Huagudeng
01 · Historical Records
Historical records show that the huagudeng originated no later than the Song dynasty. After developing through the Yuan, Ming, Qing and Republican periods, by the 1930s and 1940s it had formed a distribution area centred on Bengbu, Huainan and Fuyang in Anhui, radiating across more than twenty counties and cities in the four provinces of Henan, Anhui, Shandong and Jiangsu along the middle reaches of the Huai River. Fengtai huagudeng originated in the Song and Yuan periods; by the middle of the Qing dynasty it had already taken shape and begun to mature, was deeply loved by the people and became a folk art circulated far and wide; second, the stage of the late Qing and early Republican period.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Huagudeng is a folk dance form of the Han ethnic group that perfectly integrates dance, lantern songs and gong-and-drum music, narrative duets and trios, and expressive collective dances. Huagudeng is most often performed in the villages after the autumn harvest is finished and before the spring ploughing of the following year, reaching its height at temple fairs and spring gatherings. The male role in huagudeng is called the gujiazi (drum-frame performer), and the female role the lanhua (orchid, also called lahua); performances are usually given in open squares. A performance generally comprises four parts — dance, song, back-stage small plays and gong-and-drum playing — with the dance as its main body. The dance in turn includes sections such as the dahuachang (or dachang, great flower ground), the xiaohuachang (or xiaochang, small flower ground) and the pangu (plate drum). The dachang is a collective expression dance performed by several to a dozen or more people. The xiaochang is a duet or trio dance mainly depicting young men and women courting, playing and frolicking together; it comprises both set formulaic performance and improvised performance, with simple plots and character dances such as Snatching the Handkerchief (Qiang Shoujin) and Snatching the Bench (Qiang Bandeng), and it is the core of huagudeng dance. The pangu is a performance form that combines dance, martial arts and acrobatics while also possessing the features of plastic art. Back-stage small plays are miniature song-and-dance dramas combining singing and dancing, such as The Fourth Master Riding a Single-Shafted Sedan Chair, Pushing the Cart and The Little Peddler. The formation and development of Fengtai huagudeng benefited from favourable natural conditions and a good humanistic environment. Fengtai was anciently called Zhoulai and is also known as Xia Cai; it lies in the middle reaches of the Huai River, with convenient transport, abundant products and simple, honest folk customs. The emergence of Fengtai huagudeng is an important page in the history of Chinese folk song-and-dance art, and the concentrated embodiment of Huai River culture in the sphere of dance. Fengtai huagudeng has more than four hundred movement terms and over fifty basic steps, stresses the coordination of male and female roles, is intent on the depiction of emotion, and has delicate movement and varied fan figures. Huagudeng dance movements are rich in content; the typical movement the three bends (san diao wan, or three curves, san dao wan) emphasises the twisting of the waist, and is a full expression in huagudeng of the "S" shape, an important feature of Eastern dance. Huai opera, Huaibei flower-drum opera, Sizhou opera and the Fengyang flower drum all developed out of huagudeng. Fengtai huagudeng has influenced and enriched the folk dance and folk art north of the Huai River.
The three-bend stance
The most recognisable movement of Fengtai huagudeng, stressing waist torsion and embodying the S-curve posture of eastern dance, with delicate action and varied fan flowers.
The single-thread tune
In 1939 Chen Jingzhi and two colleagues fused the string-lamp style of Yingshang and Huoqiu with Fengtai huagudeng, producing a mellifluous new tune known as the single-thread melody.
Trembling, bouncing and shaking: the signature steps of Chen Jingzhi
Chen Jingzhi's orchid-role carriage and steps, light and lovely with richly varied fan and handkerchief flowers; folk rhymes celebrated his appeal, and his works include Spring Outing and Snatching the Bench.
The province's foremost small flower field
Deng Hong created the great tremble step, the bouncing tremble and the butterfly flight in the duet Small Flower Field, which experts hailed as Anhui's foremost version.
