The "Amazing Dance" of the Peking Opera "Concubine Mei", with long sleeves and full arms, dances like a stumbling one. The actors on the stage are like flying geese, and the audience is all amazed. Because of its high difficulty, there are very few performers of this play nowadays, and there are few opportunities to appreciate it. But now, Tencent Multi-** Lab uses 6DOF technology, which can not only deconstruct the dance with images, but also zoom in, zoom out and adjust any angle, 360-degree ** dancer's every movement, expression and detail.
On February 2, in a live broadcast event with the theme of "When Technology Meets the Beauty of Chinese Opera - Jiachen Dragon Year Chinese New Year's Eve Opera Rejuvenation", four young representatives from Peking Opera, Yue Opera, Kunqu Opera and Sichuan Opera not only demonstrated the beauty of Chinese opera and dance, but all the guests also experienced the new digital viewing experience brought by the new 6DOF technology through the lens.
Under the guidance of the Art Department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the live broadcast was jointly initiated by the Art Development Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Tencent, and was also the beginning of Tencent's "Digital Renewal Action for Chinese Opera Culture". In addition to 6DOF digital technology, Tencent's first batch of 50 classic dramas restored by AI "Nearly 100 Years of Collection" also made their debut in the live broadcast. The comparison of the images before and after the restoration has made many people feel the "new experience" brought by digital technology to the opera.
In this night of opera presented in the form of immersive live broadcast on the vertical screen, digital technology and opera culture are cross-borderly integrated, and the audience can experience the beauty of the rhyme, program, image and renewal of opera through the unique perspective of high-definition**, and also feel the charm of traditional Chinese culture. More than 7 million people *** participated in this cloud opera event, and many audiences were fans of the opera circle, "This is the beauty that truly belongs to China".
Cultural heritage has always been difficult to protect and pass on, and we hope that through digital technology, we can not only preserve precious cultural heritage forever, but also revitalize it in the new era. Shu Zhan, head of the Digital Culture Lab of Tencent's Sustainable Social Value Division, said that Tencent established the Digital Culture Lab two years ago and began to systematically explore the difficulties and pain points encountered in the protection and inheritance of cultural heritage, and help the in-depth integration of traditional cultural heritage and digital technology. And this live broadcast is just a starting point for "opera renewal".
At present, the initiative has used AI technology to restore 50 classic opera works, and plans to build a digital resource library of opera in the future, making it a platform for permanent preservation and sharing with the public. Use digital technology to help the inheritance, teaching and popularization of Chinese opera culture, and promote the innovative dissemination of Chinese opera culture to the public.
Digital technology brings imagination to the inheritance and protection of opera.
A classic singing segment of Peking Opera "Mu Guiying Hangs the Commander" combined with a cappella's innovative performance opened the curtain of the live broadcast of "Opera Renewal" on Chinese New Year's Eve. "Shaking Water Sleeves" and "Lying Fish", on the stage, the actors use various opera programs and "hand-eye-body footwork" to show the artistic conception and charm of the opera performance. On the big screen, the classic opera program of "Shaking Water Sleeves" is also presented in a frame-by-frame 360-degree high-definition shooting.
While showing the ultimate beauty of opera, this live broadcast also contains a lot of digital technology. The integration of science and technology and opera has unlimited imagination space for the inheritance and protection of ancient opera. Dramas such as "Xiaoyaojin", "Jiujiangkou", "Ancient City Meeting", "Tianxian Pei", "Mulan" and "Baolian Lantern" have been recombined into a nearly 15-minute high-definition video compilation, not only the style of many old artists has reappeared on the screen. The most important thing is that the use of AI restoration technology has enabled these precious opera repertoire materials to be "repaired as the old" while improving the clarity.
