Something old, something new in the air

By Tiffany Tan ( China Daily )

Updated: 2014-07-03

Taiyuan showcases traditional, modern performances.

Despite standing 2 meters off the ground on tiny metal plates, none of the children looked scared. One appeared worried about his loose headpiece, another bored sitting, but the rest wore stoic expressions as they moved their arms from side to side, the sleeves of their robes swaying in the breeze.

The performance, best associated with Taiyuan's Xugou town, features dancers as young as 2. Each child's leg is secured to a metal plate, which is in turn attached to a metal rod fused to a harness worn under an adult male's costume. The men, also garbed in colorful clothing and headgear, move and sing along to the music while carrying the children.

This setup is how the Shanxi folk art earned its name beigun, meaning "to carry a rod on one's shoulders".

The art dates back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), having evolved from the practice of children sitting on their parents' shoulders to watch the Lunar New Year festivities.

"Besides lifting the children up high, the parents dressed them in beautiful clothes and painted their faces," Zhang Jianwu of the Shanxi Social Science Institute says in a phone interview.

"In this way, they incorporated elements from our traditional theater performances."

During periods of drought in imperial times, Shanxi province's largely agricultural population performed the dance to pray for rain, says Zhang. Nowadays, it's often seen during Lunar New Year celebrations and tourism events.

Another performance worth catching is the Taiyuan Dance Troupe's rendition of the Thousand-Hand Guanyin, one of the most popular stage dances in present-day China. The troupe tells the legend of the Bodhisattva of Compassion with entrancing movements, complemented by creative lighting and some gigantic props.

The show, which tours around the country, will be back on the Taiyuan stage on July 6. It is subtitled in both Chinese and English.

Meanwhile, local entertainment that needs no translation are the performances on Taiyuan's Food Street. The 550 meter street, lined on both sides by restaurants serving a variety of Chinese cuisines, is home to several acts, including that of 48-year-old Wang Junhua.

Every day, Wang inserts a metal sword in his mouth, all the way into his stomach, and after several seconds pulls it out. He also does the same swallowing trick on a small metal ball - skills that he says he learned in his teens and that have been handed down in his family for three generations.

Wu Zhihua's 5-year-old twins are also continuing a family tradition. Her daughter and son have joined Xugou's beigun child dancers, just like their older relatives did.

Her boy Kangkang was excited to start performing at age 2, Wu says. Maybe standing on a tiny metal plate 2 meters off the ground was actually the big attraction for kids.

Harry Chen contributed to this report

(China Daily 07/03/2014 page18)