Drum Dance

Ⅲ-42Traditional DanceGuangrao, ShandongBatch 2 (2008)Newly Added Item

01 · Historical Records

It was originally the means by which itinerant performers made a living by begging. In the Qing dynasty, Zhang Hongxiang and Zhang Hongguo of Chenguan Village, Chenguan Township, Guangrao County followed their father Zhang Yanshui about as famine beggars, and in the process gradually learned to beat the flower drum. In 1956, the short-tassel flower drum danced by Li Hongyuan, a disciple of Zhang Yanshui of Guangrao, and by Zhang Fengyun and Li Xiping of Shanghe County won an award at the Shandong provincial folk art performance. The folk artist Zhang Yi made a special journey to Chenguan Township to learn the short-tassel flower drum; the 'Flower Drum Dance' she performed won the gold prize at the Sixth World Festival of Youth and Students in 1957.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Chinese drum dance is distinguished by rich drum patterns, ardent emotion and deep cultural reserves; it spreads across the whole country and its influence reaches the entire world. The Book of Changes (Yijing), in its chapter 'Appended Statements', has the phrase 'the drums are danced to, so as to bring the spirits to their fullest' (gu zhi wu zhi yi jin shen); it vividly reflects the long history of Chinese drum dance while also summing up, in a nutshell, its principal function. From the primitive 'striking stones and clapping stones, the hundred beasts all dance' (ji shi fu shi, bai shou shui wu) to later times when its influence spread everywhere south and north of the Yangtze, Chinese drum dance has remained one continuous, unbroken tradition. According to the account of elderly artists such as Zhang Fengyun and Li Xiping of Shanghe County, in the twenty-ninth year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty (1903) the brothers Wang Lili and Wang Liyi, who made a living by singing, learnt and mastered the art of beating the flower drum while drifting to Beijing together with artists from Guangrao; they then carried this performance form back to the lower Yellow River region around Guangrao and Shanghe. The Chenguan short-tassel flower drum is performed by one person beating cymbals and singing in narrative style and one person beating the drum; the movements are expansive and uninhibited, following the maxim 'in the open field the feet tremble slightly, the legs form a figure-eight stance like a drawn bow. the striking head tilts slightly, and running to the drum is light as a celestial being'. There are thirty or forty set routines in the drumming, such as 'Zhang Fei Deceiving the Horse' and 'Su Qin Carrying the Sword'. It has now broken with this to allow one singer or a duet of two singers, with several people accompanying on gongs, cymbals and the like. Representative pieces include 'Traversing the Nine Provinces' and 'The Pillow Chronicle'. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Party and the government attached great importance to the Chenguan short-tassel flower drum; after refining and processing it they brought it onto the stage, turning this folk dance from a former means of begging for alms into art. The movements of the Chenguan short-tassel flower drum are technically demanding, so it has not been widely transmitted.

Traversing the Nine Provinces

Representative pieces include 'Traversing the Nine Provinces' and 'The Pillow Chronicle'.

The Pillow Chronicle

Representative pieces include 'Traversing the Nine Provinces' and 'The Pillow Chronicle'.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Chinese drum dance takes many forms, is widely distributed, varies greatly in dance posture, and differs enormously in kind. Among the more typical forms are waist-drum dance, the crouching drum dance (biaogu), flower-drum (flower-lantern) dance, wooden-drum dance, long-drum dance, flat-drum dance, bronze-drum dance, dragon-drum dance, fan-drum dance, yellow-clay drum dance, elephant-foot drum dance, monkey drum dance, flower-whip drum dance, bamboo-drum dance, bell-drum dance, sheep-skin drum dance and many others. The Chenguan short-tassel flower drum is a unique folk dance transmitted in the area of Chenguan Township, Guangrao County, Dongying City, Shandong Province, and in places such as Shanghe County. The Chenguan short-tassel flower drum uses drumbeats and song to express the pursuit of a happy life; it has a distinctive local rustic character, represents the area's traditional culture, and has value for anthropological and folklore studies.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Drum Dance · Drum Dance · Drum Dance · Drum Dance · Drum Dance · Drum Dance · Drum Dance · Drum Dance · Drum Dance · Drum Dance · Drum Dance · Drum Dance · Drum Dance · Drum Dance · Drum Dance · Drum Dance · Drum Dance · Drum Dance.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

In recent years, because the cultural ecological environment has changed, the Chenguan short-tassel flower drum faces a serious survival crisis; it is short of talent and transmission is ineffective, so it urgently needs protection and support. Zhang Lanqing (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Female, Han ethnicity, born in December 1971, a native of Guangrao County, Shandong Province. She comes from a family of short-tassel flower drum performers and has studied the art with her father and her uncle since childhood, mastering the essence of the performance and the complete sequence of movements. In order to transmit and develop the Chenguan short-tassel flower drum better, she improved its performance form, changing the tradition of one person beating cymbals and singing in narrative style with one person beating the drum into one singer or a duet of two singers, with several people accompanying on cymbals, gongs, large cymbals, suona and drum, performed collectively by several to dozens of people. In 1986 the short-tassel flower drum she performed was selected for the volume 'A Collection of Chinese Ethnic and Folk Dances'. To cultivate successors she actively organised members of the short-tassel flower drum troupe for training and practice, and also introduced the art into schools, disseminating and promoting it among young people. Representative inheritor of the drum dance (Chenguan short-tassel flower drum) item of the fifth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回英文名录。