Dazuigu
01 · Historical Records
In June 1991, Yilan in Taiwan held the first answer-beating drum competition in Taiwan, which helped raise the level of the art of dazuigu (answer-beating drum) in Taiwan.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Dazuigu is a comic form of quyi performed in the Minnan dialect, current in the Minnan area of Fujian Province, in Taiwan Province and in the Minnan Chinese settlements of Southeast Asia. Because the two sides of the Taiwan Strait share the same roots and origins, a common language and the same customs, the art of dazuigu has likewise flourished among ordinary people in Taiwan in recent years. However, as the process of modernisation advances, the number of people who can hear and understand Minnan speech fully, especially young people and newcomers, keeps dwindling. The space of activity for dazuigu is narrowing day by day, and both the creators and performers and the audience are growing old.
Strictly rhymed Minnan dialogue
Two performers trade lines in strictly rhymed Minnan verse, building comedy out of dialect idiom and punchlines.
Award-winning works by Chen Qingping
Chen Qingping's first-prize winning pieces in the Xiamen quyi competition, among them a new tale of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai.
Lin Pengxiang and his anthology
Lin Pengxiang's broadcasts made the form known abroad, and his anthology, compiled with his pupil Yang Minmou, won a Baihua prize.
The 1991 Yilan competition
Held in June 1991 in Yilan, the first dazui gu contest in Taiwan raised the level of the art there.
Preserving Jimei's dazui gu
Chen Qingping published and edited the Jimei collections and founded a quyi troupe in 1995 to keep the local tradition alive.
Second and third prize pieces
Further prize-winning pieces by Chen Qingping, ranging from matchmaking comedy to a historical court case.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
It resembles two-hander crosstalk, but its dialogue is strictly rhymed verse with a strong sense of linguistic rhythm; it makes skilled use of the rich, vivid, lively and humorous words and colloquial expressions of the Minnan dialect, concentrates on the display of plot and the characterisation of figures, and works with “baofu” comic setups and “wei deng xiao ke” (explosive comic material) to achieve comic effect, so it is much loved by the masses of the people.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The dazuigu programmes of the Minnan answer-beating drum artist Lin Pengxiang have been carried to all quarters through the various media, and have also evoked strong response overseas, becoming valuable material for overseas scholars studying the folk customs and vocabulary of the Minnan and Taiwan regions. As first-generation artists such as Lin Pengxiang have died one after another, the artistic transmission of dazuigu has fallen into a state in which new talent fails to follow the old; this quyi form faces a serious crisis of being broken off and lost across generations, and must be rescued and protected as a matter of urgency. Chen Qingping (associated inheritor, as recorded in the official inheritor file): male, Han, born in 1935, a native of Xiamen, Fujian. A retired teacher of Guankou Middle School in Xiamen. His published monographs include Chen Qingping’s Selected Minnan Quyi Plays and Sketches; he edited Jimei Dazuigu (Jimei Answer-Beating Drum) and Jimei Folk Tales. In 1995 he organised the Jimei Spiritual Civilisation Quyi Troupe. Representative inheritor of dazuigu in the second batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects. Since 1978, his works that have won first prize in the Xiamen quyi writing competition include Liang Zhu Xin Zhuan (A New Version of the Liang Zhu Legend), Zheng Hun Qu Tan (A Humorous Account of Matchmaking) and Jin Hun Qing Dian (Golden Wedding Celebration); second-prize works include Jie Dui Xiang (Borrowing a Match), Wei Geming Si Zhu (Feeding Pigs for the Revolution) and Kou Zhun Shen Pan Hong (Kou Zhun Judges Pan Hong); third-prize works include Kai Zhang Da Ji (May the Business Prosper). Yang Minmou (associated inheritor, as recorded in the official inheritor file): male, Han, born in 1948, a native of Xiamen, Fujian. The anthology Lin Pengxiang’s Selected Answer-Beating Drums, which he co-compiled, won third prize at the first Baihua Awards; he has performed more than fifty works including Qingchun (Celebrating the New Spring), and many of his works have been used by China Central Radio, China Radio International and the provincial and municipal radio and television stations. Representative inheritor of dazuigu in the second batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects, and vice-chairman of the Xiamen Quyi Association. In 1978 he became a pupil of Lin Pengxiang, chairman of the provincial quyi association; in 1990 his work Longnian Shuolong (Talking of the Dragon in the Year of the Dragon) won first prize in the second Xiamen quyi writing competition.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Chen Qingping 02-0757
- Yang Minmou 02-0758
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。