Zhao Minghua

01 · Lineage & Regional School

From childhood he studied the long drum dance under his master Li Genpu, twenty-sixth-generation transmitter of the Yao long drum dance; his movements are soft and harmonious, and he uses springing steps to bring out the distinctive charm of the drum dance. Together with his master he is acclaimed as a King of the Long Drum among the Yao. Within the regional tradition and school record of Yao Zhang Drum Dance in Jianghuayaozuzizhi, Hunan: Jianghua Yao long drum dance is transmitted in the Yao-inhabited townships of Mashi, Daxu, Taoxu, Baimangying and others in Jianghua Yao Autonomous County, Yongzhou City, Hunan Province, with the cultural centre of Jianghua Yao Autonomous County as the protecting unit; the representative inheritor Zhao Minghua has long taught the drum beats and the step patterns of the long drum dance to the younger generation. Yao long drum dance has a long history; it emerged from the dances in the very ancient Rite of the King of the Pan and in certain shamanic activities, and has now developed into a mass recreational activity. Liannan Yao long drum dance is a plaza-type festive dance. It was brought in when the ancestors of the Pai Yao migrated to Liannan during the Sui and Tang dynasties, and afterwards became popular as the shagetang gatherings flourished.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, of Yao ethnicity, born in May 1943 in Jianghua Yao Autonomous County, Hunan Province. He commands a wide variety of Yao long drum dance music, types and performance forms, with rich content. Within the documented technical tradition of Yao Zhang Drum Dance in Jianghuayaozuzizhi, Hunan: Yao long drum dance is a folk dance of the Yao people of China, popular in the Yao-inhabited areas of Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan and other provinces, and it is mostly performed at Yao traditional festivals and on days celebrating the harvest, a house move or a wedding. The long drum is called "gong" in the Yao language; the Yao long drum is made of two drums joined end to end, relatively thin at the middle so that it can be gripped, with a sheepskin covering each drumhead at either end. Yao long drum dance has many performance routines; some specially depict the building of a house, while others incorporate the interesting forms of animals and plants, and its dance movements are vigorous and bold, vivid and lively, strange and unusual, and full of imagination. By performance form, Yao long drum dance includes types such as "Pangu long drum dance", "gong sheng long drum dance", "table long drum dance", "lusheng long drum dance" and "goat-horn short drum dance". By number of performers, it is further divided into solo dance, duet and group dance. In performance, the ways of beating the drum are divided into "martial beating" and "civil beating", and also into "tall posts" and "low posts". In the Yao areas, Jianghua Yao long drum dance is the cultural and recreational form with the largest audience; with the postures of "qu" and the position changes of "ning", it displays a moving beauty of curve, reflects the life customs and spiritual outlook of the Yao people, and enjoys broad social influence. This long drum dance is divided into solo dance, duet and group dance; when the traditional festivals of the Spring Festival, the third day of the third lunar month, the sixth day of the sixth lunar month and the sixteenth day of the tenth lunar month, and the days of the shagetang gatherings come around, the Pai Yao people gather in the open ground in front of the village or in the fields after the harvest, blowing ox horns, beating bronze gongs and dancing the long drum dance to celebrate the festival. Fuchuan Yao long drum dance is magnificent in spectacle: bamboo flutes play beautiful melodies, those blowing the lusheng play while dancing, those beating the big long drum, the small long drum and the small gong strike in time with the music, while shouted work-chants add to the atmosphere; the flutes and the lusheng together with the chants form multi-part harmony, high-pitched and stirring, driving the activity to its climax. The dance language of Yao long drum dance is very rich, reflecting from many aspects the production and life customs and the primitive religious beliefs of the Pai Yao people. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Pan Gu and table-top types": By performance form the drum dance divides into Pan Gu, gong-and-reed-pipe, table-top, reed-pipe and goat-horn types. "Martial and civil beats, high and low posts": The drumming divides into martial and civil modes, and dancers work either on raised posts or in low crouching posture. "The drum called gong": The long drum is called gong in Yao; two joined barrels with a narrow waist are covered with goatskin at both ends. "Zhao Minghua": Zhao Minghua, born in Jianghua in 1943, commands many drum-dance types and has long taught the young.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He is a national representative bearer of Yao Zhang Drum Dance, a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He has won awards in many competitions and has long taught the Yao long drum dance to younger generations.

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. Zhao Minghua · National Representative Bearer Archive