Li Lianyuan
Lineage & School of Heritage
In the late Qing dynasty, temple fairs were held on every third day at the Temple of the Earth God inside Guang'anmen, and Li Lianyuan's grandfather and grandmother would both attend, doing business while spinning diabolos, which gradually became a familiar sight at the fair.
Mastery, Signature Works & Repertoire
Male, of Han ethnicity, born in 1947, a native of Beijing. Several generations of Li Lianyuan's ancestors lived in Tianqiao and Caishikou. Influenced by his family environment, Li Lianyuan began spinning diabolos with his grandmother from the age of five. In adulthood he developed an extraordinary consummate skill: spinning a pansi diabolo with a fishing rod more than two meters long. The diabolo performance handed down by earlier generations featured single-wheel and irregular-shaped diabolos. Li Lianyuan was able to spin the diabolo upright, making it fine as silk or like a standing mushroom, and then performed positive and negative winding movements. This winding technique is known as pansi (silk winding), and with it he could execute highly difficult moves such as carrying a fishing rod on the back, the soaring eagle, and placing the bowl aloft. Today this consummate skill has been included in the list of Unique Skills of Beijing. As an heir of a diabolo family, and in order to better transmit and promote this art, Li Lianyuan reached an agreement with Laoqianggen No. 3 Primary School to formally list diabolo spinning in the school curriculum, and he was engaged as an instructor to teach diabolo technique there. At present Li Lianyuan has taken on sixteen apprentices.
Honors & Recognition
A representative bearer of Doukongzhu (diabolo spinning), a first-batch national intangible cultural heritage project, and president of the Guangnei Diabolo Association of Xuanwu District. In addition, Li Lianyuan has participated many times in cultural exchange performances at home and abroad, established thirty-six activity stations, and cultivated a growing number of diabolo enthusiasts.
References & Archival Sources
Representative Items of This Bearer
- Doukongzhu Ⅵ-4
Profile
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, organized by topic and translated into English. 阅读中文版。