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CITY LIFE | 城事

Encountering river‑linked reflections

遇见澜湄“分身”

By Chen Chen and Shu Wen □ 陈晨 舒文 / 文

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At the 13 Culture and Arts Festival of Countries in the Lancang-Mekong River 在第十三届澜沧江·湄公河流域国家文化艺
Basin, communication officers from Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam with the Yun- 术节上，云南省南亚东南亚区域国际传播中心的
nan International Communication Center for South and Southeast Asia immersed 缅甸、泰国、越南籍传播官们深入台前幕后，在
themselves both onstage and behind the scenes. Within the festival’s vibrant artistic 精彩纷呈的艺术领域里，惊喜地遇见了跨越国界
landscape, they discovered resonant Lancang-Mekong “mirror images” that tran- 的澜湄“分身”。
scend borders.

China: The landscape embodied
中国：身形是山河

As the stage lights slowly came up, a group of “ele- gentle, steady spirit,” Yuan explained. “Humans seem
phants” began to move with steady, rhythmic grace. In small next to elephants, yet elephants themselves feel
the audience, Myanmar vlogger Htike Lwin Ko instinc- so lovable.” Rather than simply imitating tradition-
tively leaned forward. He had never seen a dance like al Dai elephant-trunk dance, he developed a unique
this, at once dignified and agile, powerful yet tender. language of “human-elephant transformation,” where
This dance, which left a deep impression on Htike dancers, while evoking elephants, also weave a narra-
Lwin Ko, is called Taiping Youxiang (Elephants as tive of humans within elephants and elephants within
Ambassadors of Peace and Prosperity), created by Yuan humans. This artistic fusion deeply moved Long Wei.
Zhiping, a post-90s choreographer, principal dancer, “Art crosses borders,” he said. “Through this dance, I
and first-class performer at the Yunnan Provincial Song could fully grasp what the creator wanted to convey.”
and Dance Ensemble. From its debut as a televised piece to its performance
Yuan’s journey into dance began quite by chance. on the CCTV Spring Festival Gala and now its nom-
When he was five and a half, his mother felt he was ination for a national cultural award, the journey of
too restless and decided to enroll him in an after-school Taiping Youxiang reflects the very story it tells—one of
class “to calm him down.” “Make him learn anything,” migration, return, and harmonious coexistence between
she said. That was how he started, and he has never humanity and nature.
stopped since. Today, he has been living in the world of After the performance, Htike Lwin Ko was still
dance for more than ten years. lingering over the images of those “elephants.” To him,
The inspiration for Taiping Youxiang traces back that is exactly what makes the Culture and Arts Festi-
to the 2021 journey of a herd of wild Asian elephants. val of Countries in the Lancang-Mekong River Basin.
That year, the elephants left their habitat, trekked north, No translation is needed, because art naturally builds
and eventually returned safely south. It is a heartwarm- bridges of understanding. As Yuan put it simply, “It’s a
ing story that captured attention across the world. joy for everyone to gather, exchange, and share culture
“The hardest part was capturing the elephants’ through art.”

Myanmar: Holding worlds in ten fingers

缅甸：十指有乾坤

Following the bright notes of Yi Dangjiao’s hulu- “Look! Each string connects to a joint of the puppet.
si flute, puppets from the Golden Myanmar Cultural When the puppeteer lifts a finger, the puppet’s arm
Troupe came to life in the hands of their master. The rises. This is how they stay perfectly synchronized. All
arc of a puppet’s raised arm, the turn of its head—each these gestures are modeled after the human performer
movement was guided not only by strings but also mir- beside them.” The piece they presented is a classic of
rored by the performer beside it. Htike Lwin Ko, orig- Myanmar puppetry, its music woven with welcoming
inally from Mandalay, the historic heart of puppetry, melodies. As she spoke, the performer’s fingers moved
watched excitedly. “I’ve never seen puppetry accompa- gently, the puppet stretched its limbs, and the rings on
nied by the hulusi flute before,” he said. “What’s even its ankles chimed with a light “ding-ding.”
rarer is how seamlessly the puppets and performers Daw Aye Aye Myat added, “Myanmar puppetry has
move together. This pairing is truly marvelous!” been passed down for generations. We keep the tradi-
Daw Aye Aye Myat, leader of the Golden Myanmar tion alive, but we also keep it evolving.” Before leaving,
Cultural Troupe, smiled as she explained: “Myanmar the troupe asked Htike Lwin Ko to recommend some Yun-
puppetry is about humans imitated through puppets. nan ethnic music. Daw Aye Aye Myat’s eyes shone with
The puppeteer uses strings to recreate the movements expectation: “We hope to breathe fresh life into this tradi-
of human dance, so the puppet always mirrors the tional art with new sounds and create even more cultural
performer.” She pointed toward the artist and added, connections between Myanmar and China.”