Taige
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. Jintan taige is a large-scale folk activity in the Jintan temple fairs; it arose in the Ming dynasty and is transmitted in Jincheng Town, Jintan City, Jiangsu Province, and the surrounding area.
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. Jintan taige has elegant forms and rich content, with percussion-and-wind accompaniment that is resonant and rhythmic; its performances are lively in atmosphere and grand in scale, and are enjoyed by the broad public. The 'pavilion' used in Jintan taige is a rectangular base frame six chi long and five chi wide, with a rectangular pedestal below it on four legs; within the pedestal wooden poles serve as supports, decorated with rockeries, curved bridges, railings, flowers, green shade, and pavilions. On the 'pavilion' there are altogether five to seven boys and girls dressed as various opera figures, all around ten years old. When the procession sets out, sixteen strong men perform the 'eight carries and eight props': eight lift it on their shoulders while eight support it with poles. In its heyday, seven taige in Jintan would process at the same time — those of the City God Temple, Zhongyou Shrine Temple, Hexi Temple, Liwang Temple, Bala (Eight Wax) Temple, Dianzhi Shrine, and Hedong Temple — with grand scale and great momentum.
Eight shoulder, eight prop
Sixteen men carry the platform, eight on their shoulders and eight propping with poles.
The five-tier wooden frame
The platform is built of stakes and pins joined into five tiers, rising about eight metres.
Five to seven children on the platform
Five to seven children of about ten, costumed as opera figures, ride on the frame as it moves.
Faux hills, bridges and pavilions
The rectangular seat-frame is dressed with faux hills, a winding bridge, rails, flowers, shade and pavilions.
Seven temples sending out platforms together
At its height seven temples in Jintan sent out platforms at once on a grand scale.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The 'pavilion' is framed with wooden posts and pins, joined top to bottom into one body; from top to bottom it has five tiers, with a total height of two zhang five chi.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige · Taige.
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. Jintan taige is an acrobatic performance art closely integrated with traditional opera and a rare, precious type among folk arts; it has high reference value for research on the relationships among traditional opera, folk acrobatics, and folk activities.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zhao Yunshan 03-1478
- Zhang Genzhi 03-1479
- Liu Wenchang 03-1480
- Zhong Yuwen 03-1481
- Fu Hengyu 03-1482
- Deng Junchao 03-1483
- Liu Duanfu 03-1484
- Li Ming 03-1485
- Peng Niangyao 03-1486
- Chen Fanxing 04-1976
- Tan Haobin 04-1977
- Gongsun Xin 04-1978
- Li Fuxian 04-1979
- Gao Yumin 05-3029
- Hao Laixi 05-3030
- Yao Ruming 05-3031
- Li Yangbo 05-3032
- Liu Qiyue 05-3033
- Liang Erdun 05-3034
- Hu Liangang
- Chen Wenshan
- Sun Kangfu
- Zhou Xingguang
- Huang Xuejun
- Zhang Guoqin
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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。