Cultural activity celebrates folk art

Gao Xiuchun, an inheritor of Danjing, shows off some of her work. [Photo by Sun Tongwen for chinadaily.com.cn]

Penglou town in Juancheng county – administered by Heze city in East China's Shandong province – held a cultural activity recently to celebrate Danjing, a traditional folk art form and a provincial intangible cultural heritage item.

Danjing is a performance art that combines Buddhist music with local folk songs and operas. It has a recorded history stretching back more than 1,000 years in Juancheng county.

Performers wear colorful clothes and carry the jingtiao – a wooden pole decorated with flowers and feathers – and sing and dance. It is usually performed at temple fairs.

The music of the Danjing is beautiful and evocative, with more than 10 melodies that are accompanied by different lyrics.

A girl proudly carries a jingtiao pole. [Photo by Sun Tongwen for chinadaily.com.cn]

At the activity, members of the Danjing team in Penglou town demonstrated how to make the jingtiao.

In recent years, Juancheng county has regularly put on various activities to actively protect its intangible culture heritage.

"We will help more people to learn about intangible culture heritage, enhance their cultural identity and ensure culture is inherited," said Li Chenjing, director of the publicity department of the Juancheng county Party committee. (Edited by Fan Yuanyuan)