Korean Nongle Dance
01 · Historical Records
Nongak is one of the traditional dances of the Korean (Chaoxianzu) people and is widely transmitted in their folk tradition. Tieling City in northern Liaoning Province is a multi-ethnic residential area, with a Korean population of 23,434. In murals from tombs excavated at Tieling and its surroundings, dated to around the 5th century, the ancestors of the Korean people are vividly depicted dancing joyfully. Tieling Korean nongak originated in sacrificial activities and, in the course of its development, gradually evolved into a dance for self-amusement; it is now transmitted among the Korean people in the Tieling area, where it is performed on every festive occasion. Tieling Korean nongak is a large comprehensive dance made up of the masked dance, the small drum dance, the long drum dance and the sangmo hat dance, and a complete performance takes several hours. Tieling Korean nongak is a typical representative of Korean nongak in multi-ethnic residential areas; it reflects in a distinctive way the development history and the production and living conditions of the Korean people, and plays an important role in promoting ethnic cultural identity.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The performance is led off by the percussion of gongs and drums; at the beginning, at each change in the middle, and at the end, it is directed by the gong player, who acts as the leader. In front of the gong player is a flag-bearer, who brandishes with abandon a banner inscribed "Farming is the great root of all under heaven", full of heroic spirit. In a nongak performance there is no distinction between actors and musicians; generally the performers play and dance at the same time. During the performance, the melodies sounded by the bronze gong, zheng, big drum, small drum, jiegu drum, long drum, large pingxiao, trumpet and conch horn are called the "twelve beats", and they determine the changes of the dance movements and formations. The music of nongak has a distinctive variety of melodies, called the "twelve beats". The "twelve beats" are arranged according to the method of composing the dance, and by them its dance movements and formations are prescribed; nongak is a large comprehensive dance, and a complete performance takes several hours to finish.
The twelve-beat system
The twelve-beat melody played on gongs, drums, flute, trumpet and conch governs the dance's movements and formations.
The gong leader and flag bearer
Percussion leads the way, the gong player directing the opening, changes and close, preceded by a flag bearer waving the banner reading farming is the root of all.
Players who are also dancers
No line separates players from dancers; all perform while playing, and a full showing takes several hours.
Fifth-century mural dancing
Tieling in northern Liaoning has 23,434 ethnic Koreans, and fifth-century tomb murals found nearby depict their ancestors dancing joyfully.
Han Gyuseung's papier-maché masks
The inheritor Han Gyuseung played gong and drum, made crane, grain, chilli and bean props, and developed papier-maché masks later carried on by his disciple Lee Yeongho.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The transmission area of Tieling Korean nongak covers the Korean villages, factories and mines of Tieling City and its surroundings; since the middle of the twentieth century, local cultural institutions and inheritors have jointly organised the performances.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Korean Nongle Dance · Korean Nongle Dance.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Han Kuisheng (official file of the associated inheritor): Skilled at playing accompanying instruments such as the small gong and the long drum, and able to make props such as cranes, rice, maize, chillies and soybeans; on the basis of the traditional papier-mache mask technique he also developed paper-paste masks, which give the masks of nongak a character quite their own. He devoted his whole life to spreading and promoting the traditional culture of the Korean people; his disciple Li Yonghao has inherited all of his dance skills and has grown into a new generation of nongak inheritor. Through the joint efforts of master and disciple, Tieling City has built up a succession team of nearly one hundred people for Korean nongak. Male, of the Korean ethnicity, born in November 1925, died in February 2012, native of Tieling County, Liaoning Province. Representative inheritor of the Korean nongak of the third batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items. Li Yonghao (official file of the associated inheritor): Male, of the Korean ethnicity, born in July 1948, native of Tieling County, Liaoning Province. He loved traditional ethnic music and dance from childhood, studied under Han Kuisheng, and is skilled at singing the Korean "chakkdari" and at playing the Korean long drum and small gong. In dance performance he is highly flexible, interactive and expressive; his neck, shoulders, arms and legs move in perfect coordination, his range of movement is large, and his dance bearing is exaggerated and graceful. He draws widely on many sources, absorbing elements from nongak performances by the Korean people of Jilin, Heilongjiang and other places, and improving and perfecting the conventions and steps of the mask dance as well as performance props such as the crane and the sangmo hat. Representative inheritor of the Korean nongak of the fifth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items. He has been committed all his life to the inheritance and promotion of Korean nongak; under his leadership the locality has established several teaching bases for transmission and has trained a succession team of more than one thousand people.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Jin Mingchun 02-0382
- Jin Minghuan 03-0923
- Han Kuisheng 03-0924
- Li Yonghao 05-2235
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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