Tiandong Yao Golden Gong Dance performance scene. Photo by □ reporter Qin Weifeng

The mountains are like daisies, and the gongs are sonorous. On Chinese New Year's Eve, in Meilin Village, Zuodeng Yao Township, Tiandong County, Ruan Guilu, the representative inheritor of the Yao Golden Gong Dance, a national intangible cultural heritage project, opened a cultural dialogue spanning 600 years. He gently brushed away the rice from the granary and took out the golden gong buried deep in it. The moment your fingertips touch the bronze, a celebration that travels through time begins.

In the legend of the Bunu Yao people, the golden gong is a gift from the gods. On the evening of Chinese New Year's Eve, pigs' heads, chickens, etc. were placed in front of the middle hall of every household in Meilin Village, and the golden gong hidden in the depths of the granary was solemnly "invited out". Ruan Guilu held three incense sticks in his hand and whispered to the mottled gong: "Golden gong, golden gong, this year's crops have been harvested again, today is Chinese New Year's Eve, please come out and have a New Year's dinner and dance the golden gong dance with us." In the flickering candle flame, the surface of the gong shimmered, as if in response to the piety of the people. This scene has been going on in Meilin Village for hundreds of years.

The Yao Golden Gong Dance, called "Lusang" in Yao language, means to beat the gong, is a folk traditional dance created by the Bunu Yao people living in Tiandong County and surrounding areas in the long-term labor process, with strong ethnic characteristics and unique art forms. In the process of historical development, the Yao people have long lived a nomadic life of frequent migration. More than 600 years ago, Bunu Yao migrated to Tiandong and settled, and the Bunu Yao branch became the pioneer of Tiandong Dashishan District. Due to the scarcity of land in the Shishan area, after the crops are ripe, birds and beasts often come to compete with people for food. In the harsh production and living environment, the people of Bunuyao summed up their experience and formed the practice of scaring off birds and beasts and protecting food with the sound of gongs. After tea and dinner, the ancestors of the Yao people took pleasure in jumping on the stones when chasing birds and beasts, and gradually developed it into a literary and artistic form of dancing while hitting gongs. Because the gong used by the folk in ancient times was mixed with gold, it was named the Golden Gong Dance. In the process of inheritance from generation to generation, the Golden Gong Dance has undergone continuous artistic processing to form a Yao dance with fixed performance procedures and routines.

The traditional golden gong dance is a self-entertaining dance. The "gong" is both an accompaniment instrument for the dance and a prop for the dancers. There is no limit to the number of dancers, from as few as three or five people to as many as hundreds of people dancing at the same time. When dancing, pull up vines or ropes at the event venue to hang the golden gongs in series, or hang them on bamboo frames or wooden branches, and the golden gongs are about 5.0 meters above the ground. The specific form of expression of the Golden Gong Dance is divided into two parts: program and dance. The procedure refers to the opening ceremony to be held before the golden gong dance, where the elders invite the gong to come out and dance the gong dance, and the young people can continue to dance until the gong is sealed, and the gong is properly hidden by the elders. There are eight basic movements in the dance: single-point gong, double-point gong, left and right leg raising mallet, back mallet, overhead mallet, point step gong, turn around and hit gong, double and double gong. The dance repeats itself, from slow to fast, with the faster the gong and the faster the dance steps until the end of the fun. These dance movements are closely related to the postures of the Yao people such as raising their feet, exerting their toes, and twisting their waists when walking on mountain roads, and are a true portrayal of the life of the Yao people.

At first, the golden gong dance was only used for folk activities such as paying tribute to the gods, sacrificing sacrifices, and exorcising evil spirits, but later developed into a traditional folk dance to celebrate the New Year and the harvest year, and became an important way for people to express joy and celebrate festivals, and passed down from generation to generation. Every year in the Yao "Bunu Festival", the golden gong dance is an indispensable highlight.

Nguyen Guilu's father and maternal grandfather were both masters of the Golden Gong Dance. Under the influence of his elders, Nguyen Gui Lu has loved the golden gong dance since he was a child. At the age of 2004, he followed his father to learn the golden gong dance, and from the age of 0, he followed his grandfather for further study. He studied hard, mastered the performance skills of the golden gong dance, inherited and carried forward the golden gong dance skills of his predecessors, and formed his own unique style and technical characteristics. In 0 years, Meilin Village established the Yao Golden Gong Dance Art Troupe, and Ruan Guilu served as the first head to teach the Golden Gong Dance skills to the Yao Golden Gong Dance enthusiasts in the township, and cultivated many Yao Golden Gong Dance descendants.

Ruan Shibo is Ruan Guilu's protégé and successor, serving as the second head of the Yao Golden Gong Dance Art Troupe in Meilin Village, and also the inheritor of the Yao Golden Gong Dance Autonomous Region. Under the "mentorship" of Ruan Guilu and Ruan Shibo, the team of Yao Golden Gong dancers has continued to grow. In 2014, the Yao Golden Gong Dance was included in the fourth batch of national intangible cultural heritage representative items.

The modern chapter of intangible cultural heritage protection is being written in the mountains. In order to better protect and inherit the Yao Golden Gong Dance, Tiandong County has set up more than a dozen Golden Gong Dance teams to expand the team of performers and create a strong cultural atmosphere of Golden Gong Dance in the county. The Tiandong County Cultural Center set up the Yao Golden Gong Dance Institute in Triangle Tun, the inheritance base of Meilin Village, to teach the Golden Gong Dance skills; Zuodeng Yao Township has set up ethnic culture inheritance education courses in schools to carry out ethnic traditional culture education; Ruan Guilu and Ruan Shibo, two inheritors, often go to Meilin Village Primary School and Long Poor Village Primary School to teach the golden gong dance skills. After many efforts, there are successors to the county's golden gong dance.

　　田東縣金鑼舞代表隊曾參加第12屆中國民間文藝“山花獎”廣場歌舞比賽，並榮獲金獎。近年來，梅林村瑤族金鑼舞藝術團常受邀參加市、縣各類文藝演出活動。3月29日，瑤族金鑼舞亮相“和美紅城 千姿百色”2025年“三月三”各族群眾大聯歡活動。十面銅鑼齊鳴，奏響動人樂章，瞬間成為全場焦點。

From a remote mountain village to the national stage, today, the Yao Golden Gong Dance is not only an important part of the cultural life of the Yao people, but also a beautiful business card of Tiandong County to show the national culture to the outside world. It enriches the spiritual and cultural life of the local people and injects new impetus into the integrated development of culture and tourism. More and more tourists are attracted by the Golden Gong Dance and come to Zuodeng Yao Township to feel the unique ethnic customs and cultural charm here. On the stage of the new era, the Yao Golden Gong Dance is radiating new vitality and vitality, continuing to write wonderful chapters and conveying the wisdom and emotions of the Bunu Yao people to the world.

As night falls, a bonfire is lit in the barnyard. As Nguyen Guilu struck the first gong with a swing of the hammer, the villagers poured into the dance array like a tide. Young men leap barefoot, women in silver whirlwind pleated skirts, and children step on drums to imitate the gestures of their elders. The sound of the gong gradually becomes wild, and the firelight casts the figure on the thousand-year-old cliff, like the dance of the soul of the ancestors and the modern heirs. Such a carnival will last from Chinese New Year's Eve until dawn.

Youjiang Daily client (reporter Luo Xia correspondent Mo Haiyan)

[Source: Baise News Network]