“Our naoge stands high in the blue sky. The children represent our wishes and ideals. When they dance with the music, they release people’s ideals and hopes.”

Driving 25 kilometers southeast from Dai County, Xinzhou City, Shanxi Province, the reporter and his party met Hao Laixi, a 75 year old inheritor of Ekou naoge national intangible cultural heritage, in Haojie village, Ekou town. Sitting on the earthen Kang in the main room, talking about naoge, Hao Laixi talked incessantly and his face was full of longing. In his seventeen years, he was not old at all.

In 1948, Hao Laixi was born in Haojie village, Ekou Town, Dai County, which is one of the birthplaces of Ekou naoge. Since childhood, he has watched the naoge performance in the village grow up.

“When I was a child, I looked forward to the new year’s’ going to the pavilion ‘, but at that time, only girls could go to the pavilion, so my father disguised me as a girl.”

“Climbing the pavilion” means climbing high and looking far. You can pray for good luck and peace in the four seasons. Being able to climb the pavilion is what every Ekou child hopes for most.

“The first time I ascended the pavilion, I swayed in the cold wind. Although it was cold and scared, I forgot everything as soon as it became lively.” From 5-year-old Deng Ge, 22-year-old naoge, to becoming a national intangible cultural heritage inheritor in 2017, Hao Laixi has been dealing with naoge for nearly 70 years, and the oldest child he has ever scratched is now 40 or 50 years old.

Speaking of the grand occasion of that year, Hao Laixi still couldn’t hide his joy. “Ekou villages can organize teams, ranging from 12 to 24, also known as full frames. From the 13th to 16th of the first month of each year, a total of more than 60 naoge planes from the three villages are sent out.” Hao Laixi said that in the past, naoge was a literary and artistic activity participated by the whole people, and every family had high enthusiasm.

Ekou naoge is the most popular, popular and popular cultural and entertainment activity in Dai County during the Spring Festival. Map provided by the Publicity Department of Dai County Party committee

“From the tenth day of the first lunar month, the women began to tie flowers, decorate the pavilion and prepare the costumes for the performance. On the day of the performance, the whole village went out, with makeup, performance and help. A village was bustling and busy. Starting from Ekou at more than nine o’clock in the morning, a group of people swam to Daixian County, which could stir the whole ancient city in the lively music.” In Hao Laixi’s story, the grand scene of naoge performance seems to be in front of us.

“We don’t talk about remuneration. The children give a few sweets, the adults scatter a few cigarettes, and the villagers each give some dry food. Everyone is willing to make the greatest effort in the performance. This is a grand meeting in our hearts.” Hao Laixi told reporters that everyone involved is out of his heartfelt love for naoge.

During the Lantern Festival, Ekou naoge performed in the cultural compound of Ekou Town, Dai County. Map provided by the Publicity Department of Dai County Party committee

Gao Junping, an employee of Daixian branch of ICBC who has worked and lived in Ekou for many years, is a loyal audience of naoge in Ekou. In her memory, naoge is the highlight of the “prosperity” of the Lantern Festival. From the early morning when the band’s suona sounded, the naoge experts from various villages gathered in the square. There were both cooperation and competition among various teams. The hot and noisy performance became a major scenery on the streets of Daixian County. “It’s no exaggeration to describe it with thousands of people.” Gao Junping said.

The drums, cymbals and gongs of Ekou naoge band. Map provided by the Publicity Department of Dai County Party committee

“Naoge”, as a folk art, contains rich cultural connotation. In northern Shanxi dialect, naoge refers to the “attic” raised or raised (extended to two layers of fairy Pavilion and girl), which is an art form of scratching children for performance. It was listed in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage list in 2008.

“In the cultural circles, naoge in Ekou is known as silent drama, dancing in the air, mobile acrobatics and vivid sculptures. Naoge is a comprehensive art integrating the essence of traditional culture. The children’s appearance is the people in the drama in the biography of Yang Jiajiang, a dream of Red Mansions and white snake. They can perform a good play without opening their mouth. With the drum, the adults dance, and the children dance or somersault in the air The local culture of the past century is condensed in it. “ Chen Wenxiu, deputy county head of Dai County People’s government, who has devoted a lot of efforts to naoge in Ekou, concluded.

Traditional culture is infiltrating this small town in northern Shanxi with a population of only 220000 and infiltrating people’s life in a unique way. “The farmers here not only hoe at noon, but also put down their hoes during the slack season. They can play a song together with music and scratch the shelf.” In Chen Wenxiu’s eyes, when ordinary farmers encounter art, they are no longer ordinary. Every farmer is an artist.

“Ekou naoge is a folk art with a long history and tenacious vitality. In the most traditional naoge, farmers decorate self-sufficient pepper and corn on the lifting frame to celebrate the harvest and pray for good weather in the coming year. Later, the creation of characters gradually evolved into what we see today.” Li Peigen, a local cultural scholar in Dai County and a member of Shanxi Writers Association, told reporters that Ekou naoge has a long history.

Suona and Sheng of Ekou naoge band. Map provided by the Publicity Department of Dai County Party committee

According to Li Peigen, naoge in Ekou has experienced the incubation period of imitating tree source ecology from the Youchao family in the primitive society to the Qin Dynasty, the transition period from unaccompanied performance to instrumental harmony from the Han Dynasty to the northern and Southern Dynasties, the mature period of matching performances, costumes and accompaniment from the Sui and Tang Dynasties to the Republic of China, the tortuous development period of ups and downs in the early 1960s and 1970s after the founding of new China, and the promotion and revitalization period after the implementation of the “national traditional culture protection” project, So far, it has a history of more than 1700 years. The pottery figurines of the northern and Southern Dynasties unearthed locally are also the record and embodiment of Ekou naoge in the long history.

Rough dance steps and simple music, naoge, baptized by more than 1700 years, are more like the silhouette of time walking through the long river of history. With the accompaniment of Shanxi’s “eight sets” of instrumental music, the strong man with his back tied to the naoge makes great efforts under his feet, sinks into the Dantian, takes his waist as the axis, twists his crotch, grasps the center of gravity, stretches and twists in a certain degree, and the dance steps are calm and gentle from time to time. He changes the formation from time to time according to the footwork of stepping on the “gourd”, twisting, walking the “8” character, rotating in circles, walking straight, interspersed and so on.

Hao Laixi, the national “intangible cultural heritage” inheritor of naoge in Ekou, dressed up the little actors in naoge. Map provided by the Publicity Department of Dai County Party committee

Hao Laixi told reporters that unlike the Xugou back stick in Taiyuan, the iron frame of Ekou naoge is a live frame, and several connections can be left and right