Yi Hulusheng Dance
01 · Historical Records
The historical traces of the gourd-pipe dance of the Hualuo people are preserved in the decorative patterns of the bronze drums of southeastern Yunnan: on the design of the ancient Kaihua bronze drum there are four dancers wearing plumed crowns and feathered garments, dancing while playing gourd pipes, their postures taking the shape of an S-curve bending forward and backward. On this basis researchers hold that, when the ancient Dian people danced the gourd-pipe dance, they wore plumed crowns, held feathers in their hands, wore feathered garments and, with bent limbs and stamping feet, circled and danced; the gourd-pipe dance of the Hualuo people of Mancun is inherited from this ancient tradition of Dian music and dance.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The gourd-pipe dance of the Yi people of Xichou is transmitted in Mancun Village, Jijie, Xichou County, Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. Mancun is a village where the Hualuo people of the Yi ethnic group live in concentrated settlement. The gourd-pipe dance of the Hualuo people is an ancient folk dance of the Yi; it stands out through its typical dance posture of the torso curving forward and backward in an S-shape, displaying the lingering charm of the ancient Dian gourd-pipe dance. On the design of the ancient Kaihua bronze drum there is a decorative pattern of four dancers wearing plumed crowns and feathered garments, dancing gracefully to the gourd pipe; the dance posture is precisely the typical S-shaped movement of curving forward and backward. This proves that, over the long course of history, the ancient Dian ancestors, when dancing the gourd-pipe dance, wore plumed crowns, held feathers in their hands, wore feathered garments and, with bent limbs and stamping feet, circled and danced. At the Hualuo people's important festivals, the men, women, old and young of the whole village gather in the courtyard, the women wearing their finest festive dress and, to the accompaniment of the gourd pipe, forming a circle and dancing gracefully. The gourd-pipe dance has seven different dance routines — Yanie (danced standing), Yaqing (start-step jump), Yala (moving step with a turn), Yajiang (walking in a circle), Yawen (threading the flower), Yagao (facing nods) and Yagan (jump forward then jump back) — and each routine is performed to a different gourd-pipe tune, so the music is fairly rich. The gourd pipes made by the Hualuo people are of particularly fine workmanship: five bamboo pipes of differing lengths have bamboo or copper reeds set into their lower ends and are inserted into a sound chamber made from a gourd; three of the pipes have sound holes on the side, the shortest one also has a sound hole behind the sound chamber, and a small gourd is fitted to the top of the longest one to increase resonance.
Seven named routines
Seven routines run from standing and starting steps to turning, circling, threading, nodding and leaping, each with its own reed-pipe tune.
The Hualuo reed pipe
Five bamboo pipes with reed tongues fit into a gourd wind-chest; three are side-holed, the shortest is holed at the back, and the longest carries a small gourd for resonance.
Buckwheat festival and monthly dates
Zhong Tianzhen leads the village women on the first three days of each lunar month, on the fifteenth, and through the buckwheat festival.
Feather-crowned dancers on the bronze drum
Four feather-crowned figures piping and dancing on the Kaihua bronze drum, their bodies bending in the same S curve, are the key material evidence for the dance's ancient Dian origin.
Yang Yingjin's several instruments
Yang Yingjin, born in 1953, also plays erhu, xianzi, flute, xiao and suona and has led villagers at prefectural and county events.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Mancun Village, Jijie Township, Xichou County is the core place of transmission of the gourd-pipe dance. Mancun is a village settled by the Hualuo people of the Yi ethnic group; at festivals the men, women, old and young of the whole village gather in the courtyard, the women in their finest festive dress dancing in a circle. The Hualuo people also have folk dances such as the xianzi dance, and the gourd-pipe dance together with these forms the main body of the dances in the local festivals and ritual activities.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Today the headdresses and dress of the Hualuo women of Mancun still retain some traces of “plumed crowns” and “feathered garments”, showing that the gourd-pipe dance of the Hualuo people of Mancun is inherited from the dancing of the ancient Dian ancestors and that it has its own particular historical and cultural content. Because of changes in production and living and the impact of outside culture, the artistic characteristics and cultural content of the Yi gourd-pipe dance are gradually weakening, the forms of expression are becoming increasingly monotonous, and transmission also shows a discouraging pattern; it should be protected and rescued as soon as possible. Zhong Tianzhen (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): female, Yi, born in 1946, native of Wenshan, Yunnan. Zhong Tianzhen began learning the gourd-pipe dance from her mother at the age of 12, and mastered the steps of a number of folk dances including the gourd-pipe dance and the xianzi dance; she is a well-known local folk dance artist. In the slack season, whenever the first, second, third and fifteenth days of the first lunar month and the shepherd's purse festival come round, she regularly leads the women of the village in dancing the gourd-pipe dance. Representative inheritor of the Yi gourd-pipe dance, second batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects. Yang Yingjin (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): male, Yi, born in 1953, native of Wenshan, Yunnan. Besides performing gourd-pipe dance tunes, he can also play the erhu, the xianzi, the flute, the vertical flute and the suona, and is a well-known local folk song-and-dance artist. He has led villagers many times to dance the gourd-pipe dance at the large-scale cultural events organised at prefecture and county level. Representative inheritor of the Yi gourd-pipe dance, second batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zhong Tianzhen 02-0395
- Yang Yingjin 02-0396
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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