Tu Lunziqiu
01 · Historical Records
Regarding the origin of the Wheel Swing, there is a beautiful and magical legend. When people made wooden carts to haul the harvest, the last load of highland barley bundles overturned as it was carried onto the threshing ground. Two naked children danced on the wheel that was turned skyward, singing the harvest song "Yanggelou". From then on, every year after the winter threshing was finished, people would stand a large cart axle together with its wheels upright on a level, spacious threshing ground or open yard, having removed the cart body, and steady its center of gravity. A long wooden ladder was lashed flat across the upward-facing wheel, with rope loops plaited from leather thongs or hemp rope firmly tied to both ends of the ladder. After the 1980s, the original wooden wheels were replaced with steel disks fitted with ball bearings, making the apparatus sturdier and more attractive, and it was then decorated with colorful flags.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Wheel Swing is an ancient sport of the Tu people. In the Tu language it is called burire, meaning "to rotate" — a spinning wheel. The Wheel Swing is popular in Huzhu Tu Autonomous County, Qinghai, and is mostly held in the agricultural off-season and at joyous festivals. Legend has it that the Tu ancestors tried plowing first with a blue dragon and then with wild cattle, but neither attempt succeeded; in the end they plowed with yellow cattle and obtained a good harvest. Two people facing each other push the wooden ladder to set it spinning; then, carried by momentum, they sit or stand inside the rope loops and whirl rapidly, performing all sorts of breathtaking, death-defying feats. Onlookers from time to time help push the ladder to speed up the rotation. Sometimes a large group of brightly dressed young men and women form a circle alongside, singing and dancing like a host of stars crowding around the moon. The activity has gradually moved from the folk sphere onto proper sports fields, becoming familiar and accepted by more and more of the plateau's peoples — Han, Tibetan, Hui, and others. The Tu Wheel Swing primarily trains a person's sense of balance, strength of will, and spirit of cooperation; it is a symbol of the courage, wisdom, and unity of the Tu people, and a traditional activity that Tu men and women, old and young, love to watch and eagerly take part in.
The name Burire
Burire, the Tu name of the wheel swing, means turning; it is an ancient Tu sport held in the slack season and at festivals.
Cart axle and steel wheel
An upright cart axle and wheel anchored at the centre; since the 1980s the wooden wheel has been replaced by a steel disc on ball bearings and decked with pennants.
The long ladder and rope loops
A long wooden ladder is lashed across the upper wheel with rope loops at each end, two people spinning it before riding the loops through daring feats.
The legend of the ox
Legend tells that after dragons and wild oxen failed, the yellow ox ploughed successfully; when a harvest cart tipped over, two children danced on the upturned wheel singing the harvest song Yanggelou.
Hu Zongxian at the 1982 National Games
Hu Zongxian learned the craft from Ma Hailong in 1967, fused the wheel with Tu music and dance, and led its first Tu delegation to the 1982 National Games, winning a performance award.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Wheel Swing is mainly transmitted in the Tu villages of Huzhu Tu Autonomous County, Qinghai Province. Huzhu lies at the southern foot of the eastern section of the Qilian Mountains, on the northern bank of the Huangshui River, and is the area where the Tu people are most concentrated. In the agricultural off-season and at festivals such as the Spring Festival and Nadun, the village threshing grounds and yards are set up with Wheel Swings, and men and women, old and young, take turns mounting them. After the 1950s, the Wheel Swing moved from the threshing ground onto proper sports fields, and Huzhu County successively brought it to provincial and national traditional ethnic-minority sports games, making it familiar and accepted by the Han, Tibetan, Hui, and other peoples of the plateau. Tu-populated counties such as Datong and Minhe in Qinghai also have similar Wheel Swing activities.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
However, under the influence of modern ways of life, the grand scale of Wheel Swing activities has already declined somewhat, and protection is urgently needed. Hu Zongxian (from the official archive record of the associated inheritor): Male, Tu ethnicity, born in September 1943, from Huzhu Tu Autonomous County, Qinghai Province. A maker of Wheel Swing apparatus and a performer of its techniques. He began learning Wheel Swing construction from Ma Hailong in 1967 and mastered the essentials. By soliciting opinions from many quarters, he combined the Wheel Swing with Tu folk music and dance, creating a new form of Wheel Swing performance beloved by the masses. He later passed the techniques on to his grandchildren to ensure the transmission of the project. Representative inheritor of the Tu Wheel Swing, a national-level intangible cultural heritage item from the fifth national-level batch. In 1982, he organized participants to represent the Tu people for the first time at the Second National Games, winning a performance award. Thereafter he successively took part in national- and provincial-level traditional ethnic-minority sports games, art festivals, Nadun festivals, and the like, winning awards on many occasions.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Hu Zongxian 05-2554
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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