‘the longest day in chang’an’ is latest china hit america is ignoring
In the 8th century AD, the largest và most powerful đô thị in the world was Chang’an. It was the thriving imperial capital of China’s Tang Dynasty, an enormous and prosperous empire which ruled during a period widely regarded as the golden age for Chinese culture.
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The show took place on the day of the Lantern Festival, the 15th day after the Chinese New Year. Curfew was lifted & people flooded in from all around khổng lồ celebrate. Every corner of the streets was filled with elaborate lantern decorations of all shapes & sizes, showing off the city’s wealth and splendour.
The mood in Chang’an was exuberant.
However, underneath all the hustle and bustle, tension has been creeping up. Li Bi, the young official in charge of the Peacekeeping Corps (Tang’s version of the FBI), received a tip-off that a group of terrorists (Wolf Squad) had infiltrated Chang’an khổng lồ plan an attack. With only 24 hours to lớn save the city & its people, he sought help from an unusual partner, Zhang Xiao Jing, a veteran & ex-detective captain but currently on death row.
So why Zhang Xiao Jing? Who are the Wolf Squad and what is their plot? Does this have sầu anything khổng lồ vày with the court intrigues & politics? Who is the mastermind? Truth will reveal itself, if you are ready lớn take on 48 action-packed and suspense-filled episodes of The Longest Day in Chang’an (or “Chang’an”, available now on Amazon Prime), each episode unravelling another half hour of a 24 hour day.
What I like about the show
Does a 24 hour thriller suspense drama ring a bell? But calling “Chang’an” China’s answer to Kiefer Sutherland’s hit TV show 24, in my opinion, is an understatement.
Would I have sầu liked it to lớn be a bit faster-paced, especially in the second half leading up lớn the finale? Perhaps yes. After all, it is not unusual for Chinese dramas to lớn be criticised for being excessively long – 48 episodes are actually more on the compact kết thúc. But I’ve decided that I am happy lớn overlook this minor shortcoming for all of its other outstanding qualities: a clever double detective plot with interesting twists to history, stunning cinematography with a dazzling display of Chinese martial arts, as well as the impressive sầu attention khổng lồ detail in reproducing a Tang society true lớn the era, from architecture to costumes.
There were no shortage of witty parts which brought smiles to my face, too. It is true that Tang Dynasty was run on sophisticated bureaucracy and the government had enormous amount of record keeping. And a creative re-imagination of how this worked injected a sense of humour and futurism, which works quite brilliantly.
Scenes of bureaucrats mulling over complicated archiving system screamed “big data” all over it. There were watchtowers across the đô thị that communicated with each other by coded semaphore. There was even a detailed 3D Mã Sản Phẩm replica of the đô thị at the Peacekeeping Corps HQ, where they tracked the bad guys based on reports from the watchtowers. Does that remind you of the flashing xanh GPS dot in Google Maps?
What is the historical context
The Tang Dynasty was very different from any other periods in the Chinese history.
Chang’an (modern day Xi’an), the greakiểm tra city in the world at the time, had a population of up to lớn 2 million. It was carefully designed in grid style, with walls, gates và intersecting roads dividing the đô thị into 108 wards. The wards are largely self-sufficient and gates khổng lồ the wards opened at sunrise và closed after sunmix.
The Western và Eastern Market were government designated marketplaces. They were equivalents khổng lồ today’s CBD, full of shops & restaurants. The Western Market, where many scenes of the show were shot, leads khổng lồ the Silk Road and was the bustling hub of international trade at the time. No surprise that it was during the 8th century that Chinese paper making first spread to lớn the Arab world.
(Photo: Map of Chang’an)Chang’an was not just vibrant, but also incredibly cosmopolitan. There were Persian, Sogdian and Arab traders, Nestorian Christians, Indians, Japanese and Koreans. You would see green-eyed, blonde-haired Tocharian ladies serving wines, singing and khiêu vũ at taverns to entertain customers. The thành phố was a simply magnet for people from the surrounding world.
The show accurately incorporates this cosmopolichảy history of Chang’an, with several non-Chinese characters. There is Ge Lao, “Lord of the Dungeon” (played by Djimon Hounsou), a Beninese actor. In the Tang Dynasty, Kun Lun slaves (昆仑奴) were dark-coloured slaves captured in Southeast Asia or African slaves bought in by Arab merchants. Known for their strength, good temper và loyalty, they were very popular as labour or servants for aristocrats & wealthy merchant families. There is also a Nestorian priest, a self-styled “Prince of Persia”, who makes a few cameo appearances midway through the series.
To put this into lớn perspective sầu, around 5% of the population of Chang’an at the time were foreigners, which is, you’ll be surprised to lớn learn, actually higher than the proportion of foreigners in Beijing or Shanghai today.
nhật bản & Korea also looked lớn China as the great cultural pinnacle of the time. Paying a visit khổng lồ Kyokhổng lồ or Nara today would allow you to catch a glimpse of what Tang Trung Quốc used to lớn look like. Both Japanese imperial cities were modelled after Chang’an, thanks khổng lồ numerous Japanese missions sent khổng lồ Tang Đài Loan Trung Quốc from 7th to lớn 9th Century.
“The Japanese took the language, architectural kiến thiết, clothing style of the Tang. The things we think of characteristically traditional Japanese culture today actually came from Đài Loan Trung Quốc at the time. Đài Loan Trung Quốc during the Tang, radiated its cultural power across the whole Eastern Asia sphere.”
“Tang buildings were incredibly beautiful. Not much survived in China unfortunately but you have temples in Nara, Japan which are direct models… And there were not just Chinese building styles. There were six Zoroastrian temples. There was a Nestorian Christian church and a Manichaean temple so you had an incredible variety of richly coloured và beautifully built assembly on display in Chang’an.”
Source: In Our Time – The An Lu Shan Rebellion (BBC)Tang clothing và make-up, lượt thích the rest of the Tang culture, were also full of glamour. Ladies’ dresses consist of two parts – the skirt was long và loose, flowing with elegance và covered in gorgeous designs.
(Photo: Scene of female character Tan Qi in “Chang’an)Doing make-up was an elaborate process for Tang ladies. They usually started with face powder as foundation, followed by a dusting of rouge or light yellow powder. Black eyebrows were then painted, lipstick applied and dimples added. An decorative design was either pasted or painted on the forehead as the last step. “Cherry” lips, referred lớn lips with shape and colour of a cherry, are one of the most popular lip patterns of the time, covering only the central parts of the lip.
All of these details are beautifully captured by “Chang’an”, thanks to Director Cao Dun, who grew up in Xi’an và was adamant khổng lồ ensure the visual depiction of his hometown was as vividly authentic as possible so that the “audience can tell from this one day what people’s life have sầu been like prior khổng lồ this story”.
To achieve this, his team spent more than a year painstakingly researching into Tang’s historical records, frescos và archeological finds. They even went as far as building an intricate đô thị replica as drama mix which covered 12 acres & took them 7 months to lớn complete. At one point, there were as many as 1,500 extras involved in the filming of certain scenes.
“The greachạy thử charm of this culture actually lies in the lives of ordinary people hidden under the prosperous facade.”
