Xianzi Dance
01 · Historical Records
Yushu Yiwu is performed mainly at horse-racing festivals, monastery Dharma assemblies, temple fairs and the welcome ceremonies of villages. Men and women form separate ranks, the men carry the xianzi fiddle and play it as they walk, and the women swing their long sleeves and dance to the beat. The annual Yushu Prefecture Horse-Racing Festival is the occasion on which Yiwu is displayed in concentrated form, with representative teams from each county and township taking the floor in order, and major ceremonial occasions at monasteries and villages also use Yiwu to welcome guests.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Yushu Yiwu is a folk dance widely transmitted in the Yushu Tibetan area of Qinghai Province and has a long history. From the late Palaeolithic period onwards, the ancestors of the Tibetan people have lived and multiplied in the Yushu area. In the Yushu region along the banks of the Lancang River and the Tongtian River, agriculture is relatively developed and the population concentrated; the Tibetan ancestors long engaged there in collective productive labour, and in that labour created Yushu Yiwu, in which they sing while dancing and dance while carrying song. There are more than four hundred kinds of Tibetan folk dance in Yushu, of which Yiwu accounts for more than half. The names of the individual Yiwu dance types are not all the same, but most have already formed unified appellations, such as "Alatala", "Gesala", "Gasong Yazhuo", "Lachamao", "Qiongzhosuona Cuo", "Ziqiong Gasong Zhuoma", "Zhaxicaiqiong Caida" and "Suoamule Mao". The dance carriage of Yushu Yiwu is flowing and free, the movements rise and fall greatly, the steps are strong and powerful, the rhythm is bright and smooth, and the style is bold and unrestrained. The basic movements of female dancers are nine in number: dot-step sway, double twist step, cushion step jump, double circling hands, single twist step, leisurely leg swing left and right, advancing dot step, turning, and step-forward-step-back. Male dancers hold the xianzi fiddle, playing and singing as they go, and their footwork is similar to that of the female dancers. Among these, the coloured sleeve is the basic characteristic of Yushu Yiwu, and the three-steps-one-bend is the basic action within its dance steps. The lyrics of Yushu Yiwu mostly draw on traditional subject matter, chiefly praising the landscape of the homeland, singing of labour and life, and praying for good fortune and happiness. Yushu Yiwu is the most representative folk dance form among Tibetan dances and is deeply loved by the Tibetan people of Yushu. At present Yushu Yiwu is a required dance form in folk dance courses at professional dance schools throughout the country.
Ala Tala, Gesa La, Gasong Yazhuo
Names of individual Yushu Yi dances; of over four hundred Tibetan folk dances in Yushu, more than half are Yi dances.
Nine basic women's movements
Women have nine basic steps from point-sway to pivot; the men play the fiddle as they sing, their footwork much the same.
Three steps one bend and the dancing sleeve
Sleeve work is the dance's signature and the three-step bend its basic step, with sweeping movements and brisk rhythm.
Lyrics praising home hills and rivers
Its lyrics are traditional, praising the homeland, celebrating work and praying for good fortune, and the dances keep their original form.
Zhaxi Angjiang's five hundred students
The inheritor Zhaxi Angjiang, from a family of Yi-dance performers, began performing at ten and has since trained over five hundred students.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Yushu Yiwu is transmitted in the Tibetan settlements of Yushu City, Chengduo, Nangqian, Zadoi, Zhiduo and Qumalai in Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, and is most concentrated in the villages of the agricultural districts along the Tongtian and Lancang rivers. The melodies and lyrics of each county and city show marked regional differences; the coloured sleeves and waist ornaments of the dancers' Tibetan robes are also not all the same. The prefectural and county cultural centres are the main institutions relied on for collecting, organizing, teaching and transmitting Yiwu.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Xianzi Dance · Xianzi Dance.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
These dances have kept their original form throughout the process of transmission, forming a distinctive musical style, and have become the marker distinguishing one dance variety from another. Tashi Angjiang (as recorded in the official file of associated inheritors): Male, Tibetan, born in March 1962, native of Yushu City, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Born into a family of Yushu Yiwu performers, he took to dance from childhood under the influence of his family and received personal instruction in the performing art from traditional Yushu Yiwu masters. He became a Yushu Yiwu performer at the age of 10, began performing away from home at 17, and took on disciples at 22; to date he has more than five hundred disciples. He has received commendations from the local cultural departments, and has many times led the dance at the annual Yushu Prefecture Horse-Racing Festival and at major ceremonial occasions at monasteries, temple fairs and villages, and has led his troupe to take part in major festival performances both inside and outside Qinghai Province. He has long been dedicated to the performance, collection and organization of Yushu Yiwu and to the training of inheritors. Representative inheritor of the Xianzi Dance (Yushu Yiwu) in the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Cirenwangdui 02-0367
- Jiangcuo 02-0368
- Zhaxiangjiang 05-2228
- Wangzhaxi
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。