Han Kuisheng

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Gifted in song and dance from childhood and outstanding in accomplishment, at the age of twenty-three he became a disciple of the Korean folk artist Jin Shangzhe and studied the basic movements and routines of the traditional Korean nongle dance. Within the regional tradition and school record of Korean Nongle Dance in Tieling, Liaoning: The transmission area of Tieling Korean nongak covers the Korean villages, factories and mines of Tieling City and its surroundings; since the middle of the twentieth century, local cultural institutions and inheritors have jointly organised the performances. Nongak is one of the traditional dances of the Korean (Chaoxianzu) people and is widely transmitted in their folk tradition. Tieling City in northern Liaoning Province is a multi-ethnic residential area, with a Korean population of 23,434. In murals from tombs excavated at Tieling and its surroundings, dated to around the 5th century, the ancestors of the Korean people are vividly depicted dancing joyfully. Tieling Korean nongak originated in sacrificial activities and, in the course of its development, gradually evolved into a dance for self-amusement; it is now transmitted among the Korean people in the Tieling area, where it is performed on every festive occasion. Tieling Korean nongak is a large comprehensive dance made up of the masked dance, the small drum dance, the long drum dance and the sangmo hat dance, and a complete performance takes several hours. Tieling Korean nongak is a typical representative of Korean nongak in multi-ethnic residential areas; it reflects in a distinctive way the development history and the production and living conditions of the Korean people, and plays an important role in promoting ethnic cultural identity.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

He was skilled in playing accompanying instruments such as the small gong and the long drum, and could make props including cranes, rice ears, maize, chilli peppers and soybeans. Building on the traditional craft of paper-pulp mask making, he also developed a pasted-paper mask, which gave the masks of nongle dance a distinctive and highly individual character. He devoted his life to spreading and promoting traditional Korean culture. His disciple Li Yonghao inherited all of his dance skills and grew into a new-generation bearer of Korean nongle dance. Through the joint efforts of master and disciples, Tieling City developed a Korean nongle dance transmission team of nearly one hundred people. Within the documented technical tradition of Korean Nongle Dance in Tieling, Liaoning: The performance is led off by the percussion of gongs and drums; at the beginning, at each change in the middle, and at the end, it is directed by the gong player, who acts as the leader. In front of the gong player is a flag-bearer, who brandishes with abandon a banner inscribed "Farming is the great root of all under heaven", full of heroic spirit. In a nongak performance there is no distinction between actors and musicians; generally the performers play and dance at the same time. During the performance, the melodies sounded by the bronze gong, zheng, big drum, small drum, jiegu drum, long drum, large pingxiao, trumpet and conch horn are called the "twelve beats", and they determine the changes of the dance movements and formations. The music of nongak has a distinctive variety of melodies, called the "twelve beats". The "twelve beats" are arranged according to the method of composing the dance, and by them its dance movements and formations are prescribed; nongak is a large comprehensive dance, and a complete performance takes several hours to finish. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The twelve-beat system": The twelve-beat melody played on gongs, drums, flute, trumpet and conch governs the dance's movements and formations. "The gong leader and flag bearer": Percussion leads the way, the gong player directing the opening, changes and close, preceded by a flag bearer waving the banner reading farming is the root of all. "Players who are also dancers": No line separates players from dancers; all perform while playing, and a full showing takes several hours. "Fifth-century mural dancing": Tieling in northern Liaoning has 23,434 ethnic Koreans, and fifth-century tomb murals found nearby depict their ancestors dancing joyfully.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

Male, Korean ethnicity, born in November 1925, died in February 2012, a native of Tieling County, Liaoning Province. He was a national representative bearer of Korean Ethnic Nongle Dance, a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.

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. Han Kuisheng · National Representative Bearer Archive