Journal articles on the topic 'Apsaras in art'

The social life of China, its culture and art were determined by the local religion of Taoism, and the main postulates were laid out in the treatise "Daodejing" ("The Book of Tao and De", 6th century AD). Accordingly, a person with the whole way of life became a participant in the cycle of phenomena in nature, and therefore felt that he was not the main creation of God, as it was in Christianity, but only one of the components of the universe.
 Unlike Christianity, the phenomenon of Buddhism consists in the absence of a "logos" – the deity at the heart of the religion, since initially the image of the Buddha was interpreted as the image of a person who has achieved enlightenment. In Buddhism, there was no thesis about the value of human existence, which was interpreted as one-moment and changeable.
 Now let's trace how the specific philosophical and religious teachings of China influenced art and architecture.
 This is clearly visible both in secular buildings and in the temples of the three religions. The phenomenon of the transformation of the borrowed religion of Buddhism on local soil can be illustrated by the example of the unique cave temple complex of Dunhuang, the creation of which lasted over a thousand years, from the 4th to the 14th century. On the example of the wall paintings of sanctuaries, it is possible to trace how the borrowed subjects and techniques were gradually diversified and improved under the influence of local painting techniques. Moreover, scenes of secular life, portraits of benefactors, as well as a pantheon of Taoist deities were gradually added to the purely Buddhist subjects (fetian – the Chinese version of the heavenly apsaras, lords of Fuxi and NЯwa, etc.).
 The principles of feng shui and established hierarchy were also maintained in secular architecture and landscape design. So, all the main facades were oriented to the south, and the screens acted as barriers for evil spirits (in the gardens, such a function was performed by "natural screens" – "green screens", when one natural picture covered the other and it was impossible to view the entire garden at the same time. Chinese garden became the personification of the harmony of the world, therefore each landscape picture was carefully thought out. It was believed that gazebos – small pavilions in the garden became a place where a person encountered the laws of perfect harmony of nature. 
 An analysis of the relationship between traditional Chinese architecture and art and traditional philosophical and religious teachings proves that architecture and art were subject to the principles of feng shui and local "religious syncretism".

The beauty of Kalasan Temple façade can be seen from its variety of decorations known as the pearls of Central Java art in the 8th century AD. The artwork manifests in the aesthetics and artistic value of Kala-Makara, leaf tendrils (purnakalasa), paper paste, apsara-apsari figures. The purpose of this writing is to gain knowledge and insight about the decorative artistic expressions carved on the temples. The method used is qualitative research observing its form, content and meaning. The analysis uses contextual analysis, which is to look at the relationship between ornaments and their context by basing on the motion of lines, the shape of art objects, and rhythmic compositions. The discussion will use aesthetic theory, artistic value and symbol theory to be able to explain the form of beauty in the decorative art of Kalasan Temple. The result shows that the selection of ornamental art ornaments is combined with the right proportions, symmetry in the arrangement and precise processing to produce artistic expression in achieving transcendent ideas.

The specific place where the artist sits for the presentation of any art or specific ideas is called the stage. This is also called theater because pigmentation is its main subject. In Western countries or the English language, it is called a stage. It seems that theater was prevalent among the deities even before the emergence of humans. Like Kailash festival of Lord Shiva, Mata Vagishwari sitting on a peacock with a veena in her hand and dancing in the court of Indra to Gandharva, Kinnar, and Apsaras only indicate the existence of the stage. According to the tradition of Indian music and drama, theater is first mentioned in the famous scripture Natya Shastra of Sanskrit literature. In ancient times, when the sage Muni used to do penance, he used to be in a tomb at some high place. Similarly, kings and emperors etc. used to address the meeting only after sitting on any highest posture. Because art is an essential part of life, it is natural to develop artistic elements along with the development of civilization and culture. A modern form of stage or theater can be achieved as a result of this long sequence of development.
