Sainaimu
01 · Historical Records
Kuqa was anciently called Qiuci, and music and dance have flourished there since ancient times; Kuqa Sainaim inherits to a considerable degree the legacy of the music and dance of the ancient Western Regions. In volume 142 of the Tongdian the Tang writer Du You describes the music and dance of the Western Regions as “some leaping, some bounding, starting and stopping abruptly, raising the heels and snapping the fingers, shaking the head and making eyes play, with feeling issuing from within and unable to stop of itself”; the movements “shaking the head”, “making the eyes play”, “raising the heels” and “snapping the fingers” there are basically identical with the dancing of Kuqa Sainaim.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Kuqa Sainaim is the most popular folk song and dance in the life of the Uyghur people of Kuqa County, Xinjiang. Kuqa was anciently called Qiuci, and music and dance have flourished there since ancient times. Kuqa Sainaim is elegant and dignified, graceful and many-formed, beautiful and lyrical; its movements of “shaking the head”, “making the eyes play”, “raising the heels” and “snapping the fingers” are basically identical with the description of the music and dance of the Western Regions in the Tang writer Du You's Tongdian. Kuqa Sainaim belongs to self-amusing folk song and dance; the performance is free and lively, and those who dance do not sing while those who sing do not dance. With the drumming and the accompanying singing, the participants enter one after another, dancing solo, in pairs, or several together; there is no restriction of sex and the movements are casual. Partners may be changed at any time during the dance, and following one's own mood and skill one may improvise freely to the beat. At the climax the onlookers clap their hands to add to the merriment and join with the drumming and music, and for a moment the air is filled with a din of voices and the scene is extraordinarily lively. The Kuqa Sainaim dance is lyrical and steady, and when men and women dance together the exchange of feeling is also rather implicit and restrained. The lyrics of Kuqa Sainaim deal mainly with love, though some also sing about life and labour.
The Western-Region dance in the Tongdian
Du You's Tongdian describes Western-Region dance with leaping, sudden pauses, raised feet, snapping fingers, shaking heads and darting eyes, all matched in the Kuqa form.
Dancers do not sing
In this self-entertaining form dancers do not sing and singers do not dance, entrants coming in solo, in pairs or in groups as the drums and voices carry them.
Meshrep in the Kuqa oasis
The most popular dance of Kuqa, it allows partners to change at will and dancers to improvise, the crowd clapping until the noise swells.
Nasir Nusur's pupils
Born in Kuqa in 1932, Nasir Nusur performed constantly at shows and weddings and trained pupils including Ahmat Möllek and Alimjan Mahmut.
Afterglow of Kucha music
Ancient Kucha was famed for its music; the local sanam, elegant and lyrical, preserves much of the bearing and cadence of that Western-Region tradition.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Kuqa Sainaim is transmitted in the towns and villages of Kuqa County in Aksu Prefecture; Qiuci music and dance was once an important centre of the music and dance of the ancient Western Regions and was carried to the Central Plains along the Silk Road. To this day the Meshreps of Kuqa still take Sainaim as their main body, which can be seen at festivals, weddings and bazaar gatherings; the art is passed on among artists through family and neighbourhood apprenticeships, and the line of Nasir Nusur, for instance, comes from Kuqa itself.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Uyghur Sanam · Uyghur Sanam · Sainaimu · Sainaimu · Sainaimu · Sainaimu · Sainaimu.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Nasir Nusur (associated inheritor, as recorded in the official file): Male, Uyghur ethnicity, born in December 1932, native of Kuqa County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. He frequently performs Kuqa Sainaim at all kinds of cultural shows and at wedding feasts, continually improving and consolidating his performing ability. Representative inheritor of Sainaim (Kuqa Sainaim), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the fourth national batch. He attaches importance to transmission work; his apprentices include Ahmat Mollek, Alimjan Mahmut, Iskander Mamat and others, and he has also trained a good number of enthusiasts of Kuqa Sainaim dance. The lyrics of Kuqa Sainaim centre on love, while also touching on labour and daily life; its dance is lyrical yet steady, and when men and women dance together the exchange of feeling is rather implicit and restrained. Together with the Sainaim of the Hotan area, it belongs to the more reserved southern Xinjiang line, and artists themselves have enriched it in the course of continual folk performances.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Aimaiti Simayi 03-0954
- Nasier Nusuer 04-1583
- Aimidouli Rehemisha 05-2283
- Yimin Yibila 05-2284
- Yasen Aisa 05-2285
- Abulimiti Xiahabi 05-2286
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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