Stilt Walking
01 · Historical Records
Gaizhou stilt yangge rose in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, was extremely flourishing during the Kangxi and Qianlong reigns of the Qing dynasty, reached its height in the middle of the Republic of China era, and became even more prosperous in the early years after the founding of the People's Republic of China. It was damaged during the Cultural Revolution and its development was hindered; from the early 1980s to the present it has been restored, and under the attention of the government it has achieved some development. Gaizhou stilt yangge has historically had many famous performers; in the period from the middle of the Republic of China era to the founding of the People's Republic of China there appeared the “four great dan” such as Guo Xicheng, who were celebrated in their day.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Stilt walking is also called “stilt yangge”. It is a folk dance with a long history, widely transmitted throughout the country, and is named for the fact that the performers mostly tread on wooden stilts with both feet. Stilt walking is generally performed in the form of a troupe, with participants numbering from a dozen or so to several dozen. They mostly portray figures from ancient myths or historical stories, their costumes mostly imitate the role costumes of Chinese opera, and the props commonly used in performance include fans, handkerchiefs, wooden sticks, sabres and spears and the like. Stilt walking has two performance forms, “stilt parade” and “field performance”; the latter is in turn divided into the “large field” and the “small field”. The “large field” is performed collectively by the troupe, dancing while moving through various formations and patterns; the “small field” is performed by two or three people, mostly a man-and-woman duet, sometimes dancing while singing. The wooden stilts used in different places range from 30 centimetres to 300 centimetres; according to performance style they can be divided into “civil stilts” and “martial stilts”, the civil stilts stressing twisting, treading and plot-driven performance, while the martial stilts stress displays of virtuosity. Gaizhou stilt yangge is a form of folk dance by which the working people of the Gaizhou area of southern Liaoning amuse themselves. It developed and evolved on the basis of ancient folk acrobatics, stilt walking and the “hundred entertainments”, and is performed mainly at Spring Festival, celebrations, temple fairs, sacrificial rites and other activities. Gaizhou stilt yangge fuses singing, dancing, drama and acrobatics into one, and carries the artistic characteristics of twisting, steadiness, surging, sprightliness, comic patter, mutual mimicking, teasing, high spirits and stillness; it is lively and romantic, ardent and fiery, expansive and uninhibited, and rich in local flavour.
The nine qualities of Gaizhou stilts
Fusing song, dance, drama and acrobatics, the form is lively and romantic, fiery and unrestrained, rich in rustic flavour.
The four great female leads and Guo Xicheng
Many famous performers emerged, with Guo Xicheng and three others known as the four great female leads enjoying great popularity in the form's heyday.
Wang Xinhui's drumming with opera patterns
Born in 1937, Wang Xinhui mastered the full repertoire and became famous as a drummer, borrowing opera patterns and using light, heavy, slow and rapid beats to shape mood.
Fifteen appearances at the Longtan temple fair
Over sixty years Wang Xinhui worked on recovering and arranging the traditional routines, and his choreography appeared fifteen times at Beijing's Longtan temple fair.
Parading and floor-setting
Two modes: parading through the streets, and the floor show divided into the collective great field and the two- or three-person small field of paired dance and song.
From the late Ming to the Republican heyday
Rising in the late Ming and early Qing, flourishing under Kangxi and Qianlong and peaking in the Republican period, it was disrupted in the Cultural Revolution and restored from the 1980s.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Gaizhou stilt yangge takes the urban district of Gaizhou City and the villages and towns in its outskirts, in the central part of the Liaodong Peninsula, as its principal area of transmission, and is performed mainly at Spring Festival, celebrations, temple fairs, sacrificial rites and other activities. Gaizhou was formerly the Ming-dynasty prefecture of Gaizhou Wei and the Qing-dynasty county of Gaiping, and stands on a transport artery of southern Liaoning, where temple fairs and shehuo communal festivities flourished; it provided fertile soil for stilt yangge. From the late Qing and early Republic era through the middle of the Republic of China era, local performers emerged generation after generation, with the “four great dan” such as Guo Xicheng celebrated in their day, and since the early 1980s this art has gradually been restored.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Stilt Walking · Stilt Walking · Stilt Walking · Stilt Walking · Stilt Walking · Stilt Walking · Stilt Walking.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Gaizhou stilt yangge carries a large amount of historical, cultural and folkloric information, and is of important value for the study of the historical life and customs, local conditions and folkways, folk art and local aesthetic concepts of southern Liaoning. At present the famous performers of Gaizhou stilt yangge have all passed away, there are very few members of a new generation, some of the finest skills have almost been lost, and urgent rescue and protection are needed. Wang Xinhui (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, of Han ethnicity, born in September 1937, a native of Gaizhou City, Liaoning Province. He loved stilt yangge from childhood, received instruction in turn from such veteran performers as Sun Hongchi, Sun Rongzheng, Guo Xicheng and Jiang Runde, mastered the complete performance formats and routines of Gaizhou stilt yangge, and later became famous as the drum leader. Drawing on gong-and-drum patterns from Chinese opera such as “jijifeng” and “sijitou”, he is skilled at using drumbeats of different weight, speed and urgency — light, heavy, slow and fast — to set off the atmosphere and to express such emotions as suffering, joy, sorrow and anger. Over more than sixty years in the art, he has devoted himself to the restoration and choreography of the traditional formats, routines and dance movements of Gaizhou stilt walking; the stilt dances he choreographed took part in the Beijing Longtan Temple Fair fifteen times. Today his disciple Wang Jixian has inherited his mantle, carries on transmission activities, and has registered and established the Gaizhou Folk Stilt Art Troupe. Representative inheritor of stilt walking (Gaizhou stilt walking), 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:
- Xing Chuanpei 02-0357
- Yang Min 03-0915
- Wang Xinhui 03-0916
- Duan Tiecheng 04-1561
- Zhang Zhongxian 05-2214
- Wang Zonglu 05-2215
- Wei Pingjun 05-2216
- Juhaiquan 05-2217
- Wang Jixian
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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