 किसी भी कला अथवा विशिष्ट विचारों की प्रस्तुति के लिए कलाकार जिस विशिष्ट स्थान पर विराजमान होते हैं उसे मंच कहा जाता है। रंजकता इसका प्रमुख विषय होने के कारण इसी को रंगमंच भी कहते हैं। पाश्चात्य देशों अथवा अंग्रेजी भाषा में इसे स्टेज कहा जाता है। ऐसा प्रतीत होता है कि मानव के उद्भव से पूर्व भी रंगमंच देवी देवताओं में प्रचलित था। जेसे भगवान शिव का कैलाश पर्व, माता वागीश्वरी का हस्त में वीणा लेकर मयूर पर बैठना तथा इन्द्र के दरबार में गांधर्व, किन्नर, एवं अप्सराओं को नृत्य आदि मंच के अस्तित्व की ओर ही संकेत करते हैं। भारतीय संगीत एवं नाट्य परम्परा के अनुसार सर्वप्रथम संस्कृत साहित्य के सुप्रसिद्ध ग्रंथ नाट्य शास्त्र में रंगमंच का उल्लेख मिलता है। प्राचीनकाल में ऋषि मुनि जब तपस्या करते थे तो किसी न किसी उच्च स्थान पर समाधिस्थ होते थे। इसी प्रकार राजा व सम्राट आदि भी किसी उच्चतम आसन पर आसीन होकर ही सभा को संबोधित किया करते थे। क्योंकि कला जीवन का एक अनिवार्य अंग है, अतः सभ्यता एवं संस्कृति के विकास के साथ-साथ कलात्मक तत्वों का विकास होना भी स्वाभाविक है। विकास के इसी लम्बे क्रम के परिणाम स्वरूप मंच अथवा रंगमंच का आधुनिक रूप प्राप्त हो सकता है।

In the mythology-inspired novel Menaka’s Choice (2016), Kavita Kané discovers that the female body is continuously perceived both as an object of sexual desire and as an individual being by disrupting the conventional understanding of Apsara Menaka. Using Foucault’s concept of docile bodies and organic individuality the paper studies how power, in the form of ‘system’, imposes docility on women’s bodies. The paper weaves the potential for feminist thought as the novel rediscovers the recondite experiences that have been shrouded for centuries by giving central position to silent agents of Hindu mythology. Eventually, it attempts to analyse the act of seduction from the context of gender and how the individual tries to resist that disciplinary system.

A wide-ranging survey focusing on the experiences of analysts providing telehealth treatment approximately six months into the pandemic was sent to one hundred randomly selected APsaA graduate analysts, one hundred randomly selected APsaA candidate analysts, and then to everyone on the APsaA members’ Listserv. Presented both open-ended and closed-ended questions, analysts were invited to quantify and reflect on their experience. Responding analysts in each of the three groups described similar experiences. Each group noted that they have, overall, moved from a neutral to a modestly positive acceptance of telehealth as a means of delivering psychoanalysis. In describing the frame and process of telehealth, the analysts reported wide differences in patient response to the change in format, including positive, negative, and highly specific shifts in the treatment process attributable to the change in format. Telehealth, it appears, is a distinct space in which psychoanalysis can be conducted. In general, respondents minimized the impact of the pandemic itself on the analytic process, though the process may have been more impacted by the pandemic than they were reporting. All three groups almost unanimously reported interest in exploring innovative psychoanalytic techniques.

This verse comes at the end of the 2nd Act of Kālidāsa's Vikramorvaśīya (hereafter V). It is spoken by the royal hero Purūravas moments after his wife Auśīnarī has left the scene in a jealous pique, refusing to accept his anunaya, his attempt at conciliation. Auśīnarī had confronted him with evidence of his affair with the apsaras Urvaśī, a love-verse that the nymph had inscribed on a piece of birch-bark. Urvaśī had by then already left the lovely palace garden where she had appeared to him beyond his hopes (for how can a mortal expect a liaison with a divinity?), called back to Indra's palace to act the principal role in a play called Lakṣmī's Svayaṃvara. The King had entrusted the piece of bark to the Vidūṣaka's safekeeping, but of course the latter—true to his name of “spoiler”—had dropped it, leaving it to be discovered by Auśīnarī and her maid. At first the hero tries to deny that the inscribed message has anything to do with him, but this is hardly convincing. Furthermore, the Vidūṣaka's attempts at camouflage only succeeded in underscoring his friend's guilt. But “No,” Ausmari responds, “you haven't transgressed. It is I who transgress with my disagreeable presence. I'll go!” With this she plays her trump card, and Purūravas can only play his. He admits his guilt, but only formulaically, only by invoking a gallant convention: he is and has always been her slave, and when the mistress is angry then surely the slave is guilty. Saying this, he falls at her feet, but she turns her back on him and leaves. The Vidūṣaka remarks that this is all to his favour since he will no longer have to camouflage his affair, but Purūravas rejects this callous notion. His respect (bahumāna) for Auśīnarī is genuine. He does not want to hurt her and regrets that his gallantry cannot soothe her. Thus he utters the lines I have quoted above.