According to reports, the first batch of 50 classic images restored this time takes into account the diversification and classicity of the drama. It covers various types of operas from Peking Opera to Kunqu Opera, Yue Opera, Sichuan Opera, Henan Opera, Ping Opera, Cantonese Opera, Huangmei Opera, Huai Opera, Qin Opera, Hebei Bangzi and so on. However, due to the fact that most of these images were taken in the forties and fifties of the 20th century, and most of them use film and tape as storage media, there are not only various problems such as mutilation, jitter, scratches, flickering, noise, and blurring, but also scene switching and lighting changes involved in the images, which brings certain challenges to AI algorithms.
In the end, the works completed with the help of digital technologies such as AI image restoration not only fill in the gaps, but also pay more attention to the details and textures of the best, so that the final presentation is more delicate and vivid. For example, in the face restoration process, through face detection, face restoration and fusion modules and other technologies, the details of the simulated and final face can be accurate to every hair strand and eyelash. In addition, in "Shaking Water Sleeves" and "Amazing Dance"**, 6DOF technology shows the actors' very small movements and emotions such as wrist rotation and eye wave flow in high definition.
Under the dilemma of inheritance, the urgent significance of digital preservation and protection of opera.
What kind of dilemma does opera face in the digital age? What exactly can digital technology do for opera? This is a question that has been pondered since the beginning of the launch of "Opera Renewal".
Over the past year, under the guidance of the Art Development Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Tencent, together with The Paper, major theater troupes and expert teams across the country, has launched a research project on the "Digital Renewal of Chinese Opera Culture" project, which aims to deepen the value and feasible models of digital technology in helping to protect and inherit Chinese opera culture.
According to the summary of the experts' discussions, Chinese opera culture has long faced multiple challenges, including the gap between core values and the development of the times, the form of presentation is too traditional, the lack of talents in the industry, and the shrinking audience market. Especially on the issue of inheritance and protection, there are many problems that need to be solved urgently. Affected by various factors such as insufficient market demand, loss of skills, shortage of funds, and limited cultural dissemination, the number of endangered operas among the more than 300 opera genres in China is increasing year by year, and the skill level of the younger generation of practitioners is more significant than that of the previous generation of artists.
For example, the world-class intangible cultural heritage Kunqu opera art with a history of 600 years had nearly 3,000 excerpts in the heyday of the Ming and Qing dynasties. In the early days of liberation, the actors of the "word generation" inherited more than 600 plays. Later, it was passed on to the "Kun Daban" generation, and there are still more than 200 artists. But now, the younger generation of Kunqu opera actors can perform more than 100 Kunqu opera plays. The inheritance of Kunqu opera is facing the problem of intergenerational decay.
Kunqu opera performance artist Cai Zhengren has mentioned many times that the Kunqu opera script is recorded in writing, but the performance is not videotaped. "The generation of the 'Chuan' generation has lost a lot of money. I studied under Shen Chuanzhi, who was the character of 'Chuan', and was personally taught by Yu Zhenfei, a master of Kunqu Opera, but compared to the teacher, I still know less plays. At present, young actors may have fewer plays, and there is still a phenomenon that singing is not standardized. ”
Because of the lack of systematic video data, young actors who want to learn drama and professional researchers who want to watch drama will also face some dilemmas of lack of information. In addition, the copyright of materials has also become one of the modern constraints on the inheritance of Chinese opera. Due to the complexity of opera genres and the fact that there are many genres, it is very difficult to confirm the copyright of some video materials due to historical reasons, which also creates obstacles to the construction of digital opera databases.
It is precisely because of this that the digital recording and preservation of opera is very important for the inheritance and protection of opera art. In 2017, the General Office of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the Communist Party of China put forward in the "Opinions on the Implementation of the Project for the Inheritance and Development of Excellent Traditional Chinese Culture" that it is necessary to "implement the revitalization project of opera, do a good job in the work of 'audio-visual and audio-visual' of opera, excavate and sort out excellent traditional repertoire, and promote digital preservation and dissemination".
In recent years, digital technology has made positive progress in the protection and inheritance of traditional opera culture. The Fujian Provincial Academy of Arts has adopted digital shooting technology to effectively collect and sort out local niche operas and endangered projects, and has formed about 1,800 pieces and 2,500 hours of precious video materials.
