Li Biqing

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Li Biqing, Male, Lisu, from Weixilisuzuzizhi, Yunnan, is a fifth-batch national representative bearer of Lisu Achimugua (Ⅲ-35). The tradition is documented in Weixilisuzuzizhi, Yunnan. Within the regional tradition and school record of Lisu Achimugua in Weixilisuzuzizhi, Yunnan: The Lisu song-and-dance “Achimukua” means “the song and dance of the goat” or “the tune in which one learns the goat's call”. It is transmitted around Tongle and Xinle in Yezhi Town, Weixi Lisu Autonomous County, Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, and is the traditional self-amusing folk song-and-dance of the locality. The costume of the dancers of “Achimukua” is highly distinctive. According to the Record of Things Seen and Heard in Weixi by Yu Qingyuan of the Qing dynasty, when performing “Achimukua”, “the men coil their hair into a topknot and wear a hairpin, weave wheat straw into tassels and string them among their hair, and when going out and about they always carry a sharp blade.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Lisu, born in July 1968 in Weixi Lisu Autonomous County, Yunnan Province. Steeped from childhood in traditional song and dance, he learned from the elders of his village. In 1989 he took the veteran artist Heige as his master and, through his distinctive gifts for song and dance and his own diligent effort, mastered the singing and dancing techniques of Achimugua, developing a bold and unrestrained dance style that won him the affection and recognition of the people and made him the locally acknowledged A Chi Guo Dou, the bellwether or leader. Many young people from the surrounding villages who love Achimugua come to study with him because of his reputation. In order to preserve and transmit Achimugua more effectively, he persists in collecting and exploring its traditional melodies, lyrics and dance sections, and has trained a group of outstanding young artists. The troupe he leads has appeared many times on national, provincial, prefectural and municipal stages, presenting the Lisu Achimugua to audiences in many places. Within the documented technical tradition of Lisu Achimugua in Weixilisuzuzizhi, Yunnan: Weixi was historically inaccessible, the Lisu people had little contact with the outside world, and their mode of production was basically at a stage of part farming and part herding. The goat was a livestock animal that every household kept, and sheep were bound up very closely with the life of the Lisu people of Weixi. “Achimukua” is likewise connected with the goat; it is a vivid expression of the traditional production, life, thoughts and feelings of the Lisu people of Weixi. The women coil their hair and bind it, wear a round-collared gown and tie an apron over their trousers”. The dance form of “Achimukua” is ardent and unrestrained, with a style all its own, and it basically retains the traditional shape of folk art. Achimukua takes the bleating and bounding of the goat as its basic vocabulary of movement; its vocal style is high-pitched and drawn out, with one voice leading and the rest joining in, while the steps combine the steps of the circle dance with turning of the body, and the formation is mostly a circle. The way it is organised for rehearsal in the slack season, for festivals and for weddings and funerals has not changed to this day, and there are established conventions for the positions and the gestures of men and women within the line. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Tongle and Xinle villages": The dance belongs to Tongle and Xinle near Yezhi in Weixi county, a traditional entertainment form that keeps its folk shape. "The Weixi record and the straw headdress": Yu Qingyuan's Qing record describes the men's straw tassels and knives and the women's coiled hair; only Yezhi's Lisu still wear the straw tassels. "Achi Guodou, the bellwether": Li Biqing studied under the old artist Heige from 1989 and is acknowledged locally as the dance's bellwether. "Song and dance of the goat": The name means the goat's song and dance; with goat-keeping universal in semi-pastoral Weixi, the form expresses everyday life and feeling.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He is a representative bearer of the Lisu Achimugua, a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.

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 Biqing · National Representative Bearer Archive