FINE ART Illuminates the Epic of Righteousness and Patriotism in the Hakka Mountain Opera Rainy Songkou with Light and Shadow

On the evening of July 30, the three-day trial performance of the newly compiled Hakka mountain opera Rainy Songkou concluded at the Liangsheng Hakka Art Center in Meizhou. In the packed theatre, the misty rain of the ancient town of Songkou seeped into the hearts of contemporary audiences. Overseas Chinese returnees heard the echoes of their ancestors boarding ships, while young people understood the profound weight of the word "righteousness." Two generations completed a dialogue that transcended time.

 

"Since ancient times, Songkou has not bowed to the prefecture." As the first stop for Hakka people heading to Southeast Asia, the story of Rainy Songkou is rooted in this land. Under the joint creation of a top‑tier creative team including director Li Jiansheng, stage designer Ji Qiao, and lighting designer Xing Xin, the opera adopts a unique circular narrative structure, breaking away from the conventional patterns of traditional Hakka opera. It reflects the changing tides of a great era through the fate of three generations of two families in Songkou. The focus is on ordinary people: scholars, rogues, wartime postmen, and Hakka mothers. Liang Wenyuan sells himself to save his neighbors out of scholarly loyalty; Li Nianen repays kindness at the cost of his life, embodying the spirit of the common folk; Li Dusheng grows from an orphan to a revolutionary; and the Liang family, across two generations, sacrifices everything for the nation. The opera moves from personal gratitude and loyalty to family heritage, and finally to national duty, achieving a layered spiritual elevation. "Light and Ferry" is the spiritual motif of the opera: the tangible ferry is at Songkou Wharf, while the intangible ferry lies in everyone's heart, symbolizing the spiritual journey of a nation upholding righteousness and seeking light through a century of upheaval – a journey for which countless people willingly serve as boats to carry others forward.

 

In this epic presentation of the Hakka spirit, FINE ART's series of professional lighting fixtures and lighting consoles worked in concert, using precise light and shadow to imbue the misty rain of Songkou with soul. The FINE 1400CF PERF pattern and framing moving head light, with its 140mm output lens and unique optical design for uniform light distribution, is equipped with a full framing system and 90° pattern orientation positioning. It sharply frames Liang Wenyuan's decisive act of selling himself to save his neighbors and the silhouette of the mountain song grandmother releasing lanterns on the river, turning every choice about "righteousness" into a sculpted moment in light and shadow. The FINE 1400CF WASH-PERF wash and framing moving head light delivers a luminous flux of 47,000 lm, with a color rendering index of Ra > 95 and R9 > 90, producing a soft and full light spot. With CMY infinite color mixing and CTO linear color temperature adjustment from 2700K to 6500K, it renders the misty rain of Songkou, the flickering river lanterns, and the desolate grandeur of wartime, elevating the "ferry" imagery from the concrete to the spiritual through the flow of light and color.

 

The FINE 550 BSW three‑in‑one light, with its large 169mm output lens, creates a robust beam. Its rotating gobo wheel, fixed gobo wheel, independent frost, eight‑facet prism, twenty‑four‑facet prism, and dynamic effect wheel combine to depict the thousands of sails of Hakka people heading to Southeast Asia and their unyielding spirit in troubled times. The FINE 400CL, with its 5‑color full‑spectrum optical design, continuously outputs white light with color temperatures from 2700K to 10,000K, with Ra and R9 both above 90. It features theatre‑grade 16‑bit high‑precision dimming, delicately illuminating the faces of the characters, revealing every tremor in the mountain song grandmother's suppressed sobs. The FINE 380 BEAM, a compact high‑efficiency beam light with a 17+1 fixed gobo wheel and two stackable prisms, cuts through the stage time and space with its full beam, parting the dust of history.

 

Behind the scenes, the TEKMAND III and TEKMAND D dual consoles coordinated the entire lighting schedule. The TEKMAND III handles 8,192 parameters, combining touchscreen and buttons, with a built‑in stage simulation module for offline pre‑programming, greatly saving rehearsal time. The TEKMAND D is smaller, portable, and lightweight, with an integrated design and multi‑point capacitive touchscreen for complex control. Paired with the TEKMAND DPU 16P expander, which provides 16 DMX output ports handling 16,384 parameters, the system effortlessly manages the complex lighting scheduling of the circular narrative structure with its interwoven multiple time and space layers, ensuring every beam of light lands precisely where the drama needs it.

 

As the misty rain of Songkou clears and the river lanterns merge into a galaxy of light, FINE ART uses light as a brush – not only illuminating the century‑old stories of righteousness and ferrying at the ancient town of Songkou, but also reflecting the spiritual backbone of the Hakka people, who, with their flesh and blood, perform acts of righteousness and serve as boats to carry others forward.