Taige

Ⅹ-87Folk CustomsHuangzhong, QinghaiBatch 2 (2008)Newly Added Item

01 · Historical Records

Taige originated in god-welcoming temple-fair processions in the Central Plains region and later spread gradually to the southeastern coast and the northwest. It enjoyed a period of popularity in the Qing dynasty; as it spread, it combined with local conditions in each place, giving rise to different characteristics. The origins of Qianhuying Gaotai can be traced back to the Hongwu reign of the Ming dynasty, giving it a history of more than five hundred years.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Taige (lifted pavilions) is also known by such names as taijiao, taige, gaotai, naoge, naoge, and gaozhuang, and is a form of folk procession performance in traditional festival activities. In taige performances, several children dress as figures in traditional opera costume and, following the plot, form splendid tableaux, which are fixed to iron pillars and supports on a square pavilion platform and carried along by bearers. Traditional taige tableaux are mostly drawn from such repertoire works as The Butterfly Lovers (Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai), The Marriage of the Fairy (Tianxian Pei), Legend of the White Snake (Baishe Zhuan), Journey to the West (Xiyouji), Zhaojun Goes Beyond the Frontier (Zhaojun Chusai), Meeting at the Blue Bridge (Lanqiao Hui), Yellow Crane Tower (Huanghelou), and The Fisherman's Revenge (Dayu Shajia). The tableaux stand roughly three to five meters high; the pavilions have three to five tiers, generally one performer per tier, though some have four performers on the bottom tier, five or six in the middle, and one on top. In a taige procession, four pavilions are generally used, and at most six or even eight; each pavilion is carried forward by four or eight bearers. Taige fuses painting, opera, colored paper-work, and paper sculpture into a single art; its tableaux are graceful and its scenes spectacular. It has long been loved by the broad masses and has flourished in folk tradition without decline. Qianhuying Gaotai is an art form transmitted in Huangzhong County, Qinghai Province, performed mainly during the Spring Festival; at the literary and artistic shehuo (folk festivity) review held each Spring Festival in Huangzhong County town, Qianhuying Gaotai has the largest scale of performance and the highest artistry. Qianhuying Gaotai gathers local folk arts such as painting, embroidery, and woodcarving onto a single platform, giving it a strong local color. Its construction is superb: not only can it portray traditional opera figures, but it is continually innovated to depict modern figures and real life.

The platform at the Spring Festival social fire

Performed at Spring Festival, its scale and artistry lead the county's annual social-fire show.

Many crafts on one platform

Painting, embroidery and woodcarving of the region are gathered onto a single frame.

From opera figures to modern life

It shapes traditional opera figures while remaining able to portray modern people and contemporary life.

Many skills at the binding bench

Embroidery, flower-binding, paper-cutting, woodcarving and the painting of faces are all handled with skill.

Learning from boyhood observation

From boyhood he watched the masters bind the platforms each New Year, studying quietly.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The heart of Qianhuying Gaotai lies in Qianhuying Village, Huangzhong County: the skill of a single village supports the gaotai of the entire county's first-month shehuo festivities. When a platform is bound and lashed together, the embroidery, fabric flowers, paper-cuts, and woodcarving, together with the outlining and blending of the performers' facial make-up, must all be carried out at once beside the platform; without any one of them, the piece would not take shape. The representative inheritor Li Fuxian is from Qianhuying Village; from his youth he watched the masters binding the platforms every first lunar month and studied them attentively for more than a decade; his binding skill has surpassed that of his masters, and the gaotai he has made have won awards in folk performances across the country.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

With the acceleration of modernization, taige activities are gradually declining, and in the countryside the craft of making taige now lacks successors; the related rescue and preservation work is imperative. Qianhuying Gaotai is an outstanding representative of folk art in Qinghai and precious material for the study of the cultural origins, ethnic history, and folk art of the northwestern plateau region. Li Fuxian (from the official file of the associated inheritor): male, Han ethnicity, born March 1963, native of Huangzhong County, Qinghai Province. He was born in Qianhuying Village, the core area of Qianhuying Gaotai in Huangzhong County, and was steeped in the art from childhood; he loved the gaotai dolls with their rouged and powdered faces and was especially fond of binding and making the gaotai platforms. From his youth, every first lunar month when the masters bound the gaotai platforms, he would watch with close attention and study them intently. Through more than a decade of diligent study, his binding skill can be said to surpass that of his masters; the various crafts involved in making Qianhuying gaotai — embroidery, fabric flowers, paper-cutting, woodcarving, and the outlining and blending of the performers' facial make-up — are all mastered by him and executed to perfection. The gaotai platforms he has made have won awards in succession at folk performances across the country. Representative inheritor of Taige (Qianhuying Gaotai, Huangzhong County), an item of the fourth batch of national-level 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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