Sanhuicaitinghui
01 · Historical Records
The decorated pavilion gathering (彩亭会) began to take shape in Sanhui in the early years of the Qing dynasty, and gradually flourished from the mid-to-late Qing through the Republican era.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Sanhui decorated pavilion gathering is a traditional folk cultural activity circulating in Sanhui Town, Qu County, Sichuan Province; it takes decorated pavilion forms and performance as its main features, and is performed annually from the sixteenth to the eighteenth day of the third lunar month in the streets or on squares. Sanhui Town lies on the western side of the northern section of the Huaying Mountains in eastern Sichuan, spanning the Zhou, Ba, and Qu rivers; with developed transport, abundant products, gathered merchants, and a brisk economy, the pavilion gathering arose and developed in this special geographical environment. The decorated pavilion is the most prominent performance form of the gathering. In performance, on a platform of about four square meters stands a pole with a slender, segmented base column whose sections join end to end; brackets (iron rings) on the pole extend horizontally and at angles. As the classical description has it, "children are dressed in theatrical makeup and bound to the carriage pole, carried in procession by mechanism rings that turn," so that the figures and stories of drama or of life are portrayed, stacked into three to five layers, eight to ten meters high, with "four men carrying it along, parading the great streets and disporting at the wharves." During the performance the pavilion sways gently, seeming about to fall yet never falling, displaying the qualities of "height, thrill, peril, wonder, and ingenuity," transfixing the audience and filling them with amazement. Besides the decorated pavilion, the gathering includes more than ten other folk performance forms, such as dragon lanterns, lion dances, and stilt walking. During the pavilion gathering, "men and women come forth to view and revel, filling the streets and blocking the lanes; women and men from neighboring jurisdictions travel hundreds of li without hesitation to join the grand event — the whole land appears as if struck with madness."
Carrying the pavilion through the streets
The climax of the festival: the multi-tiered frame of actors is carried along the street, swaying precariously yet never falling.
The three-day festival period
The festival is fixed on the 16th to 18th of the third lunar month, moving between street and square as the audience follows.
Bamboo frame and ring-driven mechanism
A bamboo frame and iron rings form the moving joints that let the costumed figures turn and lean without the structure falling apart.
Dragon lanterns, lions and stilt walkers
More than a dozen other folk forms join the procession, so ground teams and the pavilion share the same street.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Sanhui decorated pavilion gathering became the principal form of local folk cultural activity, playing an important role in the cultural life of the masses.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Wang Anda (associated inheritor; official archive record): From childhood he loved the decorated pavilion and once worked as a pavilion performer. In 1982 he studied pavilion construction under Yang Zhanrong, a sixth-generation inheritor of the pavilion gathering. He fully mastered the design and construction techniques of the decorated pavilion; the pavilions he designed and assembled possess the artistic qualities of "height, thrill, peril, wonder, and ingenuity," displaying a high level of craftsmanship. Male, Han ethnicity, born in August 1934, died in June 2018, native of Qu County, Sichuan Province. Representative inheritor of the Sanhui decorated pavilion gathering, a national-level intangible cultural heritage item of the third batch. Seventh-generation inheritor of the Sanhui decorated pavilion gathering. For decades he worked on pavilion assembly, repeatedly leading teams at the pavilion gathering and various exhibition performances, winning awards at the city, county, and town levels. He actively transmitted his craft and trained eighth-generation inheritors of the Sanhui decorated pavilion gathering.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wang Anda 03-1487
- Lei Mingzhen
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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