Xanadu
From Superhero Wiki Encyclopedia
 Home Books Clothing DVDs Posters Toys Video Games |
Boards Comic Book News Comic Conventions Search this Wiki |
Gallery Features Link to us Online Comic Books |
Resources Store Superhero Wiki Wallpaper |
Xanadu, also Zanadu, Shangdu or Shang-tu Hanyu Pinyin: Shàngdū) was the summer capital of Kublai Khan's Mongol Empire, which covered much of Asia and also encroached upon eastern Europe. The city was located in what is now called Inner Mongolia, 275 km north of Beijing, about 28 km northwest of the modern town of Duolun. The capital consisted of the square-shaped "Outer City" (2,200 metres square), "Inner City" (1,400 metres square), and the palace, where Kublai Khan stayed in summer. The palace was 550 metres square, 40% the size of the Forbidden City in Beijing. The most visible modern-day remnants are the earthen walls though there is also a (ground-level) circular brick platform in the centre of the inner enclosure. Xanadu was visited by Venetian explorer Marco Polo in 1275; it became fabled as a metaphor for opulence.
The Mongol Emperors of the Yuan Dynasty made very few changes to China, imbibing much of the Confucianist and Taoist philosophies, and remodelling their government on the native dynasties they had defeated. However, they opened up the empire to westerners, allowing travellers like Venetian explorer Marco Polo in 1275 to report the wonders of the Eastern capital to their fellow Europeans.
The reported splendour of Xanadu later inspired Samuel Taylor Coleridge to write his great poem Kubla Khan and caused Xanadu to become a metaphor for opulence. Xanadu is remembered today largely thanks to this poem, which contains the following often quoted lines:
- In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
- A stately pleasure-dome decree:
- Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
- Through caverns measureless to man
- Down to a sunless sea.
- So twice five miles of fertile ground
- With walls and towers were girdled round:
- And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
- Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
- And here were forests ancient as the hills,
- Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
Coleridge used artistic license with his poem, and few aspects of the description are in evidence at the actual site. The author claimed that his composition was suggested by a line in Purchas His Pilgrimage.
Xanadu in popular culture
- Canadian rock band Rush has a song called "Xanadu" on the album A Farewell to Kings which incorporates lines of Coleridge's poem.
- Italian metal band Stormlord has a song called "Xanadu" on the album At the Gates of Utopia which quotes the first segment of the poem.
- Japanese visual kei band Moi dix Mois has a song called "Xanadu" on their fourth album, Dixanadu.
- The song "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood is based on the Coleridge poem.
- The 1980 musical film Xanadu is considered a cult film. It featured music by Electric Light Orchestra and John Farrar who wrote most of Olivia Newton-John's hits from the film. The film's title track, "Xanadu", was a major hit for the Australian pop singer Olivia Newton-John, along with the songs "Suddenly" (John Farrar) and "Magic" (John Farrar). A Broadway musical based on the film opened on July 10, 2007 to mostly positive reviews.
- In 1953, Seventh Army Special Services in Stuttgart, Germany produced an all-soldier original musical called Xanadu which toured both civilian and military theaters over a five year period. The story dealt with Marco Polo's visit to Kublai Khan, and the experienced cast and writers were drawn from military units all over the world in an effort to bring a genuine Broadway-style show to audiences in occupied Europe.
- The British pop band Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich had a massive hit record with "The Legend of Xanadu" in 1968; the track is of a Spanish style rather than a Mongolian.
- The NES game Faxanadu's title is a portmanteau of "Famicom" and "Xanadu."
- The Xanadu Project is a planned shopping, sport, and entertainment complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Begun in 2006, when completed, it will be the world's largest mall, consisting of over Template:Convert of construction.
- Argentine band "Illya Kuryaki & The Valderramas" has a song called "Xanadu" on the album Versus
- Zanadu is the title of a song by American glitter rock band, Tranzistors.
- In the film Citizen Kane, "News on the March" announces that newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane was the landlord of a mansion in "Florida's Xanadu, the world's largest private pleasure ground."
- musical currently on broadway
- The film's title song, "Xanadu", was featured in a scene on the ABC TV series "LOST" in an episode titled "Eggtown", which originally aired February 21, 2008.
External links
- Now We Are in Xanadu! Magazine report on present-day condition of Yuanshangdu, plus travel directions