Folk Beliefs and Customs

Ⅹ-85Folk CustomsHaikou, HainanBatch 4 (2014)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

During the Northern and Southern Dynasties through the Sui dynasty, Xian Ying (later known as "Lady Xian"), a leader of the Lingnan peoples, assisted her husband Feng Bao, the governor of Gaoliang, in dispatching troops south to Hainan Island. Since the Tang dynasty, more than 100 temples to Lady Xian were built across the island (just over 60 survive today). Its main activities include: first, the sacrificial ceremony — the temple-fair headman leads the ceremonial party in devout worship before the statue of Lady Xian and recites the eulogy, after which the people freely burn incense and pray, expressing their reverence for and wishes to Lady Xian.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The folk activity held in Haikou to commemorate Lady Xian is called the "Junpo Festival". The villages of Xinpo Town in Haikou City, Hainan Province, once served as garrison camps for Lady Xian's army; the Junpo Festival has a long history there, and its activity format and content are highly representative. They pacified uprisings and brought stability to the people, ending the situation in which Hainan was "long in turmoil and never unified", resolving the island's long-standing separation from the central authority, safeguarding national unity, and promoting ethnic solidarity. Lady Xian's deeds in loving her country and her people earned wide praise, and she was accordingly enfeoffed as "Lady of Qiao State". After Lady Xian passed away, the people of Hainan built numerous temples in her memory. The Haikou Junpo Festival is distributed across the four districts of Qiongshan, Longhua, Meilan, and Xiuying, within which more than 20 temples to Lady Xian were jointly built. Each year from the 6th to the 12th day of the second lunar month, the traditional Junpo Festival is held on schedule. Second, "mustering the troops" (zhuangjun): a costumed parade reenacting the expedition Lady Xian once led. More than 70 soldiers lead the way, carrying aloft the commander's banner bearing the character "Xian"; a procession of over 60 boys and girls carrying flower baskets follows closely behind; then come various units such as the saber troop and the cudgel soldiers, with more than 800 men and women soldiers lined up in two columns. During the parade, at a martial master's command, the soldiers pair off in sparring bouts — a spectacular sight. Finally, warriors carry the palanquin holding the idol of Lady Xian, with the war-drum troupe bringing up the rear. The "mustering the troops" procession departs from the "Pointing-at-Generals Platform" (dianjiangtai), circles the temple-fair ground several times, and returns to the platform. Third, celebration: performances of the zhongpan (cup-tray) dance, the bayin (eight-instrument) dance, the dragon dance, the lion dance, the tiger dance, martial arts and acrobatics, and athletic competitions celebrate the triumphant return of Lady Xian's army. Fourth, the market fair: agricultural and sideline products come to market in concentrated fashion and are given all manner of auspicious names. Taking history as a mirror, the Haikou Junpo Festival recreates important historical scenes and promotes Lady Xian's spirit of safeguarding national unity and fostering ethnic solidarity — a vivid classroom for patriotic education with important contemporary significance. The Junpo Festival gathers Hainan's folk culture together, providing a stage for music, song and dance, and martial arts; it preserves the organizational forms of folk cultural activities, passes on a rich folk-art heritage, and enriches the people's spiritual life.

The six-day festival period

For seven days the villages of northern Hainan hold their fairs in rotation, each with its own borrowed flags, palanquins and drummers.

The column leaving the muster platform

Over seventy banner-bearers, sixty children with flower baskets, then dagger and staff teams, eight hundred marchers circling the muster platform.

Mock combat and the closing war drums

On the marshal's shout pairs of soldiers fight with short weapons, then the palanquin bearing the goddess passes with the drums behind it.

Cup-and-tray dance, music and lion and tiger

Cup-and-tray dancing, eight-piece bands, dragon, lion and tiger dances mark the imagined victory of the goddess's army.

The market and auspicious names for produce

Farm produce is sold under auspicious names for the duration of the fair, the stalls dispersing as soon as the period ends.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The Haikou Junpo Festival spreads outward from Xinpo Town as its center to the four districts of Qiongshan, Longhua, Meilan, and Xiuying, within which more than 20 temples to Lady Xian were jointly built. The villages of Xinpo Town once served as garrison camps for Lady Xian's army, so the "mustering the troops" there most closely resembles a military camp's formations, with complete complements of soldiers, saber troops, and cudgel soldiers; the other dong (settlement units) contribute people household by household, the larger ones sending several hundred. At each temple, the temple-fair headman leads the ceremonial party in devout worship before the statue of Lady Xian and recites the eulogy, after which the people freely burn incense and pray; each village organizes the event on its own, so within the same festival season one can attend several in succession. The Junpo Festivals of the three towns of Xinpo, Sanjiang, and Xixiu have always been jointly organized spontaneously by the villages: whichever village has a complete troupe takes the lead in offering the first incense. Transmission relies on such spontaneous community groups rather than external appointment.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Haikou City treats the Junpo Festivals of Xinpo Town, Sanjiang Town, and Xixiu Town as key objects of protection; their transmission is characterized by spontaneous community groups.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

Wu Jishan 05-3019
Xu Shunwei 05-3020
Huang Guanghui 05-3021
Chen Jikun 05-3022
Sinapinchu 05-3023
Liu Shimei 05-3024
Zhang Qingming 05-3025
Zheng Quanguang 05-3026
Ye Da 05-3027
Li Yaohui
Luo Shengzong

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Folk Beliefs and Customs (Haikou, Hainan) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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。