Restaurant adds Tang to menus

Sun choreographed several important galas, including a group dance at the opening of the 2023 China-Central Asia Summit in Xi'an.

She says when tourists want to feel the city's historic depth, they visit the Shaanxi History Museum, Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum, or other similar destinations. The dinner show adds another dimension to tourists' appreciation of Xi'an by making these figures and objects from the past come alive.

A dance in the show is inspired by a Tang sancai (three-color glaze) pottery figurine of a band of musicians performing on the back of a howling camel.

A celebrated collection in the Shaanxi History Museum, the figurine was excavated from a tomb on the western outskirts of Xi'an in 1959, which shows the city's pivotal role in trade and cultural exchanges between ancient China and other civilizations along the Silk Road. The band reflects the foreign musical instruments that were introduced to China and integrated into classical Chinese music.

During the show, musicians are ushered onto the stage one by one as the band's conductor introduces the instruments that will be played. They gather and play instruments, such as the flute, the pear-shaped, four-stringed pipa, the plucked zither guzheng, and the konghou, a multi-stringed member of the harp family.

Sun says the archetype of the band leader is Li Guinian, a reputed musician who performed at royal soirees during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong when the Tang Dynasty achieved its height of prosperity.