When I sat in a bumpy public **** car from Jingbian all the way south to Ansai, the long fish-shaped county did not have a great impulse, because from all the way up and down the Loess Plateau over, eyes and head has been full of strong feelings of the countryside, and re-entered a mix of modern civilization of the county, there is always a bit of discomfort, but after all, here is a famous folk art and the hometown of waist drums, so still ready to go through the streets. But after all, this is China's famous hometown of folk art and waist drums, so it is still ready to sneak in the street to find a hotel to stay.
This small county has 150,000 people, located in the hinterland of the Loess Plateau, only 30 kilometers away from the city of Yan'an, the county was built on the banks of a small river, to the local people to inquire, only to know that the river is the original flow to the foot of the Bota Mountain Yanhe. Most of the people on the street are modern clothing, not like the countryside of the old farmers in northern Shaanxi Province still maintains the decades ago, the white goat belly handkerchiefs and big cotton jacket dress, but the girls and boys can still be seen on the face of a face of solidity and kindness. The cab driver I took told me that the law and order here is very good, even in the most lively festival there is very little thievery, because later I became friends with the driver and one of his classmates, so more understanding and convinced of this.
There are not many tall buildings in the whole county, and there are two main streets in parallel, which are relatively cold in winter. The good thing is that the location of the county seat by the mountain, not much wind. The company's main goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers, and the company's goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers, and the company's goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers, and the company's goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers, and the company's goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers. When I got off the street happened to be held in a calligraphy, painting and photography exhibition, large works with cabbage and potatoes as set in the dusty streets, but quickly let me into the rich cultural atmosphere here, especially those reflecting the vibrant drum scene and the vicissitudes of the old man of Shaanxi Province's photographic works, and instantly let me like the county without too much artifice.
Second, waist drums: the greatest square dance
According to local advice, I live in the county's most "luxury" hotel: Ansai Hotel, a standard room of 70 yuan a night, which is also considered to be the highest level of local consumption. Because of the information here is the most abundant, I can get the most from the waiter about the local folklore activities of the introduction. Sure enough, I put the room just opened, the bags have not yet had time to put into the house, I heard them say that the north of the milk factory on the mountain pack is carrying out a large-scale waist drum performance. I then deposited my luggage at the front desk and drove to the southern suburbs.
From afar, I saw a group of red silk belt, head wrapped in a white towel of the men with drums in the sky in the yellow dust, dancing enthusiastically, from a distance I can hardly see their line, only to hear the wind sent to the ears of the strong drums and long oboe sound, the dust to the blue sky as a background, white and black figures in the inside of the hidden and disappeared. This is really the beauty of the Loess Plateau and the leap of human life combined perfectly, no wonder many scholars say that the core of China's Loess culture in Ansai, northern Shaanxi Province. I was indeed shocked by such a grand and spectacular scene.
The waist drum is a spontaneous form of dance used by ancient warriors to celebrate their victories and express their joy. The drums are a kind of war drums, and the same props are used on the battlefield stage. Since this is a soldier's temperament straight to the celebration, so its boldness and flamboyance of any other form of literature and art are difficult to match, plus all the circulation and folk, fused with the most primitive and rugged enthusiasm of the northern Shaanxi Hanzi, and the background and the stage is a yellow dusty plateau and the land, and even more reflect the artistic tension of this native dance.
As it was during the first month of the fifteenth period, the customary waist drum celebration here to continue from the sixth day of the first month to the sixteenth day of the first month, first of all the villages to play, and then gathered to the township, and then gathered to the county, and then gathered to the city of Yan'an, so the next day was in time for the performance of the Ansai county town, so a feast for the eyes.
The next day to see the waist drum show is even more surprising to me, not only close to see these people in northern Shaanxi Province is unique to the pugnacious and bold and joyful excitement, but also comprehensively from their performances and bystanders in the explanation of the understanding of this vibrant folk art form.
In Ansai, from seventy years old, down to pre-school children, the county's population of 150,000, about half of the people will play the waist drum, before the waist drum team only men, now also expanded the childish dolls and just adult girls. In short, in this almost steamy land, everyone is almost full of blood and enthusiasm. The most touching is those dolls, almost just can stand firm children, but also can knock out the momentum of ten thousand horses, shaking his head, smiling, sometimes vertical and horizontal interspersed, sometimes jump, some children jump to the excitement of the small drums are broken. I can't help but marvel at the fact that one side of the water and soil is breeding one side of the people ah!
