The exhibition space is dark at first. Twinkle of light, translucent image moving on the screen-hand-controlled silhouettes swaying between light and shadow, the image of a dragon gradually appears. In shadow play animation, the image is never static; it depends on projection, motion, and time. This week’s lecture on “Temporal Art Curation in the Post-Media State” made me begin to understand this form as a temporal “event” rather than a simple folk heritage.

Erika Balsom pointed out in Thoughts About Curing Moving Images (2013) that there is not only one correct way to display image works in art galleries. Curators must pay attention to the duration, viewing mode and space conditions of the works. Applying this viewpoint to shadow play animation, the question becomes the following: How does the audience enter and experience this work? Will it enter at some stage of the loop? Will the projection mode affect the rhythm of the exhibition hall? Here, “time” refers not only to the length of the image but also to the organisation of the internal attention and viewing structure of the exhibition.

Ben Cook and others emphasised in Distribution After Digitisation (2014) that digitalisation has changed the way of image transmission and redefined who can watch and how to watch. This discussion is particularly important for shadow play art. Traditional shadow play is rooted in folk performance and oral culture, but in contemporary times, it is often transformed into digital image form. In this migration process, some elements have been preserved and changed. The transformation from stage to screen not only changes the visibility but also changes the cultural context in which the narrative is located.

In my curatorial project, the expression “wishing one’s children to be successful” bears intergenerational expectation and psychological pressure in Chinese culture. Combined with the discussion of “time” in the lecture, I realised that time here is not only the duration of video playing but also a structure that persists in history and society – this cultural pressure continues in family and society for a long time, making the dragon a symbol carrier of identity shaping, growth transformation and social expectation.

Curating myth needs to pay attention not only to the content itself but also to the projection mode, communication path and time structure. A dragon is not only a traditional symbol, it is a narrative structure that keeps flashing in time and being told again and again.