Gaocheng war drums is a kind of drums, big cymbals, gongs and cymbals for accompaniment, cymbals for the dance of male group square art. It absorbs and adopts many martial arts movements, and is known as "martial arts war drums". At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Gaocheng war drum team has gone to Tianjin to participate in the Royal Society performance, a sensation in Beijing and Tianjin, known as "the world's first drum".
As an ancient Han folk art, Gaocheng war drums originated from the ritual, produced in the Ming Wanli ten years (1582). In the old days, the temple is very much, the temple fair is frequent, the temple festival ritual activities are to hit the drum dance. In the village to participate in the festival called "playing dip", to the village to catch the meeting called "break dip". In the old days, the rain, the war drum is also an essential performance program. The Spring Festival is the most active period of war drums. Generally after the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year, villages will start to consolidate the team and take time to practice. On the night of New Year's Eve, people have the custom of "staying up for five nights", where villages beat drums all night long. This night, as long as you hear the drums, the village will not be able to stop banging, in order to prevent the exorcism is not enough, the opposite of disaster, until you can not hear the drums, the firecrackers, can be stopped. On the first day of the year, it starts to perform in the village. After the first five, the village and the village invited to visit each other to perform until the second lunar month.
After the founding of New China, the war drums got rid of the fetters of feudal superstition and became an important performance item of major festivals and celebrations, which was widely spread. The war drum performance form is divided into "walking team" and "tie field". Walking team is usually the head of the flag in front, drum trekking in the center, the drum car pressure, standing in the car after three people, drummer in the drum, cymbals stand left and right, while walking and hitting. The head of the club will stop marching when instructed to do the show.