The Gongchen Bridge is a historical stone arch bridge over the Grand Canal in Gongshu district in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. [Photo provided to China Daily]
In Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, Gil Pender, a Hollywood screenwriter who is nostalgic for the Paris of the 1920s — which he considers the golden age of literature and art — is magically transported back to that era during a visit to the city. There, he encounters famous US writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Gertrude Stein.
For Hong Kong novelist Ma Chiahui, who is well-versed in ancient Chinese poetry, the city of Yangzhou during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) is the place to which he dreams of traveling back in time.
Located in present-day Jiangsu province, Yangzhou was a bustling metropolis during the Tang Dynasty due to being a transportation hub on the Grand Canal, an ancient waterway that was begun in the 5th century BC, which eventually ran from Hangzhou to Tongzhou district in Beijing.
The city was a gathering place for scholars and literati, who were often immortalized in the work of Tang poets like Li Bai and Du Mu, who used their literary talent to extol the prosperity and beauty of Yangzhou.
"During its heyday, Yangzhou must have had an irresistible charm," Ma said during his stay in the city as part of the recently aired 10-episode online reality show, Shine! The Grand Canal, produced by video streaming platform Youku.
The recently aired online series Shine! The Grand Canal brings together celebrities with different expertise to visit cities along the canal. [Photo provided to China Daily]
The program brings 20 well-known figures from various fields, including Ma, Duan Zhiqiang, a scholar from the National Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies at Fudan University, architect Zhang Jiajing, philosopher Liu Qing, comedian Liu Yang, and pop idol Liu Yu, together to explore different cities along the Grand Canal.
Their itinerary includes stops in Ningbo, Shaoxing, and Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, Suzhou, Yangzhou, and Huai'an in Jiangsu province, Luoyang and Kaifeng in Henan province, as well as Tianjin and Beijing. More than a decade has passed since the Grand Canal, the world's longest and oldest intact artificial waterway, was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the program seeks to reimagine the canal, taking a multidimensional perspective that integrates the insights provided by the guests.
To illustrate its significance and value, the program is based on a series of day tours during which the guests visit historical locations related to the Grand Canal, and experience local lifestyles firsthand. They later come together to dine and share their experiences and insights from the day.
In one recent episode, some of the participants visited Yangzhou, which dates back to 486 BC when construction of the canal first began.
Pop singer Shangguan Xi'ai (left) tours Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, with Duan Zhiqiang, a historian from Fudan University. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Yangzhou's 2,500 years of history intertwines with that of the waterway, a history of interdependence, prosperity, and development.
For that particular episode, comedian Yan Hexiang, architect Zhang Jiajing, and Zhou Kui, an associate professor from the Communication University of China and a Yangzhou native, served as volunteer guides at the China Grand Canal Museum in Yangzhou.
They used their respective expertise to talk about the Grand Canal with visitors, presenting information in either a humorous or academic manner.
Yan later took Zhang and Zhou on a leisurely tour through the streets and alleys by rickshaw. They visited a teahouse to sample tangbao, or soup dumpling, a local delicacy, and explored a historical bathhouse to experience the bathing and foot massage traditions that can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty.
Pop idol Liu Yu (left) and cross-talk performer Yan Hexiang (middle) join Liu Qing, a professor of philosophy at East China Normal University, to tour Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Meanwhile, Ma, Duan, and pop singer Shangguan Xi'ai paid a visit to the Mausoleum Park of Sui Emperor Yang Guang, who started the construction of the Beijing-Hangzhou section of the Grand Canal.
The trio also visited a beauty salon for a traditional local shave. The barber began by shaving from the right side of the neck with gentle strokes, then moved to the left side of the neck, before moving the blade to the forehead, eyebrows, cheeks, carefully and gently removing facial hair, ear fuzz, dead skin, and stubble left by hair clippers, in a series of 72 strokes.
In the end, the barber lightly ran the blade along the bridge of the nose to complete half the stroke, known as the "72 and a half stroke", leaving clients feeling refreshed.
That night, the two groups gathered to share their experiences and discuss the history behind their discoveries.
Zhou states that the advancement of Yangzhou's service industry was closely related to the Grand Canal.
"For instance, public bathhouses were set up for laborers," he says. Yangzhou was once a prosperous gathering place for salt merchants during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911) due to its transportation facilities.
"There were many laborers, especially those working in the salt fields, who needed to relax and recover their strength at the bathhouses after a hard day's work carrying salt," Zhou says.
Zhou Kui, an associate professor at the Communication University of China, acts as a guide at the China Grand Canal Museum in Yangzhou. [Photo provided to China Daily]
He organized a quiz for the other participants to guess the meanings of phrases from the Yangzhou dialect and explain their cultural connotations.
Duan points out that Yangzhou was not only an important hub on the Grand Canal but also connected to the Yangtze River basin. Goods traveling along the Yangtze River could be shipped through Yangzhou to northern China, while the salt produced in Yangzhou could be shipped to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
The history of Yangzhou, a city with a glorious past, reminded Ma of Istanbul, a city at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, which also enjoyed past glory.
He speaks of the Turkish word huzun, which Nobel laureate author Orhan Pamuk uses in his autobiography, Istanbul: Memories and the City, to encapsulate the collective melancholy experienced by the city's inhabitants following the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
"Though I'm walking through today's Yangzhou, I'm imagining what it used to be like," Ma says, adding that at that moment, he experienced a feeling of huzun of his own.
Discussions such as these provided the audience with insight into how the Grand Canal has shaped Yangzhou's past and present.
"Even though the show focuses on the Grand Canal, it really digs deep into exploring and understanding each city along the way.
"It shows life along the Grand Canal through food, fun, and chats with local residents, giving viewers a peek into the culture and history of these cities. It doesn't shout about the Grand Canal, but it's just there, part of everyday life. Those cozy little snapshots of urban life keep the poetic charm of the ancient canal alive," commented one user on the review site Douban.
Zhang Jin, an expert involved in the World Heritage application for the Grand Canal, views the series as a kind of "ceremonial ritual" to drive the conscious protection of its heritage.
"The goal of the program is to increase public awareness of the history of the Grand Canal and promote its preservation, a habit that will inspire future generations to carry on the legacy," she explains.
"Historical memory needs to be awakened. We have already taken action to that end, and we will continue to do so in the future. What we still need to think about is how we can use historical memory to make things better today," Duan adds.
