Zhongfan
01 · Historical Records
It originated in the Tang and Song dynasties and has a history of more than one thousand years to the present day.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
A zhongfan consists of a banner pole, an umbrella, flags, banner cloth and bells, among other things. It comprises a dozen-odd routines and more than fifty movements, combining highly difficult techniques such as body shaping and pose display (liangxiang) into one, and offers a degree of entertainment. Jian'ou tiaofan is a unique folk traditional cultural and artistic heritage of Jian'ou City, Fujian Province. After the national hero Zheng Chenggong recovered Taiwan at the end of the Ming dynasty, he bound the military flags brought back by his soldiers to the tops of long bamboo poles and waved them, to express his remembrance of the brothers who had laid down their lives heroically. Jian'ou tiaofan not only has historical content of its own; the craft of making its banners also has a distinctive style. In terms of form, the banner of Jian'ou tiaofan requires a straight moso bamboo about ten metres long, with its branches and leaves cut away, coated in vermilion paint and painted with various auspicious patterns. Colourful lanterns are tied to the top of the pole; below the lanterns stands a six-sided pagoda made of bamboo ribs and coloured silk, with several small bronze bells hung around it, and at the foot of the pagoda a brocade banner is hung down along the pole, with words of praise and eulogy embroidered on the banner. According to appraisal, the longest banner measures 10.2 metres and weighs 20.6 kilograms. Today's Jian'ou tiaofan continues to be carried forward on the basis of its traditional techniques, and has formed a set of new routines that are varied in colour, novel in conception and demanding in difficulty, such as 'hands dance as the east wind turns, shoulders carry the southern celestial pine, elbows raise the command token of the central army, teeth bite the northern sea pagoda, mouth lift the banner of a hundred battles, nose support the universe staff and feet kick the western pillar'. Jian'ou tiaofan serves the dual purposes of cultural entertainment and physical conditioning. Its varied and colourful performance displays both strength and skill, and is accompanied by classical costume and folk gong-and-drum music; bold and unrestrained yet not without elegance, it reveals the deep historical and cultural connotations, and the research value, of the fusion of the Central Plains culture with the Minyue culture.
A ten-metre bamboo and a hexagonal pagoda
A straight ten-metre bamboo is stripped, lacquered vermilion and painted; a lantern crowns it above a hexagonal pagoda of bamboo and silk hung with copper bells, from which a brocade banner with eulogistic verses depends.
Hand whirling the east wind, shoulder carrying the southern pine
On top of the old techniques the form developed a showy, difficult new set of moves worked with hands, shoulder, elbow, teeth, mouth, nose and foot.
Zheng Chenggong's standards and the army rite
After Zheng Chenggong recovered Taiwan, soldiers lashed captured standards to long poles and waved them in memory of the fallen; the yearly rite became the local art of banner lifting.
Women banner lifters
Having learned from folk artists from 1990, the inheritor Zhu Shiliang kept renewing the moves and props and boldly trained and fielded women lifters.
The Shanhua prize and the banner troupe
Zhu Shiliang founded and heads the Jian'ou banner troupe, trained over forty successors, wrote a book on the art, and in 2011 won the tenth Shanhua folk-art prize for “Celebration”.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Zhongfan is an ancient Chinese folk art, distributed mainly in today's Xianghe County and Zhengding County of Hebei Province and in Jian'ou City, Fujian Province.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Tianqiaozhongfan · Zhongfan · Zhongfan.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
From then on, the army used this ceremony every year to comfort the fallen martyrs. It became a custom, was handed down through generation after generation, and gradually evolved into the tiaofan custom peculiar to the folk of Jian'ou, which has a history of more than three hundred and forty years to the present day. Zhu Shiliang (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, of the Han ethnic group, born in August 1956, a native of Nanping City, Fujian Province. A zhongfan performer. He began to study and practise Jian'ou tiaofan in 1990, first learning it from folk artists such as Xu Ruiyu, and afterwards continuing with self-study until he had mastered every skill. On the basis of the traditional skills he kept innovating the movements and moves of tiaofan, improving the tiaofan props and enlarging the performance spaces; he also boldly trained and put women to performing tiaofan, making the tiaofan performance more artistic and more pleasing to watch. During that time he formed the Jian'ou City Tiaofan Art Troupe and served as its head, and took part in important competitions many times. He actively organised the transmission of Jian'ou tiaofan, has trained more than forty successors, and has long been devoted to collecting and sorting out the history of Jian'ou tiaofan, compiling the book National-Level Intangible Cultural Heritage — Jian'ou Tiaofan, which comprehensively reflects the results of the transmission and development of Jian'ou tiaofan. Representative inheritor of Zhongfan (Jian'ou Tiaofan), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the fifth national-level batch. In 2011, the tiaofan programme Celebration, which he organised, created and starred in, won the tenth China Folk Literature and Art Mountain Flower Award.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Fu Wengang 01-0034
- Guo Jianbing 05-2533
- Zhu Shiliang 05-2534
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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