Watching the drums not only a large number of foreign journalists and photographers, more or local people, they are in the police under the maintenance of the smile to enjoy this art belongs to their own, because he is universal, the audience must have a large part of the field in front of Mao Tengteng was also active. In fact, for folk art, their viewing itself constitutes a very vivid picture. I once sat down at dinner with a young man who was very famous for his local performances, and they didn't have the air of a big star at all, but were a bit shy.
Ansai waist drums in Ansai County, distributed in Tanjiaying, Xihekou, Yanhewan, Zhenwudong and other towns, there are four schools, according to the characteristics of the performance of different regions of the waist drum to distinguish between the Tanjiaying school of the prominent leg pattern, drumming pattern prominent Xihekou school, there is a satin waving pattern highlighted along the river Bay school, there is a bobbing head of the Zhenwudong school of the living. Among them, the Zhenwudong faction is more notable, because the other teams are not much different from the white pants and white jacket with a red thick belt, but the Zhenwudong faction is a black pants and black jacket with a red thick belt, and there is a different kind of vitality. The teams are generally divided by age into old age group, strong age group, young age group, young age group, and girl group. From the overall fighting method is divided into two kinds: one is a civil fight, a martial arts; civil fight is generally heavy twisting light fight, the action is more delicate and soft. Martial arts are generally a combination of hitting, kicking, straddling, stomping, etc., with difficult movements, a large amount of movement, and a strong sense of free play. In the whole performance team I saw, except for the girl's group, which is the same as the rice-planting songs, the other ones are all martial arts, jumping and free-flowing. For such a great folk art form as the waist drum, I almost can't define it as a dance, because the dance seems to be too twisted; also can't define it as a martial art, because the martial art seems to be too hard. Waist drums are just waist drums, an art form that fully demonstrates the passion and exuberance of the people of northern Shaanxi. Whether it is a photo or text, I feel a little pale, not enough to express the waist drum scene to bring that kind of strong shock, because those men, women and children in northern Shaanxi seems to be not at all intentional performance, but completely self-absorbed to the extreme a kind of enjoyment, all the people who watched the waist drums will say: we are happy when the original was that way.
Third, I met the waist drum artists
In Ansai, I first met the waist drum artists should be the taxi driver and his old classmate as a police officer, my knowledge about the waist drum, most of the knowledge from their mouth. Two young men in their early twenties, a mouthful of heavy Ansei language, very enthusiastic. Since I lost my camera in Jingbian, the police officer generously lent me his Minolta camera, which he used to record the scene of the crime, and tried to help me find the most suitable shooting angle. They said that when they were in school almost everyone played the drums, every festival performance, except for individual legs and feet are not flexible except on, of course, there are good and bad, playing well will have the opportunity to participate in large-scale performances, playing a long time these things for them as easy as doing morning exercises, the driver said that he had participated in the opening ceremony of the Asian Games, and with the team to the exchange of France, the police said that he went to Thailand that year. Thailand. Chatting happily, I let them teach me a few strokes, they immediately moved away from the table to gesture up, looking at these simple young man, can not help but let a person's heart rise a burst of warmth, although participated in so many major performances, but they are still so serious and ordinary life, in their eyes, as if the drums are never anything great, never overriding anything, but a mention of the drums they are so But when it comes to waist drums, they are just as energetic, and perhaps it is precisely this kind of indifference that makes waist drums an art form that has always had such a strong vitality in the folklore.
After the driver took me to see the performance of the waist drum, but also helped me to introduce his waist drum teacher, a very prestigious old performer in the local area, smile is very bright, he is the entire waist drum team umbrella head, with the same rice-planting team, umbrella head is the core of the team command, hundreds of miles around the waist drum team are trained out of him. We did not have time to do in-depth exchanges he went back to the team, to see him in the yellow dust and everyone with the look of music, let me think of those in the ancient frontier with the soldiers with the soldiers of the generals. The beautiful waist drum, perhaps it is so in the garrison border officers and soldiers in the same music has been passed down from generation to generation.
Fourth, the waist drum team of blowers and drummers.
