Pingyuan Boat Lantern Dance

33.Pingyuan Boat Lantern Dance

Nominating Unit: Pingyuan county, City of Meizhou

According to historical records, the boat lantern dance of Pingyuan County, City of Meizhou, was introduced from Wuping County of Fujian Province over 200 years ago. It is now mainly distributed among 12 townships such as Chagan, Renju, Shangju and Sishui, etc. The locals would make and perform boat lantern dance on spring festivals, lantern festivals, dragon-boat festivals, and mid-autumn festivals and when celebrating good harvests.

Pingyuan Boat Lantern Dance was originated from the folklore which says that one night Emperor Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty met with high winds and tides and was stopped when he was traveling along the Dingjiang River in southwest Fujian Province. Then, an elderly and his grandson, both fishermen, helped him out. After the emperor got back, he ordered the Department of Music (Yue Fu) to compose a score which was called “Yu Jia Le (happiness of the fi shermen)”, and awarded them a gold plaque which wrote “Yu Jia Le” and a precious pearl. Therefore, a ball-shaped lantern is installed in the middle of the boat head to symbolize the pearl, with “Sheng Zhi (imperial order)” enchased beneath it. Three characters, “Yu Jia Le”are installed up on the tail of the boat, together with a lantern hanging from a colored stand to indicate night sailing. The composition of the two lanterns both at the front and the back of the boat with the boat itself is referred to as “boat lantern”. The boat is 3.5 meters long, 1.4 meters high, both sides posted with couplets and painted with figures and stories from “three kingdoms” and “journey to the west”, with ornamental bouquet and silk bands to make it colorful and pageant.

The performance style of Pingyuan Boat Lantern Dance is a combination of dancing and singing. A male dancer will play the elderly fisherman, and a female dancer the granddaughter. Both of them are dressed like ancient fishermen, and perform on the front and the back of the boat respectively. Another dancer hides in the cabin and operates the boat. During the performance, the dancers mostly mimic rowing the boat, and the operator mimics the boat’s drifting on the water. Their cooperation reaches perfection, and their performance creates an artistic conception of “boat sailing on water, man dancing in boat” by vividly mimicking the sailing of the boat in creeks, big rivers, torrents, shallow beaches, and ferocious storms. In the beginning, the dance mainly depicts boat sailing and fishing, and the singing is mostly about fishermen’s lives. Later on, the topics would shift to romance and love, advising people and criticizing the society. Originally it was mostly a single boat dance. After China’s reform and opening up, the number of boats gradually increases to two, three, five, six boats, and sometimes there are multiple boat dances with both big and small boats.(https://www.daowen.com)

The accompaniment of Pingyuan Boat Lantern Dance is mainly performed with traditional Chinese orchestral instruments, such as trumpet, flute, Sanxian (three-strings), erhu etc. To make the rhythms more lively, sometimes percussion instruments, such as gongs, drums, cymbals, etc. are also used. The scores are mostly folk songs, such as “Yu Jia Le”, “Nao Yuan Xiao”, “Mai Za Huo”, etc.

Pingyuan Boat Lantern Dance is deeply rooted in the local people, and has strong Hakka cultural characteristics of east Guangdong Province. It is deeply loved by overseas Hakka people. Therefore, Pingyuan county was named “Homeland for Ethnic and Folk Art in Guangdong Province”. Pingyuan Boat Lantern Dance is the transmission and development of northern China’s “Dry Boat Dance” in south China, and has great value in studying the evolution of folk dance. However, under impacts from modern fashion culture, its living space is gradually diminished. Its prop making and performing skills are faced with breakdown in transmission. Effective protective measures are needed.