Zerou
01 · Historical Records
Zerou has been transmitted in Xapai Village, Hexi Town, Guide County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai, for more than four hundred years. In local Tibetan, Xapai is called “Shangyou”, so this branch of Zerou takes the name Shangyou Zerou; it is also known popularly as “Ashize”, and it is one of the branches of Tibetan song-and-dance that preserves the most ancient ritual procedures. Zerou was originally connected with the customs of tribal gatherings and of offering song and dance at weddings and New Year; song and dance are combined, and its musical forms and lyrics are fairly regular. Among its features, the woman's high leg lift and large swinging of the body are seldom seen in Tibetan dance, and they have made it the most representative dance item of Xapai Village.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
In Xapai Village, Hexi Town, Guide County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, Tibetan song-and-dance is very flourishing, and Shangyou Zerou stands out most among it. “Shangyou” means “Xapai”. Zerou is also known as “Ashize”. Shangyou Zerou has been sung and danced in Xapai Village for more than four hundred years, and through song accompanying dance it expresses the villagers' endless love for the natural scenery of their home village. Zerou is of many kinds and rich in content; it not only expresses a strong self-entertainment quality but also contains a strong festive and ritual quality and highly skilful performance. Over a course of several hundred years of evolution, its singing has accommodated and drawn on many things; its melodies have grown from a few at the beginning to more than twenty today, and the structure of its works and its performance have also become increasingly mature, making it a classic representative among Zerou forms.
Shangyou and Ashize
Shangyou means Xiaopai village and the form is also called Ashize; it has been sung there for over four centuries with song accompanying dance.
More than twenty melodies
Over the centuries its singing absorbed many influences, growing from a few melodies to more than twenty and maturing into the classic form of zourou.
A rare high knee lift
It keeps Tibetan dance's hallmarks while adding bold carriage, large amplitude and a high knee lift rare in the tradition, its name itself meaning to romp and play.
Wedding and new-year dancing
Strongly self-entertaining yet ceremonial and technically demanding, it is staged at village weddings and at provincial, prefectural and county cultural events.
Lhamo's lineage and teaching
Born in Guide in 1951, Lhamo learned from the elder Drolma and her mother, joined the village troupe at fifteen and has taught since 1992.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Shangyou Zerou is an art combining song and dance, with fairly regular musical forms and lyrics, distinctive regional character and broad popular participation.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
While Zerou maintains the consistent characteristics of Tibetan dance, its bodily expression is bold and unrestrained, its range of movement is large, it is full of festive colour, and it has the high leg lift seldom seen in Tibetan dance. The word Zerou itself conveys the sense of rough play and merriment, which gives the dance all the more entertainment value. Shangyou Zerou has a long history and many kinds, is broadly connected with every aspect of popular life, and still preserves many ancient Tibetan artistic traditions. Both in content and in form it attains a high level of artistic achievement, and it has research value for anthropology, ethnology, folklore and art. At present this precious national traditional dance is facing the crisis of being lost, and its rescue and protection cannot wait. Lamao (associated inheritor, as recorded in the official file): Female, Tibetan ethnicity, born in May 1951, native of Guide County, Qinghai Province. She has liked dancing since childhood. At six she began to learn the folk dance Shangyou Zerou from the folk old artist Zhuoma and from her mother Boma Zhuoma, and gradually mastered the dance movements, vocal styles and melodies of Shangyou Zerou. At ten she became a performer of the folk dance Shangyou Zerou, and at eleven she began to take part in Shangyou Zerou performances at village weddings and celebrations and in cultural activities of the province, the prefecture and the county. At fifteen she began to take part in performances with the Xapai Village song-and-dance team. Her dance movements are light and graceful, her lines are vivid and delicate, her singing is clear and stirring, and she has strong artistic expressiveness. Her technique matured day by day in practice and formed her own artistic characteristics. Representative inheritor of Zerou (Shangyou Zerou), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the fifth national batch. She has been engaged in the transmission of the project since 1992 and has trained a group of inheritors.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Lamao 05-2280
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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