Mandated use of the couch—whether specifically stated or tacitly communicated by supervisors and colleagues—to fulfill requirements for graduation or certification is a significant disservice to candidates and their patients. In its training standards, it is argued, APsaA and its member institutes should state explicitly that a treatment can qualify as a psychoanalysis, regardless of whether the patient is using the couch, as long as the process is analytic and the candidate’s thinking is demonstrably analytic. The mandate, however conveyed, that one must use the couch interferes with candidates’ optimal analytic functioning, jeopardizing their patients’ analyses. Data from infant observation, neuroscience, and facial expression studies—unavailable to earlier generations of analysts—support a more nuanced view of use of the couch. Each analysis is unique, and some analyses might well benefit from use of both the couch and the chair at different phases of treatment, but unless this is spelled out by ApsaA and its member institutes, candidates and junior analysts will be prevented from freely contemplating the clinical benefits or detriments of their use in specific cases.

The background of this research is based on the occurrence and emergence of cyberbullying cases that afflict Indonesian teenagers. Youth are considered unable to filter bad messages that they get, so they are vulnerable to negative impacts such as depression to suicide. This writing aims to create works of art with ideas originating from the phenomenon of cyberbullying that is rife in this digital era, especially for teenagers or youth. . The method used in this artistic creation is a combination of two methods, namely the practice-based research method and practice-led research method. This research produces three works of two-dimensional painting that are representational deformative and have symbolic meanings with acrylic on plywood media. The data is obtained through document studies and literature studies. These three artworks have the titles (1) Your Words Killed Me, (2) Hate Comments, and (3) Burdened. This creation is useful as a medium of criticism and as a medium of education to the public related to the phenomenon or topic of cyberbullying. This phenomenon should be aware of and must be stopped immediately to reduce the negative impact that harms its victims.Keywords: youth, cyberbullying, painting. AbstrakLatar belakang penciptaan ini didasari atas keprihatinan dan kekhawatiran akan maraknya kasus cyberbullying yang menimpa remaja Indonesia. Remaja dinilai belum dapat melakukan filter atas pesan buruk yang mereka dapatkan, sehingga mereka rentan terkena dampak negatif seperti depresi hingga bunuh diri. Penciptaan ini bertujuan untuk menciptakan karya seni lukis dengan ide bersumber dari fenomena cyberbullying yang marak terjadi pada era digital ini, khususnya kepada remaja. Penciptaan karya seni lukis ini menggunakan kombinasi dua metode, metode practice-based research dan practice-led research. Proses mengumpulkan data diperoleh melalui studi pustaka dan studi dokumen. Hasil penciptaan ini berupa tiga karya seni lukis dua dimensi yang representasional deformatif serta memiliki makna simbolik dengan media acrylic on plywood. Ketiga karya seni lukis ini memiliki judul (1) your words killed me, (2) hate comments, dan (3) burdened. Penciptaan ini berguna sebagai media kritik dan sebagai media edukasi kepada masyarakat berkaitan dengan fenomena atau topik cyberbullying. Fenomena ini patut untuk diwaspadai dan harus segera dihentikan untuk mengurangi dampak negatif yang merugikan para korbannya.Kata Kunci: remaja, cyberbullying, seni lukis.Author:Arum Wilis Kartika Ayuningtari : Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta References:Anwar, F. (2017). Perubahan dan permasalahan media sosial. Jurnal Muara Ilmu Sosial, Humaniora, dan Seni, 1(1), 137-144.Asa, F. O., Ahdi, S., & Elapatsa, A. (2021). Fenomena Korupsi: Tikus sebagai Inspirasi Lukis. Gorga: Jurnal Seni Rupa, 10(2), 508-514.doi: 10.24114/gr.v10i2.28059.Sanjaya, B., & Citra, Y. P. A. (2022). 