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.
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 principal content of Yingshang huagudeng is the expression of the people's good wishes that government be harmonious, the nation at peace and the people at ease, that the weather favour the crops and the land yield bountiful harvests and that life be long and the years prosperous; it displays the ritual propriety and affection, diligence and courage of the children of the Huai River, portrays the sincere and simple love of young men and women, and embodies the people's firm attachment to and yearning for a happy life. Apart from similarities to the huagudeng of the Huainan and Bengbu areas in subject matter, form, music and dance, Yingshang huagudeng also has characteristics of its own. Its dance is intensely dynamic, its rhythm driving and forceful, its movements full of flavour, its tempo quick and agile, its postures changing frequently; the performance scene is hot and jubilant, the performers' mood high-spirited and impassioned, the vocal style rough and resonant, and the whole atmosphere of the performance stately and sumptuous, with a strong local character. The performers of Yingshang huagudeng are made up of several gukueizi (drumstick players) and pairs of lahua dancers; they usually make their entrance led by the first drumstick player of the head of the line, called the shasannba, and the main sections include the dahuachang (running the great ground) and the xiaohuachang (running the small ground). Most of Yingshang huagudeng is sung in improvisation, accompanied mainly by struck gongs and drums (commonly four pieces: the drum, the gong, the cymbals and the small gong). The gong-and-drum pieces have no notation; common ones are the phoenix nodding three times, the long flowing stream, the five short variations, the eighteen variations, the great stopping beat and the small stopping beat, most of which are varied on the spot and change with the dance. The music mostly adopts the national pentatonic scale, commonly using mixed modes of gong, yu and zhi. Yingshang huagudeng has a group of traditional dance repertoire with characters and plots, such as Snatching the Bench, Snatching the Handkerchief and Spring Outing, together with a number of representative folk artists. The art of Yingshang huagudeng is ardent, uninhibited, beautiful and delicate, and fully embodies the characteristics of Han folk song and dance.
The fork-umbrella lead and paired drum-pegs and flowers
The Yingshang troupe pairs drum-pegs with flowers; the leading drum-peg, called the fork-umbrella, opens the dance, which proceeds through the great and small flower fields.
The Yingshang drum patterns
Common percussion patterns of Yingshang huagudeng, played on drum, gong, cymbal and small gong; unwritten and largely improvised, they shift with the fast, forceful dance.
Pentatonic scales and mixed modes
The music largely uses the national pentatonic scale with mixed gong, yu and zhi modes, its rough and high-pitched singing matching the fervent dance.
The Tang school and Wang Chuanxian, the single rope
Wang Chuanxian studied the orchid role under Tang Peijin, became the face of the Tang school, and was nicknamed the single rope for a style beautiful in its trembling and bouncing.
Chen Yuhua's held, rolled and back fan flowers
Chen Yuhua borrowed from opera's young female role to create held, rolled and back fan flowers, conveying plot through teasing, playing and expressive movement.
Wang Chuanxian's stage works
Representative works by Wang Chuanxian, ranging from traditional playlets to modern pieces on the Huai river project, including the modern huagudeng dance The Third of March.
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. Yingshang huagudeng is an art form created by working people and handed down through generations; it arose in the vast rural areas of the Huai River valley and is mainly popular in Yingshang and more than twenty other counties and cities along the Huai River.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Huagudeng · Huagudeng.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In recent years it has been invited many times to take part in international art exchange activities, and has exerted broad influence. Wang Chuanxian (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, of Han ethnicity, born in 1922, native of Yingshang, Anhui. In 1939 Wang Chuanxian apprenticed himself to the Yingshang huagudeng artist Tang Peijin, learning huagudeng and playing the lanhua under the stage name Yitiaosheng (A Single Rope); he was the representative figure of the Tang school of Yingshang huagudeng. Because of his slender build, his handsome face, his naturally fine voice and the beauty of his vocal style, he was praised by the people along the Huai as the Little Bee. The huagudeng dance he performed was beautiful for its shaking, trembling and rocking, like a quivering rope — hence his stage name, A Single Rope. He was also skilled in the youchang (strolling) performance of xianzi lantern; when he appeared alone on stage as the lanhua, or paired with a gujiazi, the various body techniques, steps, postures and skills he performed had graceful dance postures and were expressive of feeling; his singing voice was bright and clear, full of flavour, and was dearly loved by the people. He trained many disciples in Yingshang, Bengbu, Huainan and elsewhere. His representative works include The Little Herdboy, Seeing Off the Son to Govern the Huai River, Fighting for Xuzhou, Lamenting the Fifth Watch, and the modern huagudeng dance The Third Day of the Third Month. Representative inheritor of Huagudeng (Yingshang Huagudeng), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the second batch. Chen Yuhua (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Female, of Han ethnicity, born in July 1947, native of Yingshang County, Anhui Province. She is skilled in performing the lanhua role of huagudeng and, on the basis of long mulling and study, has worked out a series of novel postures, movements, fan figures and handkerchief figures. In the small youchang spring-outing performance of huagudeng, her steps and fan technique absorb and draw on the characteristics of the huadan female role in opera, incorporating the techniques of hand, eye, body and method used in stage performance, and innovatively employ fan figures such as the mouth-held fan, the rubbed fan and the back-held fan. In performance she conveys the story and plot through expressive movements of teasing, playing, coaxing and amusement, making huagudeng dance more lyrical and gentle and giving her ways of expression a refreshing novelty. Representative inheritor of Huagudeng (Yingshang Huagudeng), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the fifth batch. She has carefully trained a large number of huagudeng pupils, founded the Xinxin Huagudeng Art Troupe and serves as its head.
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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