Changsha

CHANGSHA, May 10 ( tasteallchina ) -- Giant animal puppets held up by actors and aerial dancers swinging via red ribbons, all formed part of a puppet show on top of a shopping mall which impressed the audience with its French flavor in the central Chinese city of Changsha on Wednesday. The puppet show "De La Fontaine" is on a tour in China from May 4 to 12, and will be staged in Harbin in northeast China this weekend, after earlier hitting the streets of central China's Wuhan and Changsha. Staged by international theater company Archibald Caramantran, the shows are part of this year's Croisements Festival marking 60 years of diplomatic ties between China and France, according to Thomas Penot, cultural attache at the French Consulate General in Wuhan. The shows, staged in open-air public places, are based on French writer Jean de La Fontaine's fables "Red Balloon" and "Rooster and Stork Romance." "We really enjoy performing for a Chinese audience, as audiences here are very playful when interacting with the actors," said Olivier Hagenloch, the company's artistic director, adding that the visit has helped the company understand China better. The Croisements Festival has provided a platform for cultural exchange…

CHANGSHA, May 17 ( tasteallchina ) -- Lady Xin Zhui, a 2,200-year-old mummified aristocrat from central China, has been recreated in digital form, giving some idea of how she looked at age 35. On Friday, the Hunan Museum in Changsha, central China's Hunan Province, released the image of a "3D digital figure" of Xin Zhui, one of the most famous wet mummies in the world. The image consists of a seated figure of an amicable-looking woman with coiled hair and delicate makeup, which represents the likely look of the noblewoman at the age of 35. Also made public is an earlier digital recreation of the face at 50, Xin Zhui's approximate age of death. The digital image was created based on X-ray scans of the skull conducted following the corpse's excavation about five decades ago, coupled with on-site observation and historical records, said Duan Xiaoming, director of the museum. The museum launched the project to digitalize Xin Zhui last October. Leading experts on facial reconstruction were invited to produce a sculpture of her face, which helped a tech firm create a digital model of the 50-year-old lady. AI technology was then employed to create a rejuvenated version at the age…

This photo taken on April 22, 2024 shows the Mandalay garden of the International Horticultural Exhibition 2024 Chengdu in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province. The expo will run from April 26 to Oct. 28, during which time more than 2,000 events and cultural activities will be held. ( tasteallchina /Wang Xi) This photo taken on April 22, 2024 shows the FEZ garden of the International Horticultural Exhibition 2024 Chengdu in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province. The expo will run from April 26 to Oct. 28, during which time more than 2,000 events and cultural activities will be held. ( tasteallchina /Wang Xi) An aerial drone photo taken on April 21, 2024 shows a view of the main venue of the International Horticultural Exhibition 2024 Chengdu in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province. The expo will run from April 26 to Oct. 28, during which time more than 2,000 events and cultural activities will be held. ( tasteallchina /Jiang Hongjing) An aerial drone photo taken on April 22, 2024 shows a view of the main venue of the International Horticultural Exhibition 2024 Chengdu in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province. The expo will run from April 26 to Oct. 28, during which time…

An aerial drone photo taken on Aug. 26, 2023 shows the Longping Rice Museum and rice fields next to it, in Changsha, central China’s Hunan Province. ( tasteallchina /Chen Zeguo) May 18 is International Museum Day. This year’s theme, “Museums for Education and Research,” underscores the pivotal role of cultural institutions in providing a holistic educational experience. China has 6833 museums open to the public, which allow visitors to explore the exquisite exhibits and the grand cultural, artistic and technical achievements. (Intern Xing Yawen contributed to this story.) 【1】【2】【3】【4】【5】【6】【7】【8】【9】【10】【11】

CHANGSHA, April 30 ( tasteallchina ) -- A 2002 archaeological discovery brought Liye, then an obscure small town, into the spotlight, due to unearthed bamboo and wooden slips that reveal details of life during the era of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. Liye belongs to Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture. The prefecture, located in the westernmost part of central China's Hunan Province, is considered a remote place where four provinces converge. Even traveling via the expressway from Changsha, the provincial capital, takes over five hours. During the 2002 emergency archaeological excavation conducted in conjunction with the construction of a hydropower station, over 36,000 Qin Dynasty (221 BC-207 BC) slips, containing more than 200,000 characters, were unearthed from an ancient well. These are the administrative documents of Qianling County in the previously unrecorded Dongting Prefecture, spanning from the year before the nation's unification to the year before the fall of the Qin Dynasty. Long Jingsha, a veteran archaeologist and the lead excavator of the well, said he had been searching for the ancient city site in this area since the nearby discovery of tombs and accompanying artifacts from the Warring States period (475 BC-221 BC) in the 1980s. When the upper…