Taige

Ⅹ-87Folk CustomsJiangyou, 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. In the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty, gaotai opera had already appeared in the ancient town of Qinglinkou.

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. Qinglinkou Gaotai Opera, also called “piaose” or “taige”, is a folk disguised-drama performance style transmitted in the ancient town of Qinglinkou in Jiangyou, northwestern Sichuan. On the first day of the first lunar month each year, Qinglinkou holds its traditional temple fair, during which gaotai opera is performed. Gaotai opera requires no stage or theater; relying entirely on traditional binding techniques, it transforms folk legends and stories into vivid artistic images, presenting dramatic episodes frozen on a raised platform, held up by human effort for the public to enjoy. The binding of gaotai opera is very complex, involving eleven process steps from beginning to end. The figures basically adopt the compositional approach of traditional folk New Year paintings, and the modeling is highly exaggerated. The most prominent feature of gaotai opera is its ingenious use of mechanisms to suspend characters in midair, giving the audience a powerful visual impact.

Eleven stages of binding

Binding is the hardest task, passing through eleven stages.

Exaggeration in the New Year print manner

Figures follow the composition of folk New Year prints, exaggerated by design.

Hoisting figures into the air

Its most striking feat is a mechanism that hoists characters into the air to the audience's astonishment.

Autumn River, the Umbrella and the Wild Geese

Representative works include Autumn River, the Umbrella, Wild Geese, Sending a Lady to the Capital and White Snake.

Performance at the temple fair

A traditional temple fair is held on the first of the second lunar month, and the platforms perform within it.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Qinglinkou Gaotai Opera is mounted in the ancient town of Qinglinkou in Jiangyou, with the temple fair and the Lantern Festival as its regular venues. The representative inheritor Fu Hengyu is an eighth-generation transmitter, with more than forty years in the art and more than two hundred performances organized and participated in. Deng Junchao studied under Nie Xueming and Wang Linwu from 1962, has organized and participated in more than two hundred performances over forty-odd years, and has continuously improved the binding and costumed presentation, working modern stories into the raised platforms as well.

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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. Fu Hengyu (associated inheritor, per official archives): He fully mastered the art of Qinglinkou Gaotai Opera, ingeniously combining dramatic modeling with folk binding techniques and incorporating the special skills of traditional dramatic performance, thereby enhancing its appeal and interest. He has worked in the art for more than forty years, participating in and organizing more than two hundred performances. Representative works include Autumn River, Treading the Umbrella, Shooting the Goose, Escorting Jingniang and Legend of the White Snake. He has one apprentice. Male, Han ethnicity, born in November 1954, died in November 2011, from Jiangyou City, Sichuan Province. Representative inheritor of Taige (Xinzi, Tiezhi, Piaose) — Qinglinkou Gaotai Opera — a third-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project. He studied under a master from childhood and is an eighth-generation transmitter of Qinglinkou Gaotai Opera. In 2006, as a core member, he took part in the 8th Chinese Folk Literature and Art Shanhua Award and the First Chinese Folk Piaose (Taige) Art Performance, hosted by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and other organizations, and won an award. Deng Junchao (associated inheritor, per official archives): Male, Han ethnicity, born in November 1947, from Jiangyou City, Sichuan Province. In 1962 he studied under the veteran Qinglinkou Gaotai Opera artists Nie Xueming and Wang Linwu, and fully mastered the art. For more than forty years he has organized and participated in more than two hundred performances. In organizing and participating, serving as lead editor, and in binding and costumed performance, he has continuously improved and innovated, incorporating modern exemplary stories and deeds of advanced individuals into gaotai opera. Representative inheritor of Taige (Xinzi, Tiezhi, Piaose) — Qinglinkou Gaotai Opera — a third-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project. In 2006, Legend of the White Snake and The Muke Stockade, performed by Qinglinkou Gaotai Opera artists under his leadership, took part in the 8th Chinese Folk Literature and Art Shanhua Award and the First Chinese Folk Piaose (Taige) Art Performance, hosted by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and other organizations, and won an award.

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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