Chinese Dance: In the Vast Land and Beyond
248
Chinese Dance: In the Vast Land and Beyond
248eBook
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Overview
As China becomes increasingly important in world relations, many components of the country's cultural arts remain unknown outside its borders. Shih-Ming Li Chang and Lynn E. Frederiksen's Chinese Dance: In the Vast Land and Beyond undertakes the challenge of discovering the relationship between Chinese dance in its many forms and the cultural contexts of dance within the region and abroad.
As a comprehensive resource, Chinese Dance offers students and scholars an invaluable introduction to the subject. It serves as a foundation of common knowledge from which Chinese and English-language communities can begin a cross-cultural conversation about Chinese dance. The text, along with a comprehensive glossary of key terms, gives English-language readers a chance to understand the development of Chinese dance as it is officially articulated by historians and dance scholars in Asia. An online database of video clips, an extensive bibliography, and Web-based appendices provide a broad collection of primary source materials that invite interactive and flexible engagement by a range of users. The inclusion of interviews with Chinese dance practitioners in North America offers a view into the Asian diaspora experience.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780819576323 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Wesleyan University Press |
| Publication date: | 06/07/2016 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 248 |
| File size: | 16 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
Shih-Ming Li Chang is an associate professor of theatre and dance at Wittenberg University, where she teaches dance ethnology, dance history, and dance composition in addition to Chinese opera dance, Western technique classes, and tai chi. Lynn E. Frederiksen taught dance for fifteen years at Tufts University and is now an adjunct professor of theater arts at Clark University. Her coursework focuses on the music-movement "conversation" to facilitate cross-cultural dance explorations. Both authors are alumni of the Smith College MFA program in dance. EMILY WILCOX is assistant professor of modern Chinese studies in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Shih-Ming Li Chang is an associate professor of theatre and dance at Wittenberg University. She teaches dance ethnology, dance history, and dance composition in addition to Chinese opera dance, Western technique classes, and tai chi. She has participated in dance festivals across the United States, including the Academy of Dance&Fine Arts and Jacob's Pillow.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
DANCING THROUGH THE VAST LAND AND BEYOND
China is rightly known as a vast land, stretching across the Asian continent through a dramatic range of climate and topography. From the frigid mountains in the north, to the subtropical and tropical regions of the coastal south, geography has shaped the lives and livelihood of Chinese people over their long history. Chinese dance is born of this melding between place and time, as the physical environment of China intertwines with its dynamic human history to create the complex state of Chinese culture and dance today. A timeline of dynasties is necessary to frame our discussion, and the table that follows offers the major dynasties that define Chinese culture through several millennia.
MAJOR CHINESE DYNASTIES
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Xia Dynasty 2100–1600 BCE
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Shang Dynasty 1600–1050 BCE
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Zhou Dynasty 1050–256 BCE
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Qin Dynasty 221–206 BCE
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Han Dynasty 206 BCE–220 CE
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Wei Dynasty 220–265 CE
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Jin Dynasty 265–317 CE
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Northern and Southern Dynasty 386–581 CE
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Sui Dynasty 581–618 CE
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Tang Dynasty 618–906 CE
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms 907–960 CE
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Song Dynasty 960–1279 CE
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Yuan Dynasty 1279–1368 CE
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Ming Dynasty 1368–1644 CE
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Qing Dynasty 1644–1911 CE
ANCIENT DANCE AND EARLY CHINESE WRITING
Chinese dance has been documented through more than 5,000 years of recorded history, reflecting the vast geographic and temporal span of Chinese culture. From prehistoric artifacts through the development of written language, images and descriptions of dance interweave the historical record, placing human movement as art form at the heart of life in China. In one well-known case, Neolithic pottery excavated in Qinghai province clearly depicts dancing figures expertly painted on the surface of ceramic bowls.
