MUZI MUZIChinese Matrix

Yangge

The umbrella leader gives the sign, and the gongs and drums strike up

Introduction

The processional group dance of northern New Year festivals, danced to gongs, drums and suona

Yangge is the group dance of the New Year shehuo festivities in the towns and villages of the north: a troupe of a dozen to more than a hundred performers moves in procession behind an umbrella leader, with drum, mallet, flower-girl and clown roles each dancing their own movements to gongs, drums and suona, either on the ground (di yangge) or on stilts (gaoqiao yangge). Its main forms are the yangge of northern Shaanxi, Jiaozhou, Haiyang, the drum yangge of Shandong and Changli (III-2), and related troupes include Jingxing lahua, Yingge, stilt dancing, hobby-horse and donkey dances. In the Kangxi reign Yang Bin already recorded troupes that 'dress up for yangge' at the Lantern Festival, and Qing writers traced it to the 'village field music' troupes of Southern Song Hangzhou; in 1943 it gave rise to the New Yangge Movement in Yan'an.

Timeline

Kangxi reign of the Qing to present
1690 · OriginIn the Kangxi reign Yang Bin's Liubian jilüe recorded that at the Lantern Festival in the north-eastern borderlands enthusiasts would 'dress up for yangge', boys playing women and others playing officers, dancing to gongs and drums: an early reliable record of the yangge troupe. The Qing writer Wu Xilin later traced yangge to the 'village field music' troupe listed among the dance troupes in the Southern Song Wulin jiushi.1855 · EvolutionJiaozhou yangge arose in the Xianfeng reign; the movements, roles, costumes and props in Song Guanwei's Qing poem Yangge ci are much as they are today, and the form is known for the 'waist-twisting' and 'three-bend' postures of its female roles.1943 · EvolutionAfter the 1942 Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art, the Lu Xun Academy's yangge troupe reworked northern Shaanxi yangge into 'new yangge', and its Brother and Sister Open the Wasteland at the 1943 Spring Festival launched the New Yangge Movement; the yangge plays that grew from it were the forerunner of Chinese national opera (minzu geju), recorded there.2006 · ImpactIn 2006 yangge (III-2) entered the first national list with the Changli, drum (Shanghe), Jiaozhou, Haiyang, northern Shaanxi and Fushun forms, and Jingxing lahua, Yingge, stilt dancing and the Yongxin shield dance entered in the same batch; by 2021 four extensions had brought the yangge item to seventeen local forms.
  1. 1690OriginIn the Kangxi reign Yang Bin's Liubian jilüe recorded that at the Lantern Festival in the north-eastern borderlands enthusiasts would 'dress up for yangge', boys playing women and others playing officers, dancing to gongs and drums: an early reliable record of the yangge troupe. The Qing writer Wu Xilin later traced yangge to the 'village field music' troupe listed among the dance troupes in the Southern Song Wulin jiushi.Literature › Old Affairs of Wulin: Juan 2
  2. 1855EvolutionJiaozhou yangge arose in the Xianfeng reign; the movements, roles, costumes and props in Song Guanwei's Qing poem Yangge ci are much as they are today, and the form is known for the 'waist-twisting' and 'three-bend' postures of its female roles.
  3. 1943EvolutionAfter the 1942 Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art, the Lu Xun Academy's yangge troupe reworked northern Shaanxi yangge into 'new yangge', and its Brother and Sister Open the Wasteland at the 1943 Spring Festival launched the New Yangge Movement; the yangge plays that grew from it were the forerunner of Chinese national opera (minzu geju), recorded there.
  4. 2006ImpactIn 2006 yangge (III-2) entered the first national list with the Changli, drum (Shanghe), Jiaozhou, Haiyang, northern Shaanxi and Fushun forms, and Jingxing lahua, Yingge, stilt dancing and the Yongxin shield dance entered in the same batch; by 2021 four extensions had brought the yangge item to seventeen local forms.

Heritage Listings

  1. 2006National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage1st batch · III-2 Yangge · no. 105 · nominated by Changli · Hebei · Shanghe · Jiaozhou and Haiyang · Shandong · Suide · Shaanxi · Fushun · Liaoning · extensions: 2008 Jiyang drum yangge · Linxian umbrella yangge · Yuanping feng yangge · Fenyang di yangge · 2011 Xiaohongmen di yangge · Laoting di yangge · Yangxin drum yangge · 2014 Yanqing land boat · 2021 Ximatou Bairen Jing yangge on stilts · Luanzhou di yangge · Wula Manchu yangge
  2. 2006National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage1st batch · III-3 Jingxing lahua · no. 106 · nominated by Jingxing · Hebei
  3. 2006National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage1st batch · III-8 Yingge · no. 111 · nominated by Jieyang and Shantou · Guangdong · 2011 extension: Jiazi Yingge (Lufeng)
  4. 2006National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage1st batch · III-9 Stilt dancing (gaoqiao) · no. 112 · nominated by Jishan · Shanxi · Haicheng and Jinzhou · Liaoning · Yongdeng · Gansu · 2008 extensions: Gaizhou · Shangkouzi · single-pole stilts and fire sedan on stilts
  5. 2006National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage1st batch · III-10 Yongxin shield dance · no. 113 · nominated by Yongxin · Jiangxi · 2011 extension: rattan-shield dance (Rui'an · Zhejiang)
  6. 2008National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage2nd batch · III-44 Hobby-horse dance (zhuma) · no. 641 · nominated by Gaochun (Nanjing) and Pizhou · Jiangsu · extensions: 2011 Jiangtang horse-lantern dance (Liyang) · 2014 Chun'an hobby-horse (Zhejiang)
  7. 2008National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage2nd batch · III-46 Cangzhou luozi · no. 643 · nominated by Nanpi · Hebei
  8. 2008National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage2nd batch · III-50 Paoweizi · no. 647 · nominated by Tangyin · Henan
  9. 2008National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage2nd batch · III-56 Jingbian donkey dance · no. 653 · nominated by Jingbian · Shaanxi
  10. 2021National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage5th batch · III-132 Liulangzhuang five-tiger staff troupe · no. 1404 · nominated by Haidian · Beijing