Sun Kangfu

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Sun Kangfu, Male, Han, from Wuchuan, Guangdong, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Taige (Ⅹ-87). The tradition is documented in Wuchuan, Guangdong. Within the regional tradition and school record of Taige in Wuchuan, Guangdong: Taige originated in god-welcoming temple-fair processions in the Central Plains region and later spread gradually to the southeastern coast and the northwest. It enjoyed a period of popularity in the Qing dynasty; as it spread, it combined with local conditions in each place, giving rise to different characteristics. In 1992 and 1997, Wuchuan Piaose twice went to the capital to take part in the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. In 2003, Wuchuan Piaose tableau works won the gold medal at China's First Exhibition of Cultural Relic Reproductions and Folk Crafts.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The bearer record for Sun Kangfu is anchored in the documented technical standards of Taige in Wuchuan, Guangdong. Within the documented technical tradition of Taige in Wuchuan, Guangdong: Taige (lifted pavilions) is also known by such names as taijiao, taige, gaotai, naoge, naoge, and gaozhuang, and is a form of folk procession performance in traditional festival activities. In taige performances, several children dress as figures in traditional opera costume and, following the plot, form splendid tableaux, which are fixed to iron pillars and supports on a square pavilion platform and carried along by bearers. Traditional taige tableaux are mostly drawn from such repertoire works as The Butterfly Lovers (Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai), The Marriage of the Fairy (Tianxian Pei), Legend of the White Snake (Baishe Zhuan), Journey to the West (Xiyouji), Zhaojun Goes Beyond the Frontier (Zhaojun Chusai), Meeting at the Blue Bridge (Lanqiao Hui), Yellow Crane Tower (Huanghelou), and The Fisherman's Revenge (Dayu Shajia). The tableaux stand roughly three to five meters high; the pavilions have three to five tiers, generally one performer per tier, though some have four performers on the bottom tier, five or six in the middle, and one on top. In a taige procession, four pavilions are generally used, and at most six or even eight; each pavilion is carried forward by four or eight bearers. Taige fuses painting, opera, colored paper-work, and paper sculpture into a single art; its tableaux are graceful and its scenes spectacular. It has long been loved by the broad masses and has flourished in folk tradition without decline. Wuchuan Piaose, transmitted in Wuchuan City, Guangdong Province, is a comprehensive modeling art integrating drama, music, fine art, magic, and acrobatics, renowned for its characteristics of height, refinement, peril, wonder, and ingenuity. Its modeling is distinctive and its artistic forms are varied; its content is mostly historical stories and mythological tales, and a single piaose tableau is like a small moving stage. Wuchuan Piaose is performed every year on the sixteenth and seventeenth days of the first lunar month, when the Lantern Festival is celebrated; the procession stretches for several li and the scene is magnificent. The piaose figures are supported by a concealed 'color branch' (segeng); the performers are generally between six and twelve years old. Figures sitting or standing on the small stage atop the cabinet are called 'ping', while the figure compositions that rise into the air are called 'piao'. Wuchuan Piaose has taken part in cultural exhibitions in Maoming, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, in Haikou, Hainan Province, and in Luxi, Yunnan Province, among other places; with its vigorous artistic vitality, it has driven and promoted the improvement of piaose creation and performance in the surrounding areas, and has given profound inspiration to the development of folk art in other provinces and cities. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Screens and floating figures": Figures seated or standing on the counter stage are screens; those rising into the air are floats. "Lantern Festival on the sixteenth and seventeenth": The parade runs for miles on the sixteenth and seventeenth of the first lunar month. "The hidden pole and young actors": A concealed pole carries the figures, and the actors are usually between six and twelve. "Thirty-six boards, one screen nine floats": The inheritor designed as many as thirty-six boards, pushing the form from one screen with one float to nine floats.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2025, Sun Kangfu was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Taige, with Wuchuan, Guangdong as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Taige in Wuchuan, Guangdong: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2008 (batch 2), with Wuchuan, Guangdong as its declared area, and Wuchuan 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

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. Sunkangfu (Wuchuan, Guangdong) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Sunkangfu · China ICH Official Archive