Yangge Dance
01 · Historical Records
The society was founded in 1819, and its original seat was at Ximatou in the northwest of the old walled city of Tianjin. Performances of Ximatou Bairenjing yangge stilts are recorded as early as the 19th century in the Tianjin painting of the Procession of the Tianhou Palace. Its written and pictorial materials and its costumes and props are well preserved; the old society keeps close to 200 items of costumes and props over 150 years old, which is rare in China. After the 1980s nearby residents were relocated by urban redevelopment and scattered in all directions, but they still insist on coming to the society at regular or irregular intervals to practise or to take part in activities. The performance art of Ximatou Bairenjing yangge stilts originates in Beijing and has been handed down through generations at canal wharves; it is a component of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei culture and of Grand Canal culture, and it has a high historical value.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Ximatou lies at Xidawanzi on the south bank of the Southern Canal. It is one of the two great wharves of Tianjin and the largest wharf on the Southern Canal, densely populated, with prosperous streets. The processions of the Tianhou Palace were the arena where Tianjin's folk performing arts vied with one another for brilliance. Ximatou, seeking to outdo the rest, combined ground yangge with the legs of the stilts, forming the Bairenjing yangge stilts of today. The content performed by Ximatou Bairenjing yangge stilts derives from the folk Water Margin story: Lu Zhishen, obeying the command of the strategist Wu Yong, leads the good men of Liangshan down the mountain, disguised as flower-drum artists, to arrest the tyrannical young lord Ren Baotong. The project ingeniously adopts the dance-and-song form of the stilts to represent the process in which the good men of Liangshan redress wrongs and bring peace. Unlike other stilts that merely run the stage, Ximatou Bairenjing yangge stilts ingeniously incorporate elements of Chinese opera. Its stage-crossing is chiefly in the form of dance, graceful and coordinated, combining singing and dancing so that both are complete. Bairenjing yangge stilts combines literary and martial elements, yet still belongs to the literary school of stilts. Many of its performance techniques come from Beijing, employing the Xicheng singing style, the Nanchun training method and the "old three-point" rhythm that were current in Beijing at the time; this shows that the tradition of geographic adjacency and cultural continuity among Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei had already taken shape in historical times. Its formations and stage images change in many ways: the whole performance is a stage-crossing of competing flower drums, able to transform into many kinds of stage blocking and tableau; a complete performance of the competing flower drums takes more than three hours, and, unrestrained and colourful, is much loved by audiences. Its tunes and rhythms are distinctive, and its sung lyrics are complete. Singing and practice are combined in performance; 31 sections of sung lyrics survive, peculiar to the old society. Because Bairenjing yangge stilts has a long tradition of appearing in public, everyone in this neighbourhood was skilled at performing, so the seat of the old society came to be called a "society cradle".
The Water Margin narrative
The subject derives from the Water Margin: Lu Zhishen leads Liangshan heroes disguised as flower-drum performers to seize the bully Ren Baotong, told through stilt dance and song.
Zou Chang Dou Hua Gu
The core form of the performance, entirely given over to flower-drum contests in procession that shift through many stage positions and shapes over more than three hours.
Western-city singing, southern-city training, old three-point
The Beijing techniques preserved in the Tianjin society, showing the long-shared culture of the Jing-Jin-Ji region; thirty-one lyrics survive, unique to the old society.
Yangge merged with stilts
To stand out at the Tianhou temple fair, the Ximatou society merged ground Yangge with stilts, producing today's form, both civil and martial yet still classed as civil stilts.
Nearly two hundred historic props and costumes
The society preserves nearly two hundred costumes and props over 150 years old, rare in China, supported by written and pictorial records including the nineteenth-century Tianhou Temple Fair Procession Painting.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Tianjin has many stilts societies, which can be divided into literary stilts and martial stilts. It has distinctive artistic expressiveness, portraying through the form of competing flower drums, which the public loves to see, the process by which justice defeats evil; it embodies the moral outlook of the local people and their aspirations for a good life, and has a high artistic and cultural value.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Yangge Dance · Yangge Dance · Yangge Dance · Yangge Dance · Yangge Dance · Yangge Dance · Yangge Dance · Yangge Dance · Yangge Dance · Yangge Dance · Yangge Dance · Yangge Dance · Yangge Dance · Yangge Dance · Yangge Dance · Yangge Dance.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Ximatou Bairenjing yangge stilts is, among the folk public performances of Tianjin, a form of folk performing art with a relatively long history that is clearly attested in pictorial and written records and handed down in orderly succession; it has been transmitted through generations by the Ximatou Bairenjing Yangge Old Society. The project has always been transmitted by the community of the Bairenjing Yangge Old Society, and all of the members in those days were residents of Ximatou.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zhou Hehua 02-0332
- Yu Zhenjiang 02-0333
- Yang Kesheng 02-0334
- Wu Yingmin 02-0335
- Wang Fa 02-0336
- Juhongjun 02-0337
- Li Zengheng 02-0338
- He Junyi 03-0899
- Yao Daxin 03-0900
- Zhao Fengling 04-1541
- Qin Mengyu 04-1542
- Ding Shisuo 05-2182
- Sheng Yubin 05-2183
- Yu Xin 05-2184
- Wei Jianming 05-2185
- Liu Jianping
- Xiujianguo
- Lizhangxi
- Ba Hengjin
- Zhao Chenghai
- Wang Yuanqing
- Song Jianliang
- Yuan Guilin
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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。