Linzhongcheng
01 · Lineage & Regional School
Linzhongcheng, Male, Han, from Shantou, Guangdong, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Yingge (Ⅲ-8). The tradition is documented in Shantou, Guangdong. Within the regional tradition and school record of Yingge in Shantou, Guangdong: According to tradition it already has a history of more than three hundred years; its origins are most often explained as a variant of the local people's martial customs or as a dramatization of stories from Water Margin. Yingge is generally performed during festivals. The number of dancers is usually even, as few as twelve and as many as 108; each holds a pair of coloured wooden sticks and, to the beat of gong and drum and to shouted calls, swings the two sticks, crossing and turning them to strike, dancing as they walk. The performance is divided into two sections, the 'front shed' and the 'rear shed'; the front shed presents gong-and-drum music and the Yingge dance, while the rear shed presents small plays distinctive in their own way and signature pieces. In practice it has formed several different schools of style; classified by the tempo pattern of the dance, it can be roughly divided into slow-tempo Yingge, medium-tempo Yingge and fast-tempo Yingge. Slow-tempo Yingge has a slow rhythm and uses dance sticks longer than those of the other schools; its basic dance form is three beats of the club or four beats of the club making up one set of movements, showing force within the slow and spirit within the force: weighty, simple and archaic, yet expansive and graceful. Slow-tempo Yingge is mainly transmitted in the Wenguang, Mianbei and Chengnan areas. Medium-tempo Yingge is also mainly transmitted in the Wenguang, Mianbei and Chengnan areas; its characteristic is that it shows ease within steadiness and vitality within archaism. Fast-tempo Yingge is generally divided into three types: paired-combat sets, the Nanshan literary school and the Nanshan martial school. Chaoyang Yingge is widely distributed and strongly pervasive; almost every town (subdistrict) has an Yingge troupe, and some towns even have at the same time several Yingge troupes of different styles or different age structures. Chaoyang Yingge is a continuation of the Han folk square dance and of a form of nuo culture; in continuing, it has undergone certain changes, and by the Ming dynasty it had absorbed the northern da guzi yangge and gradually evolved into the Yingge dance, becoming a folk dance art with a distinctive form of expression in the Chaoyang area. In November 1996, Chaoyang was named a 'Hometown of Chinese Folk Art' by the Ministry of Culture.
02 · Mastery & Signature Works
The bearer record for Linzhongcheng is anchored in the documented technical standards of Yingge in Shantou, Guangdong. Within the documented technical tradition of Yingge in Shantou, Guangdong: Yingge, also called 'eagle song', 'parrot song', 'chanted yingge' or 'yangge', is a folk square dance that fuses dancing, southern boxing (nanquan) routines and operatic acting. Its performance is heroic and stirring and its atmosphere intense; it is transmitted in Guangdong, Fujian and other places, is performed by men, and carries a sense of praising heroes. The basic movement of the Yingge dance is the swinging of sticks. In the dance each performer holds two round short wooden sticks (10 centimetres in diameter and 20 centimetres long), plants the feet in a mounted rider's squatting stance, lifts a leg and leaps sideways, and strikes the sticks against each other up, down, left and right in time with the gongs and drums, the head and body swaying naturally in response. Yingge has three tempi, slow, medium and fast; a single repertoire sometimes contains as many as twenty sets of routines, among them 'washing the street', 'New Year greeting', 'laying out the year', 'back club', 'crossing the hip' and 'embracing the club and hooking the leg'. The Yingge dance carries a distinctly masculine and heroic character. When the dance reaches its climax, shouts and the sound of conch horns ring out in every direction; the momentum is overwhelming and deeply stirring. Chaoyang Yingge integrates drama, dance and martial arts into one and is imbued with a strongly masculine spirit. There is also 'drunken club' Yingge, in which the dancers look like drunken men and have a charm of their own. Medium-tempo Yingge has a rhythm somewhat faster than slow-tempo Yingge. Its basic dance forms include those in which five beats or seven beats of the club make up one set of movements, and those in which eight, ten, eleven or thirteen beats make up one set of movements. Its gong-and-drum patterns differ markedly from those of slow-tempo Yingge: in the former the beat patterns have pauses and drawn-out strokes in the middle, while in the latter the beats are struck continuously. Fast-tempo Yingge has a quick rhythm and tight drum beats, and varies greatly as the formation of the troupe opens and closes; the Yingge clubs used are shorter and easier to swing. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Slow-tempo yingge": The slow school uses longer sticks and builds each routine from three or four strikes, grave and archaic yet expansive; it survives chiefly in Wenguang, Mianbei and Chengnan. "The medium-tempo stick counts": Slightly faster than the slow school, its routines group five, seven, eight, ten, eleven or thirteen strikes, with pauses and sustained beats in the drumming. "Fast-tempo yingge and its three branches": The fastest branch, its tight drumming shifting with the opening and closing of the formation, using shorter sticks and divided into the paired-combat, Nanshan civil and Nanshan martial styles. "The drunken-stick yingge": A variant in which the dancers move like drunkards, a distinctive mood within Chaoyang's fusion of opera, dance and martial arts.
Slow-tempo yingge
The slow school uses longer sticks and builds each routine from three or four strikes, grave and archaic yet expansive; it survives chiefly in Wenguang, Mianbei and Chengnan.
The medium-tempo stick counts
Slightly faster than the slow school, its routines group five, seven, eight, ten, eleven or thirteen strikes, with pauses and sustained beats in the drumming.
Fast-tempo yingge and its three branches
The fastest branch, its tight drumming shifting with the opening and closing of the formation, using shorter sticks and divided into the paired-combat, Nanshan civil and Nanshan martial styles.
The drunken-stick yingge
A variant in which the dancers move like drunkards, a distinctive mood within Chaoyang's fusion of opera, dance and martial arts.
03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status
In 2025, Linzhongcheng was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Yingge, with Shantou, Guangdong as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Yingge in Shantou, Guangdong: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2006 (batch 1), with Shantou, Guangdong as its declared area, and Shantou Chaoyang District Cultural Center as its safeguarding unit. Since the project was inscribed in the national inventory, its declared area and safeguarding unit have carried out documentation, transmission and presentation within the national safeguarding framework. Together, the inventory record and the project archive form the public documentary basis for the bearer’s transmission practice.
04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier
Historical origin
Chaoyang Yingge is a continuation of the Han folk square dance and of a form of nuo culture; in continuing, it has undergone certain changes, and by the Ming dynasty it had absorbed the northern da guzi yangge and gradually evolved into the Yingge dance, becoming a folk dance art with a distinctive form of expression in the Chaoyang area. In November 1996, Chaoyang was named a 'Hometown of Chinese Folk Art' by the Ministry of Culture.
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.
| Bearer | Declared area | Roster code | Relation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chen Laifa | Jieyang, Guangdong | 02-0355 | Other regional school |
| Yang Wei | Shantou, Guangdong | 02-0356 | Same declared area |
| Lin Bingguang | Lufeng, Guangdong | 05-2213 | Other regional school |
| Linzhongcheng | Shantou, Guangdong | — | This page |
06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript. Compiled from official national representative bearer archival records and the associated project dossier, organized by topic and translated into English. 阅读中文版。