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Pencegahan Kasus Cyberbullying Bagi Remaja Pengguna Sosial Media. KHIDMAT SOSIAL: Journal of Social Work and Social Services, 2(1), 74-83.Jalal, N. M., Idris, M., & Muliana, M. (2021). Faktor-faktor Cyberbullying Padaremaja. IKRA-ITH HUMANIORA: Jurnal Sosial dan Humaniora, 5(2), 1-9.Muannas, M., & Mansyur, M. (2020). Model Literasi Digital untuk Melawan Ujaran Kebencian di Media Sosial (Digital Literacy Model to Counter Hate Speech on Social Media). JURNAL IPTEKKOM (Jurnal Ilmu Pengetahuan & Teknologi Informasi), 22(2), 125-142.Ningrum, D. J., Suryadi, S., & Wardhana, D. E. C. (2018). Kajian ujaran kebencian di media sosial. Jurnal Ilmiah Korpus, 2(3), 241-252. 10.33369/jik.v2i3.6779.Rafiq, A. (2020). Dampak Media Sosial Terhadap Perubahan Sosial Suatu Masyarakat. Global Komunika, 1(1), 18-29.Rajudin, R., Miswar, M., & Muler, Y. (2020). Metode Penciptaan Bentuk Representasional, Simbolik, dan Abstrak (Studi Penciptaan Karya Seni Murni di Sumatera Barat, Indonesia). Gorga: Jurnal Seni Rupa, 9(2), 261-272. 10.24114/gr.v9i2.19950.Riswanto, D., & Marsinun, R. (2020). Perilaku cyberbullying remaja di media sosial. Analitika: Jurnal Magister Psikologi UMA, 12(2), 98-111. 10.31289/analitika.v12i2.3704.Rumra, N. S., & Rahayu, B. A. (2021). Perilaku Cyberbullying pada Remaja. Jurnal Ilmiah Kesehatan Jiwa, 3(1), 41-48.Kumala, A. P. B., & Sukmawati, A. (2020). Dampak Cyberbullying Pada Remaja. Alauddin Scientific Journal of Nursing, 1(1), 55-65.Tarigan, T., & Apsari, N. C. (2021). Perilaku Self-Harm atau Melukai Diri Sendiri yang Dilakukan oleh Remaja (Self-Harm or Self-Injuring Behavior by Adolescents). Focus: Jurnal Pekerjaan Sosial, 4(2), 213-224.Ybarra, M. L., & Mitchell, K. J. (2004). Youth Engaging in Online Harassment: Associations with Caregiver–Child Relationships, Internet Use, and Personal Characteristics. Journal of adolescence, 27(3), 319-336. 10.1016/j.adolescence.2004.03.007.Yetri, I. T. S., Munaf, Y., & Dharsono, D. (2018). 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The objective of my doctoral research is to interpret the meaning of thecostumes of female figural depictions on the walls of Banteay Srei and ofother contemporary buildings erected in the 10th century. This study couldhopefully also shed new light on the hitherto unsatisfactorily solved questionof the dating of the construction periods of the Banteay Srei sanctuary. Thearchitectural and art historical research of Banteay Srei temple has been afundamental topic in Angkorean research for decades. In 2013 and 2014, I spent altogether six months in Angkor to collect allthe data of the carved and sculpted costume depictions belonging to the socalled Banteay Srei style. I established a complete catalogue of more than550 figural depictions found on site on the walls of Banteay Srei templecomplex (including all human and mythological figures which are depictedwith clothes or jewellery), and also other contemporary edifices found currently in Cambodia and Thailand, as well as in different museum collections all around the world. With the help of this database, I interpreted thedepictions in their cultural, religious, architectural and narrative context. In order to achieve my field research it was crucial to obtain an officialresearch permit issued by the APSARA Authority, the state institution thatis responsible for protecting the Angkor monuments. As a result of my personal presentation, I got the generous support of the Authority and I gainedaccess to several sculptural collections, as well as researchers’ and museumcollection databases. The personal collaboration with young researchers working at the APSARA Authority has made it possible for me to visit and document various monuments in remote areas. To access these ruins, we manytimes relied on the local people, mainly kids, even though we were wellprepared and well equipped with modern navigational knowledge and tools.In addition to the scientific documentation, the greatest achievement of theseresearch trips was that I have learned to trust the guidance of the ’local world’.

