Remembrance of the Boatmen
Hanyu Tan
Remembrance of the Boatmen is a narrative animation about Chongqing, China in the 1950s. It depicts a scene of the old wharf in the city and what life was like for boatmen there. In doing so, it demonstrates the intangible cultural heritage of the country through "ChuanJiangHaoZi"（labor song）on the verge of disappearing.
By raising the question of how our cultural histories affect our cultural identity in this rapidly changing society in which we live, the goal of the project is to give people an insight into the importance of remembering the past of their ancestors and what molded them into the people they became. This is the only way we can preserve our sense of self as a culture.
Century-Old photo of Chaotianmen Wharf
Chaotianmen Dock is a major water transportation hub in Chongqing, where Jialing River and the Yangtze River meet. It is also the landmark and a must-visit attraction of Chongqing. Chaotianmen was built in 314 BC as a city gate. In ancient time, local officials knelt down to receive the emperor’s decrees in front of the gate. The emperor was considered the son of the heaven in that time, so the place is called Chaotianmen, meaning “towards the heaven gate”.
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A “living fossil of Yangtze culture,” the songs of the Chuanjiang Haozi are a vital, albeit intangible component of the Chonqqing area heritage. This term is deemed to have derived from the nomenclature, “chant,” as a more apropos term, according to purists, to “chanty.” It is applicable to labor songs, that are linked with boats, complete with repetitive tempos that facilitate regulation of the pace of manual tasks.