Mu Drum Dance
01 · Historical Records
Legend has it that the Fanpai wooden drum dance originated with an ancient brother and sister who learned their dancing from birds and insects.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The wooden drum dance is a folk dance passed down among the Miao, Yi and Wa peoples of Southwest China, performed as dance set to the beating of wooden drums in ritual observance. Its drums are usually made by cutting down a naturally grown tree trunk and hollowing out the interior to shape the body. A wooden drum dance in general forms part of a large-scale sacrificial observance in which the whole ethnic group takes part; the wooden drum serves as the symbol of the group, and the ritual centred on beating the wooden drum and dancing the wooden drum dance is saturated with meanings of ancestor worship and nature worship, bearing the distinct marks of primitive culture. The wooden drum dance is a folk dance beloved by the Miao people of Taijiang County, Guizhou Province. It has two main types, the Fanpai wooden drum dance and the Shidong-Gedong wooden drum dance, of which the Fanpai wooden drum dance has the greater influence. Since ancient times the Fanpai wooden drum dance has been handed down from generation to generation in Fanpai Village. Every time an ox year comes round, when the Drum-Sacrifice Festival that recurs once every twelve years arrives, the Fanpai wooden drum dance is danced at full vigour, matched with the slaying of oxen for sacrifice and the grand festive celebrations. The Fanpai wooden drum dance has a complete structural sequence of opening, continuation, turn and closure; its dance movements are concise, its combinations rich, and its style ardent and unrestrained, depicting the living scenes and geographical environment of the ancestors and recounting their origins. The dance develops in a progressive manner, gradually pushing the plot towards its climax, with every stage of the plot clearly differentiated and the transitions natural. Singing and dancing proceed together, with the whole body in motion: the arms swing to the same side, the feet stamp in two-four time, and the dance posture is rugged and uninhibited, free and graceful, with a wide opening and closing of head, hands and feet and a broad range of swinging. The Fanpai wooden drum dance consists of five drum-pattern sections — niu gao dou, niu zha xia, xia di fu, gao dou da and zha xia nou — using single-stroke, combined-stroke and interlocking beating techniques; the drum patterns are varied yet artful and the rhythm bright, organically combined with the dance. Fanpai Village has rich ethnic cultural resources, and to this day it still preserves a Miao cultural ecosystem whose principal cultural feature is the Fanpai wooden drum dance.
Five drum-pattern sections
The dance comprises the five drum sections Niu Gaodou, Niu Zhasha, Xiadifu, Gaodouda and Zhashanou, struck singly, together or in alternation.
Same-side hands and two-four rhythm
Singing as they dance, performers swing same-side arms and tread a two-four beat with wide opening of head, hands and feet.
The twelve-year drum festival
In every ox year the twelve-yearly drum festival brings a great performance of the dance alongside ox sacrifice and celebration.
Drums hollowed from tree trunks
The drum is hollowed from a tree trunk and stands as the emblem of the clan, its rite charged with ancestor and nature worship.
The four-part structure
Its opening, development, turn and close are complete, the simple movements building by stages to a climax through clearly marked episodes.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
It is distributed in Fanpai Village, 26 kilometres to the southeast of Taijiang County town in Guizhou Province; all the residents of the village are Miao.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Mu Drum Dance.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Fanpai wooden drum dance is an important activity of the Miao Drum-Sacrifice Festival and also an important cultural tie linking the Miao society's past, present and future. Wan Zhengwen (recorded in the official archive of associated inheritors): male, Miao, born in 1951, native of Taijiang, Guizhou. He has thoroughly mastered the drum-pattern music and the dance movements of every section of the Fanpai wooden drum dance; his dance posture is graceful and orthodox, his movements bold and free. In 1982 he organised the formation of a wooden drum dance performance troupe in his village, and from 1995 onward he guided the young people of the village in dancing the wooden drum dance. Representative inheritor of the wooden drum dance (Fanpai Miao wooden drum dance), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the second national batch.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wan Zhengwen 02-0383
- Chen Gaibao 04-1567
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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