Jingxi Taiping Drum Dance
01 · Historical Records
Taiping Drum has circulated in Beijing since the Ming dynasty, and in the early Qing dynasty it was tremendously popular both inside and outside the capital. In the late Qing dynasty Taiping Drum spread into the Mentougou area. Historically, in many Mentougou villages every household — men and women, old and young — could beat the Taiping Drum; in the Qing imperial court the Taiping Drum was also beaten on the eve of the Lunar New Year, taking its sense from the meaning of “peace”, which is why Beijing also calls the Taiping Drum the “New Year Greeting Drum”.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Beating the Taiping Drum not only sets off the festive atmosphere; to some extent it also reflects the festive customs of the Beijing area. Taiping Drum has a complete system of folk body language: the rhythmic qualities of “twisting” and “trembling” that arose from women’s foot-binding in the past, the “strength” and “stubborn strength” peculiar to male dancers, and the playful chase in which men pursue women and each of them pursues the other. In its drum flourishes, footwork and changes of formation it embodies traditional Chinese aesthetic ideas, and all of these carry a marked local colour. As the signature prop of this dance form, the Taiping Drum — from its manufacturing technique to its organic integration with the dance movements — has transcended the simple function of a sounding instrument and become an object bearing strong regional cultural symbolism for the area, a mark of the cultural identity of the local people. Taiping Drum is rooted in the folk, grew up among the folk and flourishes among the folk. The affection of the ordinary people for the Taiping Drum and the devotion of veteran performers to it are what have allowed it to continue; and the carrying forward and innovation of folk Taiping Drum will fill the lives of folk artists with vigour.
The New Year drum custom
The Jingxi Taiping drum is most active from the twelfth lunar month into the second month of the following year; the Qing court struck it on New Year's Eve for the omen of peace, hence the name New Year drum.
The twisting, trembling, fanning and stubborn rhythms
Its folk body language pairs the female dancers' twisting and trembling with the male dancers' fanning and stubborn rhythms, embodying traditional aesthetics in drum-play, footwork and formation changes.
Da Shan Gu
The signature move of Gao Hongwei, a representative inheritor of the Jingxi Taiping drum, noted for its unrestrained sweep and the old poetic charm of shoulder-shaking and heel-lifting.
Taiping Yao; Guwu Taiping
Representative works of the inheritor Gao Hongwei, passed down from his father Gao Dianqi; Gao has long served as artistic adviser to the Jingxi Taiping drum inheritance schools in Mentougou.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Taiping Drum is a folk dance that the ordinary people perform for their own amusement, that is transmitted collectively and developed collectively. It has a broad popular base and deep historical roots, and plays an important part in local folk-custom activities. Taiping Drum is at its most active in the twelfth and the first lunar months of every year and is very attractive in the local New Year folk-custom activities; when the people beat the Taiping Drum they are also expressing their hope for a time of peace, a flourishing country and a contented people.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Jingxi Taiping Drum Dance · Jingxi Taiping Drum Dance.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Gao Hongwei (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in 1969, native of Beijing. His father Gao Dianqi is a famous performer of Jingxi Taiping Drum. Gao Hongwei began learning to beat the Taiping Drum from his father at the age of twelve. In the early 1980s he joined the Taiping Drum performance troupe organised by his father; besides going from street to street to perform for the villagers, he also performed many times at the various folk flower fairs of Beijing. The Taiping Drum performed by Gao Hongwei is free and uninhibited, and above all his “da shan gu” (great fanning of the drum) movement is especially praised by those who watch. It carries the traditional flavour described by the Ming dynasty writer Yang Bu in the Chang’an Yingnian Gu Qu (Melody of the Chang’an New Year Greeting Drum), who wrote of the Taiping Drum that “the shoulders shake and the heels rock, and the performer can no longer hold himself in” (“dou jian dian zhong bu zi chi”). At present Gao Hongwei serves as the art instructor of the Mentougou “Jingxi Taiping Drum Transmission School” (Xinqiao Road Middle School and Dayu No. 2 Primary School), and has contributed to the transmission and development of Jingxi Taiping Drum. Representative works include “Taiping Yao” and “Drumming for Peace”. Representative inheritor of Jingxi Taiping Drum, a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the second national-level batch.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Gao Hongwei 02-0331
- Lvcuiqin 04-1540
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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