Bronze Dance

The time-honored Bronze Dance is the most widespread and most influential ancient dance, energetic and strong in rhythm, and popular among the Zhuang and Yi ethnic groups in Wenshan, Zhuang and Miao Ethnic Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province.It originated from nature worship and the ancestral worship of the primitive Zhuang and Yi people.

The Yi people regards the bronze drum as the soul of everything, and the bronze drum dance is the way to send people's wishes to the gods and ancestors; while the Zhuang people consider the bronze drum auspicious with the ability to dispel evil and monsters and pray for peace.The bronze drum dance is a collective dance, with the dancers lining up in a circle and dancing counter-clockwise to the rhythmical drumbeats.

The traditional dance includes 12 sets of dance movements.The various kinds of extant bronze drums, produced over a thousand-year period from the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476BC) to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), can be regarded not only as an encyclopedia on Chinese folk arts but also as a historical literature on the development of Chinese science and technology.The drums are all made of bronze with a pattern of sunrays slightly protruding in the center. In ancient times, the tribal chieftains beat the drum to call the people together to discuss public affairs or attend sacrificial ceremonies.

The drum was also presented as a tribute to the royal court and was given as a reward. It was a symbol of wealth and power.The bronze drum used to play an indispensable role in ancient Chinese wars; therefore, they were also called war drums. Thanks to its full and resonant sound, beating the war drum was considered an order for the army to move or stop.

Actually, as little as just over a thousand years ago, the bronze drum began to be used as the war drum by the ethnic groups in southern China. The war drum was usually beaten with specific beats conveying different orders from the leader. Meanwhile beating the war drum rhythmically was also helpful in synchronizing the movements of the army, so as to maintain the military formation of their troops and improve their fighting capability.In later contacts, the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD) in the north borrowed the tradition of the southern ethnic people.

In their expeditions against the minority rivals in the southwest of China, they also regarded capturing the war drum as a military victory.Not merely confined to the functions of a cooking utensil, a musical instrument, or a war drum, the bronze drum was also deemed holy, symbolizing the divine power of the gods and the authority enjoyed by the tribal leaders. When ancient tribes held a ceremony marking their alliance, agreement, or so on, the bronze drum was worshiped as a divine witness to the covenant reached by the parties involved.

Although its divinity gradually faded away, the bronze drum is still used as an important musical instrument to observe established festivals like the Spring Festival, and to celebrate such occasions as weddings and funerals in many ethnic groups in southern China.Yet, the bronze drum plays an even more important role in the life of those Zhuang people who inhabit the Red Water River delta in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, as it is an indispensable feature of the widely popular Frog Festival there.Because the frog symbolizes the spring and a good harvest for the Zhuang people, in a tradition that still exists, they go out together into the fields on the first day of the Spring Festival, beating their bronze drums and looking for frogs. Whoever catches a frog will enjoy good luck throughout the year.The bronze drum dance contains the historical and cultural evolution of the Yi and Zhuang people, and provides traces of the nature and ancestor worship, and has a distinct ethnic flavor.emphasizes individual unique skill. Gaoqiao has now assumed strong local .