language that needs no translation.
Check out the highlights of the performance! But nothing compares to seeing it live.
The acclaimed Chinese dance drama Poetic Dance: The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting is inspired by the Song Dynasty masterpiece A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains. Dancers use their bodies as brushes, and landscapes pour from their sleeves, bringing to life the spirit of traditional Chinese painting.
The indigo-dyed patterns record the direction of the wind, the warmth of the sun, the strength of hands, and the scent of plants.
We wandered slowly through several small towns in Jiangnan. From time to time, we crouched by the dye vats, watching the blue slowly seep into the fabric fibers, while time itself seemed to hold its breath and flow gently around us. More than two years have passed, and I didn’t expect that this color would linger in my heart for so long.
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