Quanfeng Flower Lantern Dance
01 · Historical Records
Quanfeng Flower Lantern comes from Quanfeng Town, Xiushui County, Jiangxi, and is a performance situated between lantern, opera, and dance. Because it is found in a remote mountain township, this art has never relied on a stage from the very beginning: the lantern troupes are active in the high mountains and dense forests, needing no stage and no curtains, while field edges, grasslands, halls, and courtyards can all serve as impromptu venues; once the gongs and drums sound, people gather around. Its sphere of use is therefore very broad — not only at Chinese New Year, when lanterns are raised on the first day of the first lunar month and the singing continues through the Lantern Festival, running from house to house and singing all night; on ordinary occasions such as birthday celebrations, roof-beam raisings, and weddings, the flower lantern is likewise invited to add liveliness. There are more than twenty flower lantern troupes in the Quanfeng Town area, each with its own gongs and drums, costumes, and props; the members range from sixteen years old to more than seventy. Tangcheng Street, the Longquan section, the Huangsha section, Ludouwo, Huangpaochong, Shanshuping, and Shangyuan are the most active. All singing and recitation use the authentic Quanfeng dialect of the western townships, and the tonal contours of that dialect have become the distinguishing mark of the flower lantern.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Quanfeng Flower Lantern is a performance activity of Quanfeng Town, Xiushui County, Jiangxi, situated between lantern, opera, and dance; its main feature is lantern-troupe performance, and it has a strong folk character. During the Spring Festival, flower lantern troupes from all over the countryside gather, singing from the raising of lanterns on the first day through to the Lantern Festival, running from house to house and singing through the night. In addition, for folk festivals, birthday celebrations, roof-beam raisings, and weddings, the flower lantern is invited to add liveliness. Quanfeng Flower Lantern has eight lanterns, also called basin lanterns, and its lantern craft has eight special feats, known as: sisters-in-law pushing the millstone, the mouse on the beam, Liu Hai toying with the boat, the monkey's sparring, Rengui shooting the eagle, sisters viewing flowers, Dongbin carrying the sword, and Zhang San beating the tiger — all of them playful performances. At the four corners of the performance space stand four hexagonal long lanterns, accompanied by flower lantern music. When the festival flower lantern troupe goes to a household to perform, it must first send a lantern notice to inform them. On setting out, a placard reading Celebrating the Recreational Flower Lantern of So-and-so leads the way, with colored lanterns shining along the route and gongs and drums resounding. The flower lantern troupes are active in remote backwaters, high mountains, and dense forests, needing no stage or curtains; field edges, grasslands, halls, and courtyards are all possible venues, at any time or place. They are loved and enjoyed by the mountain audiences, bringing the mountain people an atmosphere of peace and joy. Quanfeng Town has more than twenty flower lantern troupes; the most active are Tangcheng Street (the seat of the town), the Longquan section, the Huangsha section, Ludouwo, Huangpaochong, Shanshuping, and Shangyuan. Each troupe has equipment such as gongs and drums, costumes, and props; the youngest performers are sixteen and the oldest more than seventy, and all possess a certain ability to sing and perform. The Longquan section has more than 1,200 inhabitants, 70 percent of whom can sing the flower lantern, which shows how widespread it is.
Singing from first day to the Lantern Festival
Lantern troupes gather at New Year and sing house to house through the Lantern Festival, often all night without pause.
The lantern notice and the banner that leads
A written notice is delivered first, then a banner reading congratulatory words leads the lit lanterns and drums to the host's door.
Eight pot-lanterns and their tricks
Eight pot lanterns each carry a named trick — the sister-in-law mill, the mouse on the beam, the hair-child on the boat — all played as physical amusement.
Lanterns invited for birthdays, beam-raising and weddings
Beyond New Year, the lanterns are called in for festivals, birthdays, raising a new roof beam and weddings, roaming the hills as the handiest entertainment.
Nearly every household sings in Longquan
Of more than 1,200 people in the Longquan district some seventy per cent can sing, so a passing troupe always meets an answering chorus.
Dai Shuiping's teaching and collection
Dai Shuiping taught music at the local school while learning from his granduncle, mastering singing, instruments and lantern making before compiling the published collection.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The singing and recitation of the flower lantern all use the authentic Quanfeng dialect of the western townships.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The principal inheritor today is Cao Zemin, three generations of whose family have sung the flower lantern. Dai Shuiping (recorded in the official archives of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in March 1955, from Xiushui County, Jiangxi. Influenced by his great-uncle Cao Zhihuo from childhood, he came to love Quanfeng Flower Lantern; in middle school he studied singing with his elders. After being discharged from the army in 1976, he taught music at Quanfeng Town Middle School, while studying singing, instrumental performance, and lantern-making under his great-uncle. He has complete mastery of the sheng (male), dan (female), and chou (clown) singing skills of Quanfeng Flower Lantern, the performance skills on the erhu, flute, and suona of the flower lantern ensemble, and the hand-crafting skills of lantern making. He has organized and compiled materials on Quanfeng Flower Lantern, incorporated them into the middle school music and art curriculum, and edited and published the book Quanfeng Flower Lantern. He has taken on nearly twenty apprentices in flower lantern singing, instrumental performance, and lantern-making. He is a representative inheritor of Quanfeng Flower Lantern, an item of national-level intangible cultural heritage of the fifth batch. He has organized and arranged Quanfeng Flower Lantern programs to take part in cultural and artistic activities of various kinds, winning awards on many occasions.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Dai Shuiping 05-2991
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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