Artifacts such as these, dating from 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, are the oldest known documentation of ancient dance forms in China, and evidently commemorate local village festivals or ceremonies. The lineage of this particular dance has been said to extend from the Neolithic festivals to its elevation as Ta Ge [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] dance of the Tang dynasty and — after a 1,000-year hiatus — into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, where it has been recreated by Sun Ying [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (1929–2009) to become a staple of Chinese cultural events.
Throughout the millennia of Chinese history, documentation has kept dances alive in the cultural memory. Further, the ideographic characters of Chinese writing retain the history of their origins, eloquently capturing the visual nature of dance. The dynamic relationship between dance and calligraphy is most vividly illustrated by the "grass script" or "crazy script" cursive style developed in the Tang dynasty. The most notable example of dance-calligraphy connections is that of calligrapher Zhang Xu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (675–750 CE), who was inspired to create his principle of the undulating stroke when he watched Lady Gongsun's [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (Tang dynasty) remarkable performance of a sword dance.
The earliest examples of Chinese writing, known as "oracle bone inscriptions," were divinations carved on turtle shells, animal bones, or other artifacts, and date to 1200 BCE, the late Shang era (ca. 1600–1050 BCE). Characters about music and dance are prominent among the inscriptions, and the original oracle bone inscription for the word dance is clearly derived from the image of a man dancing with bird feathers and oxtails.
Such wealth of dance imagery — depicted in pottery and carvings in wood or jade; brick and stone relief; paintings and more — has continued throughout millennia of cultural documentation. Though many other cultures have similarly ancient records of dances through their visual arts, the pictographic origins of written Chinese language help further enrich a long history of documentation because the form of written language can expand its content.
As we will discuss in the section on the Tang dynasty, the importance of poetry in Chinese history, and the concomitant frequency of dance as a subject of poetry, also contribute to both the quantity and quality of dance documentation. By comparison, formal modes of Western dance documentation (such as The English Dancing Master — a best seller in the seventeenth century; and Labanotation — the dance notation system introduced in the early twentieth century) are relatively recent phenomena.
Quite possibly, the complex role of dance in Chinese culture evolved in part because of this dynamic and mutually reinforcing relationship between dance, visual arts, and written language. Indeed, the inception of written language in oracle bones suggests a connection between writing and the shamanistic practices from which the religious and governmental structures evolved. If this supposition has merit, then the presence of dance on the political stage may be a side effect of the role that writing played in the development of Chinese government and the concomitant incorporation of visual arts, music, and poetry in the power structure. Some authors have also noted how a spectator-oriented inclination in Chinese performing arts could have arisen from this relationship between emerging governments, the arts, and shamanism in the early dynasties. (The concept of spectator-oriented performance is a useful perspective for examining Chinese dance and will be revisited later in this book.)
SHAMANISM AND RITUAL DANCE
From ancient times to the present, shamanistic rituals have been integral to religious practices around the world, with dance as a key component. In ancient China, dance as a shamanistic practice gave rise to several classical forms that have been passed down to the present day. The watersleeve dance [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] is a prominent example, with a lineage dating back beyond its heyday in the Han dynasty [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (206 BCE–220 CE) to origins in Neolithic rites. Some shaman dances, however, have survived intact. Among these is the Naxi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] shaman dance still performed today in various sites in China. The Naxi people comprise one of the minority ethnic groups in China, and have large communities in Yunnan Province. Here the dance rituals of the Naxi's Dongba [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] pictographic language and religion have been preserved for around 1,000 years as one of the world's oldest dance notations still in active use.
CONFUCIANISM
Religious studies professor Jeff Richey notes that the renowned philosopher Confucius [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (551–479 BCE) codified and promoted the Chinese affinity for ritual propriety li [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], ensuring its lasting influence on all realms of culture:
[M]uch of Confucius' teaching is directed toward the maintenance of three interlocking kinds of order: (1) aesthetic, (2) moral, and (3) social. The instrument for effecting and emulating all three is li (ritual propriety). ... [R]ituals properly performed duplicate ideal hierarchies of power, whether between ruler and subject, parent and child, or husband and wife. ... When persons and things are in their proper places — and here tradition is the measure of propriety — relations are smooth, operations are effortless, and the good is sought and done voluntarily.