The offspring genres of huagudeng
Fengtai huagudeng is regarded as the root of several Huai-river art forms: Huai opera, Huaibei flower-drum opera, Sizhou opera and Fengyang flower drum all derive from it.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The performing styles of huagudeng today fall mainly into three schools: the Yingshang area, whose tempo is relatively slow, with tightly structured dance and an archaic, plain style; the Fengtai area, which emphasises the portrayal of character emotion with delicate and graceful movement; and the Huaiyuan area, with light, brisk and vigorous movement and an easy, dashing bearing. Fengtai huagudeng is popular throughout the Huai River valley and is distributed mainly in Fengtai and the surrounding area. Fengtai huagudeng has a long history, and its development can be divided into four stages: first, the stage from germination to maturity. In Fengtai, huagudeng basically formed its own school characteristics, laying the foundation for further development after the liberation; third, the stage after the founding of the People's Republic of China, when huagudeng entered the halls of refined art and was hailed as a typical representative of Han dance; fourth, the stage after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Party Congress, when huagudeng art received attention and was reborn. Huagudeng art is the rootstock of a number of art varieties in the Huai River basin.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Huagudeng · Huagudeng.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present the indigenous Fengtai huagudeng is on the verge of dying out, and effective protection and all-out rescue are urgently needed. Chen Jingzhi (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, of Han ethnicity, born in 1919, native of Fengtai, Anhui. Chen Jingzhi began performing huagudeng at the age of thirteen, playing the lanhua, under the stage name Yitiaoxian (A Single Line). In 1939 he and Song Tingxiang and Li Xuehong together combined the xianzi lantern popular in Yingshang and Huoqiu counties with the huagudeng of Fengtai County; the vocal style was beautiful and moving, and the people called it the Yitiaoxian tune (the one-line tune). His performance is delicate, his movement light and graceful, and his fan work and handkerchief work rich and varied; whether the body techniques of trembling, rocking and shaking and the three curves, or dance steps such as the mountain-climbing step, the small starting step and the graceful step, all are enormously artistically appealing. Among the people there is a doggerel praising the charm of his performance: "See that single line and you will go three days without eating; when the single line moves, ninety-nine lie down asleep; when the single line looks back, more than half of them get up." Chen Jingzhi devoted his whole life to the performance, teaching and study of huagudeng art. The representative huagudeng works he performed and created include Spring Outing, Snatching the Bench, Wild Flower Ballad and The Yellow-Haired Girl. Representative inheritor of Huagudeng (Fengtai Huagudeng), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the second batch. Deng Hong (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Female, of Han ethnicity, born in October 1944, native of Fengtai County, Anhui Province. Taking the best from a hundred schools and blending various artistic styles into one, she both preserved the authentic flavour and traditional movement forms of the Fengtai huagudeng style and incorporated modern aesthetic tastes, forming a style of her own and creating on stage a number of artistic figures of differing temperament. In the huagudeng duet Xiaohuachang (Small Flower Ground) she applied and created innovative movements such as the big trembling step, the trembling and rocking and the butterfly flight; the Xiaohuachang which she refined, arranged and performed in collaboration with Zhang Shigen, the national-level representative inheritor of Fengtai huagudeng, was praised by provincial experts as "Anhui's finest Xiaohuachang". She has worked long and deep at the grass roots, devoting herself to the performance, training and teaching of huagudeng, and has trained several hundred students. Representative inheritor of Huagudeng (Fengtai Huagudeng), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the third batch.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Feng Guopei 02-0349
- Zheng Jiuru 02-0350
- Chen Jingzhi 02-0351
- Wang Chuanxian 02-0352
- Yang Zaixian 03-0908
- Deng Hong 03-0909
- Zhang Shigen 03-0910
- Shi Chuncai 04-1556
- Feng Guohao 05-2205
- Mei Lianshe 05-2206
- Jin Ming 05-2207
- Lou Lou 05-2208
- Chen Yuhua 05-2209
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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