Wooden Drum Dance

Having been the idol of Miao, Yi and Wa ethnic groups, the wooden drum is the symbol of the existence and prosperity of these people. The wooden drum dance is a sacred folk dance to them, reflecting their worship of ancestors and nature. As history goes on, the wooden drum's functions of assembling and sending messages is gradually fading. Now it's mainly used as an instrument of etiquette instrument and a musical instrument.

The wooden drum is a holy object worshipped by these minorities. They think that the wooden drum is a tool for reaching the gods and a drum that reaches heaven. They have an expression that "life relies on water, and propriety relies on the wooden drum". It can't be touched unless for a special occasion. People beat it only when offering sacrifices, reporting an alarm or during large collective activities such as festivals and happy occasions.

The culture of the wooden drum is a rich and profound part of folk culture. Not only in its production and use but also in its performance, style and characteristics that reflect the social life, religion and customs of the Miao, Yi and Wa people. It is an indispensable part of the culture of these people, and is definitely an important subject in the further study of drum culture. The modern wooden drum dance has adopted a lot of new content.

Ⅰ. Fanpai Miao Minority Wooden Drum Dance

Declarer：Taijiang County,Guizhou Province

The wooden drum dance is an important festival activity for the Miao in the Taijiang area. In the hot summer, Miao girls will come from several miles away with their parents to dance the wooden drum dance. In this wooden drum festival, while the young girls are dancing to the rhythm of the wooden drum, the young men are looking for their life partners. When the curtain of night comes down, the young women and men will express their affections for each other by antiphonal singing.

The Fanpai wooden drum dance is prevalent in the Fanpai Miao Village in Taijiang County. The dance, dubbed the "Oriental Disco" for its fast and violent movements, originated from a primitive legend in which a brother and sister learned how to dance from the birds and insects.

Ⅱ.Wa Minority Cangyuan Wooden Drum Dance

Declarer：Cangyuan Wa Ethnic Autonomous County, Yunnan Provicne

The Cangyuan Wooden Drum Dance of the Wa ethnic group is popular in Cangyuan Wa Ethnic Autonomous County, where 90 percent of the villagers are good at wooden drum dancing and singing.

The wooden drum dance of the Wa people is colorful and varied. "Chopping Wooden Drum", "Pulling Wooden Drum", "Beating Wooden Drum", "Dancing in the Hut of the Wooden Drum", and "Sacrifice to Wooden drum", are past sacrificial dances which were used in grave sacrificial rituals to offer sacrifices to the gods, to please the gods, to ward off calamities and to get blessings from the gods. Nowadays, people beat the wooden drum and dance with the drum at ceremonies and festivals, not to please the gods but to amuse themselves, to bless and sing in praise of their new life.

Because of the sacred status and function of the wooden drum, the pulling of the wooden drum has become a very grand and magnificent religious sacrificial activity. The pulling of the wooden drum is when people cut wood in the forest, then, pull it into village and make a drum with it to replace the old drum. The pulling of the drum is usually held in the eleventh lunar month (the first month of the Wa calendar).

The most common wooden drum dance is the 'Beating Wooden Drum'. In their wooden drum dance, the Wa people use wooden drums and cymbals as major instruments, blending the beats with songs to create a main melody with strong and harmonious rhythms, full of encouragement and impulse.

In their colorless, short-sleeve shirts, they dance in bare feet. Men, with red ribbons on their heads, wear wide pants; women, with white ribbons on their heads, wear bracelets and skirts and long hair. The dance is grand: At dusk, the long-haired female protagonist stands on the wooden drum, raising her hands to the sky; two men stand respectively at the ends of the drum with drum sticks and bamboo in hand, other performers are around the drum, dancing slowly to the singer's voice, the drum and the cymbals. It's a mixture of slow and fast beats, anger and sadness, anxiety and happiness. As the song climaxes, the dance steps become orderly and powerful, straightforward and uninhibited, grand and magnificent, shaking the sky and land, vibrating the heart, which describes fully human being's vigorous vitality and their spirit of fighting against nature.

The Wooden Drum Dance faithfully reproduces the solemn scenes of the ancient Wa people's struggle with nature. It expresses the ethnic spirit of unceasing strife and united struggle and reflects the Wa's yearning for a happy life.

The respect and praise for women expressed in the wooden drum dance faithfully reproduces the historical background of the formation of the wooden drum and the Wooden Drum Dance. The Dance is a corroboration of traditional cultures and a testament to ancient Wa history.

Wa is one of the ethnic groups in China that has the longest primitive societal history. The history of the Wa's wooden drum culture is as long as that of the Wa society. A series of wooden drum activities narrate the development of Wa society. Wooden drum sacrificial activities are all-embracing, relating to all aspects of Wa society, from the heavens to the earth and from the ancient to today. The study of wooden drum culture obviously has high academic value in various aspects, such as ethnology, religion and art history.