The History of Northeast Rice-planting SongsRange-planting songs originated from the assembly performances during the Lantern Festival celebrations of the Han people, and have been performed for thousands of years. Rice-planting teams usually dress up as characters or squares from life or historical myths, and are commanded by leading dancers, who collectively walk out in various formations or patterns, including the traditional pattern of the two dragons spitting out their whiskers and rolling up cabbage hearts, and the basic movements are relatively simple, modeled on the basic movements of folkloric labor, such as waving the arms and jumping, twisting the waist and shrugging the shoulders, and the four beats to a bar, with the first three beats going backward, and the last beat going backward, and the rice-planting teams are generally equipped with simple movements such as fans, pads, umbrellas and sticks, in order to add to the scene's vividness and the effect of the performances. In order to increase the vividness of the scene and the effect of the performance, the Yangge team is generally equipped with simple props such as fans, pads, umbrellas and sticks. The singing is basically borrowed from popular folk tunes, which is very different from the theme songs created by professional performing groups for a certain theme alone. Some of the rice-planting songs have developed into operas in their own right.
Historical records show that as early as the Kangxi period, there was already a custom in the northeast of China of organizing Yangge on Shangyuan Day (the 15th day of the first month of the lunar year). Performing men dressed as soldiers, women and other roles, dancing and singing, all night long. By the end of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, rice-planting songs were already a Spring Festival entertainment activity all over the Northeast. The initiator and organizer of the "rice-planting songs" was either a rich merchant, an administrative agency or a civil organization, responsible for setting up local people who were good at this way of doing things, as well as purchasing costumes and tools, hiring drumming groups, organizing rehearsals and making arrangements for the performances, etc. Specific matters were usually handled by an actor with good performance skills, high prestige and strong clerical skills, and a "rice-planting song leader" was appointed to organize the activities. The "Yangge head" is responsible for organizing the event.