Drum Dance
01 · Historical Records
From the western side of the Liaohe Plain to the foot of Shanhaiguan, from the foot of Yiwulu Mountain to the shore of the Bohai Sea — in Xinmin, Heishan, Beizhen, Yi County, Jinzhou, Lianshan, Xingcheng, Suizhong, Jianchang, Fuxin, Zhangwu, Chaoyang, Beipiao, Jianping, Lingyuan, as well as Kulun and Kailu in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, traces of the Liaoxi Taiping Drum can all be found. The Liaoxi Taiping Drum is said to have originated in the Tang dynasty and to have flourished in the Qing dynasty. It is handed down generation by generation through oral teaching among women, and its documented lines of transmission can be traced back through four generations. During the fourteen years of puppet and Japanese occupation, the Taiping Drum was classed as witchcraft and was banned, coming close to being wiped out.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Liaoxi Taiping Drum is a folk dance for women's self-amusement transmitted in western Liaoning, and has a history of six or seven hundred years to the present. According to what the older people say, in the past every village would sound the Taiping Drum around the time of the Spring Festival. The Liaoxi Taiping Drum has healthy content, lively form, rich drumbeat and graceful carriage, and is much loved by women of the various ethnic groups in western Liaoning. Its drumbeat patterns can be roughly divided into 6 categories, and its striking methods and uses number 22. Its drum notation is rich, with more than 300 varieties current among the people. In performance the dancer holds a single-skin drum in the left hand and a drumstick in the right, dancing as she beats; the rhythm is bright and lively and rich in variation. The dance movements of the Liaoxi Taiping Drum mostly portray women's labour and life, natural scenery and local customs; it can be played by one person or by several. Limited by clothing and by women's physical strength, the Liaoxi Taiping Drum has no great leaping or jumping movements and concentrates instead on walking and turning, insisting that the walking be "fast" and the turning be "airy". Because it has to travel on a circular path from beginning to end, the steps must be even, the waist supple, the head and shoulders level, and the long skirt and the hem of the robe spread out. Only speed can bring out the drummer's skill, so quick hands, quick feet and quick spinning are required. Travelling on a circular path is itself a revolving motion, and requires lightness, fluency, openness and naturalness, popularly called "bowing the circle", "willow in the wind" and "waves on calm water". It insists on displaying a floating style while walking and turning without a pause, keeping the face unchanged and the breath short. Turning round and round in every direction, tumbling, rolling, pouncing and kicking, all in one gust of wind. "
Three hundred drum scores
Its drumming falls into six categories with twenty-two striking methods and some three hundred scores circulating among the people.
Round-worship and willow sway
Moving round a circle is itself a turn, and the local names for its qualities are round-worship, willow sway and wave within steadiness.
The single-skin drum and whip
The dancer holds a single-skinned drum in the left hand and a whip in the right, dancing as she beats; there are no great leaps, only walking and turning.
Banned for fourteen years
Arising in the Tang and flourishing in the Qing, it passed down orally between women and was banned as witchcraft during the fourteen years of Japanese occupation.
From Xinmin to Kailu
The dance is found from the western Liao plain to Shanhaiguan and from the Yiwulü mountains to the sea, including Kailu and Kulun in Inner Mongolia.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Liaoxi Taiping Drum is a form of entertainment for local women during the Spring Festival. Local people once summed up the characteristics of the Liaoxi Taiping Drum's movements in four lines: "steady even steps and a level head, bowing left and bowing right with a nimble waist. The Liaoxi Taiping Drum reflects the production and living conditions of women of the various ethnic groups in western Liaoning; its drum notation is rich and its carriage graceful, and it possesses playfulness, competitiveness, entertainment value and broad popular appeal, full of the flavour of life and marked by strong regional character. It is a product of the intermingling of many national cultures, and has historical, cultural, artistic and social value that cannot be ignored.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, and especially as work on protecting intangible cultural heritage advanced, this project received attention, related protection activities flourished, and the body of transmitters kept growing.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Mairemuhan Adili 02-0402
- Li Chengyuan 03-0925
- Yang Menyuan 03-0926
- Daisanhai 03-0927
- Gao Ruchang 04-1570
- Wang Qiren 04-1571
- Qi Xuede 05-2243
- Zhang Hongnian 05-2244
- Chen Defu 05-2245
- Zhang Lanqing 05-2246
- Zhang Jifu 05-2247
- Su Anfu
- Wang Chengde
- Liu Xueguang
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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