Chaozhou Carp Dance

Chaozhou Carp Dance

Nominating Unit: City of Chaozhou

Chaozhou Carp Dance is mainly distributed in the city area, in Fengxi District, and in some counties such as Raoping and Chao’an of City of Chaozhou. In the Chao drama “Li Jing Ji” in the Ming Dynasty, there had already been descriptions of carp dancing scenes. It is at least 400 years ago from now.

The folklore says that Chaozhou Carp Dance was originated from myth and legend. One version of the myth says that when the world was created, it was a carp that took the leadership in finding the water source. So, inorder to memorize its contribution, people would perform carp dance in memory of it; another story tells that after Han Yu was demoted to Chaozhou, he rid the locals of the threat from crocodiles, so the local people composed a crocodile dance to commemorate him, and later it turned into a carp dance. The second story is more convincing, because the props still keep noticeable traces of a crocodile dance.

The prop models and performance of Chaozhou Carp Dance have relatively fixed forms. There are five fish models altogether. One of them is called the “lead fish”, which has a crocodile-like head and a fish-like body. The other fish are all carp-shaped. The fish are operated by 5 male dancers. There are fixed dancing forms that the locals call “twelve transformations”, which are actually mimicking the gestures and behaviors of the carps with 12 changeful movement patterns by the dancers, such as fish swimming, watering the horse, fighting for food, fish trembling, crossing the lotus field, level fish, flat fish, thrush, thrush embroidering flowers, earth descend, fragrant twig, fish look, etc., to depict living scenes of the carp’s swimming in water, playing, looking for food, flying above water, writhing, etc., until jumping over the dragon gate, which is the climax of the dance. The hand movements of the dancers are relatively big, and the steps are mostly “circular square steps”, supplemented with kneeing, leg lifting, and jumping, etc. The movements are strong and powerful, rough and riotous. It embodies the characteristics of southern martial arts. The whole dance features strong rhythms and continuity, and is full of masculinity.(https://www.daowen.com)

The percussion music of the dance is played by Chaozhou giant gongs and drums. The main instruments that are used include giant drums, giant gongs, giant cymbals, Su gongs, etc. The most often-used scores are “Luan Luo”, “Shui Gui Mu”, “Zei Luo”, “Meng Ao Chui”, “Xi Bo”, “Da Luo Huo Pao”, “Long Bai Ba”, etc. The band conductor is the drum player. He directs the changing of scores according to the dancers’ movements and formation changes.

Chaozhou Carp Dance has undergone transitions not only in its forms, but also its symbolic meanings, from relatively purely commemorative to a more auspicious meaning of “abundance for every year” (because fish and abundance have the same sounds in Chinese). And it has become an important folk dance usually performed together with lion dance and dragon dance during godly ceremonies. The spiritual, historical and cultural information stored in the carp dance bear great values to the studying of the relations between folk dancing and folk literature, folk customs, and its own evolutions.

As time changes, Chaozhou Carp Dance is faced with predicament in transmission at present. There are few people left with the dancing techniques. Therefore, urgent protective measures are called for from the authority.