Yangguang News has officially released Where’s My Chang’an, Tell Me Now, an AI-generated music video featuring lyrics by Wan Bo, president and editor-in-chief of Yangguang News, AI-generated composition and arrangement by Yangguang AI Studio, and production support from Xi’an Fusheng Film and Culture Communication Company. Serving as the seed video for the global youth short-video campaign “A True Friend Remains Close at Heart, Though Miles Apart: Me, Tang Poetry, and AI,” the project took eight months to complete, with the lyrics revised more than 100 times. By blending the Shaanxi dialect, pop music, and AI-generated visuals, the video offers a fresh approach to engaging younger audiences with Tang poetry and promoting Chinese culture internationally.
Since its release, the video has attracted online attention and positive feedback for its distinctive
regional character, catchy melody, and imaginative visuals. It was also featured as the opening video at Xi’an’s 2026 “Poetic Chang’an, My Commitment to a Stronger Nation” themed event and the city’s “Capital of Tang Poetry” promotional event, extending its reach from digital platforms to offline cultural activities.
Bringing Dialect into Poetry: Bringing Chang’an Out of Textbooks
The opening line, “E di Chang’an zai a da,” uses a Shaanxi dialect expression that immediately brings the ancient capital, with its thousand-year history, closer to ordinary people.
In writing the lyrics, Wan Bo avoided piling on grand historical narratives and instead focused on the most vivid and accessible cultural images of Chang’an. The refrain “E di Chang’an zai a da” runs throughout the song, linking a series of neatly structured seven-character lines, including “One half moonlight, one half rhyme, a city breathing ancient time,” “Half the valley, western wind, half imperial tombs within,” “Half the mountain wrapped in cloud, half immortal spirits shroud,” and “Endless deserts, endless gates.”
Short, punchy phrases such as “Li Bai drinks beneath the skies,” “Du Fu sighs where history lies,” “Han’s great emperors sleep below,” “Tang’s proud rulers rest in glow,” “Laozi speaks the Mystic Way,” “Wang Wei dwells in Chan’s still grace,” “Zhang Qian journeyed to the West” and “Su Wu wandered, then came blessed” then evoke historical figures and allusions. Through parallel phrasing, the lyrics convey the cultural depth of Chang’an as a city that embodies “half of Chinese history.”
The line “Chang’an lives inside the heart” adapts a famous line from a ci poem by Su Shi of the Song dynasty: “Where the heart finds peace is my home.” Originally, Su Shi’s line expressed an open-minded attitude toward life, conveying the ability to remain at ease even in adversity. By replacing “my home” with “Chang’an,” Wan sought to emphasize that Chang’an has been a shared spiritual home for the Chinese people for thousands of years.
Wan explained that choosing the Shaanxi dialect was no coincidence. Dialect is one of the most direct carriers of regional culture. Using familiar, colloquial expressions such as “E di,” meaning “my” in the local dialect, can bridge the distance between Tang poetry and young people. Chang’an thus becomes more than a distant historical symbol: it becomes a spiritual home that people can feel, sing about and connect with emotionally.
Composing a New Melody with AI: Bringing Tang Poetry onto Young People’s Playlists
Generated by the Yangguang AI Studio using artificial intelligence, the song is an upbeat pop track with a distinctive musical character, rather than a traditional Chinese opera or storytelling performance.
Liu Yanchao, head of the Yangguang AI Studio, explained that the creative team wanted to use a musical language that resonates with young people, allowing Tang poetry to move beyond a didactic presentation and genuinely find its way onto their playlists.
AI-generated composition and arrangement involved more than simply applying a preset template. The team adjusted the rhythm and instrumentation according to the emotional progression of the lyrics. The verses use lively melodies to unfold historical imagery, while the chorus repeatedly reinforces the emotional invitation, “An ancient capital of a thousand years. Come often to Chang'an, through joys and tears” creating a memorable musical hook that makes listeners want to sing along after hearing it once.
Since its release, the work has received positive feedback from many netizens for its catchy melody and innovative combination of AI and Tang poetry.
Painting Chang’an with AI: A Visual Spectacle Refined Over Eight Months
The visuals in the music video were generated using AI and subsequently refined in post-production by Xi’an Fusheng Film and Culture Communication Company, creating a striking visual world where tradition and the future intertwine. The video features rich, vibrant colors, combining the artistic conception of Tang poetry in a traditional style with the contemporary feel of digital light and shadow.
“The lyrics were revised more than 100 times, and the finished work took eight months to complete,” members of the creative team said.
AI-generated visuals required repeated adjustments to prompts, visual styles and color balance to ensure that every frame matched the artistic conception of the lyrics and the rhythm of the music.
For example, for the line “Qin Shi Huang still guards his throne, deep beneath his earthen dome,” AI generated a magnificent scene of the Terracotta Army arranged in formation at the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor. Particle-based lighting effects were then added in post-production, creating a striking collision between history and the future through a technologically inspired visual treatment.
The Mission of the Seed Video: Making Tang Poetry “Chang’an for the World”
As the campaign’s seed video, Where’s my Chang’an, tell me now serves two purposes.
First, through its polished audiovisual presentation, it provides a creative reference for participants, demonstrating how Tang poetry can be sung, how Chang’an can be portrayed, and how AI can be used in the creative process.
Second, its strong appeal and engaging presentation can help generate discussion on social media, attracting more young people to learn about and participate in the campaign.
With its upbeat, memorable melody and distinctive imagery of Chang’an, the music video has also been featured as an opening performance at the 2026 Xi’an-themed event “Poetic Chang’an: I Am Ready to Serve My Country” and at Xi’an’s promotional activities for its “City of Tang Poetry” initiative, extending its reach from online popularity to live event.
Wan Bo said the seed video’s core value lies in demonstrating an approach that integrates traditional culture, AI technology and youth-oriented expression. The goal is not to make culture seem abstruse or inaccessible, but to make it engaging, enjoyable to listen to and easy to share.
When the poetic spirit of Chang’an reaches young people through upbeat AI-generated pop melodies and futuristic visuals, Tang poetry can truly move beyond being a Chinese cultural heritage and become a source of shared resonance around the world.
An ancient capital of a thousand years, come often to Chang'an, through joys and tears. A thousand years of Tang poems we keep, a lifelong longing, running forever deep.
This music video, eight months in the making, is bringing the enduring charm of Chang’an and the splendor of Tang poetry to new life in the digital age through its distinctive appeal.