In tracing the development of increased polarization in the United States, numerous scholars have noted the apparent importance of the American Political Science Association's (APSA's) Committee on Political Parties. The committee's influential (and often criticized) report, Toward a More Responsible Two-Party System, called for a wholesale transformation of political parties in the United States. On its publication in October 1950, political scientists quickly concluded that, taken together, the committee's recommendations represented a reworking of a distinct approach, usually known as “party government” or “responsible party government.” (The origins of responsible parties dated back to Woodrow Wilson's classic 1885 text Congressional Government.) Since then, the notion of party government has become a core issue in the study of American political parties, albeit a contentious one. A recent survey ranked the APSA document at seventh as a canonical text in graduate syllabi concerning parties.

Abstract. Apsari IAP, Suratma NA, Swacita IBN, Soma IG, Sari TK, Putra IPC, Sudipa PH. 2024. Parasitological and serological detection of Trypanosoma evansi on Bali cattle at the Pesanggaran slaughterhouse, Denpasar, Indonesia using hematological profile. Biodiversitas 25: 1057-1062. Bali cattle (Bos sondaicus Blyth, 1842 syn. Bos javanicus domesticus Wilckens, 1905) are vulnerable to blood protozoan infections like Trypanosoma evansi. Indonesia's warm and moist environment provides ideal conditions for blood-sucking flies such as Stomoxys calcitrans, Haematobia irritans, and Hipobosca sp. to thrive and spread. These flies act as carriers of T. evansi, which can then infect Bali cattle. This study aims to detect the presence of T. evansi in Bali cattle. Blood samples were collected from 275 Bali cattle at the Pesanggaran slaughterhouse, Denpasar City, Bali, Indonesia. The samples were examined using the Giemsa-Staining Blood Smear (GSBS) method and hematology profile examination using Hematology Analyzer RT-7600 for Vet. Serum samples were also collected for serologic examination using the Card Agglutination Test for Trypanosomiasis (CATT) method. The hematological profile data obtained were analyzed descriptively, and the Mann-Whitney U test was used to determine the significance of hematological values between female and male cattle seropositive to T. evansi. The results showed that the T. evansi parasite was not detected in the blood smear examination. However, the serological detection with CATT revealed that 6.54% (18/275) of Bali cattle were positive for T. evansi. The hematological profiles of T. evansi seropositive cattle remained within the normal range, except for neutrophil percentage. White Blood Cell (WBC), Hemoglobin (Hb) levels, and hematocrit (PCV) values of male cattle were significantly (P?0.05) lower than those of females. Therefore, based on serological examination, it can be concluded that the protozoa T. evansi is present in 6.54% of Bali cattle at the Pesanggaran slaughterhouse.

