(China Daily) Court Lady, a Chinese TV drama, premiered on online streaming platforms Tencent Video and iQiyi on April 15. Actress Li Yitong and actor Xu Kai featured in leading roles.Revolving around the romance between a merchant's daughter Fu Rou and Cheng Chumu, a young man from a government official's family, the TV drama also portrays the personal growth. Fu, played by Li, grows from a dye house merchant's daughter to a court lady, while Cheng, played by Xu, joins the army to fight for the country.
One of the highlights of the TV drama is the set and costume design, which are inspired by the style of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), such as architecture, clothes and home decorations. Over 3,000 costumes were designed for the TV drama, which combined items listed on the national intangible cultural heritage, such as Suzhou Kesi silk weaving, laran (or batik, color printing on cloth using wax) and the art of making ronghua, or velvet flower, which was a popular decoration in festivals or weddings in ancient China.
According to veteran costume designer, Doris Song, some of the colors and designs of costumes for the TV drama are based on the Tang Dynasty paintings and murals.
"For example, the female characters' head wears are inspired by mural paintings of Mogao grotto in Dunhuang, northwest China's Gansu province," Song said. "We tried to reflect the essence of the beauty of the Tang Dynasty through our designs."
"Those intangible cultural heritage items are treasures which bring us back to the prosperous eras. They deserve to be seen and appreciated by today's audiences," Song added.
Source: chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2021-04-16 11:31