When the lights in the Opera House of the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing dimmed, the audience first saw a dark cave. It was no ordinary grotto but the meticulously recreated main chamber of Cave 123 in the Kizil Grottoes.

The Kizil Caves, a cluster of rock-cut caves in the ancient kingdom of Qiuci, lie in today's Kuche (Kuqa or Kucha) in Xinjiang, a major hub on the northern Silk Road route and one of the earliest regions in China where Buddhism took root. The cave complex is a treasure trove of Buddhist art, especially immense murals and Buddha figures.

Unfortunately, these treasures were much devastated by time, earthquakes and plundering foreign expeditions that stripped away the holy art, taking it all over Europe and the U.S. at the turn of the 20th century.

Cave 123 is renowned to historians for its unique dome and a ceiling decorated with breathtaking images of Buddhist icons. It is here that the dance drama Her Qiuci, co-produced by the Beijing-based Minzu University of China and the Kuche Municipal Government, unfolds.

The protagonist is a modern woman who is a mural restorer by profession and whose consciousness drifts through centuries, witnessing both the grandeur and the grief of the ancient kingdom. Her pursuit—to mend the vandalized murals—becomes an allegory for cultural healing and enduring memory. The production is a dialogue across civilizations, where history breathes through rhythm, colors and emotions.

"Her Qiuci is truly exceptional," Wan Yunyi, a student of Northwest Minzu University's School of Dance, said. "It blends graceful choreography with the solemn beauty of the murals."

In his 2026 New Year Message, President Xi Jinping highlighted the warmth of unity across China's ethnic communities: "We joined hands to build a better life and enjoyed it together. I attended celebrations in Xizang and Xinjiang. From the snow-covered plateau to both sides of the Tianshan Mountains, people of various ethnic groups are united as one, like seeds of a pomegranate sticking together. With white khatas (traditional silk scarves) and passionate singing and dancing, they expressed their love of the motherland and the happiness they enjoy."

Her Qiuci is grounded in President Xi's vision of cultural harmony and a shared sense of belonging.

The drama highlights a sense of shared cultural identity by revitalizing traditional arts across the region. By exploring the artistic treasures of ancient Kuche, it reaffirms the cultural legacy of Xinjiang as an integral part of China's splendid and enduring civilization.

Kuche, lying at a crossroads of the East and the West, was home to diverse music systems that profoundly influenced the court melodies of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The production revisits these roots to highlight the shared destiny of diverse cultures in the region. The result is both historical testimony and artistic reimagination.

Conversation across time 

Through the eyes of the restorer, the audience travels across eras—from the ancient kingdom to the modern-day restoration lab. She witnesses bustling markets alongside the Silk Road, camel caravans and cosmopolitan exchanges where different ethnic groups mingle in harmony.

In the caves, artists paint flying apsaras—beautiful celestial beings—in brilliant pigments; in the plazas, dancers from diverse ethnic groups perform with rapid spins, soaring leaps and acrobatic backflips.

This choreography, blending reconstructed ancient movements with contemporary innovations, evokes the pulse of a civilization forged through mutual learning and coexistence. Traditional instruments meet modern percussion, including subtly adapted tap dance steps—a symbol of rhythm converging across cultures. The synthesis reveals the power of cross-cultural encounter in shaping China's plural cultural identity.

The drama also faces historical pain head-on. One of its most harrowing scenes is the moment when under flickering lanterns, a foreign expedition cuts the murals from cave walls. The buzz of saws against stone becomes a visceral metaphor for dismembered memory.

The intent behind the depiction, however, is not revenge but reflection—a call for respect, preservation and healing.

As the protagonist strives to restore the murals, her painstaking efforts become an act of spiritual healing. The dramatist, Xu Rui, describes this restoration as "a ritual of cultural renewal." "'She' is not only an individual," he explained, "but a symbol of Chinese civilization itself—wounded yet resilient." Through that mirror, every spectator glimpses their own stake in the enduring saga of continuity.

The craftsmanship behind 

Her Qiuci shines with scholarly meticulousness and artistic devotion. Producer and lead dancer Gulimina Maimaiti led the creative team deep into the deserts surrounding Kuche, spending days observing the mural details inside the ancient caves. From these immersive investigations, the choreography emerged organically.

Music director Yin Yiming, delving into archaeological and ethnographic sources, crafted a soundscape that fuses historical sonorities with modern tonal textures. Famed musician Fang Jinlong joined the production in the role of the ancient artist Su Zhipo and played a reconstructed five-stringed pipa—an instrument lost to time. His live performance bridged past and present.

The drama also uses multimedia staging and interwoven timelines. The dancers move between realism and abstraction, the ancient murals come alive and rhythm spans the centuries.

By centering on an individual's emotional journey, the drama casts vast historical themes as intimate human experience. Through the restorer's gestures and expressions, the audience can perceive a civilization's yearning to reconcile loss with continuity—a microcosm of contemporary China's dialogue with its past.

A wider perspective 

A short video teaser of Her Qiuci garnered over 100 million views in early 2025. After its January premiere in Beijing, the production is set for a nationwide tour, followed by a planned international debut.

Exploring the theme of interconnected heritage, Her Qiuci translates the Silk Road story into a universally intelligible language of movement. It demonstrates that cross-cultural dialogue thrives through empathy across time and place.

For audiences abroad, it offers an invitation to reimagine China's frontier not as a distant periphery but as a vibrant meeting point of civilizations.

Her Qiuci is a meditation on memory, identity and regeneration—a drama that mends what history fractured. Through the restorer's journey, the audience sees the fragile beauty of a shared artistic inheritance and comes to understand the responsibility to safeguard it.

As the ancient rhythms of Kuche reverberate on a modern stage, the drama promises that culture, once wounded, can heal; civilizations, once separated, can come together again.

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