In the waist drum team, there are often two types of important roles that are easy to be ignored, that is, drummers and blowers. These two teams add color to the entire performance and largely determine the success or failure of the show. In the middle of watching the waist drum performance, there were two times when the drummer's drum beat was not accurate, the whole team was in chaos, and the momentum immediately weakened a lot, and the umbrella head immediately yelled at the drummer. I can see that they are also full of seriousness in their own performance in the casual.
Blowers have a special position in northern Shaanxi, because the blowers can independently perform suona, high-pitched tune either celebratory or grudging, simple people in northern Shaanxi care about as if the two extremes of feelings, perhaps simple but easier to approach the essence of life and art. In contrast to the long-distance suona, the Shaanbei albatross is also worth mentioning. The singer sings in the field, usually without accompaniment, and the high-pitched voice echoes in the vast yellow land, believing that no matter who will be touched by the passion. The famous northern Shaanxi folk singer He Yutang's home in Ansei, but unfortunately did not take the time to visit, his "East is Red" is sung by the generation of how many people's voices. However, on our way to Anse, we did hear a few songs of the old stockman's albatross: "Sheep's stomach handkerchiefs are three ways blue, it's easy to meet and difficult to talk to each other. One in the mountains and one in the ditch, can't pull the conversation on a wave ......."
Fifth, the embarrassment of folk art
After I watched the waist drum performance for several days, I also visited the local cultural center, in this small county, I found the best one of the building is surprisingly this cultural center. This is very rare for a small county that is not rich. The exhibition rooms inside are even more vividly decorated, and their elegance is far better than any exhibition at the China Millennium Forum in Beijing. All of Anse's folk art works are on display, with paper-cutting being the most popular. Compared to the majestic waist drums, paper-cutting is a unique form of beauty created by women in northern Shaanxi Province. With infinite love for men and children, these women seem to have natural artistic cells, through exaggerated deformation and free combination, with scissors to make the beauty of life from the fine pieces of paper a little stand out.
But on the way out of Ansai, I saw many oil wells under construction and busy oil trucks. According to the driver, it's not as quiet as it used to be since the discovery of unusually rich reserves of oil and gas fields here. The police officer also said he was going to save up money to build a derrick with his friends, after all, even as a policeman he earns too little, not to mention the waist drums, and he told me about the wonderful performances I had just seen, where the performers were paid less than 80 yuan a day. I was speechless, the folk art can survive this clamor and agitation brought about by the test, this is not only Ansai facing a problem, I am afraid that all of China's folk art community **** with a problem.
Sixth, the waist drum performance of the season and location
Waist drums are generally performed between the Spring Festival and the first month of the fifteenth, and the location is often in the breeze of the mountain dao or threshing floor. The breeze makes it easy to raise dust and create a "stage" atmosphere. Ansai often organize folk photography activities, this year during the Spring Festival, "Shaanxi over the New Year" series of activities held very successful. It is estimated that such activities every year. In addition, usually encounter important wedding and funeral someone will also organize a separate waist drum performance.
Travel to Ansai to visit the waist drums of the traffic situation and notes
1, Ansai is more than 30 kilometers away from Yan'an, you can take the same day from Xi'an by train or bus to reach Yan'an, during the period of 5-7 hours, and then from Yan'an to take two hours by coach to arrive in Ansai.
2, the best place to stay in Ansai is Ansai Hotel, the lowest standard room 70 yuan per night, of course, Ansai street there are some inexpensive guesthouses, but it is recommended that outsiders do not live there in winter, private hotels are generally insufficient heating, it is very cold. Recommended to live in the kiln hole guesthouse in the west of the river, you can fully experience the feeling of living in a kiln hole, the quality of service is also better, but the price is a little more expensive than the Ansai guesthouse, about 100 yuan.
3, less than a kilometer north of the Ansai Hotel, there is a snack city, in fact, is a large restaurant, which can taste some of the snacks of Ansai.
4, Ansai is located in the Loess Plateau, the climate is dry in the fall and winter, travel should bring some anti-cracking skin care products; in addition, Ansai early winter, generally after November into the winter, dry and cold, you should pay attention to keep warm.
5, Ansai specialty: Ansai is the hometown of art, go back to bring a few drums as art furnishings, in addition to living and breathing paper-cutting and peasant painting works, there are scattered and sold into books. In addition to the cultural center can be bought, if it is a festival can also drive to the countryside to inquire about good paper-cutting or painting good aunt, from their hands to buy the original, and you can also let them teach you to cut a hand.