Animation based on paintings brings Qing glory to the fore

Photo provided to China Daily

Xu recreated the spectacular scenes in which Qianlong felt the public mood, inspected local administrations and armies, reviewed river engineering projects, and visited temples and nature resorts. He employed a realistic approach in detailing a wide variety of subjects. His paintings provide vivid accounts of society in 18th-century China.

The digital remake provides details of costumes of court officials, ceremonial processions, life of the man in the street and natural landscapes of the time - all offered from the emperor's perspective by the painter.

The display is vivid, thanks to more than 2,500 3-D models of people and animals, according to Chen Lyusheng, deputy director of the National Museum of China.

The animation is a "blockbuster" of its kind, says Zhou Zhiqiang, the production's chief technical adviser. "We not only try to do a remake of the original piece in precision. We've also added a lot of background information that helps the audience to understand the importance of the tour, and the artistic value of the works."

For example, the narration explains the similarities and differences between the inspections of Kangxi and Qianlong. It comments on Qianlong's political achievements in merging the cultures of Han and Manchu ethnic groups.

Zhou, himself a respected narrator, narrates the movie. Previously he narrated for The Palace Museum, a well-acclaimed documentary series presented by China Central Television.

Chen says that the museum will digitize the monumental work's other scrolls in the coming years, and will incorporate more personalized and interactive technologies. The series of painting on Emperor Qianlong's southern inspection tour was created on both paper and silk. The silk pieces were scattered in different museums at home and across the world. For instance, Scroll Four: The Confluence of the Huai and Yellow Rivers and Scroll Six: Entering Suzhou Along the Grand Canal are kept at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The complete set of paper pieces had been preserved at the Palace Museum, which also houses an incomplete set of Emperor Kangxi's Southern Inspection Tour scrolls.

If you go

Opening hours: 9 am-5 pm, Mondays closed.

The show is at 9:30 am, 10:30 am, 2 pm and 3 pm daily; charges 5 yuan ($80 cents) per person.

National Museum of China, east of Tian'anmen Square, Dongcheng district, Beijing.

010-6511-6188.