Qilin Dance
01 · Historical Records
The formation of Huanghua qilin dance is closely tied to the local folk craft of building the props. In former times qilin props were framed with split bamboo and covered with paper, so they were easily damaged and hard to preserve. Over many years of building practice Yang Yinhai kept searching and experimenting, replacing the paper covering with silk, which both extended the service life of the qilin and strengthened the three-dimensional quality of its form; and he could determine the proportional dimensions of the parts according to the height of the qilin so as to ensure stability and balance. The combination of performer and craftsman is an important condition for the continuation of Huanghua qilin dance.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Qilin dance is a traditional folk dance widely popular throughout the country, with a history of more than five hundred years to the present. It is a symbol of auspiciousness and peace, of favourable weather, of national prosperity and of popular well-being; in performance it is usually accompanied by gongs and drums together with the suona, integrating singing, dancing and music in one. Qilin dance is generally performed in the evenings of the slack farming season and on festivals or auspicious days, when wooden posts have to be planted around the performance ground with lanterns hung above them for lighting. The two dancers known as the "qilin head" and the "qilin tail" hide inside the qilin hide of the prop, take on the appearance of a qilin, and perform highly technical movements such as scratching an itch, shaking the fur, circling the table, circling the stool, circling the lantern, climbing high, tumbling and gazing at the moon, at the same time accompanied from the side by percussion instruments. Qilin dance is bold and lively, fierce and blazing, and full of awesome presence; set against grand, strongly rhythmic percussion, it gives a sense of magnificent scale that lifts the spirits of the spectators. Qilin dance in Lankao County, Henan Province retains its traditional performance form, content and artistic character, bearing distinct features of the Central Plains culture. In qilin dance in Haifeng County, Guangdong Province, one person moves the qilin head and one person leads the qilin tail; to the accompaniment of big gong, big drum and big suona they perform movements such as the qilin tumbling, licking the feet, washing the whiskers and biting the crotch, together with the emotions of joy, anger, sorrow and happiness. Immediately after the qilin dance comes a martial arts performance; this is the essence of Haifeng qilin dance, and it mainly includes boxing, staff play, broadsword play, dancing with pointed spears, pointed spears against iron rulers, rolling the rattan shield, and group staff-fighting bouts and so on.
Silk replacing paper
The noted craftsman Yang Yinhai designed his own drawings, made the head lifelike and replaced paper with silk for longer life and stronger relief.
Scratching, shaking and moon-gazing
Two dancers hidden inside the skin perform such feats as scratching, shaking the coat, coiling round tables, benches and lanterns, climbing, tumbling and gazing at the moon.
Coiling round furniture
Its acrobatic highlights, the beast coiling and springing over stacked tables, benches and lanterns to astonish the crowd.
Head and tail together
One dancer takes the head, another the tail; the first governs the bearing, the second the rise and fall, and the two must move as one.
Stakes and lanterns
Performed at night in the slack season or on auspicious days, the arena is ringed with stakes hung with lanterns that light the painted skin.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The qilin dance of Huanghua City, Hebei Province, with its extraordinary tall artistic form and its high-difficulty acrobatic movements that startle, endanger and amaze, conquers the audience, brings a strong artistic shock, and displays the impassioned local character of the Yanzhao region.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Qilin Dance · Qilin Dance · Qilin Dance · Qilin Dance · Qilin Dance · Qilin Dance · Qilin Dance · Qilin Dance.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Qilin dance is a precious piece of cultural heritage left by the ancestors of Huaxia to their descendants, and it has both a high value for artistic appreciation and research value in religious studies, folklore studies, historiography and other fields. Because building a qilin uses a great variety of materials, costs a good deal, takes much time and effort, and the performance movements are very difficult, the performance scale of qilin dance in various places is shrinking day by day, facing the danger of being lost, and urgently requires rescue and protection. Yang Yinhai (official archive record of the associated inheritor): Male, Han, born in June 1936, from Huanghua City, Hebei Province. Clever and eager to learn from childhood, he watched the adults build and perform the qilin, absorbed by constant contact, and came to love the art of the qilin. He has quick comprehension and is willing to study hard, and is a skilled craftsman famous far and near. Over many years of building practice he kept searching and exploring qilin-building techniques, making the shape of the qilin's head lifelike and vivid. He can design his own drawings, determine the proportional dimensions of the parts according to the height of the qilin, and ensure stability and balance. He also improved the materials used in building, changing the paper covering to silk, which extended the service life of the qilin and enhanced its three-dimensional quality. At the same time he often instructs local farmers in performance and passes on performance techniques. Representative inheritor of the third-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project qilin dance.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Yang Yinhai 03-0928
- Zhang Xishan 05-2248
- Songzhang 05-2249
- Liu Jintang
- Hanzhiyong
- Xie Yuqiu
- Zhang Zhiming
- Liu Weituan
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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