Jingxing Lahua
01 · Historical Records
It originated in the Ming and Qing dynasties and has a long history. Jingxing lahua originated in the street and square flower gatherings held during folk festivals, temple fairs, celebrations and occasions when deities were worshipped.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Jingxing County of Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province lies at the eastern foot of the Taihang Mountains, on the western edge of Hebei, 40 kilometers east of the provincial capital. One account holds that lahua took shape as a dance during the hauling of peony flowers, and was therefore called lahua, that is, "pulling flowers"; another holds that lahua was formed as a dance during flight from famine, with lahua being a homophone of lahuang, that is, "pulling through hardship"; a third holds that the name was taken from the heroine of the dance, who was called Lahua. Traditional Jingxing lahua has marked artistic characteristics: movements such as twisting the shoulders, flipping the wrists, swinging the arms, drawing in the legs and flicking the feet form its main dance vocabulary, producing a distinctive style that combines hardness with softness and is bold yet understated. Its carriage is vigorous and graceful, extended with clear order, bending and stretching well measured, rising and falling in swift transitions; it is skilled at expressing tragic, plaintive, yearning and joyful emotions, and the number of performers varies. The props of lahua are rich in connotation and each carries its own symbolic meaning: the umbrella symbolizes favourable weather and timely rain; the cloth bundle symbolizes ample food and clothing; the peace board symbolizes safety through the four seasons; the overlord whip symbolizes civil administration and military prowess; the flower vase symbolizes peace and fulfillment, and so on. The principal subjects performed by traditional Jingxing lahua include Six Unions in Spring, Selling Yarn Thread, Waiting for the Fifth Watch and Going Northeast. The music of Jingxing lahua forms an independent genre. It carries both the flavour of Hebei wind-and-percussion music and colouring derived from temple music and court music; it is hard without being rustic, soft without being effeminate, ornate without being showy, sorrowful without being lachrymose. Set against the deep, understated, vigorous and unrestrained style of the lahua dance, music and dance blend into a single integral whole. Traditional lahua music is mainly in the gong and zhi modes, followed by the shang and yu modes. The rhythm leans slow, mostly in 4/4 time, and characteristic accompanying instruments include the palm gong and the like.
Liu He Tong Chun
One of the main subjects of traditional Jingxing Lahua, voicing villagers' hopes for a good year through the image of universal spring.
Selling Woollen Thread
One of the main subjects of traditional Jingxing Lahua, following a pedlar's rounds and joining narrative to fan technique.
Longing at the Five Watches
One of the main subjects of traditional Jingxing Lahua, noted for sleepless longing and its capacity for solemn and tender moods.
Going Beyond the Pass
One of the main subjects of traditional Jingxing Lahua, drawn from the migration of Hebei people beyond Shanhaiguan and its weightiest theme.
Basic movement vocabulary
The main dance vocabulary of Jingxing Lahua, yielding a style both firm and yielding, bold yet reserved, with well-measured extension and flexion.
Props and their meanings
The props and their symbolic charges: the umbrella for timely weather, the bundle for sufficiency, the clapper for peace through the year, the whip for civil and martial virtue, the vase for contentment.
Palm gong and the gong and zhi modes
The music is a genre of its own, flavoured by Hebei wind song and temple and court music; mostly in the gong and zhi modes at slow 4/4 tempo, with the palm gong as its signature instrument.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Jingxing lahua arose and has been transmitted within Jingxing County, and is a form of folk art peculiar to the locality. Jingxing lahua has several schools that have been handed down in lineage, and there are many legends about the appellation "lahua". In recent years the old lahua masters of the various schools of Jingxing lahua have died one after another, and a great deal of lahua technique can no longer be transmitted truly and taught practically, placing lahua in crisis.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Jingxing lahua was excavated, organized and developed many times, and came to enjoy fame throughout the country and abroad. Wu Xinquan (recorded in the official archives of associated inheritors): Male, Han ethnicity, born in 1941, native of Jingxing, Hebei. His carriage is vigorous and graceful and expansive; his movements are free in contracting and extending and are bold yet understated, fully expressing the artistic style of Jingxing lahua dance, marked by wide amplitude, strong force and deep, desolate emotion. While inheriting the tradition, he not only enriched the dance movements and the variety of stage formations, but also reformed the accompanying music: without losing the traditional musical style, he quickened the rhythm, added the large and small suona and the large and small drums as percussion, and strengthened the depth and colouring of the music, making an important contribution to the transmission and development of Jingxing lahua. Representative inheritor of Jingxing lahua in the second national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wu Xinquan 02-0339
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。