Liaocheng acrobatics

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Liaocheng acrobatics

Applicant: Liaocheng City, Shandong Province

Project No.: 284

Project No.: VI - 2

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: traditional sports, recreation and acrobatics

Region: Shandong Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Liaocheng City, Shandong Province

Protection unit: Liaocheng Acrobatic Troupe

Introduction to Liaocheng acrobatics

Applicant: Liaocheng City, Shandong Province

Liaocheng area is one of the birthplaces of Chinese acrobatics. In the late Neolithic age, Liaocheng was the main area where Dongyi people lived. At that time, Chiyou, the leader of Dongyi people, was said to be a master of acrobatics. Ancient acrobatics originated from Jiaodi opera, that is, Chiyou opera. Liaocheng acrobatics is now distributed in Dong'e, Chiping, Yanggu counties and their surrounding areas.

During the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, Liaocheng Acrobatic Circus got preliminary development, and was basically mature by the Han Dynasty. During the Three Kingdoms period, Acrobatic Circus was very popular in Liaocheng's Dong'e area, which became a form of performance with acrobatics as the main part and other skills. Cao Zhi, the king of Dong'e, once described this situation with a poem of "fighting chickens in the eastern suburbs, walking between horses and Catalans". In history, the Yellow River was often flooded, and many farmers had to abandon agriculture to study arts in order to survive. Mengzhuang, Hezhuang, zhangdadanji and other villages in Dong'e county are famous acrobatic villages. At the beginning of the Republic of China, there were dozens of Acrobatic Circus classes in Dong'e County alone. In addition, there are dozens of acrobatic troupes in Yanggu, Chiping, Shenxian and Linqing. Some of them have performed in Korea, Japan and Singapore. In 1955, eight circuses were officially established in Dong'e county. In 1970, Liaocheng acrobatic troupe was established.

Liaocheng has a long history of acrobatics, with a large number of artists, and gradually formed a cultural system of acrobatics industry with Qilu characteristics. Liaocheng acrobatics mainly includes three categories: Circus, magic and performance. It attaches importance to waist and leg top skills and highlights the new, difficult, strange, beautiful and dangerous. Its artistic style is simple, heroic and rough. It is known as the hero of Qilu and deeply loved by the masses.

At present, although Liaocheng acrobatics has been explored and advocated, there is still a trend of decline. This is mainly because with the improvement of living standards, acrobatics, which used to be a means of making a living, is no longer attractive to today's young people, resulting in a serious phenomenon of no successor. Some accomplished acrobats gradually quit the stage because of their old age, and some died one after another, which made some stunts face the risk of losing.

In 1993, the Ministry of culture approved the establishment of Chinese children's acrobatic base in Liaocheng, which was listed in the dandelion plan of the State Council. Relying on China's children's acrobatic base, Liaocheng municipal government has established Liaocheng dandelion acrobatic art school to cultivate acrobatic reserve talents. However, it is far from the scientific, three-dimensional, comprehensive and original ecological protection. The consciousness of rescue and protection of intangible heritage needs to be further strengthened.