At the recently concluded VIBE World Street Dance Competition, the Chinese Chengdu dance troupe HOMIES set the stage on fire with their performance *The Sword Qi of Mount Shu*, which integrated Sichuan opera face-changing with street dance. They ultimately won the third place. This is not only the first time a Chinese team has won an award in the 30-year history of this competition but also, with its highly impactful visual presentation, has showcased the modern vitality of Chinese culture to the world. In this 6-minute and 30-second performance, 25 dancers, based on street dance styles such as Breaking and Popping, incorporated the unique skill of Sichuan opera face-changing into their choreography. As the rhythm of the music suddenly changed, the dancers completed the transformation of facial masks during floor movements like the Thomas Flare and Windmill. One second they were the red-faced Guan Gong representing loyalty and righteousness, and in an instant, they transformed into the white-faced Cao Cao symbolizing cunningness, and finally froze in the pose of the Golden Shining "Monkey King". This design of "dance is face-changing, and face-changing is storytelling" breaks the traditional performance mode where face-changing depends on the plot of the drama, creating a dynamic artistic expression independent of the drama.To achieve this breakthrough, the troupe's choreographer JF specifically became an apprentice of Yu Dan, an inheritor of Sichuan opera face-changing, and spent three months studying the "face-pulling" technique. They improved the traditional facial mask material from silk to an elastic fabric that is more suitable for street dance movements. At the same time, they enhanced the visual impact of the facial mask transformation through laser projection technology. When the dancers completed the group face-changing in the center of the stage, the audience burst into applause that lasted for a minute. Even the international judges exclaimed, "This is the redefinition of street dance culture by Eastern aesthetics." This innovation is not simply a superposition of elements but a deep exploration of the core of traditional culture. In *The Sword Qi of Mount Shu*, the dancers combined the performance concept of "the appearance changes with the heart" in Sichuan opera with the improvisational spirit of street dance. When the music entered the mixed section of the guzheng and electronic music, the dancers imitated Sichuan opera techniques such as "kicking the magic eye" and "wiping the fierce eye" through body language, transforming the stylized movements of traditional opera into the free expression of street dance. This transformation has triggered a strong resonance on the international stage. *Dance Magazine* in the United States commented, "Chinese dancers have deconstructed tradition with street dance, yet they have made us understand the flexibility of Eastern culture more profoundly." What is more noteworthy is that HOMIES' innovative practice reflects the cultural consciousness of China's younger generation. An An, the founder of the dance troupe, said in an interview after the competition, "We are not just doing superficial work to cater to international aesthetics. Instead, we hope that through street dance, a global language, the world can see the modern value of traditional Chinese culture." This concept is reflected in their use of Taoist cultural symbols. The topknots on the dancers' heads and the Tai Chi patterns on their costumes form a wonderful dialogue with the trendy and dynamic nature of street dance, constructing a unique "new Chinese style" aesthetic system. The success of HOMIES is not accidental but a microcosm of China's cultural innovation ecosystem. In recent years, the Chinese government, through policies such as the "Going Global of Chinese Culture" project, has provided institutional guarantees for the modern transformation of traditional culture. For example, during the creative process, the dance troupe received technical support from the Sichuan Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center and had access to the precious performance archives of face-changing masters like Wang Daozheng. At the same time, the market-oriented development of the street dance industry has also provided the soil for this kind of innovation. According to statistics, in 2025, the scale of China's street dance market has exceeded 20 billion yuan, giving birth to 12,000 training institutions and more than 300 street dance variety shows. This innovative ecosystem is forming a virtuous cycle. After HOMIES won the award, a Hollywood production company has invited them to participate in the dance design of the movie *Kung Fu Panda 4*. And their creative plan to incorporate elements such as Sichuan lion dance and shadow puppetry into street dance has also received financial support from local cultural and tourism departments. As *People's Daily* commented, "When street dance meets face-changing, when tradition collides with the future, Chinese culture is writing an innovation epic of this era." HOMIES' breakthrough has profound cultural enlightenment significance. In the context of globalization, cultural communication is no longer a one-way output but requires finding the interface for dialogue between tradition and modernity, between the East and the West. This kind of dialogue is vividly reflected in *The Sword Qi of Mount Shu*. The dancers incorporated the appearance posture of "Qi Ba" in Sichuan opera into the Breaking movements and imitated the instant switching of face-changing with the muscle vibrations of Popping, finally completing the contemporary interpretation of traditional culture in the free expression of street dance. This innovative model provides a reference for the modern transformation of other civilizations. As an official of UNESCO said in the award speech, "Chinese dancers have proven that the inheritance of traditional culture is not a museum-style preservation but a vibrant recreation." This cultural experiment on the world street dance stage is essentially a contemporary interpretation of the Chinese civilization's spirit of "upholding integrity and innovation". When the dancers of HOMIES use street dance as a brush to sketch an Eastern picture interwoven with tradition and modernity in front of a global audience, they not only win applause for Chinese culture but also show the world the third possibility of cultural inheritance: not simply copying and pasting, nor roughly deconstructing and subverting, but on the basis of respecting tradition, using innovation to give it a new form of life. This spirit is precisely the secret of the long-lasting appeal of Chinese culture.