*Maoming Helou Dance

*Maoming Helou Dance

Nominating Unit: City of Maoming

Helong Dance of Huazhou City in western Guangdong Province was said to have been introduced into this area from Guangxi Province at the end of the Ming and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, and was inspired by the folklore about the Goddess of Singing, Liu Sanjie. Legend has it that a local young lad named Niu fell in love with Liu Sanjie who wandered to this area, and they ridded the place of vermin with singing, and the local people received a harvest. To memorize the goddess, every year after transplanting rice seedlings around June and July on the lunar calendar, the local villagers would build a straw tower on the village’s grain-drying yard, sing Helou Song and perform Helou Dance on a chosen day. Now it is mainly distributed around such townships as Nawu and Bochang.(https://www.daowen.com)

The yard for Huazhou Helou Dance has a stage-like straw tower 4 feet wide on each side, on which there are shrines of their forefathers. The dance follows fixed playbook, and contains six routines, namely welcoming god, welcoming goddess, wine sprinkling, duet, agricultural talk, and celebration for harvest. It begins with a Taoist ceremony of paying tribute to and welcoming god from a divine temple, followed by another Taoist welcoming Goddess Liu Sanjie from heaven who changed into a Helou dress and play the goddess herself, spinning a ringed bell to pray for safety in her left hand and waving a fan in her right hand indicating driving away plagues. Then the dancers would gather in front of the straw tower holding rice baskets painted with dragon, tiger, pig, chicken, dog, cow, sheep, rabbit, etc., awaiting the spraying of holy water around the straw tower by the goddess indicating the washing away of evil before they can sing the ancient Helou Song together and dance the Helou Dance. After the song, the dancers would talk about agriculture and anecdotes of their lives. In the end, in the sound of gongs, drums, trumpets, bull horns, and firecrackers, the dance concludes with the celebration for a bumper harvest. The dance’s movements mainly include cross-steps, and there are solo and duet during the dance.

Huazhou Helou Dance is ancient and simple, with devoutly and solemn sacrifice and strong Taoism characteristics. It is valuable in studying agriculture traditions, customs and local belief. However, it was once banned in history because it was considered a feudal and superstitious activity. The props, costumes, and written records are mostly lost, and now it is faced with a breakdown in transmission. Urgent excavation, studying and protection are needed.