Mongolian Andai Dance
01 · Historical Records
The Andai dance originated in Kulun Banner and, according to research, took shape around the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. In the middle of the Qing dynasty, migrants who had gone "chuangguandong" to the northeast poured into the grasslands from every direction; the cultural customs of different tribes and different regions blended together to create the Mongolian culture of Kulun, and gave birth to the Andai dance with its broad popular support. There are more than thirty accounts of the origin of Andai, of which the most representative holds that Andai was originally a religious dance used to treat women's lovesickness, and also contained the meaning of praying for the spirits to protect one and of averting disaster and illness. In 1958 the old Andai folk artist Erdunbala performed Andai in Beijing, causing a sensation. In 1996 Kulun Banner of Inner Mongolia was named "Hometown of Chinese Andai Art".
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The system in Kulun at the time was "religion and government combined into one", with temples standing in rows and a great many monks. At the time, the Andai popular in Kulun and other places included twelve varieties such as "Ada Andai" and "Uriga Andai". Andai is usually held at festivals or in leisure time, with one person leading the singing and everyone else joining in, and hundreds or thousands of men, women and old and young singing and dancing as they perform. The Andai dance is strongly for self-amusement, distinctly ethnic in character and rich in the atmosphere of daily life; it is relaxed and joyous, simple and easy to learn, and its songs are composed and sung on the spot, full of expressive power. Men, women, old and young may all enter the circle and dance to their hearts' content; there is no restriction of time or place. All that is required is to swing the kerchief and step in time to the rhythm of the music and to join in with the lead singer. The melodies of Andai have a distinctive style and strong expressive power, and they allow the singer to express different feelings according to different situations. Apart from the opening and closing sections, which are basically fixed and unchanging because of ritual needs, the song lyrics of Andai are not fixed. Singers who are quick-witted and skilled in words can freely express their feelings in humorous and witty lyrics, praising or mocking or laughing and scolding, without following any single pattern. For nearly four hundred years the Andai dance, with its strong "folk character" and its "ecstatic dance" features, has been beloved by the Mongolian people, and has gradually become the most popular carnival dance at the religious ceremonies and "Nadam" fairs of the Mongolian people in the Inner Mongolia region. According to the historical records of Kulun, a single Andai performance lasted as long as more than forty days; its scale and the number of participants can be called the greatest of any folk dance in China.
Twelve kinds of andai
Twelve kinds were current at Kulun, the best-known tradition holding that the dance first served to cure women's lovesickness and to ward off illness.
Scarf-swinging and answering song
Anyone may join at any time, swinging a scarf and stepping to the music in answer to the lead singer, hundreds dancing and singing together.
Verses improvised on the spot
Except for fixed opening and closing verses, the words are free, witty singers praising, mocking or jesting as they please.
A single andai of forty days
Kulun culture fused migrant and tribal custom, and local records tell of a single andai lasting over forty days, unmatched in scale among Chinese folk dances.
Narenmandula's staging of andai
The second-batch inheritor Narenmandula, born in 1946, learned from two old masters and from 1966 moved the ground andai onto the stage, joining stamping, arm-swinging and silk-scarf tossing.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Andai dance takes Kulun Banner of Tongliao City, Inner Mongolia, as its birthplace and core area of transmission, and is popular in the Mongolian settlements on the southern edge of the Horqin Grassland. The locality divides Andai into twelve varieties such as "Ada Andai" and "Uriga Andai", which differ in their song lyrics, in the number of items and in their ritual procedure according to their use; Kulun Banner was named "Hometown of Chinese Andai Art" in 1996 and is the centre for the transmission and presentation of the Andai dance.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Kulun Banner carried out comprehensive work to excavate and collate the Andai dance. Today the Andai dance has become the most dazzling cultural symbol of the Mongolian people. In recent years, because of changes in cultural forms, the mode of transmission and the living space of the Andai dance have been increasingly restricted, the continuation of this dance form is seriously threatened, and urgent collation and rescue are needed. Naran Mandula (official file of the associated inheritor): Male, of the Mongolian ethnicity, born in 1946, native of Tongliao, Inner Mongolia. Beginning in 1958 Naran Mandula studied the Andai dance with two old Andai dance artists, Jmuyan and Erdunbala, and in 1966 he formed an amateur performance troupe and served as its director. Building on what he had inherited, he varied the original Andai movements, song lyrics and tunes, incorporated into them new content suited to modern society, and gradually brought the open-air Andai onto the stage. The Andai dance as innovated by him is sung and danced at the same time, combining the stamping of the feet, the waving of the arms and the flicking of silk kerchiefs, which makes the performance more ardent and unrestrained. Naran Mandula made an important contribution to the transmission and development of the Andai dance. Representative inheritor of the Mongolian Andai dance of the second batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Narenmandoula 02-0388
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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