Feng Guohao

01 · Lineage & Regional School

From childhood he learned the old ten-turn (lao shifan) gong and drum repertoire of Fengzui from three veteran artists of the fourth generation of the Fengzui Huagudeng lineage: Feng Guopei, Feng Guoting and Feng Guochong. Within the regional tradition and school record of Huagudeng in Bengbu, Anhui: The performing styles of huagudeng today fall mainly into three schools: the Yingshang area, whose tempo is relatively slow, with tightly structured dance and an archaic, plain style; the Fengtai area, which emphasises the portrayal of character emotion with delicate and graceful movement; and the Huaiyuan area, with light, brisk and vigorous movement and an easy, dashing bearing. Historical records show that the huagudeng originated no later than the Song dynasty. After developing through the Yuan, Ming, Qing and Republican periods, by the 1930s and 1940s it had formed a distribution area centred on Bengbu, Huainan and Fuyang in Anhui, radiating across more than twenty counties and cities in the four provinces of Henan, Anhui, Shandong and Jiangsu along the middle reaches of the Huai River.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnicity, born in December 1946, a native of Bengbu City, Anhui Province. He concentrated on the gong while also learning the drum, cymbals and other percussion instruments, and by the age of eighteen he had comprehensively mastered the playing methods and techniques of the traditional lao shifan, xiao shifan and shiba fan gong and drum repertoires of Fengzui Huagudeng. For decades he has taken part in the various activities of the Fengzui Huagudeng troupe, serving throughout as its leader (dengtou); he has innovated the playing methods of some of the gong and drum repertoires and is a famous gong player in the Huai River basin. Within the documented technical tradition of Huagudeng in Bengbu, Anhui: Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The great flower field": The collective mood dance of huagudeng, performed by a handful to a dozen or more dancers who weave changing floor patterns — the counterpart of the small flower field. "Snatching the towel and snatching the bench": The two most representative small flower field pieces, danced by drum-rack and orchid as a pair or trio, depicting young men and women flirting and playing, with simple plots and character dancing. "Pan gu (the coiled drum)": A form combining dance, martial arts and acrobatic skill with sculptural posing, standing alongside the great and small flower fields in the dance's three divisions. "The after-scene playlets": Short song-and-dance playlets that, with dancing, singing and percussion, complete the four parts of a huagudeng performance, usually on comic everyday themes.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

A national representative bearer of Huagudeng (Bengbu Huagudeng), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. Building on family transmission, he has taken many apprentices, and many of them now take part formally in the various performances of the troupe.

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. Feng Guohao · National Representative Bearer Archive