Li Ming

01 · Lineage & Regional School

In 1946 he apprenticed to Chen Shouquan of Wuchuan to learn the making of piaose, and has nearly forty years of experience in piaose design and construction. Within the regional tradition and school record of Taige in Wuchuan, Guangdong: In western Guangdong, Wuchuan Piaose establishes its name in the two words ping and piao: figures sitting or standing on the small stage atop the cabinet are ping, while those that rise into the air are piao; in the past there was mostly one ping and one piao, but today this has developed into one ping with several piao, and even several ping with several piao. The representative inheritor Li Ming has designed more than thirty-six panels (ban) of piaose, pushing the form from one ping and one piao to one ping and nine piao. Taige originated in god-welcoming temple-fair processions in the Central Plains region and later spread gradually to the southeastern coast and the northwest. It enjoyed a period of popularity in the Qing dynasty; as it spread, it combined with local conditions in each place, giving rise to different characteristics. In 1992 and 1997, Wuchuan Piaose twice went to the capital to take part in the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. In 2003, Wuchuan Piaose tableau works won the gold medal at China's First Exhibition of Cultural Relic Reproductions and Folk Crafts.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

He commands the entire craft of construction, having designed as many as thirty-six piaose tableaux; in particular, he developed the traditional format of one figure on a single screen into screens carrying nine figures, demonstrating superlative technical skill. He is devoted to the transmission of Wuchuan piaose and has taken disciples including Sun Kangfu, Yang Rongjin and Ke Daocheng. Within the documented technical tradition of Taige in Wuchuan, Guangdong: Taige (lifted pavilions) is also known by such names as taijiao, taige, gaotai, naoge, naoge, and gaozhuang, and is a form of folk procession performance in traditional festival activities. In taige performances, several children dress as figures in traditional opera costume and, following the plot, form splendid tableaux, which are fixed to iron pillars and supports on a square pavilion platform and carried along by bearers. Traditional taige tableaux are mostly drawn from such repertoire works as The Butterfly Lovers (Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai), The Marriage of the Fairy (Tianxian Pei), Legend of the White Snake (Baishe Zhuan), Journey to the West (Xiyouji), Zhaojun Goes Beyond the Frontier (Zhaojun Chusai), Meeting at the Blue Bridge (Lanqiao Hui), Yellow Crane Tower (Huanghelou), and The Fisherman's Revenge (Dayu Shajia). The tableaux stand roughly three to five meters high; the pavilions have three to five tiers, generally one performer per tier, though some have four performers on the bottom tier, five or six in the middle, and one on top. In a taige procession, four pavilions are generally used, and at most six or even eight; each pavilion is carried forward by four or eight bearers. Taige fuses painting, opera, colored paper-work, and paper sculpture into a single art; its tableaux are graceful and its scenes spectacular. It has long been loved by the broad masses and has flourished in folk tradition without decline. Wuchuan Piaose, transmitted in Wuchuan City, Guangdong Province, is a comprehensive modeling art integrating drama, music, fine art, magic, and acrobatics, renowned for its characteristics of height, refinement, peril, wonder, and ingenuity. Its modeling is distinctive and its artistic forms are varied; its content is mostly historical stories and mythological tales, and a single piaose tableau is like a small moving stage. Wuchuan Piaose is performed every year on the sixteenth and seventeenth days of the first lunar month, when the Lantern Festival is celebrated; the procession stretches for several li and the scene is magnificent. The piaose figures are supported by a concealed 'color branch' (segeng); the performers are generally between six and twelve years old. Figures sitting or standing on the small stage atop the cabinet are called 'ping', while the figure compositions that rise into the air are called 'piao'. Wuchuan Piaose has taken part in cultural exhibitions in Maoming, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, in Haikou, Hainan Province, and in Luxi, Yunnan Province, among other places; with its vigorous artistic vitality, it has driven and promoted the improvement of piaose creation and performance in the surrounding areas, and has given profound inspiration to the development of folk art in other provinces and cities. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Screens and floating figures": Figures seated or standing on the counter stage are screens; those rising into the air are floats. "Lantern Festival on the sixteenth and seventeenth": The parade runs for miles on the sixteenth and seventeenth of the first lunar month. "The hidden pole and young actors": A concealed pole carries the figures, and the actors are usually between six and twelve. "Thirty-six boards, one screen nine floats": The inheritor designed as many as thirty-six boards, pushing the form from one screen with one float to nine floats.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

Male, of the Han ethnic group, born in August 1931 and deceased in March 2017, a native of Wuchuan City, Guangdong Province. He is a national representative bearer of Taige (Xinzi, Tiezhi and Piaose) (Wuchuan Piaose), a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. His piaose design Mu Guiying Zhao Qin (Mu Guiying Takes a Husband) appeared at the 1991 Spring Festival Gala of China Central Television and won first prize for performance; Ba Xian Guo Hai (The Eight Immortals Cross the Sea) was twice selected for sending to Hong Kong to join the parades of the handover celebrations.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Li Ming · National Representative Bearer Archive