Yi Tiaocai
01 · Historical Records
It originated in ancient sacrificial rites and has been transmitted without interruption for a long time in the Yi areas of Nanjian.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Yi tiaocai, also known as “the carried-dish dance”, is called “wuqieba” in Yi; it is a ceremonial and customary dance handed down in Nanjian Yi Autonomous County, Yunnan Province. When the Yi people set out the dishes at a folk banquet, they commonly dance this dance in order to honour the guests and add to the festive atmosphere. To the accompaniment of the Fengsheng Yue, the dancers begin to move holding dishes or trays on their palms; the dance postures consist mainly of spins, with the sleeves whirling and the poses multiplying, at one moment vigorous and at another light and graceful. Yi tiaocai commonly divides into two large categories, “tiaocai at the banquet table” and “tiaocai as a performance”; the performance form is based on the banquet-table dance, while taking the many dage steps transmitted within Nanjian County as its main dance steps. According to style of performance, “tiaocai as a performance” is divided into three kinds: “Wuliangshan-system Black Yi tiaocai”, “Ailaoshan-system Black Yi tiaocai” and “Wuliang Township Hongxing Village White Yi tiaocai”; according to the place of performance, it is again divided into two forms, “stage tiaocai” and “square tiaocai”. “Stage tiaocai” is tiaocai performed on a stage, usually with some twenty performers, the dance movements rough and bold, vigorous and forceful, and the singing high and resonant; “square tiaocai” has a spacious venue and anywhere from a few dozen to several hundred performers, producing an artistic effect of grandeur and of neatness and harmony.
Head, mouth and hand techniques
Table-side serving splits into head-balancing, mouth-carrying and hand-carrying techniques.
Wuliang and Ailao mountain styles
Performance tiaocai divides by style into Wuliang and Ailao Black Yi and Hongxing village White Yi, and by venue into stage and square forms.
Golden tripod, magpie crouch, fly rubs its feet
Acrobatic serving tricks danced with trays to the music of Fengsheng Yue, mostly spinning and sleeve work.
Lu Chaojin
Lu Chaojin of Nanjian learned the whole tiaocai sequence young and also plays reed pipe and suona tunes.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
According to the way the dishes are carried, “tiaocai at the banquet table” is divided into three forms — “tiaocai of head-work”, “tiaocai of mouth-work” and “tiaocai of hand-work” — which are relatively independent of one another yet also perform as a whole.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Yi tiaocai reflects the joy of the Yi people at the harvest and their longing for a good life, and displays their kindness and plainness and their warm hospitality; it has research value for the study of primitive religion and folk culture. At present, this ancient folk cultural activity of tiaocai is short of successors, has already entered an endangered state, and urgently needs protection and transmission. Lu Chaojin (as recorded in the official dossier of the associated inheritor): Male, of Yi ethnicity, born in March 1966, a native of Nanjian Yi Autonomous County, Yunnan Province. He began learning dage, tiaocai, the lusheng and the suona at the age of sixteen. Under the teaching and guidance of his elders, he has often taken part in performance activities at folk weddings and funerals, mountain fairs and temple fairs. He is familiar with the complete repertoire of tiaocai and is skilled in both banquet-table tiaocai and performance tiaocai. He handles with ease such tiaocai techniques as supporting the golden tripod on the palm, the magpie crouching in its nest and the fly rubbing its feet, and he can also play the lusheng dage tunes of sixteen steps and twelve steps and sound suona tunes such as Tiantang Diao and Longtaitou. Since 1992 he has gone many times to Beijing, Kunming and other places to take part in important performance activities. He passes his skills on to the people without reserve, and leads them to take an active part in tiaocai activities. Representative inheritor of Yi tiaocai, a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the third national-level batch.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Lu Chaojin 03-0941
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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