Taige

Ⅹ-87Folk CustomsXingwen, SichuanBatch 2 (2008)Newly Added Item

01 · Historical Records

Taige (raised pavilions) originated in god-welcoming festival processions in the Central Plains, later spreading gradually to the southeast coast and the northwest, where it flourished for a time in the Qing dynasty; in the course of transmission it combined with local conditions and formed distinct characteristics. The Daba Gaozhuang is a special folk modeling art; it originated in the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty and is transmitted in Daba Miao Ethnic Township in Xingwen County, southern Sichuan.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Taige, also known as taijiao (carried roles), taige (raised songs), gaotai (raised platforms), naoge, naoge (head pavilions) and gaozhuang (high costumes), is a folk parade performance form in traditional festival activities. In a taige performance, several children dress as characters from traditional opera and, following the plot, form striking tableaux fixed to the iron pillars and supports of a square pavilion, which bearers then carry forward. Traditional taige tableaux mostly draw on plays such as The Butterfly Lovers, Tianxian Pei (The Fairy Couple), Legend of the White Snake, Journey to the West, Zhaojun Goes to the Frontier, The Blue Bridge Rendezvous, The Yellow Crane Tower and The Fisherman's Revenge. The tableaux stand about 3 to 5 meters high; the pavilions range from three to five tiers, generally with one person on each tier, though some have four people on the bottom tier, five or six in the middle tiers and one on the top tier. In a taige parade, generally four pavilions are used, and at most six or even eight; each pavilion is carried forward by four or eight bearers. Taige fuses painting, opera, colored paper framing and paper sculpture into a single art form; its tableaux are elegant and its scenes spectacular, much loved by the broad masses, and it has flourished among the people for a long time without decline. The Daba Gaozhuang street parade is held on the first and second days of the first lunar month each year. The parade is opened by the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions, with a miraculous child riding horseback to lead the way; the gaozhuang platforms, antique carrying frames, dragon lanterns, lion lanterns, lusheng ensembles (Miao), gongs and drums and suona horns follow in succession, with gongs and drums resounding to the sky and cannon fire deafening the ears — an extraordinarily lively scene. The gaozhuang frame is a wooden high platform with four posts and planked boards, two meters high, with a surface area of four square meters. In the center of the platform stands an iron rod four to six meters long, called the zhuangting (dressing pavilion); the upper end of the zhuangting is forged into a hooked bend shaped like the Bopomofo letter “en”. A performance generally requires four frames, each staging one play: the performer mounted at the top of the zhuangting plays the leading female role, while those standing on the platform play supporting roles; all the characters are played by children of twelve or thirteen, who hold props and strike various poses. Each frame is clamped fast with two large carrying poles and lifted by eight people who walk slowly along the street; generally sixteen people make up one unit, taking turns with one another. The distinctive features of the gaozhuang are the yantou (head-cover device) and the “false feet”. The yantou is the main prop of the gaozhuang performance; it is ingeniously placed in the middle of the iron pavilion, beneath the feet of the top-mounted performer. The false foot of the top-mounted performer, shod in an embroidered shoe, stands on the yantou, while the other identical false foot juts backward; beneath the robe, no trace of the artifice can be detected.

The twenty-eight stars leading the way

Held on the first and second of the second lunar month, the parade opens with the twenty-eight stars and a boy on horseback.

The iron mast and the top performer

A four-to-six metre iron mast rises from the platform with its top bent; children of twelve or thirteen play the leading and supporting roles.

The disguise of head-cover and false feet

A cover board and a pair of false feet hide the trick: one foot stands on it, the other kicks back unseen beneath the robe.

Four platforms carried in rotation

Four platforms are prepared, one per play, each clamped between two poles and carried by sixteen men in turn.

Hasannmei goes to war

His plays reflecting the Bo and Miao culture of Xingwen became the finest of the Gao's repertoire.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The Daba Gaozhuang has a long history; in the course of its long transmission it has been deeply loved by the people of Xingwen County, and it has become vivid material for the study of local history, culture and customs.

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 have gradually declined; in the countryside the craft of making taige faces a shortage of successors, and related rescue and preservation work is extremely urgent. Zhong Yuwen (associated inheritor, per official archives): Male, Han ethnicity, born in September 1940, from Xingwen County, Sichuan Province. He can direct the making of gaozhuang implements, costumes, yantou and props; according to the play, he applies makeup, binds the mounting and erects the gaozhuang, and independently directs Daba Gaozhuang performances. He actively participates in the creation of Daba Gaozhuang plays. Plays he arranged, such as Flooding the Jinshan Temple, Mu Guiying Takes Command and The Hibiscus Flower Fairy, and plays created under his leadership, such as Hasanmei Goes on Expedition and Lusheng Love Song, reflect the Bo and Miao culture of Xingwen and have become Daba Gaozhuang masterpieces. Representative inheritor of Taige (Xinzi, Tiezhi, Piaose) — Daba Gaozhuang — a third-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project. In 2008, Hasanmei Goes on Expedition won the silver award at the 7th Chinese Folk Art Festival and the Shanhua Award Chinese Folk Piaose (Taige) Art Performance, hosted by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and other organizations.

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 ↗

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。