Li Apang

01 · Lineage & Regional School

She learned the lezuo dance from her elders from childhood, and at the age of fourteen studied the vocal melodies and dance routines of the lezuo dance under the folk artist Wang Ayou. Within the regional tradition and school record of Lezuo Dance in Honghe, Yunnan: Yuezuo dance is transmitted mainly in the Hani and Yi settlements of Jiayin, Baohua, Leyu, Azhahe and other townships of Honghe County; the Honghe County Cultural Centre is the protecting unit. Li Apang is the representative inheritor of the Yi yuezuo dance of Honghe County. In 2010 she represented Honghe Prefecture at a Netherlands cultural exchange activity on the yuezuo dance Hani polyphony presented under the title Chinese Red River, and she has more than twenty disciples. After nearly a century of evolution, yuezuo has become the conventional name for this dance among the Hani and Yi peoples. Hani and Yi villages on the south bank of the Red River have long lived side by side and visited each other, and the two branches danced yuezuo together at festivals and weddings, so that yuezuo became a dance name shared by both areas.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, Yi ethnicity, born in April 1963, a native of Honghe County, Yunnan Province. In her youth she developed a distinctive dance style of her own, and her lezuo dance singing is renowned in the area. In 2010 she represented Honghe Prefecture on a visit to the Netherlands for a cultural exchange on the lezuo dance of the Chinese Honghe "Hani Polyphony" programme. Within the documented technical tradition of Lezuo Dance in Honghe, Yunnan: Yuezuo dance is an ancient folk dance shared by the Hani and Yi peoples that integrates singing, dancing and music into one; it is transmitted among the Hani and Yi villages of Honghe County on the south bank of the Red River in the Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. Yuezuo dancing is called zaibi in Yi folk usage; among the Hani it is called haseise, and is also known as longzongcuo. The name yuezuo has been in use for at least more than one hundred years. Judging by the Hani language, le means everybody together, and zuo means to play and dance. Yuezuo therefore simply means that everybody comes together to dance for fun. It is said that among the Yi, yuezuo is a variant name used by people of Shiping and Jianshui for the Yi dance of the south bank of the Red River. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, literary and art workers learned and exchanged the dance, spreading the name yuezuo as used outside the river region to the artistic circles of the whole province and then of the whole country, and it became the general term by which people referred to the yuezuo dance of the Hani and Yi on the south bank of the Red River. Yuezuo dancing is not restricted in time, place, number of participants or form, yet it follows a certain procedure. Before the dancing begins there is lyrical singing accompanied by a band. The band members do not join the dance, but they often sway their bodies to the rhythm of the accompaniment and join in the choruses with high-pitched voices to add to the festive mood. Then people, mostly an even number, form a circle and dance, singing as they go, starting and stopping abruptly, clapping from time to time, sometimes crossing through one another in interlaced fashion, sometimes turning on the spot, but on the whole the outward form of a circle is always kept. The dancers are graceful, their movements soft and light; the waving arms are like a dragonfly beating its wings, the knees flex and extend with springy elasticity, and the steps form a rich and complete repertory, revealing a distinctive ethnic style and a strong local flavour. Yuezuo dance is the spiritual bond of the Hani and Yi peoples; in the social activities of young men and women of the frontier ethnic groups it serves as a medium, and it has made a great contribution to promoting friendship and unity among the frontier peoples. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The band sings before the dancing": A lyrical accompanied song comes first, the band swaying and joining in, before the circle begins to dance. "Zaibi and Hasaisai": Shared by Hani and Yi, the dance is called Zaibi in Yi and Hasaisai, meaning everyone comes to dance. "Dragonfly-wing arms": Arms move like dragonfly wings and knees flex elastically as pairs circle, stopping, clapping and threading in turn. "Li Apang": Li Apang of Honghe county, born in 1963, is known for her distinctive style and celebrated singing.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of the Lezuo Dance, a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. She has won many Honghe Prefecture folk song-and-dance performance awards and Honghe Prefecture intangible cultural heritage transmission awards. She is actively engaged in transmitting the lezuo dance, has more than twenty pupils, and often teaches the dance to professional dancers from the province, prefecture and county who come to study it in the field.

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 Apang · National Representative Bearer Archive