Fengyang Flower Drum (simplified Chinese: 凤阳花鼓; traditional Chinese: 鳳陽花鼓; pinyin: Fèngyáng huāgǔ), also known as "Flower Drum," "Flower Drum Playing," "Flower Drum and Small Gong," and "Double-strip Drum," is a traditional Chinese folk performing art that integrates folk art forms (quyi) with song and dance. It originated in Fengyang County, Anhui Province, China, and was listed in the first batch of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage List by the State Council of China on May 20, 2006 (Project Number V-36).
History
Fengyang Flower Drum developed during the late Ming Dynasty. Fengyang County was historically prone to severe flooding from the Yellow River and drought, which forced many residents to leave their homes and beg for survival. These displaced people would perform the Flower Drum in public for gratuities, which led to its spread across China.
The Ming Dynasty text Liuqing Rizha by Tian Yiheng mentions that men in Fengyang were skilled in drumming, particularly the Three-Stick Drum, and that it had become a custom for men and women to beat drums and sing to each other while transplanting rice seedlings in the fields. During the Kangxi and Qianlong periods of the Qing Dynasty, many literati recorded the lively scenes of Fengyang Flower Drum performances in their poems. After the mid-Qing Dynasty, the dance element gradually faded, leaving primarily the singing component, which was divided into two forms: "Sitting Singing" (坐唱) and "Singing at the Door" (唱门头).
In the early 1950s, cultural workers reformed Fengyang Flower Drum, incorporating new performance techniques and renaming it "Double-strip Drum" (双条鼓). After the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was performed at Huairen Hall in Beijing, where Premier Zhou Enlai reportedly called it the "Eastern Ballet."
Performance Characteristics
The performance form involves one or two performers accompanying themselves by playing a small drum and a small gong while dancing and singing. Traditionally, it features one man and one woman: the man plays a small tangluo (镗锣) and the woman plays a small flower drum. Fengyang Flower Drum is divided into two main types: Big Flower Drum (大花鼓), performed by groups of over a dozen people, and Small Gong Flower Drum (小锣花鼓), typically performed by a duo.
The core instrument is the Double-strip Drum, with drumheads traditionally made of sheepskin. The drum sticks are crafted from natural bamboo, typically ranging from 0.5 to 0.8 meters in length depending on the performer's height.
Classic Repertoire
Representative pieces include "Fengyang Song" (凤阳歌), "Fresh Flower Tune" (鲜花调), "Third Sister Wang Goes to the Market" (王三姐赶集), "Yangge Tune" (秧歌调), "Picking Mulberry" (采桑), "Five Watches Tune" (五更调), "Ten Handkerchiefs" (十条手巾), "Twelve Months" (十二月), and "Yu Meiren" (虞美人), among nearly one hundred known songs.
Cultural Significance
Fengyang Flower Drum is closely connected with various Chinese folk arts and has influenced numerous other art forms. In Chinese opera, a significant series of opera types are named after "Flower Drum," and many trace their origins to Fengyang Flower Drum. It is also related to various types of opera such as Yangge, Liuzi, Laozi, and Tanhuang, as well as to song and dance pieces, folk ditties, and qinshu (storytelling accompanied by stringed instruments) repertoire.
The form was popularized internationally by its appearance in The Good Earth, the 1937 film adaptation of Pearl S. Buck's novel. Composer Chou Wen-Chung incorporated it into his 1949 composition Landscapes.
Protection and Inheritance
Fengyang Flower Drum is primarily distributed in townships such as Randen and Xiaoxihe in Fengyang County. In 2012, Fengyang County organized experts and veteran folk artists to create a Fengyang Flower Drum Fitness Dance, integrating performance and fitness functions. In 2016, the 4.5-million-word Complete Book of Fengyang Flower Drum was published after five years of compilation. Multiple inheritance bases and training sessions have been established to cultivate new practitioners. The representative inheritor recognized by the national intangible cultural heritage system is Sun Fengcheng (孙凤城), born in 1951 in Fengyang, Anhui.
