ASEAN Journalists Feel Minority Culture at Border Town

A scene of “Border Town” performance about the heroine Cui Cui’s dream.

A scene of dragon boat race.

Thailand National Channel is reporting Fenghuang’s “tourism fever”.

　　Journalists of the mainstream media from six ASEAN countries visited Fenghuang Ancient City in western Hunan, appreciating the unique charm of this border town.

　　The guests were shocked by the 75-minute real-scene performance “Border Town”, which was adapted from Chinese great litterateur Shen Congwen’s masterpiece of the same name. The creative stage, distinctive national costumes, and beautiful music impressed the guests deeply and won prolonged applause.

　　News Director from Sin Chew Daily of Malaysia eagerly yearned to read the original work of “Broad Town” after the performance.

　　Thailand National Channel journalist was strongly impressed by the scene of dragon boat race. Thairath Newspaper reporter vowed to recommend this performance to Thailand people for its brilliant stage and designs.

　　Beyond that, the journalists were concerned with the protection and development of this ancient town. How to develop the town under the protection of government, and will this protection-development model be adopted in some other area? They interviewed the Marketing Director Tu Yan from Hunan Fenghuang Ancient Town Cultural Tourism Investment Co., Ltd. which has been entrusted to operate the tourism in this area since 2001.

　　Tu explained that the management, conservation and development were authorized and supported by the government, with all developing schemes based on conservation. The local governments have issued regulations and planning to protect the ancient architectures and control the scale of tourism, so as to avoid overdevelopment. As for the Fenghuang model, the first transnational real-scene performance is in preparation at the border between China and Vietnam, to be put on the stage next year, Tu claimed.