The folk dances of the Guandong region take the form of Yangge, Dragon Lantern, Dry Boat, Butterfly Puffing, Two-Man Wrestling, Flower Stick Playing, Stilt Walking, and so on, which are mostly performed together and collectively called Yangge.
Yangge has a smooth melody, cheerful and concise rhythm, and its red-hot scenes, rich dance vocabulary, amorous gestures and lively performance style have always been loved by people.
The rice-planting dance originated as a gathering performance during the Lantern Festival of the Han people, and has a history of 1,000 years. It is a kind of national collective dance, which has been developed for more than 1,000 years, and will surely form its own mature and stable style, and will give birth to many similar art forms without losing any time.
The history of Guandong rice-planting song is also very long, and it is an artistic treasure created and accumulated by the northern working people for a long time, originating from the labor life of planting rice-planting and ploughing fields, and related to the ancient hymns and sacrifice songs sung to the gods of agriculture in order to pray for a good harvest and pray for blessings and avoid calamities.
And in the process of development, it constantly absorbed the techniques and forms of agricultural songs, ling songs, folk martial arts, acrobatics and operas, and thus developed from the general singing of rice-planting songs to a kind of folk songs and dances that are enjoyed by the general public today.
History records that as early as the Kangxi period in the Qing Dynasty, the Guandong region already had the custom of doing Yangge on the fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar. The men who performed it were dressed up as soldiers, women and other characters, and danced and sang at the same time.
Liu Bian Jiliao has a record of the local people's rice-planting activities:
On the night of the first day of the Lunar New Year, the people who are good at rice-planting are always dressed up. Rice-planting songs, children dressed as three or four women, and three or four people dressed as a military officer, each holding feet of two logs, Jar hit the relative dance, and play a hold Apollo stirrups (umbrella lamps) selling cream as a guide, alongside the drums and gongs, dance after the song, song after the dance, up to the Dan is already.
Toward the end of the Qing Dynasty, the twisting of rice-planting songs has been a Spring Festival entertainment all over the Guandong province.
The northeastern rice-planting songs are divided into two categories: ground bouncers and stilts. The ground bungee, also known as the ground rice-planting song, is more widely spread; stilts are prevalent in Liaoning, especially around Yingkou, Haicheng and Gaixian.
The traditional music of Northeast Rice-planting Songs is very rich, which can be summarized by three words, i.e., "Shun", "Live" and "Rhyme". "Shun" means smooth. Various changes in the melody, the connection of the music, tonality, modulation changes should be smooth. "Live" means to have a high degree of improvisation ability, so that the music is flexible and changeable. "Rhyme" means the sense of rhythm and the flavor of style.
The music of Northeast Yangge is mainly in five voices, and there are also a considerable number of six-voice pieces, while seven-voice pieces only account for a small portion of the music.
The modes of Northeastern Yangge music are Gong tonal and Microtonal, followed by Fei tonal and Shang tonal, and the Horn tonal music is less common. The reason why these two modes are more frequent is related to the warm and cheerful mood of many pieces of music in Northeast Yangge music.
The rhythm of the Northeast Yangge is full of variations, and one of the specific manifestations of this is in the main footwork, the "kicking step".
The practice of the kicking step is to kick out quickly and forcefully, to kick out quickly, to kick back quickly, to stay in the air for a short period of time, and to kick back, to land on the ground for a long period of time, which creates the rhythmic difference of the Northeast Rice-planting Songs.
The Yangge of the Guandong region has a witty form and a unique style, which combines spiciness, humor, quietness and stability, and brings out the warm and simple character of the people of the Guandong region, which is both strong and soft, to the fullest. Steady in the wave, wave in the terrier, terrier in the warped, stepped on the board, twisted in the waist, is the northeast rice-planting song's biggest feature.
The folk in the Guandong region praised the rice-planting songs and liked to describe them as "twisted waves", i.e., not only beautiful dance posture, but also the waist and hips swung with a large amplitude, a strong sense of rhythm, and infectious expression, in a word, they can't be bland, but exaggerated, which is in line with the bold and enthusiastic folk style of the Guandong region.
In addition, the marching performance of the rice-planting songs should be lively and fresh. In addition to the usual round field, but also out of the "two dragons spit beard", "Taiji Bagua" and many other patterns, fast and slow, walking and changing, coupled with the bright colors of the actor's clothing, to see people dazzled.
