Yao Long Drum Dance

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Yao Changqi

Applicant: Liannan Yao Autonomous County, Guangdong Province

Item No.: 657

Project No.: Ⅲ - 60

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: traditional dance

Region: Guangdong Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Liannan Yao Autonomous County, Guangdong Province

Protection unit: Liannan Yao Autonomous County Cultural Center

A brief introduction to Yao's long drum dance

Applicant: Liannan Yao Autonomous County, Guangdong Province

Yao people's long drum dance is a kind of folk dance of Yao people in China. It is popular in Yao people's inhabited areas in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan and other provinces. It is often performed on Yao people's traditional festivals and days celebrating harvest, housewarming or wedding. Long drum dance of Yao nationality has a long history. It originated from the ritual of offering sacrifices to the King Pan and the dance in some witchcraft activities, and has developed into a mass entertainment.

The long drum is called "Gong" in Yao language. The long drum of Yao nationality is connected by two drums. The middle waist is thin and can be held. The two ends of the drum are covered with sheepskin. There are many kinds of dance routines for Yao's long drum dance, such as building houses, or integrating animals and plants into the dance. The dance is vigorous, rough, lively, magical and imaginative. According to the form of performance, Yao long drum dance includes "Pangu Long Drum Dance", "Gongsheng Long Drum Dance", "table long drum dance", "Lusheng Long Drum Dance", "Yangjiao short drum dance" and other types. According to the number of performers, it also includes single dance, double dance, group dance and other types. In the performance, the drum playing method can be divided into "martial arts" and "Wen Da", as well as "high pile" and "low pile".

Jianghua Yao people's long drum dance is the most popular form of cultural entertainment in the Yao area. It shows the moving curvilinear beauty with the posture of "Qu" and the transposition of "twist", reflecting the living customs and spiritual outlook of the Yao people, and has a wide range of social influence. Long drum dance of Liannan Yao nationality is a kind of square dance. It was brought in by the ancestors of Pai Yao in Sui and Tang Dynasties when they moved to Liannan. Later, it became popular with the prosperity of shuogetang. This kind of long dance can be divided into solo dance, duet dance and group dance. When it comes to the Spring Festival, March 3, June 6, October 16 and other traditional festivals and playing song hall days, Paiyao people will gather in the open fields in front of the village or in the fields after harvest, blowing ox horn, beating Gong and dancing drum dance to celebrate the festival. The long drum dance of the Yao nationality in Fuchuan is spectacular. The bamboo flute plays a beautiful melody. Those who play Lusheng dance while playing, and those who play big drum, small drum and small Gong beat according to the music rhythm. At the same time, they shout chants to increase the atmosphere. The flute, reed and chants form many harmonies, which are high and exciting, and push the activity to the climax.

The dance vocabulary of Yao long drum dance is very rich, which reflects the production and living customs and primitive religious beliefs of Pai Yao from all aspects. It combines the history, art, literature and religion of the Yao nationality to form the unique long drum culture of Pingdi Yao nationality, which has the research value of history, culture and ethnology. With the development of the times, the number of drum makers is less and less, the number of performers is decreasing day by day, and the dance is facing the crisis of decline, which is in urgent need of rescue and protection.