Bronze Drum Dance
01 · Historical Records
The bronze drum dance is one of the oldest dance forms most widely transmitted and most influential in the folk traditions of the Zhuang, Yi and Yao peoples of China; it derives from the nature worship and the ancestor worship of the ancestors of the Zhuang, Yi and other peoples of Wenshan. The Miao have a custom of worshipping the drum; every branch possesses a bronze drum or a wooden drum, and in general every thirteen years a Drum-Hiding Festival is held, at which a water buffalo or a pig is slaughtered to sacrifice to the drum. Archaeological findings show that as early as before the 4th century BCE (the late Spring and Autumn period), the bronze drum dance had already appeared in music-and-dance scenes. Its movements derive mainly from hunting life, from agricultural labour and from the imitation of the movements and forms of animals, such as "riding a horse", "driving ducks", "catching fish" and "scooping up shrimp".
02 · Core Techniques & Process
In the performance of the bronze drum dance, the drummer strikes the drum rhythmically, and changes in the rhythm of the drumbeats bring about changes in the dance formations and movements. The collective dance of the bronze drum dance has a variety of formations; young men and women may form a circle, or be arranged in a semicircle, a single straight line, a column, in crosswise paired dancing, or in a square. The Leishan Miao bronze drum dance is a folk ethnic dance peculiar to the Miao, transmitted mainly in Zhang'ao Village of Datang Township, Leishan County, Guizhou Province. At the same time, people also dance the sacrificial drum dance to show respect for and remembrance of their ancestors. The bronze drum dance is a dance accompanied for its percussion by a "bronze drum" that has a head, is hollow and has no bottom, and is curved in a flat plane; it is also a representative of the dance culture of the minority peoples of southern China. Although the Miao only came into contact with the bronze drum, a ritual vessel (later used mainly as a musical instrument), at the beginning of their entry into feudal society, they made an important contribution to inheriting and developing the ancient bronze drum culture of China. To this day the Miao still preserve relatively complete performance forms and dance forms. The Miao people of the Qiandongnan area still often dance the bronze drum dance when celebrating traditional festivals and festive days. According to the Draft Gazetteer of Bazhai County in Guizhou, when the bronze drum is beaten it is "hung by its rope ears; one person strikes it hard with a wooden mallet, another meets it with a wooden barrel, each strike answered by a resonance, so that its sound is loud and carries far". The form in which the Miao bronze drum dance is now commonly practised is to hang the bronze drum in front of the courtyard or in the open ground, with the drummer holding a wooden mallet in one hand to strike the waist of the drum and a skin-headed mallet in the other to strike the drumhead as accompaniment. The dancers form a circle and, stepping to the sharply accented and sonorous sound of the drum, move now inward and now outward, now advancing and now retreating; when their spirits rise, they also clap their hands and call out, crying "hai chi chi" to add to the merriment. The Miao bronze drum dance is characterised above all by the twisting of the hips and the swinging of the upper body; its steps are bold and unrestrained, its range of movement large and its difficulty high, at one moment like a dragonfly touching the water and at another like a fierce tiger coming down off the mountain, giving it a style quite its own. Every dance has its own drumbeats and drum tunes, and every dance bearing is different. Every dance bearing embodies certain content: some of it comes from the imitation of animals, such as a duck walking; some comes from various production and living activities, such as scooping up shrimp and catching crabs, hunting and production. The Leishan Miao bronze drum dance is performed mainly at the Drum-Hiding Festival and at celebrations of the harvest and sacrifices to ancestors; because the festive occasions differ, different dance styles are chosen, so that at the Drum-Hiding Festival the bearing is solemn and weighty, when celebrating the harvest it is rough and unrestrained, and when imitating animals it is exaggerated and amusing, and so on.
Crab-catching, turning and nine more
Twelve forms were once known; one is lost, but crab-catching, turning, welcoming, hunting, duck-step, farewell, sacrificial, herding, shrimp-catching, drum-sending and shared-joy dances survive.
Suspended drum and two hammers
The drum hangs in the courtyard while one player strikes its waist with a wooden mallet and its face with a leather-tipped stick.
Zhang'ao village and the drum festival
Chiefly kept at Zhang'ao in Datang township, it is danced at the drum festival, harvest and ancestor rites, its style changing with the occasion.
Hip sway and the hai-chi-chi shout
Hips twist and torsos sway as dancers circle in and out to the crisp beat, clapping and shouting hai-chi-chi at the height of excitement.
The drum record in the Bazhai gazetteer
The Bazhai gazetteer records the drum hung by its rope loops, struck by a mallet while another pairs it with a wooden tub to make the sound carry.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The dancers' emotion rises and falls with the dance, the dancing is vigorous and powerful, the bearing is rough and agile, and the dance scene is lively and moving, showing distinctive ethnic and regional features.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Bronze Drum Dance · Bronze Drum Dance · Bronze Drum Dance.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
According to tradition the Leishan Miao bronze drum dance has twelve varieties, of which one has already been lost; eleven can now be collected, namely the crab-catching dance, the rolling-over dance, the welcoming-guest dance, the hunting-yield dance, the duck-step dance, the seeing-off-guest dance, the sacrificial drum dance, the herding dance, the shrimp-scooping dance, the escorting drum dance and the shared-joy dance. Because the bronze drum dance is transmitted over a fairly narrow area, the performance skills of some bronze drum dances and bronze drum rhythms have already been lost; the ancient Leishan Miao bronze drum dance is now in an endangered state and urgently needs rescue and protection.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Lu Xiaozong 02-0384
- Huang Zhengwu 02-0385
- Ban Dianyi 04-1568
- Huang Mingrong 05-2236
- Li Fangcai 05-2237
- Liang Zhenggong 05-2238
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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