The wonderful part of the rice-planting songs is the stilts, commonly known as treading on high feet. The stilts are two or three feet long, and the stilts are also used in the performance of rice-planting steps and formations, so that they can be twisted quickly and cheerfully.
The characters in the rice-planting songs are dressed as both red and green girls and little daughters-in-law, as well as ugly women who smoke long tobacco bags, magistrates who wear sarongs, silly pillars with dull heads, and donkeys, dry boats and other props, all of which are plain and simple and comical.
The other type of characters are familiar to the folk novels and operas, such as the four masters and disciples in "Journey to the West," the White Snake, the White Lady and Xu Xian, and the Eight Immortals who cross the sea, as well as common in the New Year's Paintings of the male servants and girls, and fishermen, woodcutters, farmers and scholars, and so on.
In the old days, rice-planting songs were performed by men, so most of the female roles were performed by men dressed as women, which made them even more daring and amusing.
The most enjoyable part of watching the rice-planting songs is when they are played against each other, i.e., when two rice-planting teams come to a field. Because most of the rice-planting songs at New Year's are paid for, there is an unwritten rule that only one rice-planting team can stay at a performance venue.
If the two teams arrive at the same time, or if the latter team is unwilling to back down, then the performance can only be divided into high and low. Those who perform well and attract people stay, while those who are not as skilled automatically withdraw.
Every time this happens, the two rice-planting teams have to bring out their best skills and put in extra effort, twisting with all their might.
The main instruments of the rice-planting songs are suona and gongs and drums. During the performance, the team moves to the rhythm of the suona and the gongs and drums. A good trumpet maker not only knows many tunes and plays with great skill, but also has practiced many stunts.
The skillful ones can blow while inserting a burning cigarette in each of the two nostrils, and put a bowl of water on the top of the head and each of the two arms, and walk and blow, turn and blow, and get on the table and blow, and the trumpet is not going on, and the cigarettes don't go out, and the bowl of water doesn't sprinkle.
This kind of skill is usually not used, when you want to ask for more money or to play against each other, you will only show up and win by surprise. Therefore, to do the rice-planting songs are as much as possible to invite the local famous suona craftsmen.
The Northeast rice-planting songs are mainly performed in the form of New Year's greetings. In the towns, the rice-planting teams have to perform in the name of New Year's greetings at the local government offices and merchants' stores, and in the countryside, they ride in a big car to the nearby villages, and perform at the village offices or the mansions of rich families, which also have the intention of paying New Year's greetings at the door.
This kind of performance, the person to be worshiped to prepare tobacco and tea hospitality, and in the rice-planting team on the way out to the head of the rice-planting reward money, and some have to manage the meal. Usually, the rice-planting team has chosen the object of worship in advance, mainly to the people who can afford to give money to pay tribute to the New Year. Of course, local men, women and children can watch the show for free.
In the past, the rural areas in the Guandong region celebrated the New Year with a lot of joy and excitement. If a village didn't have a rice-planting team to celebrate the New Year, everyone in the village would feel unhappy. Therefore, if the village did not organize the rice-planting songs, each family would share the money according to the rich and poor, and send people to other villages to pick up the rice-planting songs, so as to add the festive atmosphere of the New Year to the village.
The initiator and organizer of the rice-planting songs, either a rich merchant, an administrative agency or a private organization, is responsible for recruiting local people who are good at the art, as well as for buying costumes and tools, hiring drumming groups, organizing rehearsals, and planning performance arrangements. The specific matters are usually handled by a good actor, high prestige, strong ability to do the work of the head of the rice-planting songs.
The New Year's Eve Yangge will reach its climax in two days, from the 15th to the 16th day of the first month. At this time, the New Year's greetings in the villages and towns have ended, and the merchants and stores on the streets have begun their business for the new year.
On the day of the Lantern Festival, rice-planting teams have concentrated on the busiest and most bustling streets of the local towns and cities for parade-style performances. Some of them even organize a special Yangge that blends in with the lantern-viewing atmosphere.
The market is bustling with wonderful performances. Cool rice-planting actors are also in the street audience's applause to show their talent, over the rice-planting addiction. Because after these two days, they have to remove the colorful makeup, back to the fields and workshops, to become a common laborer.