Tujia hand waving dance (Youyang hand waving dance)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Tujia hand waving dance (Youyang hand waving dance)

Applicant: Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, Chongqing

Project No.: 120

Project No.: Ⅲ - 17

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: traditional dance

Region: Chongqing

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, Chongqing

Protection unit: Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County Cultural Center

Introduction to Tujia hand waving dance (Youyang hand waving dance)

Applicant: Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, Chongqing

Hand waving dance, also known as "Sheba day", is a ceremonial collective folk dance performed by Tujia people in front of Tuwang temple during the Spring Festival. It is popular in Yongshun, Longshan and Baojing areas of Hunan Province and the Tujia inhabited areas at the junction of Hubei and Sichuan provinces.

Hand waving dance can be divided into "big hand waving" and "small hand waving". The big hand waving performance is held once every three to five years and lasts for seven or eight days. Tens of thousands of people take part in the performance. There are complex military hunting contents in the performance, which need to put out routine array. The small hand waving performance is held every year in Tujia village. Its main content is farming. During the dance, the participants form a multi-layer circle, one person leads the dance, and the others follow Jump, with a strong improvisation.

Youyang, which belongs to Chongqing City, and Western Hubei in the upper reaches of Youshui River have the same origin with Xiangxi mountain in the lower reaches. In the spring and Autumn period, it was the southern border of the state of Ba. It was built in the Western Han Dynasty. In Hunan Province, there are Yongshun, Guzhang and Longshan counties. The ancestors of Peng, Bai and Tian, the powerful Tujia clans, had been forced to swim upstream in the Dongting Lake area for many times. They settled in kedahe and Houxi in the middle reaches of Youshui River, bringing rituals of offering sacrifices to Tuwang and his ancestors. Since then, Tujia hand waving dance has been widely spread in this area.

Youyang hand waving dance has a unique national personality and regional characteristics. Its dancing posture imitates the actions of trekking mountains and rivers, farming labor, fighting posture, eagle wings and daily life. It is easy to stretch and has a strong atmosphere of life, showing the rough and uninhibited character of Tujia people. There are more than 20 kinds of dance movements, such as "single pendulum", "double pendulum", "shaking fleas", "chasing wild boars", "beggar roasting", "crabs on the tree", "rock eagle spreading its wings", "champion kicking dead government official" and so on. There are more than 30 kinds of queues, such as circular pendulum, double circular pendulum, double copper coin, flower arrangement pendulum, one-stop, screw top, wading around the mountain and water.

Youyang hand waving dance vividly reflects the production and living customs of Tujia ancestors during the period of farming, fishing and hunting along the border of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing and Guizhou, and epic shows the situation of Tujia people's long-distance migration, hunting and fighting, slash and burn cultivation, food and daily life. It integrates song, dance and joy, and gathers a wealth of folk songs, ballads and folklore, which has become an important way to inherit Tujia culture. In recent years, Youyang hand waving dance is facing the inheritance crisis, which is in urgent need of rescue and protection.