The curtain rose. The howling of desert wind filled the performance hall in the Shanghai Grand Theatre. Into the center stage, where a scenic construction of a mountain cliff and a desert landscape was dimly lit, entered the character of the Daoist priest Wang Yuanlu (1849–1931), performed by Chen Yizong. Dressed in a worn and dusty outfit of dark blue cotton, characteristic of Daoist priests, Wang began to sweep the floor. After a few moments, he discovered a hidden chambre sealed inside one of the rock sanctuaries carved into the cliff.Signaled by the quick, crystalline, stirring wave of sound from the chimes, a melodious Chinese ocarina solo joined in slowly from the background. Astonished by thousands of Buddhist sūtra scrolls, wall paintings, and sculptures he had just accidentally discovered in the caves, Priest Wang set his broom aside and began to examine these treasures. Dawn had not yet arrived, and the desert sky was pitch-black. Priest Wang held his oil lamp high, strode rhythmically in excitement, sat crossed-legged in a meditative pose, and unfolded a scroll. The sound of the ocarina became fuller and richer and the texture of the music more complex, as several other instruments joined in.Below is the opening scene of the award-winning, theatrical dance-drama Dunhuang, My Dreamland, created by China’s state-sponsored Lanzhou Song and Dance Theatre in 2000. Figure 1a: Poster Side A of Dunhuang, My Dreamland Figure 1b: Poster Side B of Dunhuang, My DreamlandThe scene locates the dance-drama in the rock sanctuaries that today are known as the Dunhuang Mogao Caves, housing Buddhist art accumulated over a period of a thousand years, one of the best well-known UNESCO heritages on the Silk Road. Historically a frontier metropolis, Dunhuang was a strategic site along the Silk Road in northwestern China, a crossroads of trade, and a locus for religious, cultural, and intellectual influences since the Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.). Travellers, especially Buddhist monks from India and central Asia, passing through Dunhuang on their way to Chang’an (present day Xi’an), China’s ancient capital, would stop to meditate in the Mogao Caves and consult manuscripts in the monastery's library. At the same time, Chinese pilgrims would travel by foot from China through central Asia to Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, playing a key role in the exchanges between ancient China and the outside world. Travellers from China would stop to acquire provisions at Dunhuang before crossing the Gobi Desert to continue on their long journey abroad. Figure 2: Dunhuang Mogao CavesThis article approaches the idea of “abroad” by examining the present-day imagination of journeys along the Silk Road—specifically, staged performances of the various Silk Road journey-themed dance-dramas sponsored by the Chinese state for enhancing its cultural and foreign policies since the 1970s (Kuang).As ethnomusicologists have demonstrated, musicians, choreographers, and playwrights often utilise historical materials in their performances to construct connections between the past and the present (Bohlman; Herzfeld; Lam; Rees; Shelemay; Tuohy; Wade; Yung: Rawski; Watson). The ancient Silk Road, which linked the Mediterranean coast with central China and beyond, via oasis towns such as Samarkand, has long been associated with the concept of “journeying abroad.” Journeys to distant, foreign lands and encounters of unknown, mysterious cultures along the Silk Road have been documented in historical records, such as A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms (Faxian) and The Great Tang Records on the Western Regions (Xuanzang), and illustrated in classical literature, such as The Travels of Marco Polo (Polo) and the 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West (Wu). These journeys—coming and going from multiple directions and to different destinations—have inspired contemporary staged performance for audiences around the globe.Home and Abroad: Dunhuang and the Silk RoadDunhuang, My Dreamland (2000), the contemporary dance-drama, staged the journey of a young pilgrim painter travelling from Chang’an to a land of the unfamiliar and beyond borders, in search for the arts that have inspired him. Figure 3: A scene from Dunhuang, My Dreamland showing the young pilgrim painter in the Gobi Desert on the ancient Silk RoadFar from his home, he ended his journey in Dunhuang, historically considered the northwestern periphery of China, well beyond Yangguan and Yumenguan, the bordering passes that separate China and foreign lands. Later scenes in Dunhuang, My Dreamland, portrayed through multiethnic music and dances, the dynamic interactions among merchants, cultural and religious envoys, warriors, and politicians that were making their own journey from abroad to China. The theatrical dance-drama presents a historically inspired, re-imagined vision of both “home” and “abroad” to its audiences as they watch the young painter travel along the Silk Road, across the Gobi Desert, arriving at his own ideal, artistic “homeland”, the Dunhuang Mogao Caves. Since his journey is ultimately a spiritual one, the conceptualisation of travelling “abroad” could also be perceived as “a journey home.”Staged more than four hundred times since it premiered in Beijing in April 2000, Dunhuang, My Dreamland is one of the top ten titles in China’s National Stage Project and one of the most successful theatrical dance-dramas ever produced in China. With revenue of more than thirty million renminbi (RMB), it ranks as the most profitable theatrical dance-drama ever produced in China, with a preproduction cost of six million RMB. The production team receives financial support from China’s Ministry of Culture for its “distinctive ethnic features,” and its “aim to promote traditional Chinese culture,” according to Xu Rong, an official in the Cultural Industry Department of the Ministry. Labeled an outstanding dance-drama of the Chinese nation, it aims to present domestic and international audiences with a vision of China as a historically multifaceted and cosmopolitan nation that has been in close contact with the outside world through the ancient Silk Road. Its production company has been on tour in selected cities throughout China and in countries abroad, including Austria, Spain, and France, literarily making the young pilgrim painter’s “journey along the Silk Road” a new journey abroad, off stage and in reality.Dunhuang, My Dreamland was not the first, nor is it the last, staged performances that portrays the Chinese re-imagination of “journeying abroad” along the ancient Silk Road. It was created as one of many versions of Dunhuang bihua yuewu, a genre of music, dance, and dramatic performances created in the early twentieth century and based primarily on artifacts excavated from the Mogao Caves (Kuang). “The Mogao Caves are the greatest repository of early Chinese art,” states Mimi Gates, who works to increase public awareness of the UNESCO site and raise funds toward its conservation. “Located on the Chinese end of the Silk Road, it also is the place where many cultures of the world intersected with one another, so you have Greek and Roman, Persian and Middle Eastern, Indian and Chinese cultures, all interacting. Given the nature of our world today, it is all very relevant” (Pollack). As an expressive art form, this genre has been thriving since the late 1970s contributing to the global imagination of China’s “Silk Road journeys abroad” long before Dunhuang, My Dreamland achieved its domestic and international fame. For instance, in 2004, The Thousand-Handed and Thousand-Eyed Avalokiteśvara—one of the most representative (and well-known) Dunhuang bihua yuewu programs—was staged as a part of the cultural program during the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece. This performance, as well as other Dunhuang bihua yuewu dance programs was the perfect embodiment of a foreign religion that arrived in China from abroad and became Sinicized (Kuang). Figure 4: Mural from Dunhuang Mogao Cave No. 45A Brief History of Staging the Silk Road JourneysThe staging of the Silk Road journeys abroad began in the late 1970s. Historically, the Silk Road signifies a multiethnic, cosmopolitan frontier, which underwent incessant conflicts between Chinese sovereigns and nomadic peoples (as well as between other groups), but was strongly imbued with the customs and institutions of central China (Duan, Mair, Shi, Sima). In the twentieth century, when China was no longer an empire, but had become what the early 20th-century reformer Liang Qichao (1873–1929) called “a nation among nations,” the long history of the Silk Road and the colourful, legendary journeys abroad became instrumental in the formation of a modern Chinese nation of unified diversity rooted in an ancient cosmopolitan past. The staged Silk Road theme dance-dramas thus participate in this formation of the Chinese imagination of “nation” and “abroad,” as they aestheticise Chinese history and geography. History and geography—aspects commonly considered constituents of a nation as well as our conceptualisations of “abroad”—are “invariably aestheticized to a certain degree” (Bakhtin 208). Diverse historical and cultural elements from along the Silk Road come together in this performance genre, which can be considered the most representative of various possible stagings of the history and culture of the Silk Road journeys.In 1979, the Chinese state officials in Gansu Province commissioned the benchmark dance-drama Rain of Flowers along the Silk Road, a spectacular theatrical dance-drama praising the pure and noble friendship which existed between the peoples of China and other countries in the Tang dynasty (618-907 C.E.). While its plot also revolves around the Dunhuang Caves and the life of a painter, staged at one of the most critical turning points in modern Chinese history, the work as a whole aims to present the state’s intention of re-establishing diplomatic ties with the outside world after the Cultural Revolution. Unlike Dunhuang, My Dreamland, it presents a nation’s journey abroad and home. To accomplish this goal, Rain of Flowers along the Silk Road introduces the fictional character Yunus, a wealthy Persian merchant who provides the audiences a vision of the historical figure of Peroz III, the last Sassanian prince, who after the Arab conquest of Iran in 651 C.E., found refuge in China. By incorporating scenes of ethnic and folk dances, the drama then stages the journey of painter Zhang’s daughter Yingniang to Persia (present-day Iran) and later, Yunus’s journey abroad to the Tang dynasty imperial court as the Persian Empire’s envoy.Rain of Flowers along the Silk Road, since its debut at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on the first of October 1979 and shortly after at the Theatre La Scala in Milan, has been staged in more than twenty countries and districts, including France, Italy, Japan, Thailand, Russia, Latvia, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and recently, in 2013, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York.