Though adherence to Confucian doctrine waxed and waned over the millennia, its prominence during the Han and Tang dynasties — coupled with the aesthetic appeal of li — meant that the two golden ages of dance helped give enduring physical form to Confucian ideals. To this day, yiwu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] or bayiwu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], a precisely structured dance, is performed throughout the region in honor of Confucius's birthday. In Taiwan, the day coincides with National Teachers' Day, further emphasizing the Confucian regard for scholarship and learning.
Rituals and ceremonial practices of all kinds have been documented throughout the ages in China. The most famous and vivid examples of such documentation lie in the Dunhuang caves [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], where paintings and frescoes preserve images of Buddhist rituals and other festive events from the fourth to the fourteenth centuries.
The caves also contained a huge number of manuscripts, including many with intricately detailed dance notations. Dunhuang was an important site along the Silk Road [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], and as such its artworks chronicle the influence of Indian arts and religion — particularly Buddhism — that became part of Chinese culture. For example, the characteristic Tribhangi position from Odissi — an Indian classical dance form — is visible in the Chinese Sandaowan [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], or triple-bend stance. In fact, this position is commonly found in many Asian and Middle Eastern dance forms, a testament to the extensive history of cross-cultural influences in dance. The theological importance of dance in both China and India is exemplified by the depiction of imagined scenes such as the Flying Apsaras [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] — celestial beings dancing to worship the Buddha. Actual dances are documented as well, with paintings of storytelling dances and dancers performing for emperors and other historical figures.
After their rediscovery in the twentieth century, these remarkable artworks inspired the creation of the Dunhuang style of classical dance, which has become popular throughout mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
The Dunhuang frescoes and manuscripts are also a key example of how the documentation of ancient Chinese culture — including dance — was caught in the ebb and flow of imperial life. With the beginning of the dynasties around 2100 BCE, the flourishing of literacy among the elite and the linkage of documentation with religious and governmental power set the stage for Chinese history to be recorded — and understood — primarily through the lens of dynastic shifts.
DANCE AND EMPIRE
According to acclaimed dance historian Kefen Wang [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (b. 1927), with the expansion of a class-based society during the Xia dynasty over 4,000 years ago, the performing arts became focused on entertaining the royalty. From the Xia (2100–1600BCE) through the Shang (1600–1050 BCE) and Zhou (1050–256BCE) dynasties, the stratification of society — fueled by the consolidation of empires — led to professional palace dancers. These dancers, however, were often slaves or concubines. Thus began a curious contradiction wherein dancers were considered the lowest class of society, yet were prominent throughout the life of the court, their artistry ever more tightly bound to fulfilling the whims of royalty.
However, this shift within the court from more ritual and participatory performance to mostly spectator-oriented dance by enslaved performers was apparently a gradual process, as evidenced by accounts in very early dynasties telling about rulers themselves dancing in shamanistic practices. While the religious, festival, and social dances of the general populace no doubt continued apace, their documentation remained sporadic, and dances associated with royalty became increasingly prominent in historical records — especially in written documents.
Of particular note are oracle bone inscriptions suggesting that Shang kings not only danced, but also foretold the future, two activities anthropologist Herbert Plutschow reminds us were "the domains of shamans." These leaders were viewed as representatives of the gods, with concomitant powers and responsibilities in the society. Thus the association of the royalty with a deity or deities was an integral part of the earliest historical dynasties, and the documented role of dance in the religious-imperial order may have evolved from this relationship. However, later dynasties, such as the period from the Han (206BCE–220 CE) through the Wei (220–265 CE) and into the Jin (265–317 CE), leave documentation showing dances with distinctly political goals and evidence of a shift from the more shamanistic rituals of the early dynasties. In one common dance known as Yiwuxiangshu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], guests at a banquet would be invited to dance with higher officials — perhaps even the ruler himself. Refusing to dance was considered extremely rude behavior, and highly disrespectful of the host — a perilous choice, no doubt!
