Officials will ring gongs

The name of China's national intangible cultural heritage

Applicant: Xiangcheng City, Henan Province

Project No.: 648

Project No.: Ⅲ - 51

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: traditional dance

Region: Henan Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Xiangcheng City, Henan Province

Protection unit: Xiangcheng Cultural Center (Xiangcheng Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center)

Brief introduction of gongs ringing at the official meeting:

Applicant: Xiangcheng City, Henan Province

Guan Hui Xiang Gong is a kind of folk dance with gongs as props. It has been widely spread in Xiangcheng city of Henan Province for more than 300 years. It is said that during the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, the emperor went to Jiangnan to observe the people's situation, and officials from Anhui, Henan and Shandong came to the official meeting to welcome him. Local villagers joined gongs and dances together and choreographed gongs to welcome the emperor. The dance was unanimously recognized by officials and the public, thus forming a fixed style and passed on from generation to generation. For hundreds of years, gongs played an important role in the celebrations of red and white festivals and temple fairs in the vast rural areas of Eastern Henan, and were deeply loved by the local people.

The gongs are used as props to form various shapes, which can be played and danced at different times. The changes are subtle, and the artistic realm of "like or not like" and "like or not like" is achieved. The percussion of gongs has the characteristics of stylization. The main playing methods include "seven point Gong", "nine point Gong", "twelve point Gong", "sixteen point Gong" and "twenty-four point Gong". There are many kinds of routines such as "Erlang Danshan", "lion Hydrangea", "tiannu Sanhua", "Kou Zhun carrying boots", "frog gnawing mud" and so on.

The gongs performance of the official meeting, which is unique in Eastern Henan, conquers the audience with its strong and vigorous posture, bold and unconstrained style and vigorous momentum. It embodies the heroic and unrestrained characteristics of the Central Plains culture everywhere and shows important value in the research of folklore, history, sociology, aesthetics and so on. At present, this important folk dance art style is lack of inheritance, in a critical situation, in urgent need of rescue and protection.