Taige

Ⅹ-87Folk CustomsDai, ShanxiBatch 2 (2008)Newly Added Item

01 · Historical Records

Taige (raised pavilions) originated from deity-welcoming festival gatherings in the Central Plains region, and later spread to the southeastern coast and the northwestern region; it was highly popular for a time during the Qing dynasty, and in the course of its transmission it combined with local conditions in different places, developing distinct characteristics.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Taige — also called 'taijiao' (raised corners), 'taige' (raised songs), 'gaotai' (high raises), 'naoge' (挠阁), 'naoge' (脑阁, head-borne pavilions), and 'gaozhuang' (high displays) — is a folk procession performance form in traditional festival activities. In a taige performance, several children dressed as ancient-costumed opera figures are arranged into elaborate tableaux according to the plot, fixed to iron pillars and brackets on a square pavilion, which bearers carry as they walk. Traditional taige tableaux are mostly drawn from plays such as The Butterfly Lovers, The Marriage of the Heavenly Fairy (Tianxian pei), The Legend of the White Snake, Journey to the West, Zhaojun Goes Beyond the Frontier, The Blue Bridge Meeting, The Yellow Crane Tower, and The Fisherman's Revenge (Daiyu sha jia). The tableaux stand about 3 to 5 meters high, and the pavilions have three to five tiers, generally with one person per tier; some have four on the bottom tier, five or six in the middle tier, and one on the top tier. In a taige procession, four pavilions are generally used, and at most six or even eight may be used, each carried forward by four or eight bearers. Taige fuses painting, opera, colored paper craft, and paper sculpture into one, with elegant forms and spectacular scenes; it is loved by the broad masses and has long remained prevalent among the people. Ekou naoge is a special variety of acrobatic and mixed performance arts, transmitted inside and beyond the Yanmen Pass in Dai County, Shanxi Province, with Ekou as its center. Naoge consists of two parts, a band and a performance troupe; its content is ancient and traditional, its form unique and distinctive, and its props primitive and plain. The band uses eight instruments including drums, suona (Chinese shawm), and sheng (mouth organ); the performance troupe generally consists of about sixty naoge setups (groups), each with two people — one adult and one child — while special setups (groups) have three. The young performers are generally chosen from pretty children of five or six years old; after being made up as various ancient-costumed drama figures, they stand on specially made iron frames, fixed with wide cloth straps, and are then carried on the shoulders of physically strong adult men with a good sense of music. When the performance begins, the raw and vigorous music sounds; the strong man below strides with bold, steady steps, while the young actor on his shoulders dances gracefully along with it. Amid the cheerful, fervent music, the child and the strong man dance together; the performers' emotions merge with the musical atmosphere, and the popular revelry reaches its climax.

A line of sixty rigs

Around sixty rigs make up the procession, two people each, with three on special rigs.

Tying the little riders in place

Children of five or six are costumed as opera figures, strapped to a special iron frame and borne on a strong adult's shoulder.

The band of eight instruments

The art pairs a band of eight instruments with the performers, the drums setting the pace of the strong men's steps.

Emotion fused with the step in the music

As the raw music starts, the strong men stride steadily and the children on their shoulders dance, emotion and music merging.

Staging at the Lantern Festival and teaching

They perform during the Lantern Festival and teach newcomers at the culture centre and its transmission rooms in idle months.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Ekou naoge reflects in concentrated form the superb skill of the folk artists of Dai County and displays the cultural character of this region.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

With the acceleration of modernization, taige activities are gradually declining, and a situation has arisen in rural areas in which the craft of making taige has no successors; related rescue and protection work is extremely urgent. Excavating, rescuing, and protecting Ekou naoge helps raise the overall quality of the people and promote the development of national cultural undertakings. Due to changes of the times, Ekou naoge is now in an endangered state and urgently needs protection. Hao Laixi (associated inheritor's official file record): Male, Han ethnicity, born in August 1948, native of Dai County, Shanxi Province. From childhood he loved folk art; at five he began appearing on naoge, and at eight he studied naoge production and various performance techniques under the old artist Hao Xiguan, beginning to perform naoge at eighteen or nineteen. He can bind naoge frames and make cloth flowers and grass, understands the eight categories of musical instruments, and can conduct; his naoge steps are light and measured with alternating tension and relaxation, and he knows many routines. He has led teams on many occasions to perform at various tourism festivals and cultural and art festivals. For many years he has engaged in naoge activities with full enthusiasm, becoming an indispensable participant and organizer of Ekou naoge. During the Lantern Festival each year he takes the field to perform; in his spare time he guides newcomers in study and teaches naoge technique at cultural centers, art centers, and transmission institutes, training a large number of folk-art enthusiasts. Representative inheritor of Taige (xinzi, iron branches, and floating colors) (Ekou naoge), a project of the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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