Maonan Dahou Drum Dance
01 · Historical Records
The monkey drum dance circulates in the Maonan settlements of Pingtang County in Qiannan Bouyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, and is most concentrated around Kapu Maonan Ethnic Township. The Maonan of Guizhou were formerly called "Yanghuang people", and in 1990 they were officially identified as the Maonan ethnic group; the monkey drum dance is an important dance of this group for ancestor worship and for its own entertainment. Its origins are related to the Maonan ancestors mimicking the forms of apes climbing vines and crouching and leaping; the movements are comical and humorous and wholly imitate monkeys. Researchers regard it as a dance relic preserving primitive forms, and its history already exceeds six hundred years.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The monkey drum dance is a folk dance unique to the Maonan ethnic group, circulated in the Maonan settlements of Pingtang County, Guizhou Province. One person beats the bronze drum, one beats the hide drum, and several people perform; the movements are comical and humorous and wholly imitate monkeys. For its distinctive content it is acclaimed as a "living fossil" among dances. The monkey drum dance takes three forms in performance — the man's solo, the duet and the group dance — and the dance as a whole displays a style that is wild, unrestrained, coarse and nimble. The monkey drum dance is divided into three sections: "the monkey king is born", "the monkeys pound the stakes" and "the monkey fire lights the way". The first section, "the monkey king is born", expresses the striving and self-reliance of the Maonan ancestors; the second, "the monkeys pound the stakes", expresses the Maonan people's tenacious will to survive and their united, courageous resistance; the third, "the monkey fire lights the way", expresses the Maonan people's spirit of inheriting the ancestors' resolve and forging ahead. In performance, the bronze drum and the hide drum are struck to control the rhythm, and the strength, weight and speed of the beats guide the changes in the dance movements; the crouching and leaping movement of the legs runs throughout the performance.
The monkey king is born
The first of three sections, expressing the ancestors' unyielding spirit through squatting, leaping monkey movement.
The monkey strikes the post
The second section, in which bronze and skin drum beats drive crouching leaps expressing stubborn survival.
The monkey fire leads the way
The closing section, expressing the determination to carry on the ancestors' will.
Bronze drum and skin drum
One player strikes the bronze drum and one the skin drum, their dynamics steering the dance's wild, coarse and nimble character.
Kapu Maonan township
Kapu township in Pingtang is the Maonan heartland, where the dance has been carried on by a population of under 100,000.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The dance is divided into three parts: "the monkey king is born", "the monkeys pound the stakes" and "the monkeys lead the way". The monkey drum dance is performed at funerary rites and festival gatherings in villages such as Kapu Maonan Ethnic Township in Pingtang County; the Pingtang County Institute of Literature and Art (Pingtang County Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center) is the protecting unit for this item.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The monkey drum dance has been developed and handed down among the Maonan, a people of fewer than one hundred thousand, and its history already exceeds six hundred years. The monkey drum dance is a concrete embodiment of Maonan folk customs and totem culture, and has research value in ethnology and art studies. At present everyone in the Maonan ethnic group who takes part in folk ritual activity is already over seventy and can no longer dance the monkey drum dance, while young people are unwilling to learn this folk dance, whose movements are difficult. In these circumstances the Maonan monkey drum dance is on the verge of extinction and urgently needs rescue and protection. The Maonan of Guizhou live in the Kapu and Zhemi areas of Pingtang County, their villages built against mountains and beside water and traditionally making a living by farming; the movements of the monkey drum dance — crouching and leaping, climbing and tumbling — correspond to the bodily experience of mountain labour, and are a concrete embodiment of Maonan folk customs and totem culture.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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。