The Han dynasty, though it occurred about 1,000 years before the golden age of Chinese dance in the Tang dynasty (618–906 CE), is considered the second greatest dynasty in the history of Chinese dance, with the flourishing of the baixi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (variety show) performances. Dance, music, acrobatics, horsemanship, and more were gathered into the baixi format, and found favor among the royalty as well as the general population. However, palace dancers remained utterly dependent on the whims of the royalty, even as they brought their craft to new heights of technique and artistry.
TANG DYNASTY DANCE
Ancient Chinese dance blossomed even further several hundred years later in the golden era of the Tang, a secure and powerful dynasty that readily incorporated things foreign in its own creations. The period of political instability between the end of the Han and the beginning of the Tang brought many different groups into contact, a pattern that continued once the society stabilized during the Tang. As a result, there was extensive cross-pollination in the arts. Flavors of the West Regions (which include portions of Central Asia traversed by the Silk Road), of the Korean peninsula, and even of the remoter Roman Empire can be found in the records of Tang dances.
Our understanding of dance in the Tang dynasty is strongly connected to two key historical figures: Emperor Tang Taizong Li Shimin [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (599–649 CE) and Emperor Tang Xuanzong Li Longji [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (685–762 CE). Tang Taizong ruled from 626 until his death in 649, and is credited with welcoming foreign artists into the palace. The dances that predominated during his reign have been placed in three general categories. The first category is martial or "energetic" dance (wuwu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Or jianwu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), often using props such as swords and sticks. Tang Taizong created his own wuwu choreography, Prince Qin's Cavalry [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], to commemorate Taizong's youthful military exploits and maintain "martial vigilance in peace-time." The second category is civil dance or "soft" dance (wenwu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] or ruanwu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), with or without props such as fans, sleeves, ribbons, and so on, and in contrast with the martial works. The third is Hu dance [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], a term — literally translated as "whiskers dance" — that referred to "foreign" dances, and was derived from the description of ethnic groups whose men sported facial hair.
The prominence of Hu dances in the Tang imperial court speaks to Emperor Taizong's mode of governance. In his efforts to reduce conflicts with foreign nations, Taizong pursued a well-crafted strategy of co-opting his potential enemies. He continued successful practices from previous dynasties — such as promoting intermarriage with foreign rulers — even as he accumulated combat victories over other foreign nationals. Taizong married off his own daughter to a Tubo [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] leader in his efforts to keep the peace. (From the seventh to eleventh centuries, the Tubo dynasty ruled the area now known as Tibet.) As part of the same process, foreign artists that hitherto had been limited to the outer reaches of the palace were invited to perform for the emperor in the heart of the court. Tang Taizong's decision to bring these folk dances into the palace itself set the stage for extensive intermingling and fusion of dance styles that expanded through the dynasty, and helped establish the historical vibrancy of Tang dynasty dance.
POETRY
An emperor's hand in the arts — such as Taizong's choreography and musical direction — ensured that productions would be praised and thoroughly documented in visual arts and literature. Famous poets of the Tang era, including Bai Juyi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (772–846 CE), Du Fu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (712–770 CE), and Li Bai [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (701–762CE), have all written of dances and dancers, capturing with their words both the physical and political flow of exquisite performances. As scholars, poets often also held political offices and the influence of their work extended beyond the immediate artistic or cultural realm. Their works were memorized and recounted, sometimes as part of the exam process that brought new scholars into the ranks. Poetry serves to capture and perpetuate elements of the culture in a highly transmissible manner.
The ideographic nature of Chinese writing and historical lineage inherent in the written characters suggests that a written poem contains additional imagery and information accessible to scholarly research. When the Dunhuang artworks and manuscripts were eventually rediscovered in the twentieth century, for example, dynamic descriptions from poems could be melded with vivid images from paintings, sculptures, and other visual arts to recreate dances — such as Ta Ge, mentioned earlier — that had not been seen for 1,000 years.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Chinese Dance"
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Copyright © 2016 Shih-Ming Li Chang and Lynn E. Frederiksen.
