Tujia Hand-waving Dance
01 · Historical Records
The Youyang Waving Dance vividly reflects the production and life customs of the Tujia ancestors during the period of farming, fishing and hunting on the Hunan-Hubei-Chongqing-Guizhou border, and epicly expresses the conditions of the Tujia people's long migrations, hunting campaigns, slash-and-burn cultivation, food and daily life.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Waving Dance, also called 'Shebari', is a ritual collective folk dance performed by the Tujia people in front of the Temple of the Tujia King during the Spring Festival; it is transmitted in the Yongshun, Longshan and Baojing areas of Hunan Province and in the Tujia-inhabited regions along the border of Hubei and Sichuan provinces. The Waving Dance is divided into the 'big waving' and the 'small waving'. The big waving is held once every three to five years, lasts seven or eight days and draws tens of thousands of participants; the performance contains complicated military and hunting content and requires set routines and formations to be displayed. The small waving is held every year in Tujia villages; it takes farming as its main content, and during the dance the participants form several concentric circles, one person leading and the others following, and it is highly improvisational. Youyang, which falls under the municipality of Chongqing, and western Hubei on the upper reaches of the Youshui River share the same veins and the same source of water as the western Hunan mountains downstream. This area belonged to the southern border of the Ba kingdom in the Spring and Autumn period; a county was established here in the Western Han, which within the territory of Hunan Province governed the three counties of Yongshun, Guzhang and Longshan. The Tujia great clans of Peng, Bai and Tian, the ancestors of these families, repeatedly suffered war in the Dongting Lake area and were forced to travel upstream, settling at places such as Kedawa and Houxi in the middle reaches of the Youshui River, bringing with them the rites for sacrificing to the Tujia king and to their ancestors. Its dance movements include more than twenty kinds such as 'single waving', 'double waving', 'jumping fleas', 'driving away the wild boar', 'the beggar warms himself by the fire', 'the crab climbs the tree', 'the rock eagle spreads its wings' and 'the top imperial examination scholar kicks the prefect to death'; its formations include more than thirty kinds such as circular waving, double circles, double copper coins, flower-insertion waving, a single dragon, spiral tops and crossing mountains and rivers.
Shaking fleas, chasing boar, beggar at the fire, crab climbing a tree
Among more than twenty named movements of the Youyang dance, drawn from farm work, animal shapes and folk tales.
Ring, double coin, screw-top formations
Formations such as ring, double coin and screw-top, part of more than thirty arrangements used in the Youyang dance.
The Tian clan migration dance
The inheritor Tian Jingren passed on group dances re-enacting the ancestors' migration, first shown publicly at the county's founding celebration in 1983.
The Peng, Bai and Tian clans along the Youshui
The ancestors of the Peng, Bai and Tian clans moved upstream to the middle Youshui, bringing with them the rites for chieftains and ancestors.
Arms moving between shoulder and knee
In the version transmitted by Tian Jingmin the arms move no higher than the shoulder and no lower than the knee, with hand and foot on the same side.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Thereafter the Tujia Waving Dance was widely transmitted in this area. The Youyang Waving Dance has distinctive national character and local features. Its postures mostly imitate crossing mountains and rivers, farm work, combat stances, an eagle spreading its wings and everyday life; the movements are expansive and dignified, the atmosphere of daily life is strong, and it expresses the rough and uninhibited character of the Tujia people.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Tujia Hand-waving Dance · Tujia Hand-waving Dance.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
It integrates song, dance and music, brings together abundant folk songs, ballads and folk legends, and has become an important way of transmitting and carrying on Tujia culture. In recent years the Youyang Waving Dance has faced a crisis of transmission and urgently needs rescue and protection. Tian Jingren (associated inheritor, as recorded in the official file): From childhood he followed his elders in learning the Waving Dance in the waving hall, stepping to the drumbeats; among the Waving Dance he transmits there is a large number of group dances imitating scenes of the ancestors' migration. In 1983, without reservation, he handed on the Waving Dance he had inherited to the cultural troupe formed at that time by the Youchou district government, and took part in the performance at the celebration of the founding of the autonomous county, which won the acclaim of the whole audience; this was also the first public appearance of the Tian clan migration Waving Dance of the Tujia at a grand gathering. After being refined and elevated by artists, the Waving Dance he transmits became the square Waving Dance promoted throughout Youyang County. Male, Tujia ethnicity, born in May 1942, died in January 2010, native of Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, Chongqing Municipality. Representative inheritor of the Tujia Waving Dance (Youyang Waving Dance), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the third national batch. Tian Jingmin (associated inheritor, as recorded in the official file): From childhood he followed his elders in learning the Waving Dance in the waving hall, stepping to the drumbeats, and he comprehensively mastered the essentials and the meaning of each movement of the Waving Dance. The Waving Dance he transmits is archaic and natural, its movements change little, rugged and powerful, advancing and retreating with hands and feet on the same side; when the arms wave, the hands neither rise above the shoulders nor fall below the knees. It has distinctive national character and local features. He has consistently popularized the Waving Dance among the Tian clan and promoted the transmission and development of the Youyang Waving Dance. Male, Tujia ethnicity, born in February 1943, died in January 2014, native of Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, Chongqing Municipality. Representative inheritor of the Tujia Waving Dance (Youyang Waving Dance), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the fourth national batch.
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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