Liang Yi | Using Light and Shadow to Tell the Story of China and the Chinese Dream

Approved by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the "2020 China Night Economy Forum" jointly hosted by the China Tourism Research Institute, Wuxi Municipal People's Government, and Liangye Technology Group Co., Ltd. was successfully held in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province from October 23rd to 25th. This forum, with the theme of "Digital Economy and Scene Creation", attracted over 500 representatives from more than 40 provinces, autonomous regions, the business community, domestic and foreign experts and scholars, as well as major media organizations across the country.

Liang Yi, Chairman of Liangye Technology Group Co., Ltd., gave a speech titled "Telling the Story of China and the Chinese Dream with Light and Shadow". The full text is as follows: Respected Minister Xiaofeng, Dean Dai Bin, Secretary Huang Qin, leaders and guests, good morning everyone! Thanks for the trust of China Tourism Research Institute and Wuxi Municipal Government. As the co sponsor of the 2020 China Night Economic Forum, Liangye Technology is honored to have the opportunity to discuss with leaders and industry colleagues on the important issues of night cultural consumption and tourism investment on the shore of the Taihu Lake Lake. In recent years, under the unified deployment of the central government, the specific guidance of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the promotion of the China Tourism Research Institute, China's nighttime economy has shown an explosive growth trend. Local governments and market entities have launched a number of representative projects for nighttime culture and tourism around the leisure, entertainment, and tourism consumption needs of urban and rural residents, forming a batch of night economy development models with promotional value. In this process, policy promotion, social investment, and especially the active actions of local governments are indispensable key factors. The widespread application of cultural creativity, artistic creation, and light technology plays a fundamental role and plays a key role. Light and shadow have become an important way to tell the story of cities, enhance the competitiveness and product attractiveness of tourist destinations, and promote the development of nighttime economy. Since coming to Beijing in the early 1990s to start a business, I have witnessed the development of China's night economy and gained some insights and understanding. I would like to take this opportunity to report to you all. Firstly, the development of nighttime economy is to meet the new needs of urban and rural residents for a better life. Whether investors, builders, or operators of night tourism, they should closely focus on the people's demand for a better night life, especially with new demands such as cultural entertainment and leisure consumption as the starting point and foothold. I came to Beijing from Wenzhou in the early 1990s. At that time, even in the capital city of Beijing, on the streets at night, apart from flashing neon signs, there were hardly any other colors to be seen. Staying at home watching TV, walking to street corners and parks to sing karaoke is almost the nightlife of most people. At that time, our company mainly focused on functional lighting to meet the needs of illumination. Later, with the development of the economy, cities at night were no longer satisfied with lighting up and static displays, and people needed more visual experiences and dynamic performances. Cities also needed richer colors. This demand has given birth to the landscape lighting market, with some cities including Hangzhou, Xiamen, and Qingdao having multimedia light shows as representative cases. Nowadays, people need light that is not only beautiful and fun, but also capable of telling stories. The 'Tanghe Night Painting' we launched in Wenzhou is designed to meet this demand. The history of Liangye Technology is almost a true reflection of the development of China's nighttime economy since the 1990s. Our business model has different focuses at each stage, but our original intention of serving the people's demand for a better life and urban development has remained unchanged. To meet the people's demand for a better night life, the second meaning is to develop the night economy and ensure the cultural and leisure consumption rights of the majority of people at night. This is also the primary focus of our product planning. Many of the projects we participate in investment, construction, and operation are directly open to citizens and tourists for free, such as the red performance "Yan'an Song" in Yan'an. Even if there is a fee, our pricing principle is to make it acceptable to most people. Even for tickets such as "Tanghe Night Painting" and "Night at the Yellow Crane Tower" that are hard to come by, the ticket price does not exceed 150 yuan. Secondly, the national development prospects and a series of strategic deployments provide a broad market for the development of the night economy and an inexhaustible driving force for the growth and expansion of night economy participants. In 2019, China's per capita GDP reached 10276 US dollars. According to international experience, after the per capita GDP reaches $10000, the relationship between work and life will undergo significant changes, and leisure vacation will become an important way of life. Leisure tourism consumption will experience explosive growth, and both day and night travel markets will face significant development opportunities. At the national strategic level, a series of opinions and