Zhang Guoqin

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Zhang Guoqin, Male, Han, from Longde, Ningxia, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Taige (Ⅹ-87). The tradition is documented in Longde, Ningxia. Within the regional tradition and school record of Taige in Longde, Ningxia: Taige (raised pavilion platforms) originated in god-welcoming procession and temple-fair activities in the Central Plains region. It later spread gradually to the southeastern coast and the northwest, flourished for a time during the Qing dynasty, and in the course of transmission combined with local conditions in each place, giving rise to distinct local characteristics.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The bearer record for Zhang Guoqin is anchored in the documented technical standards of Taige in Longde, Ningxia. Within the documented technical tradition of Taige in Longde, Ningxia: Taige is also known as 'taijiao,' 'taige,' 'gaotai,' 'naoge,' 'naoge,' and 'gaozhuang,' and is a form of folk parade performance in traditional festival celebrations. In a taige performance, several children dressed as characters from classical opera form striking tableaux based on dramatic plots. These are fixed to iron posts and supports on a square pavilion frame and carried along by bearers. Traditional taige tableaux are mostly taken from plays such as The Butterfly Lovers, The Marriage of the Heavenly Fairy (Tianxian Pei), The Legend of the White Snake, Journey to the West, Zhaojun Goes Beyond the Great Wall, The Blue Bridge Tryst, The Yellow Crane Tower, and The Fisherman's Revenge. The tableaux stand about 3 to 5 meters high; the pavilions vary from three to five tiers, generally with one performer per tier, though some have four performers on the bottom tier, five or six in the middle tier, and one on the top tier. When a taige procession moves, four pavilions are generally used, and on a large scale there may be six or even eight; each pavilion is borne along by four or eight carriers. Taige fuses painting, opera, colorful paper-and-bamboo craft, and paper modeling into a single art. Its figures are elegant and its tableaux spectacular, making it much loved by the general public and long popular in folk life without decline. The gaotai (raised platform) of Longde County is a form of shehuo (village festive performance) that evolved from god-worship activities, with performances held on a fixed date each year on the ninth day of the first lunar month. In the townships of Wenbao, Fengtai, Shanhe, and Shatang within Longde County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, gaotai horse shehuo is almost universally popular. Longde County's folk culture has a long history, and its shehuo types are numerous and complete in variety: gaotai horse shehuo, lion dances, stilt walking, tuituiche (cart-pushing acts), driving the donkey, flower boats, yangge troupes, bamboo horses, decorated floats, waist-drum troupes, and 'xiren' (comic performers), among other folk shehuo performance forms. These encompass performance, modeling, language, painted decoration, and handcraft production, and have become living fossils of the folk art of the Liupan Mountain region. With the development of the times, the construction of Longde gaotai has grown ever more exquisite and refined, placing greater emphasis on portraying character personality and unfolding story content, while decoration, technique, and height have all improved considerably. Designers have applied principles of mechanics to fit gaotai frames with ball bearings and gears, adding raising, lowering, and rotating functions, and have finished them with high-tech materials, bringing gaotai performance to a higher artistic level. With the rapid advance of modernization, Longde gaotai is increasingly neglected and its room for development continues to shrink. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The platform social fire on the ninth": Evolved from god-worship, it is performed on a fixed date, the ninth of the first month. "Bearings, gears and rising motion": Bearings and gears add rising and turning motions, finished with modern materials. "Steel frames on motor vehicles": Motor vehicles now provide the motive power and carry steel frames replacing the wooden core. "The Investiture of the Gods and the Fairy Scattering Flowers": His platforms for the Investiture of the Gods and other tales are ingeniously conceived and vividly characterised.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2025, Zhang Guoqin was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Taige, with Longde, Ningxia as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Taige in Longde, Ningxia: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2008 (batch 2), with Longde, Ningxia as its declared area, and Longde County 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. Zhangguoqin (Longde, Ningxia) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Zhangguoqin · China ICH Official Archive