Miao Xiliepohuiqun
01 · Historical Records
The slope fair gatherings of Rongshui have no single starting year; they are the old practice by which the Miao people gathered in succession by slope during the first lunar month. On ordinary days the Miao villages are scattered across the ridges, and walking from one village to the next is both tiring and lonely, so the five days from the third to the seventeenth of the first lunar month are broken apart, with one fair held each day and each village taking its turn as host. The lusheng ensembles set out on the beat of the drums, and the fairground becomes a shared measure of time for the whole village. There is no fixed format to the gatherings: besides mourning the martyrs, praying to avert disasters, and boosting morale, courtship, the exchange of news and of techniques, and market trading all happen on the same day. The handlers of the lusheng and the hall-stepping dance at the gatherings are key figures of each village, and Liang Bingguang is one of their representatives: at the age of seven he learned the skills of playing the lusheng, the hall-stepping dance, and singing Miao songs, and he also inherited the fifth-generation craft of the lusheng master Gu Li, tying the tone of most of the lusheng in the county to his own hands. In 2008 he was invited to make the King of Lusheng, about fifteen meters tall and more than two hundred kilograms in weight, bringing this village artifact onto a larger stage.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Miao Series of Slope Fair Gatherings refers to the festival activities of the villages and hamlets of the townships of Rongshui County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, during the period from the third to the seventeenth day of the first lunar month each spring. During this period, one slope fair is held each day, arranged in sequence without interruption. It is a grand traditional folk festival in which people of all ethnic groups, mainly the Miao, mourn the martyrs, pray to avert disasters, boost morale, exchange feelings, and gather for collective entertainment. As a unique festival, the Miao Series of Slope Fair Gatherings brings the local people not merely an opportunity for a gathering, but also enables the mountain people, as they attend one another's slope fairs, to realize their various wishes — displaying their talents, courting, making friends and reminiscing, passing on news, exchanging techniques, and trading goods. It displays the production and livelihood, customs, and aesthetic taste of the people of all ethnic groups of this region, mainly the Miao; it binds together the common feelings of the ethnicity, strengthens cultural identity, cohesion, and unity of purpose, and demonstrates very distinct value as intangible cultural heritage.
Fifteen days of back-to-back slope fairs
From the third to the seventeenth day of the first lunar month, one slope fair a day ran without a break, hosted in turn by each village.
Lusheng-led column dancing
The lusheng line led the dancing, which circled the ground on the drumbeat before splitting and closing again.
Rites for warding off misfortune
Commemoration and prayer for safety opened the ground before the entertainments began, seeking a year of sound livestock and good fields.
Courtship, trade and skill exchange on the slope
One trip up the slope served several ends at once: courtship, tool and technique exchange, and news passing between villages.
Making the giant king of lusheng
Lusheng pipes are cut and tuned to a tight tone; in 2008 Liang Bingguang built a giant set some fifteen metres tall and over two hundred kilograms in weight.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The word series in the Series of Slope Fair Gatherings refers to the festival period being strung together rather than each fair being held on its own. Drums start up on the third day of the first lunar month, and the sequence runs through to the seventeenth, one slope each day, each fair joining end to end with the next, so that the crowds need not fully disperse before moving on. The venues are distributed among the villages and hamlets of the townships of Rongshui County, mainly Miao, with people of all ethnic groups sharing the same ground and the same stage; the voices of the ox horns and the lusheng differ, and the spectators below are likewise mixed. The size of a village determines the size of the fairground: a small village holds its own fair, while larger ones hold joint fairs; when the lusheng sound together on the slope, the hall-stepping dance moves with the drums, circling the ground once before splitting into lines, and only then do the antiphonal songs and the dispersal follow. This one-fair-a-day arrangement links otherwise unconnected villages into a route of movement over half a month, and mountain people complete their trading and technical exchange in passing along the way to the fairs, so that festival and daily life are never cut off from one another.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
However, under the influence of modernization, people's modes of production and life have changed, and combined with factors such as urbanization in the countryside, the Miao Series of Slope Fair Gatherings has fallen into an endangered condition. Liang Bingguang (recorded in the official archives of the associated inheritor): Male, Miao ethnicity, born in April 1941, from Rongshui Miao Autonomous County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Immersed in the environment from childhood, at the age of seven he learned the skills of playing the lusheng, the hall-stepping dance, and singing Miao songs. He delights in making lusheng and is a fifth-generation inheritor of the lusheng master Gu Li. The lusheng he makes are of good quality and have extremely strong tonal tension; most of the lusheng in the county come from his hands. In 2008, in celebration of the Beijing Olympic Games, he was invited to make the King of Lusheng, about fifteen meters tall and weighing more than two hundred kilograms. As the local lusheng head, he actively leads the masses in taking part in slope fair activities. He can play and sing, is widely connected, and is upright in conduct, enjoying considerable prestige locally. He is a representative inheritor of the Miao Series of Slope Fair Gatherings, an item of national-level intangible cultural heritage of the fourth batch. He has taken on more than a hundred apprentices, often travels elsewhere to promote Miao culture, has taken part in performances of various kinds in Beijing, Hong Kong, and other places, and has been named one of Liuzhou's ten best folk artists.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Liang Bingguang 04-1965
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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