However, due to the large volume of traditional opera resources, only some opera genres have been relatively well organized. How to use digital technology to help the inheritance and development of opera, how to digitally rescue rare repertoire, and how to build a gene pool of opera culture to rejuvenate traditional opera are becoming more and more concerned topics from all walks of life. At present, Tencent's first batch of 50 AI restoration dramas, as well as the digital resource library under construction, have become high-profile measures and actions for this topic.
Use science and technology to participate in the creation of a new ecology and format of opera.
While preserving materials to protect and inherit, digital technology is equally important for the dissemination of Chinese opera. Wang Kui, director of the Institute of Chinese Opera of the Chinese Academy of Arts and president of the Chinese Opera Society, believes that "in order for the ancient art of opera to catch up with this era and have a new audience, it must use new and new scientific and technological methods." ”
He mentioned that a large number of young people are actually exposed to traditional opera through digital carriers. Starting from online and moving towards offline theater. In such an open and inclusive space, technology can more effectively promote the integration of traditional opera into the contemporary era and into new audiences.
In fact, due to the traditional constraints of Chinese opera in terms of historical concepts, expressions and performance styles, the ancient art of opera has always had considerable limitations in the dissemination of the younger generation of audiences, and there have also been some intergenerational gaps in value transmission and spiritual resonance.
In the opinion of experts, with the changes of the times, how to rationally use digital technology to help the innovation of traditional opera, with the help of communication channels and forms that young people like to see, so that more young people can participate in the appreciation, performance and creation of opera, and establish a connection between opera and young audiences, is an important way to protect and inherit the culture of opera.
Tencent's live broadcast of "Little Chinese New Year's Eve Opera Renewal" is a new attempt at communication. Both in form and content, we want to be closer to young people. Zhou Yi, an actor from the Shaoxing Xiaobaihua Yue Opera Art Transmission Center, who participated in the live broadcast, said that digital technology not only enables the restoration and preservation of classic video works, but also provides innovative ideas in various aspects such as communication media and value remodeling, so that traditional opera can radiate new vitality. Wang Mengting of the Beijing Peking Opera Company also believes that the new form will help to narrow the distance between traditional culture and young people, and stimulate young people's interest in opera.
In fact, digital technology has a lot more to do for opera. "The image is two-dimensional, but the opera is three-dimensional. Digital technology can present opera in three dimensions, and the audience can choose different angles and positions** to perform. Relevant comrades of the Art Development Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said that the restored opera works can not only increase the interactivity and entertainment of traditional culture through VR immersive presentation, but also present more details for opera teaching and research.
In addition, the application of digital technology can also provide an optimal solution to the copyright problem of opera. In the future, the data-based and online "digital opera database" will not only provide effective tools for copyright protection and digital information storage, but also provide efficient assistance for the market-oriented operation and copyright confirmation of opera.
On the one hand, digital technology can restore the images of opera and reproduce the style of old artists, and at the same time, it can also provide innovative ideas in various aspects such as communication media and value remodeling, so as to make traditional opera 'live'. Qiao Huibin, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Drama, affirmed the value of digital technology in protecting and inheriting the excellent traditional Chinese culture.
Wang Kui said that the significance of "opera renewal" is actually to change the resources that can be seen over the years from preservation to cherishing, from a first-line single transmission to a real sharing. "This sharing is not only a succession between actors within the industry, but also a transmission of genres, it also connects the results with its audience. ”
He concluded that the important role of science and technology in the field of opera is reflected in the process of promoting the development of new ecology and new business formats. Through scientific and technological means, ancient classics and once glorious artistic styles can be re-presented in the contemporary aesthetic vision, radiating new charm.
For Shu Zhan, who has always been at the forefront of technological practice, digital technology is always a tool, and the most important thing is to enable these technologies to face the entire opera industry to participate in and solve some problems of stuck points and breakpoints in the development and inheritance.
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