Qi Xuede

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Qi Xuede, Male, Han, from Qinshui, Shanxi, is a fifth-batch national representative bearer of Drum Dance (Ⅲ-42). The tradition is documented in Qinshui, Shanxi. Within the regional tradition and school record of Drum Dance in Qinshui, Shanxi: The Tuwo Old Flower Drum has two kinds of musical notation. One is dance notation (zouchang luogu, the gong-and-drum accompaniment for moving on stage), divided into zouchang pu (moving notation) and dengchang pu (entrance notation); the other is tune notation (huagu diao, the flower-drum tune), divided into "lao diao" (old tune) and "xin diao" (new tune), with lyrics improvised and sung on the spot by the performers. The Tuwo Old Flower Drum has been transmitted in Tuwo Village, Qinshui County for more than two hundred years. Its roles are built around the old clown, the young clown, the flower lass, the old man, the old woman, the waist-drum player, the message boy and the drum carrier, and the clown role serves as the hub of the whole troupe. The sung words are composed and sung on the spot by the performers, so the content carried by the same tune differs from one year to another, and the local colouring of the lyrics is renewed accordingly.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnic group, born in May 1948, a native of Qinshui County, Shanxi Province. Fond of singing and dancing from childhood, at the age of nine he played the horse-reporting boy in a performance of the old flower drum, and he appeared every year thereafter, listening closely during rehearsals and study to the teaching and guidance of veteran artists such as Chen Wenming and Li Shuixing. He has portrayed the clown, the old clown and the flower maiden, and is especially skilled in such movements as swinging the Buddha posture, the running-horse posture and the turning Buddha posture. He added waist-drum players to the traditional character line-up, reformed the costumes of the roles and added new movements, thereby enriching both the technique and the staging of the old flower-drum performance. Within the documented technical tradition of Drum Dance in Qinshui, Shanxi: The Tuwo Old Flower Drum is a traditional dance transmitted in Tuwo Village, Qinshui County, said to have more than two hundred years of history. The Tuwo Old Flower Drum is a dance-performance form that integrates three parts — striking the drum, singing and dancing. Its principal roles are the old clown, the young clown, the flower lass, the old man, the old woman, the waist-drum player, the message boy and the drum carrier. The most important role in the Tuwo Old Flower Drum is the clown, whose dancing has a character of its own: while dancing, the performer bites a ring held fixed on the small drum, holds soft drumsticks in both hands and strikes up and down, and moves forward on both feet in the "danhe tanbu" (red-crane hopping step) as though gliding like a crane; while singing, the performer holds the drum in the hands and takes it back into the mouth once the song is finished. The Tuwo Old Flower Drum has a rich repertoire of formations, including shuanglong chushui (twin dragons emerging from the water), san zhan deng (three lanterns), shier liangou (twelve linked hooks), shuanglong baiwei (twin dragons swaying their tails), shuangchahua (double flower insertion), jiudaowan (nine bends), hehuazhuan (lotus turn), danmenhulu (single gourd) and zaohuaxing (jujube shape), as well as shuangfentou (splitting into two fronts). The main step of the dance is the "ququ bu", a whole-foot step that brushes the ground as the dancer advances; while dancing, the body twists to the left and right like a willow swaying in the wind, gentle and graceful. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The mouth ring and the crane step": The clown holds a ring fixed to the small drum in his teeth, striking with soft sticks and stepping like a crane, taking the drum in hand only to sing. "Processional and entrance scores": Two kinds of score exist, the drum score for processional and entrance playing, and the tune score with old and new airs for improvised lyrics. "Field patterns": Its rich formations include two dragons emerging, three lanterns, twelve linked hooks, the dragon's tail sweep, nine bends and the turning lotus. "The winding step": Its principal step drags the whole foot along the ground while the body twists left and right, soft as a willow in the wind.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

A representative bearer of the Drum Dance (Tuwo Old Flower Drum), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. Over several decades he has organized and rehearsed the Tuwo Old Flower Drum more than ninety times, each session of instruction and rehearsal lasting ten days or more, passing on without reservation what he has acquired over the years; he has trained more than twenty disciples in all. He also regularly conducts intangible cultural heritage programs in schools, so that the art of the Tuwo Old Flower Drum is effectively protected and transmitted.

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. Qi Xuede · National Representative Bearer Archive