“The Road”: Staging the Journey TodayWithin the contemporary context of global interdependencies, performing arts have been used as strategic devices for social mobilisation and as a means to represent and perform modern national histories and foreign policies (Davis, Rees, Tian, Tuohy, Wong, David Y. H. Wu). The Silk Road has been chosen as the basis for these state-sponsored, extravagantly produced, and internationally staged contemporary dance programs. In 2008, the welcoming ceremony and artistic presentation at the Olympic Games in Beijing featured twenty apsara dancers and a Dunhuang bihua yuewu dancer with long ribbons, whose body was suspended in mid-air on a rectangular LED extension held by hundreds of performers; on the giant LED screen was a depiction of the ancient Silk Road.In March 2013, Chinese president Xi Jinping introduced the initiatives “Silk Road Economic Belt” and “21st Century Maritime Silk Road” during his journeys abroad in Kazakhstan and Indonesia. These initiatives are now referred to as “One Belt, One Road.” The State Council lists in details the policies and implementation plans for this initiative on its official web page, www.gov.cn. In April 2013, the China Institute in New York launched a yearlong celebration, starting with "Dunhuang: Buddhist Art and the Gateway of the Silk Road" with a re-creation of one of the caves and a selection of artifacts from the site. In March 2015, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planning agency, released a new action plan outlining key details of the “One Belt, One Road” initiative. Xi Jinping has made the program a centrepiece of both his foreign and domestic economic policies. One of the central economic strategies is to promote cultural industry that could enhance trades along the Silk Road.Encouraged by the “One Belt, One Road” policies, in March 2016, The Silk Princess premiered in Xi’an and was staged at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing the following July. While Dunhuang, My Dreamland and Rain of Flowers along the Silk Road were inspired by the Buddhist art found in Dunhuang, The Silk Princess, based on a story about a princess bringing silk and silkworm-breeding skills to the western regions of China in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) has a different historical origin. The princess's story was portrayed in a woodblock from the Tang Dynasty discovered by Sir Marc Aurel Stein, a British archaeologist during his expedition to Xinjiang (now Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region) in the early 19th century, and in a temple mural discovered during a 2002 Chinese-Japanese expedition in the Dandanwulike region. Figure 5: Poster of The Silk PrincessIn January 2016, the Shannxi Provincial Song and Dance Troupe staged The Silk Road, a new theatrical dance-drama. Unlike Dunhuang, My Dreamland, the newly staged dance-drama “centers around the ‘road’ and the deepening relationship merchants and travellers developed with it as they traveled along its course,” said Director Yang Wei during an interview with the author. According to her, the show uses seven archetypes—a traveler, a guard, a messenger, and so on—to present the stories that took place along this historic route. Unbounded by specific space or time, each of these archetypes embodies the foreign-travel experience of a different group of individuals, in a manner that may well be related to the social actors of globalised culture and of transnationalism today. Figure 6: Poster of The Silk RoadConclusionAs seen in Rain of Flowers along the Silk Road and Dunhuang, My Dreamland, staging the processes of Silk Road journeys has become a way of connecting the Chinese imagination of “home” with the Chinese imagination of “abroad.” Staging a nation’s heritage abroad on contemporary stages invites a new imagination of homeland, borders, and transnationalism. Once aestheticised through staged performances, such as that of the Dunhuang bihua yuewu, the historical and topological landscape of Dunhuang becomes a performed narrative, embodying the national heritage.The staging of Silk Road journeys continues, and is being developed into various forms, from theatrical dance-drama to digital exhibitions such as the Smithsonian’s Pure Land: Inside the Mogao Grottes at Dunhuang (Stromberg) and the Getty’s Cave Temples of Dunhuang: Buddhist Art on China's Silk Road (Sivak and Hood). 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