Mao Xiang

Also known as Called the Peacock Prince

Mao Xiang, a Dai, was born in 1920 in Nuanbo village, Mengmao, in today's Ruili, Yunnan. He learned to dance by watching peacocks as a boy, also studied Dai and De'ang martial arts, and in his twenties won the title of salanong (master) at a dance contest in Namhkam, Burma. He joined the Central Nationalities Song and Dance Troupe in 1953 and the Dehong Prefecture troupe in 1956. In 1957 he and Bai Wenfen danced Double Peacock Dance and won a silver medal at the Sixth World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow. Blending Han, Uyghur and Mongolian movements into the dance, he was known as the Peacock Prince, and in later years his training classes taught Yue Xiang and Wang La. He died of illness in Ruili in August 1986.