Excerpted by permission of Wesleyan University Press.
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Table of Contents
Foreword: A Manifesto for Demarginalization, by Emily E. Wilcox
Authors' Notes
Introduction
HISTORY: DANCING THROUGH THE VAST LAND AND BEYOND
Major Chinese Dynasties
Ancient Dance and Early Chinese Writing
Shamanism and Ritual Dance
Confucianism
Dance and Empire
Tang Dynasty Dance
Poetry
Beginnings of Chinese Opera
Foot Binding
Repression of Folk Dance
Theater in the Qing Dynasty
Dance in the Opera
Seventeenth-century Han Migration to Taiwan
Setting the Stage: The Late Qing Dynasty to the Twenty-First Century
Dance During Political Upheaval: Japanese Invasion, Civil War, and Communism
Chinese Opera Dance
Dance Schools
Folk Dance
Cultural Revolution and Beyond
Dance Competitions
Popular Culture
Ceremonial and Religious Dances
Modern Dance
DANCE IS THE PRISM: A COLLABORATIVE JOURNEY THROUGH CHINESE DANCE
Performer-Audience Relationships
Primacy of Form
"What's in a Name?"
West within the East: Classicism and Zhongguogudianwu
Parsing the Beijing Olympic Ceremonies
Government Support and the Emergence of Modern Dance
Images of Identity
SEVEN INTERVIEWS: CHINESE DANCE ARTISTS IN NORTH AMERICA
Lily Cai
Artist's Statement
Interview with Lily Cai
Nai-Ni Chen
Artist's Statement
Interview with Nai-Ni Chen
Lorita Leung
Artist's Statement
Interview with Lorita Leung
Yunyu Wang
Artist's Statement
Interview with Yunyu Wang
Yin Mei
Artist's Statement
Interview with Yin Mei
Jin-Wen Yu
Artist's Statement
Interview with Jin-Wen Yu
Yu Wei
Artist's Statement
Interview with Yu Wei
WHY CHINESE DANCE?
Who Are Chinese People?
Who Dances in Chinese Culture?
What Is Behind the Curtain, in the Past and Now?
What Is Chinese Dance?
Where and When Do People Dance?
How Are Chinese Dances Made?
Why Have We Written a Book on Chinese Dance?
NEXT STEPS: THE DATABASE AND THE ART OF EDUCATION
Acknowledgments
Notes
Glossary
Selected Bibliography
Index
What People are Saying About This
“The more you engage with these dances by watching, reading, and discussing the materials that Lynn Frederiksen and Shih-Ming Li Chang have so carefully created and contextualized in this book, the more Chinese dance … can touch, challenge, and move us in unexpected ways.”
"The more you engage with these dances by watching, reading, and discussing the materials that Lynn Frederiksen and Shih-Ming Li Chang have so carefully created and contextualized in this book, the more Chinese dance can touch, challenge, and move us in unexpected ways."—Emily Wilcox, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Michiganfrom the foreword
"Lucid and well researched, Chinese Dance is a rich resource for students, educators, and dancers. The book brings valuable information on the wide spectrum of Chinese dance and its cultural heritage, and illuminates the process of cross-cultural understanding.""—Ann R. David, reader in dance studies, coeditor of Dance Ethnography and Global Perspectives
"The more you engage with these dances by watching, reading, and discussing the materials that Lynn Frederiksen and Shih-Ming Li Chang have so carefully created and contextualized in this book, the more Chinese dance can touch, challenge, and move us in unexpected ways."—Emily Wilcox, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Michigan, from the foreword
“Lucid and well researched, Chinese Dance is a rich resource for students, educators, and dancers. The book brings valuable information on the wide spectrum of Chinese dance and its cultural heritage, and illuminates the process of cross-cultural understanding.”