China: Lunar New Year celebrations kick off with lively 'Beast on Stilts' performance in Shanxi

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Lunar New Year celebrations took place at the Chaoyanggou Scenic Area in Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province, on Wednesday with the traditional ‘beast on stilts’ Spring festival parade.

The temple fair in this village has a long history, and ‘the Beast on stilts’ is a unique tradition performed as part of the Chinese New Year celebration.

“‘The Beast on stilts’ is a classic program in the cultural activities of the temple fair, and this performance is mainly offering sacrifices to the goddess of fire,” said Wang Chenglin, an inheritor of the beast on stilts.

During the parade, performers dress as mythical animals, wearing heavy costumes and walking on stilts while moving to the vigorous rhythm of brass cymbals and gongs.

“There are mainly eight immortal beasts, including four literary beasts and four martial beasts. In terms of the literary beasts, there are Qilin, sika deer, Chiwen and elephant,” added Wang.
The ‘beast’ is composed of four parts: the head of the animal, the body, the performers, and the accompanying musicians.

“The temple fair parade began after the sacrificial ceremony was finished, mainly praying for good weather and a bumper harvest in the coming year,” added Wang.

During the performance, two people step on four stilts and wooden sticks to carry out the human riding on a different animal, which requires the performer’s feet to be synchronised.

The tradition of ‘Beasts on stilts’ has a history of more than 300 years and was included in the first batch of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2006.

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SOT, Wang Chenglin, Inheritor of beast on stilts (Mandarin): “The Beast on stilts” is a classic program in the cultural activities of the temple fair, and this performance is mainly offering sacrifices to the goddess of fire. The temple fair parade began after the sacrificial ceremony was finished, mainly praying for good weather and a bumper harvest in the coming year.”

SOT, Wang Chenglin, Inheritor of beast on stilts (Mandarin): “There are mainly eight immortal beasts, including four literary beasts and four martial beasts. In terms of the literary beasts, there are Qilin, sika deer, Chiwen and elephant. For the martial beasts including unicorns, wolves, black raccoons and tapirs.”

SOT, Yang Shengquan, Performer (Mandarin): “I have practiced walking on stilts since I was a child. At the age of 22, I officially participated in the stilt beast performance. I always performed as the wolf, and I also acted another role before which was Fire Longdan.”

#China #Shanxi #LunarNewYear #BeastOnStilts

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