Modern show with a traditional twist

The work song they perform is a type of folk song which, for hundreds of years, has been sung by loggers to keep pace with one another.

"Seeing the performance only, audiences may not understand what the three old men are singing, but when they have been introduced to the art form, they will see the beauty and wisdom involved in the traditional way of labor," He says.

"Some traditional art forms seem out of step with contemporary culture insofar as that they might seem too slow in rhythm or use mostly dialects. But another reason is that not many people are patient enough to learn about the culture behind them."

Therefore, for future productions, she says that she wants to present more intangible cultural heritage elements on stage, with the hope that the team will be able to go on field trips around the country and find folk art forms to introduce to the public.

Having participated in all three seasons of the production, He says that the show felt advanced and progressive for the team and the audience alike when they worked on the first season in 2017, and over the years she has observed that more TV programs are now adopting similar technology and forms.

She says it will be difficult to find new technological methods that will bring striking visual experience to the audience, but the team always aims to create experimental performances that will stand the test of time.

The dialectics between the traditional and the modern, as well as human and technology will continue to be the show's core subject matter, as is reinforced by director Zhang.

"Throughout human history, it has been a common practice to look back to tradition and look forward to the future. We are now living in an era that's quickly evolving, a world of the internet, images and information, with a lot of technology in our lives," Zhang says.

"For example, as presented in the performance Work Song-Dye, it seems that no one can live without their mobile phones, and there's this issue of 'smartphone zombies'.Although we created it several years ago, the performance is still very much relevant for today's society, so is the relationship between humans and technology."