Stay faithful to the classic?

The controversy centers on the hairpiece ornaments.

A DREAM of the Red Chamber (Honglou Meng), one of the four classic Chinese novels, never fails to dazzle and divide. The latest controversyabout the book revolves around the costume designs being used in a new TV adaptation.

The Academyaward-winning production and costume designer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Wohu Canglong) Tim Yip, has landed himself in hot water with the Chinese public. They're dissatisfied with the costumes he designed for the upcoming Red Chamber TV series after some photos of the costumes surfaced on the Internet last week.

An online surveyat the Tianya.cn online forum revealed that more than 75 percent of the participants believe the costumes are too far off from the book's description. The majoritysaid they could not accept the costumes, and some have even called for a boycott of the TV series.

The criticism mainly focuses on the design's resemblance to Kunqu Opera, rather than to the book's description. The hairpiece ornaments worn on the foreheads of the female characters are being called "unrealistic".

However, some scholars have pointed out that the hairpiece ornaments were in fact a part of women's make-up in ancient times. Some netizens are excited about the creativity shown in the costumes. They say that innovation should be embraced, otherwise why not just re-watch the old adaptations?

So what do you think? When it comes to adapting classics for TV or film, should we be faithfulto every detail of the original?

YES

Remaking a classic requires that one stay true to the original work. People love the classic because of what it is.

1. Classic literature like The Red Chamber is an important part of our cultural heritage. We should read the original text carefully and conduct research before remaking it into a TV drama. Any so-calledinnovation disrespects the masterpiece and its author.

2. Cao Xueqin gave detailed descriptions of the clothes and hairstyles of the characters in the book. These descriptions should be carefully observed when anyone tries to visually reproduce the masterpiece.

NO

Everyone has his or her own interpretation of a masterpiece. That is what art is all about.

1. Different readers have different impressions of a certain character-and different interpretations of a literary work. For many critics of the costumes, the images of the earlier 1987 version of The Red Chamber are deeply ingrained in their minds. But it is narrow-minded to condemn other people's interpretation of the masterpiece.

2. The novel itself has a half-dream-half-reality quality about it. Kunqu Opera was very popular in Cao Xueqin's time. The costume designer has taken these two aspects into consideration. The use of the exaggerated hairpiece ornaments will add to the dramatic effect of the show.
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