Dazzling outdoor show promotes Taoist culture

A new grand high-tech outdoor Taoist folk musical "Dream of Tao" impresses tourists and Taoists at Longhu Mountain during the Third International Taoist Forum, which opened on Nov 25, 2014. [Photo/China.org.cn]

A new big budget high-tech outdoor Taoist folk musical "Dream of Tao" impressed tourists and Taoists at Longhu Mountain during the Third International Taoist Forum held from Nov 25 -26, 2014.

Pop diva Faye Wong lent her voice to the show with a new song recording called "Like A Dream." The show uses the scenery at Longhu Mountain as the stage and extravagant lighting effects. The design and the set are entirely natural, and include outdoor rocks, trees and hills.

The 70-minute visual fest is unique because it is built and also guided by Taoist philosophy, and the show is always moving. There are no seats in order to protect the environment. The storage battery boats were used to prevent sound pollution and litter. The audience has to walk along with the show and eventually settles down on seats on boats drifting in the valley among the mountains.

There are more than 300 actors dressed in blinking bulb costumes which change colors, much like what Zhang Yimou did in the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, and there is folk music, smoke, flash, 3D image projection (on the world's biggest 'screen', a cliff covering 18,000 square meters, 90 meters high, 196 meters wide), music, sound effects, ancient costumes, and a Cirque du Soleil-styled performance and acrobatics as well as Taoist narratives, dance and Kungfu performances.

"The sound and the lighting are electrifying and profound, this is huge," commented Taoist master Huang Xinyang, vice president of the China Taoist Association after he experienced the show on Nov. 24.

"Dream of Tao" is produced by media proprietor and talk show host Yang Lan's Sun Media Group and the local Longhu Mountain Tourism Group Corporation. It cost 300 million yuan (US$48.9 million) to produce and is directed by Chen Weiya, deputy general director of the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and director of the opening ceremony of the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing, who wanted portray an artist's awe for nature and his journey exploring a Taoist dream. The music and the song are composed by Chen Qigang, the same man who composed Beijing Olympic theme song "You and Me."

Faye Wong's participation caused a few controversies as some pointed out she is a singer with Buddhist belief now singing a Taoist song. Sun Media Group later released a statement saying the show is a cultural tourism show with some elements from Taoism, but definitely not a religious show.

The show debuted on Nov 12, 2014 but is in its test run. It will open to the public in the next spring.

Longhu Mountain, a famous mountain located in southwest suburb of Yingtan, Jiangxi Province, is a state scenic area, national 5A top tourism area, national forest park and a national geological park. It also has a profound cultural value as one of the cradles of Chinese Taoism where the first Heaven Master Zhang Daoling established the religion in the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220). Longhu Mountain has 10 Taoist palaces, 81 Taoist temples and 36 Taoist courts.