Looking up to the north at the mouth of Guanzhuang Village in Zhu'a Town, Qihe County, the line of sight will "bump" into the towering Erdao Dam of the Yellow River, and the small village of only more than 200 families lies quietly on the southwest side of the river. At 9:30 a.m., a gong and drum sounded in the small square west of the village, and 8 large hydrangeas with a diameter of 40 centimeters began to fly up and down, and the colorful colors looked very beautiful in the sun.
Running a "single pair of scissors strands", "stringing flowers", and then a "kicking foot" and "harrier turning over", Song Chuanqing, who is dressed in red, won a round of applause with his good skills. "This is the 'pillar' of our hydrangea lamp dance, born in 74 years, which happens to belong to the tiger." Speaking was Song Chuancai, a 53-year-old secretary of the village party branch, who is also the inheritor of the provincial intangible cultural heritage project "Guanzhuang Hydrangea Lantern Dance". "4 'post-70s', 4 'post-95s', two generations danced a 'tiger tiger and tiger'." Song Chuancai wore a dark purple satin stand-up collar cotton coat, and the smile on his face did not disappear from the opening performance, "According to tradition, in previous years, the hydrangea team had to walk the streets and dance for three days, and then fixed a place to perform until the fifteenth day of the first month." In the past two years, I have been performing in the village for more than half an hour, and it is a habit for everyone to wear masks to listen to the sound of this festive gong and drum. ”
Among the 4 "post-95s" who are dancing vigorously, one is Song Tianyu, the son of Song Chuanqing, the other is Song Yingjian, the son of Song Chuancai, both of whom are studying in college, as well as Zhang Di, who is also studying at university, and Huang Maojiang, who works in a machinery and equipment company in Qihe. The four of them have been learning hydrangea lantern dance with their parents since they were young, and they have already performed on stage at the age of fifteen or sixteen, and are now the "main force" of spring festival performances. In previous years, as soon as the college winter vacation returned, Song Yingjian beckoned the "little friends" to wipe the hydrangea balls clean, and several people rehearsed, and the "New Year's flavor" gradually thickened.
Zhang Xinxin, deputy director of the Qihe County Cultural Center, introduced that the hydrangea lantern dance is a traditional folk dance in Shandong Province. Evolved from the ancient "social fire", it is a traditional folk activity that people express their desire to pray for the wind and rain to be smooth, live and work in peace and contentment, and integrate martial arts and dance as one of the traditional folk activities for self-entertainment. The origin developed in Guanzhuang Village and spread to the area of Changqing and Beiyuan in Jinan.
In 1982, the folk art joint film crew of the Shandong Provincial Department of Culture and the Liaoning Provincial Department of Culture came to Qihe to make a panoramic video of the dance, preserving precious image materials. In 2005, zhu'a town was awarded the "National Advanced Unit for the Protection of Folk Vernacular Art" for excavating and protecting the hydrangea lantern dance. In 2006, it was approved as the intangible cultural heritage of Shandong Province, and the relevant departments of Qihe County once formed a dance team of 80 people, which was taught by Guanzhuang artists and participated in large-scale performances many times.
The hydrangea lamp is composed of the inner and outer rings, the dancer holds a double lamp, integrates martial arts, dance and other movements, and the candlelight in the hydrangea lamp is not extinguished during the performance, which has the meaning of inheriting the "social fire". Hydrangea lamp production is also a craft worth inheriting, the reporter saw that the hydrangea lamp is composed of eight circles of size, eight small circles tied into a small ball, pasted with hairy paper, painted with white powder, brushed with five colors, becoming a colorful ball. The color ball is equipped with a "rotor" for inserting candles, eight large circles form a large color ball type, the small ball is suspended in it, so that the small ball can be freely rotated in the large ball, and then the circle of the large ball is wrapped up with colored paper strips, dotted with paper flowers, a vivid shape, exquisite production, bright color hydrangea lamp is made, it is indeed not a skilled craftsman can not do.
Nowadays, most of the hydrangea lamps stored in the activity center of Guanzhuang Village are made by Song Chuancai, Song Chuanqing and others, and the candles on the "rotor" have been replaced by multicolored lamps, and the dance at night is more charming.
"There are folk skills in many places, but most of them have been lost, and in addition to the artistic value of our hydrangea lantern dance in Guanzhuang, what is more rare is that it has been 'unbroken' in the past 30 years, which has been passed down from generation to generation, and now the next generation has also picked up." Song Chuancai said that before the Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger, he took back the hydrangea lamps placed in the Yellow River International Eco-City "China Station" and carefully repaired them, as if they were newly made.
At this "harvest festival", Song Chuancai also met Guo Renzhu, secretary of the party branch of Dalin Guo Village, another huangcun village along the Qi River. After some conversation, the two realized that the current "Yellow River" has brought great changes to the village.
In recent years, Qihe will adhere to the priority of ecology, the integration of industry and city, devote great efforts to great protection and governance, and strive to compose a brilliant chapter of Qihe in the "Yellow River Chorus" in the new era. Formerly known as the Yellow River International Eco-City in the Yellow River North Exhibition and Flood Detention Area, it vigorously cultivates leading industries such as cultural tourism and high-tech, and while practicing the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, the lives of residents along the Huangcun Town have also undergone great changes, and there are many "office workers".
The land in Guanzhuang Village has been fully incorporated into the Yellow River Ecological Protection Zone, and although there is "no land to plant", migrant workers have returned to the countryside and achieved employment at the doorstep of their homes. Song Chuancai told reporters that 70% of the farmers in the village have people working nearby, and his wife works as a cleaner in the hotel in the scenic area 7 miles away, with a monthly income of more than 3500 yuan. Song Chuanqing and his wife also work nearby, and he works as a carpenter at various cultural and tourism project sites, earning more than 100,000 yuan per year.
The same is true of The Village of Dalin Guo, guo Renzhu said that before the construction of the Eco-City, the village was mainly planted with wheat and corn, and now half of the families have people working in the Eco-City, including many young people. Cao Guilan, a villager who works in sanitation in the Eco-City, can ride a bicycle to the work site in 5 minutes a day, "much easier than when planting land before, and can earn more than 30,000 a year." She said that her biggest wish in the Year of the Tiger is that her son and daughter-in-law who work in other places can achieve employment in their hometown and reunite the family.
After dinner on the twenty-fifth day of the month, Song Chuanqing also discussed with his son about his employment intentions after graduating from college. "His hometown is developing better and better, and if he has a good job opportunity, he is willing to come back, build his hometown, and also guard the Yellow River." Like other hydrangea dancers in the village, he most hopes that the hydrangea lamp can "lead" the young people who go out back to the bank of the Yellow River, inheriting the ancient skills and passing on the sound of the Yellow River in the new era.
(Dazhong Daily client reporter Zhang Shuangshuang correspondent Liu Lei Zhang Xinxin reporting)