policies have been issued in recent years around ecological civilization construction, new urbanization, rural revitalization, urban-rural integration development, and hub city construction. Under these policy guidelines, traditional scenic spots, commercial districts, various parks, ancient towns and villages, abandoned mines, industrial sites and other carriers can all become carriers for creating night tourism products. We have noticed that in the process of economic transformation and upgrading, as well as ecological civilization construction, a large number of old factory areas and abandoned mines have been idle. Combining night tourism with the revitalization of industrial heritage can transform the "industrial rust belt" into a "lifestyle show belt" and turn waste into treasure. The series of products launched by Liangye Technology in the night tour market in recent years have received widespread attention, fundamentally due to the achievements under the guidance of national strategy. Before joining the state-owned enterprise China Communications Construction Corporation, Liangye Technology had always been a private enterprise. However, in implementing national strategies, we have never regarded ourselves as outsiders or bystanders, but actively participated in various construction projects with our own mentality. The Oujiang Night Tour we have built in Wenzhou is a major driving project for the integrated development of urban and rural areas in Wenzhou and the urbanization of the north and south banks of the Oujiang River. The live action movie "The Earth" recently created on an abandoned mine in Tangshan, Nanjing is a concrete case of industrial relics turning waste into treasure, reflecting the significant achievements of ecological civilization construction under the guidance of the "Two Mountains Theory". Thirdly, in developing the night economy and creating night tourism products, we must always adhere to the two important principles of "cultural guidance" and "technological support". As practitioners of night economy and night tourism, it is our duty to showcase culture, revitalize cultural relics and heritage, and it is also a huge driving force for our creativity. We have too many cultures and stories that need to be told well and can be told well. The country has planned three cultural belts, and for us, it means telling the stories of the Grand Canal, the Great Wall, and the Long March well with light. Culture not only provides us with inexhaustible materials to tell good stories, but also becomes the best way to spread them to the outside world. During the just passed National Day Golden Week, the "Night at the Yellow Crane Tower" project received widespread attention. Through the use of "light and shadow performances," "Night at the Yellow Crane Tower" creates immersive stories such as Xin's wine drinking, Li Bai's poetry, Yue Fei's military deployment, fairy dances, and the transformation of the Yellow Crane Tower. The scene of the Yellow Crane Tower scenic area being overcrowded with tourists at night has been reported by internationally renowned media such as CNN, becoming an international topic and the best portrayal of the strong recovery of the heroic city after the epidemic, becoming a vivid footnote to China's successful anti epidemic efforts. In terms of content, we should take it as our responsibility to tell Chinese stories well, but having stories alone is not enough. The experience of the product is also crucial, highlighting vividness and artistry in form, making citizens and tourists feel refreshed, amazed, impressed, and unsatisfied. How to achieve the above effects cannot be separated from technological support. Technological progress is the key to the implementation of content creativity, and creativity without technological support is like cooking without rice. In recent years, we have seen a large number of new technologies applied to night tourism projects, including drone grouping, holographic imaging, digital simulation, and so on. This includes both the achievements of digital technology and the development of equipment manufacturing and communication technology. In terms of basic research and innovative applications of light and shadow technology, China is currently at the forefront of the international community and has achieved a series of accomplishments. Liangye Technology alone has set four Guinness World Records and won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award in 2019. At the same time, it has created the world's only optical technology museum that integrates industry, academia, research, and sales, showcasing China's major research and development achievements and outstanding application cases of optical technology to the world. The achievement of these results is closely related to our investment, with an annual investment of over 100 million in basic research in optical technology. Dear leaders and guests, after the epidemic, the country has rapidly recovered, the economy has rebounded strongly, and the curtain of international and domestic dual circulation development has opened. It can be said that telling the story of China well and developing the night economy with light is a necessary and promising task, with a long way to go. We deeply feel the glorious mission and great responsibility! I hope to work together with industry colleagues under the guidance of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the China Tourism Research Institute, with the joint efforts of local governments and enterprises, to tell more beautiful city stories, Chinese stories, and world stories!

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