16 | Friday, December 4, 2020 HONG KONG EDITION | DAILY LIFE Bookstore CONFLUENCE to sell new products OF STYLES online — ­based major bookstore chain Eslite launched The second season of a Chinese TV show its e­commerce platform Eslite Online on Tuesday, extending its brings top dancers onstage, Cheng Yuezhu reports. online business from books to general merchandise. A wide variety of goods ran­ n a performance, the dancer breathtaking performances, while her pining for the stage propelled ging from 2 million books in Chi­ resembles a moving statue, an after the show the audience breaks Tan to accept an invitation from the nese, English and Japanese to archetypical embodiment of into waves of applause. Based on the TV program in China. stationary, clothes, cosmetics the human body, with an dancers’ skills, the show’s judges The piece she debuted on the and foods, is available in the Iequilibrium between strength and select those who move on to the next Dance Smash stage is entitled newly unveiled venture. tenderness, maximizing physical round of competition. Return. “Eslite Online is a landmark potential via myriad ephemeral The stage setting features mini­ “With my love for dance, I for us, indicating that Eslite is on motions. mal design and emphasizes visceral returned to the stage, and to the its way to becoming a hybrid of With modern technology, the energy. Audience members, seated land from which I had taken off. It’s online and offline business,” fleeting moments can be framed, not around the circular stage, can get a a journey to rediscover the stage I Mercy Wu, the chairperson of just as nebulous snapshots but in a 360­degree view of the dancers’ had lost in those seven months.” Eslite, tells a news conference. rotational slow­motion sequence performance. Although she’s an internationally Currently still a website, Eslite supported by more than 100 camer­ The mere presence of the princi­ acclaimed ballet dancer, Tan says Online will be incorporated in as that zoom in on a single dance pal dancer of San Francisco Ballet, the program is proving to be a nov­ Eslite’s app next year, Wu adds. movement from different angles. Tan Yuanyuan, leaves the judges el experience for her, with its high­ The new platform offers faster Dance Smash, a Chinese talent and audiences in awe in the third intensity recording schedules and Tan Yuanyuan, principal and friendlier shopping and pay­ show produced by Hunan Satellite episode. The Shanghai­born danc­ limited time for choreography and dancer of San Francisco ment services and is equipped TV that features the technology to er became a ballet legend after join­ rehearsals. Ballet, is one of the celeb­ with a new logistics system that capture diverse dance styles in ing the ballet company in 1995 and Tan says the first season of the rity performers in the TV can deliver the goods within 24 motion, is now airing its second sea­ being promoted to principal danc­ program brought dancers and the show Dance Smash. hours, says Frank Chang, vice­ son. This year adopting the same set­ er in two years. audience close, and introduced PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY president of Eslite’s e­commerce ting, members of a stellar cast “I have never left the stage for so dance styles to the general public. division. express themselves in a short dance long since I entered San Francisco The program features a wide range The company will try to link its sequence under the spotlight. Ballet at 18,” Tan says, adding that the of styles, including contemporary online platform with offline As if in the eye of the storm, indi­ company stopped offline performan­ dance, Latin and hip­hop. shops, enabling clients to order vidual dancers or ensembles present ces in March due to COVID­19, and Tan says by participating in the goods at offline stores and second season, she wants to receive delivery through the present high­quality works on online system, Chang says. TV, allowing a wider Founded in 1989, Eslite cur­ audience to love ballet. rently has 44 outlets in Taiwan, “Under the current cir­ the Chinese mainland, Hong cumstances where live dramatic departure from the initial Kong and , mostly large performances are rare, image she formed. A tribute to the stores with comprehensive servi­ how to bring a better 2013 film The Grandmaster, the per­ ces, including bookshops, viewing experience to With my love for formance sees her dressed in a tradi­ department stores, galleries, the audience with tech­ tional black robe and incorporating cafes and canteens. nology and other meth­ dance, I returned martial arts poses into classical “Now that we have Eslite ods is a subject worth to the stage, and dance. Online as a store, with the most exploring,” Tan says. “These two pieces are a new way complete catalog and abundant Expressing a similar to the land from of expressing myself after being supply, our future shops need yearning for the stage which I had taken immersed in classical culture. The not worry about space. Next, we and featuring a kindred former represents the spirit and are considering opening some female power, award­win­ off. It’s a journey culture of the Tang Dynasty (618­ small neighborhood shops to ning dancer Hua Xiaoyi pre­ to rediscover the 907) that attracts me, a state of civi­ attract more clients,” Wu says. sented a piece of Chinese stage I had lost in lization with supreme beauty and classical dance, Everlasting prosperity,” Hua tells China Daily. XINHUA Longing, with the show’s judges those seven “The latter is my understanding complimenting her exquisite mien months.” of the martial arts practitioners … I and elegant yet expressive manner­ think ultimately human beings are isms. Tan Yuanyuan, dancer combating time and themselves, Hua says on the program that it not somebody else.” has been two years and nine Her choice of bringing perform­ Hua Xiaoyi presents a months since she last performed ances with different styles is made piece, which incorpo­ onstage, during which time she had to demonstrate the elasticity and rates martial arts poses a baby. While she kept on practic­ control of the human body and the into classical dance, in ing in that period, each time she effects of expression. the TV show Dance went to watch a show, she would On this stage, I “I find the stage of Dance Smash a Smash. leave fearing she might be recog­ diverse and inclusive one. It’s very PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY nized by the public and suspected want to bloom rare for so many talented dancers that she would never dance again. even more representing different styles to “I’m here, back on the stage — the compete and cooperate on the round stage which in my mind is beautifully, more same stage. It makes me happy to the starting point and the original distinctively.” see the life experience of other per­ inspiration. On this stage, I want to formers conveyed through dance,” bloom even more beautifully, more Hua Xiaoyi, dancer Hua adds. The Eslite bookstore in , distinctively,” Hua says. Jiangsu province, is popular The second dance Hua performed Contact the writer at among locals and tourists. during the show, See Yourself, was a [email protected] LIU YANG / FOR CHINA DAILY