CHINA: 92-year-old "living fossil" of popular flower-drum dance

CHINA: 92-year-old "living fossil" of popular flower-drum dance BEIJING (XINHUA), June 14, 2005: Despite his retirement, Feng Guopei, 92, is still concerned with the fate of the flower-drum dance, renowned as the "oriental ballet". He said, "The flower-drum dance can only develop through continuous in-depth reforms and innovations." The veteran dancer is nicknamed a "living fossil" of the flower- drum dance for the remarkable achievements and contributions he made in developing this popular dance, which originates in the valley of the Huaihe River, one of the longest rivers in China. The esteemed Feng, born in 1914 in Bengbu city, east China's Anhui Province, began learning the flower-drum dance at age 13 and first went on the stage at 17. At 20, he earned his fame in his hometown with the stage name "lily feet". Flower-drum dancers tell stories and portray characters through vigorous movements and body languages, accompanied by the singing of songs and drum beating. The dance was thus praised by late Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai as the "oriental ballet." During his life-long performance in counties along the Huaihe River, Feng established his unique dancing style, featuring sincere emotions, exquisite performance and exquisite, swift natural movements. His style was later known popularly as the " Feng school" of flower-drum dancing. Feng's reputation soon spread across China. His performance has drawn high appreciation from ordinary audience as well as noted Chinese dancers, including Wu Xiaobang and Dai Ailian, and even Mei Lanfang, the late best-known Beijing Opera master. In 1953, Feng performed at the national folk dance festival in Chinese Capital Beijing. And his performing expertise won admiration from late Chinese leaders Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi and Zhu De who watched his performance. In 1982, at a United Nations conference on protection and development of folk and traditional dances of Asia, Feng, as an ace representative of Chinese dance artists, gave a lecture on the protection and development of flower-drum dance and performed the dance impromptu, which received praises and admiration from dancers from around the world. During his dancing career of over seven decades, Feng persevered in carrying out the reform and innovation to the traditional dance style, so as to enable it to keep pace with the passage of the times. He also made great efforts to spur on the development of flower-drum dance from an folk dance to an art on stage and the grand flower-drum dance opera. Thanks to efforts by Feng and other flower-drum dancer peers, Feng's hometown Bengbu city has become the vital basis for the research and development of flower-drum dance. In April, the Fengzuizi village of Bengbu city, where Feng was born, was cited as the No. 1 flower-drum dance village of China" by the central government. A museum has been built to preserve and develop the flower-drum dance in Bengbu city. Local government is also bracing to submit the dance to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a candidate to vie for the Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity (MOIHH) list. However, the flower-drum dance has been on the verge of disappearing, due to the strong impact from other cultural forms, shortage of successors and its dwindling popularity in recent years. Bengbu city government last year launched a project to protect the flower-drum dance, with such substantial measures taken as promulgating protection regulations, building a museum, resuming traditional festivals of flower-drum dance, and aiding inheritors financially. The city government of Bengbu will also invest at least 24.7 million yuan (some 3 million US dollars) to carry out 13 projects to protect and further develop the flower-drum dance.