Derongxueqiang
01 · Historical Records
Derong Xueqiang has a long and remote origin, and accounts of when it began differ. Some hold that it had already appeared more than a thousand years ago, spanning several stages of human social development, and that it has been handed down in the form of song and dance in the Zigeng area of Derong County ever since. Derong County lies in the dry-hot valley on the banks of the Jinsha River and was historically relatively inaccessible, so Xueqiang long circulated only locally and the outside world learned of its existence only in modern times.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Derong Xueqiang is a form of folk song-and-dance performance for self-entertainment, circulating in the territory of Zigeng Township, Zishi and Acun Village in Derong County in the southwestern part of Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. It is performed mainly in the Derong dialect, taking the melodic modes of Derong guozhuang as its basic music and the Derong guozhuang steps as its basic dance steps. Derong Xueqiang is vigorous and powerful, rustic and unadorned; the combination of stamping footwork is the principal feature of its dance movements. In a Xueqiang performance the downward step is forceful and the press of the foot crisp; after the dancer bends the body forward and changes the stamping point, the same movement then turns to display a supple and uninhibited quality. The combination of the stamping foot and the pressing foot gives Xueqiang dance its distinctive flavour. As a folk dance, Derong Xueqiang is closely bound up with local folk activities. According to tradition, when a Derong Xueqiang event was held in the past, it was accompanied by the game of “leaping the bonfire”. On every festival and gathering, the men, women, old and young of every village in Derong County gather joyfully to dance Xueqiang in token of concord and good fortune. On the night of the autumn harvest in particular, people dance Xueqiang around a blazing bonfire while singing at the top of their voice, giving free rein to their joy at the abundant harvest.
Autumn harvest nights by the fire
At gatherings and especially on autumn harvest nights, villagers dance Xueqiang around bonfires singing of the harvest.
Stamping combinations and bowed steps
Stamping combos are the core: firm steps and crisp footwork turning supple once the dancer bows into the changes.
Derong dialect and Guozhuang tunes
Performed in Derong dialect to Derong Guozhuang tunes, the dance was once accompanied by fire-jumping games.
Gema Ciren
Gema Ciren, born in Derong in 1930, dances low with leg-driven variation and formed three performing teams.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
For thousands of years Xueqiang has been transmitted in the Derong dialect and melodic modes without attracting attention; the outside world learned of its existence only in modern times. Xueqiang circulates mainly around Zigeng Township, Zishi and Acun in Derong County, and the Derong County Cultural Centre is the protecting unit. Locally it is sung in the Derong dialect, taking the melodic modes of Derong guozhuang as basic music and the Derong guozhuang steps as basic dance steps; it is vigorous and powerful, rustic and unadorned, and clearly differs in dance style from the dances of the Kangding and Batang areas.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Full of local colour and saturated with a strong ethnic flavour and the plain breath of daily life, Derong Xueqiang is important material for research in such fields as history and culture, folklore and dance studies. At present, with the development of the modern economic and social life, the artists who dance Xueqiang are steadily decreasing; the transmission of the form is short of successors and stands in urgent need of rescue and protection. Gema Ciren (as recorded in the official dossier of the associated inheritor): Male, of Tibetan ethnicity, born in July 1930, a native of Derong County, Sichuan Province. When dancing, he is characterised by a low stance, a small range of upper-body movement, and variation concentrated mainly in the legs. Over a long period he has collected and organised folk song-and-dance materials, publicised folk song-and-dance culture, and actively taught traditional dance skills; his disciples are to be found throughout the province and beyond. Representative inheritor of Derong Xueqiang, a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the fourth national-level batch. He successively organised three dance troupes to take part in various kinds of performance programmes and won awards.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Gemaciren 04-1576
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。