Tujia Hand-waving Dance
01 · Historical Records
The hand-waving dance arose in the ancient ancestor-worship rituals of the Tujia people. Judging from the surviving stele of the Baba Dawang Temple and the county gazetteer of the Qing dynasty, the hand-waving dance already has a history of close to a thousand years. The Tujia hand-waving dance of western Hunan integrates song, dance, music and drama, and expresses a broad and rich range of historical and social life: the creation of heaven and earth, the propagation of humankind, national migration, hunting and fishing, sericulture and weaving, slash-and-burn cultivation, warfare in antiquity, mythological legend, food and daily life.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Tujia hand-waving dance of western Hunan is the folk dance that carries the most distinctively Tujia character and reflects the oldest Tujia customs most directly. It is now transmitted mainly in Longshan, Baojing, Yongshun and other places in the Tujia areas of western Hunan. It is generally performed at night from the third day to the fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar. Its dance content is structured according to the ritual procedure described above. The Tujia hand-waving dance has a bold, unadorned carriage, with movements such as single waving, double waving, circling wave, and waving while jumping. The dancing ground is generally a flat open space. The dance is divided into the large hand-waving dance and the small hand-waving dance: the large one sacrifices to the founding ancestor of the clan on a grand scale, with more than a thousand dancers and tens of thousands of spectators; the small one mainly sacrifices to the ancestors of one surname and is on a much smaller scale. Its music comprises vocal accompaniment and instrumental accompaniment. The vocal part mainly includes the qichang song (opening melody) and the baishou song, the instruments are mainly the drum and the gong, and a single piece often changes according to the content and movements of the dance. The movement characteristics of the hand-waving dance are following the beat in the same direction, bending the knees, trembling and sinking, expressing a vigorous and powerful, free and unrestrained style.
Great hand-waving and small hand-waving
Great hand-waving honours the clan's common ancestor with over a thousand dancers; small hand-waving honours a single surname's ancestor.
Single, double, whirling and stepping swings
The basic postures of the dance: single, double and whirling swings of the arms while dancing on the village threshing ground.
Same-side step, bent knee, tremble and sink
The movement keys of the dance — same-side arm and leg, bent knees, tremor and sinking weight — produce its bold style.
The broken stele of the Eight Bishops' Temple
A broken Qing stele from the Eight Bishops' Temple and local gazetteers suggest the dance is nearly a thousand years old.
Nights from the third to the fifteenth of the first month
The dance is performed at night between the third and fifteenth days of the first lunar month, on village threshing grounds.
Opening song, hand-waving song, drum and gong
Its music has vocal and instrumental parts: opening and hand-waving songs with drum and gong, one tune varying with the dance content.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Tujia hand-waving dance of western Hunan takes the Tujia villages around Longshan County, Baojing County and Yongshun County as its core transmission area, and the greatest number of surviving hand-waving halls are preserved in the Xiche River basin and the Nongche area of Longshan County. The large hand-waving dance is jointly organized by several villages, sacrifices to the god Bada, and can involve several thousand people; the small hand-waving dance takes one surname and one village as its unit, sacrifices to the ancestors of that surname, is performed on the village flat, and is usually led in the dance by an elder of the clan.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Tujia Hand-waving Dance · Tujia Hand-waving Dance.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Tujia hand-waving dance is of great value for the study of Tujia history, warfare, religion, migration, production, daily life, love and folklore; the warfare it depicts embodies the national spirit of the Tujia ancestors as brave fighters who are unafraid of sacrifice. At the same time, the hand-waving dance reproduces the whole process of Tujia farming life and reflects the optimistic spirit of the Tujia people — their love of labour, their fearlessness of hardship, their love of life and their stubborn will to survive. It is important material for understanding and studying Tujia culture. Tian Renxin (as recorded in the official file of associated inheritors): Male, Tujia, born in 1933, native of the Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Western Hunan, Hunan Province. The hand-waving dance he performs is plain in its movements and rich in ancient flavour. Representative inheritor of the Tujia hand-waving dance in the second national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects. Zhang Mingguang (as recorded in the official file of associated inheritors): Male, Tujia, born in 1938, native of Longshan, Hunan. His dance carriage is natural and unrestrained, and his voice is high and resonant. Representative inheritor of the Tujia hand-waving dance in the second national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects. Besides teaching the hand-waving dance locally and training such performers as Hu Qingwen, Tian Chengde and Qin Enrui, he has also been invited many times to Changsha, Jishou, Zhangjiajie and other places to teach and transmit the art, making an important contribution to the inheritance and development of the Tujia hand-waving dance.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Tian Renxin 02-0363
- Zhang Mingguang 02-0364
- Tian Jingren 03-0918
- Tian Jingmin 04-1564
- Peng Chengjin 05-2223
- Tian Weizheng 05-2224
- Tian Zhixin
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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