Tujia hand waving dance (Enshi hand waving dance)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Tujia hand waving dance (Enshi hand waving dance)

Applicant: Laifeng County, Hubei Province

Project No.: 120

Project No.: Ⅲ - 17

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: traditional dance

Region: Hubei Province

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Laifeng County, Hubei Province

Protection unit: Laifeng County Cultural Center

Introduction to Tujia hand waving dance (Enshi hand waving dance)

Applicant: Laifeng County, Hubei Province

Hand waving dance, also known as "Sheba day", is a ceremonial collective folk dance performed by Tujia people in front of Tuwang temple during the Spring Festival. It is popular in Yongshun, Longshan and Baojing areas of Hunan Province and the Tujia inhabited areas at the junction of Hubei and Sichuan provinces.

Hand waving dance can be divided into "big hand waving" and "small hand waving". The big hand waving performance is held once every three to five years and lasts for seven or eight days. Tens of thousands of people take part in the performance. There are complex military hunting contents in the performance, which need to put out routine array. The small hand waving performance is held every year in Tujia village. Its main content is farming. During the dance, the participants form a multi-layer circle, one person leads the dance, and the others follow Jump, with a strong improvisation.

The Tujia language of hand waving dance is called "Sheba" and "shebagchi", which means to dance in reverence for gods. It is a kind of sacrificial dance popular among Tujia people in Youshui valley of Hubei Hunan Chongqing border region. Enshi hand waving dance is a popular folk cultural activity in Enshi area of Hubei Province. In the past, there were hand waving halls in 100 Households' villages, and some also had pailou, stage and so on.

In Laifeng County, the remains of the waving hall are preserved in shemishe and Dahe. The story of "hand waving dance and pushe tree" in Huguang Tongzhi vividly depicts the scene of Tujia people's hand waving dance around pushe tree more than 1000 years ago, which is the earliest record of Tujia people's hand waving dance in Laifeng in historical records. The remnant stele in the hand waving hall near the temple castle in shemishe village is engraved with the inscription "born for the English, die for the spirit", which is the best annotation of Tujia people's hand waving dance to respect their ancestors.

The small hand waving dance in shemishe village has its original characteristics and is relatively complete. When dancing, men and women gather to wave their hands at the earth dam in front of the hall. It is characterized by swinging the hands, bending the waist and knees, twisting the body with hands, and most of the performance content is production and life action. The main content of hand waving dance is hunting, farming, military and social life. In the performance, song, music and dance are integrated, accompanied by gongs and drums and hand waving songs. Different from other dances, the biggest feature of hand waving dance lies in swinging the same hand and walking the same foot. Its dance movements are rough and vigorous, and its posture is smooth and steady. The hand waving movements mainly include "single pendulum", "double pendulum" and "whirling pendulum", with "clockwise turning, bending knee, shaking and sinking" as the main points.

Hand waving dance is the spiritual wealth inherited by Tujia people from generation to generation. It has a great influence on the people in the border area of Hubei, Hunan, Chongqing and Guizhou. It has many social functions such as sacrifice, entertainment, education, communication and so on. Today, with the acceleration of social modernization, Enshi's hand waving dance begins to decline, facing the danger of lack of successors and the loss of skills, so we should strengthen the protection.

Chinese PinYin : Tu Jia Zu Bai Shou Wu En Shi Bai Shou Wu