CITY GUIDE >Culture and Events
|
CITY GUIDE >Culture and Events
|
|
The beat goes on
By Huang Feifei/Huo Yan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-14 09:19 Two muscle-bound men lift a 17 kg bronze drum with their teeth amid a thunderous beating sound. Amazingly, the young men can still dance in rhythm as they bite on the 50-cm diameter metal drum.
 Performers Meng Shengwen and Song Zhongze say they have been learning this dance from old masters at the Sanhe village in northwestern Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region since the age of 12. Meng says in order to lift the bronze drum with his teeth he needs to chant a mysterious incantation. Only four people in the village have succeeded in this feat, he says. Villagers at Sanhe belong to the Bunu, a small branch of Yao minority who live in southern China. The Monkey Drum Dance they perform at the annual summer Zhuzhu Festival is a harvest-time celebration and tells the story of how ancient people fended off wild monkeys and protected the crops. Village head Lan Shanglin says the dance is staged to commemorate a legendary hero known as Jiudai Wang (King of the 9th Generation), who fought off the wild monkeys, bringing peace to his people as they struggled to live in the remote mountains. The drum is one of the oldest musical instruments in the world and has been used in every continent by every people throughout the ages. The bronze drum is especially old and it is estimated there are only some 2,400 ancient bronze drums still existing. |
