Shan Gao Shui Chang 山高水长
Choreography by:
Weichen Cui 崔未尘
Performance by:
Weichen Cui & Haocheng Zhang
Sound design by:
Monica Lim
Lighting design by:
Lachie Careedy
Archive by:
Haocheng Zhang
New Music Studio
August 14, 2024
Martyn Myer Arena, University of Melbourne, Australia
“山高水长,” a Chinese idiom, literally means “as lofty as mountains, as enduring as rivers,” evoking the timeless strength and flowing grace of nature.
In Liu Yuxi’s “Looking at the Dragon Gate,” the phrase “mountains high and rivers long” is used to describe a distant journey filled with obstacles. He expresses a sense of loss as he looks toward his hometown, invisible during his exile. In our work, we have adopted this way of using landscapes to convey nostalgia, establishing the tone of our piece as a poetic expression of the experience of being adrift in a foreign land.
In Fan Zhongyan’s “Record of the Temple of Mr. Yan,” the phrase “mountains high and rivers long” serves as a metaphor for noble character and enduring influence. In modern Chinese, this phrase is often extended to symbolize deep affection or profound virtue. In our work, the interaction between the two performers embodies this extended meaning, presenting it through their movements and connection.
Our Shan Gao Shui Chang 山高水长 explores the transformation of movement into paint, paper and sound through the use of conductive paint, contact mics, machine learning and electronic circuits. By exploiting the body's natural conductive ability and the sonic potential of everyday objects, we’re creating landscapes that are full of both visual and sonic textures, inviting people into an immersive and visceral experience. The work comes from our nomadic experience through different countries and cultures, and feelings of nostalgia and displacement.
<My Body, My Skin, and My Home>—— an excerpt from my choreographic journal:
“Clothes hanging on the rack, clinging to my skin, are the outermost layer of my body;
Clothes hanging on the rack, carrying the scents of many yesterdays, with memories and past experiences woven into their textures;
Clothes hanging on the rack, I will wear them, they represent how I present myself to the world;
In every place I have lived, I’ve had such a clothes rack.”
刘禹锡在《望赋》中用“山高水长”形容路途遥远，多有阻碍，说自己被贬途中眺望故里却不见的失落。我们的作品中，延用了这种以山水诉说乡愁的方式，成为我们作品的基调：漂泊异乡的诗意表达。
而在范仲淹的《严先生祠堂记》中，山高水长用来比喻人品高洁，垂范久远。而在现代汉语中，人们多用这个词引申比喻情谊或者恩德深厚。我们的作品中，两位表演者之间关系的互动便是对这一引申义的具身呈现。
在《山高水长》中，我们通过将动作转化为图像，再将图像转化为声音，并以动作为纽带连接图像与声音，编织出一幅融合视觉、听觉与触觉的动态画卷，为观众带来一场沉浸式且充满感官冲击的体验。
《我的身体、我的肌肤与我的家》——摘自我的编舞日志：
“挂在衣架上的衣服，贴着我的皮肤，是我身体的最外层；
挂在衣架上的衣服，有很多个昨天的味道，纵横的纹理中有穿梭着回忆和过往；
挂在衣架上的衣服，我会把它穿在身上，它是我面对世界的模样；
在我生活过的每一个地方，我都有这样一个衣架。”