The Dawu folk dance of Zhecheng has a history of more than 350 years. In addition to the ghost meeting, which was created by the people of Dawu Township, Zhecheng County, the dragon lantern dance, lion dance, bamboo horse, and land boat dance were already famous during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. This year, the Dawu folk dance of Zhecheng was included in the first batch of Henan Province's intangible cultural heritage list. After the introduction and creation in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the Dawu folk dance of Zhecheng formed a mature and prosperous period in the late Republic of China. It was a transitional period from the founding of the People's Republic of China to the "Cultural Revolution". Since entering the active period in the 1990s, it has developed again. In 1995, the "Dawu Township Beijie Village Folk Dance Art Troupe" was established in Beijie Village, Dawu Township, Zhecheng County. Last year, the teaching content of folk dance was added to the physical education class of Beijie Primary School in Dawu Township. Beijie Village, Dawu Township, Zhecheng County is a well-known "folk dance village". Almost every household in the village has an actor in this field, and any one of them can play a hand. The village spontaneously organized a folk dance art performance troupe, which currently has more than 180 formal actors. Every year when the Lantern Festival comes, people from dozens of miles around rush to watch the excitement. It is said that as early as 1641, there was a wealthy gentleman named Wang in Dawu, Zhecheng. He was a drug dealer in his early years. He saw folk dances such as dragon lantern dance, lion dance, and land boat in other places, which were very lively and beautiful, and he had the idea of "introducing" them in his mind. After Mr. Wang turned 50, he gave up business and returned home. In order to show off his wealth, he decided to have a good time on his 60th birthday. So when he celebrated his 60th birthday, he invited dragon lantern dance, lion dance, bamboo horse and other dancing artists from other places to perform for three days and three nights. The number of actors, the momentum, the influence and the audience were unprecedented. Mr. Wang was extremely proud and happy. He couldn't sleep all night. Then he had another idea: I have a long time to celebrate my 66th and 80th birthdays. Why not keep them for a few more days and let the coroners learn from them? It will be more convenient when something happens. Since then, the above folk dances have "settled down and taken root" in Zhecheng Dawu. The ghost meeting in the folk dance of Zhecheng Dawu is a folk dance created by the coroners themselves. In the early Qing Dynasty, Wu Sangui led the Qing army into the pass and was opposed and cursed by the Chinese people. In order to express their hatred for the traitor (at that time, they could not directly oppose Wu Sangui, but could only use innuendo to satirize him), the coroners processed and created dances many times. On the surface, they denounced Qin Hui, a traitor who killed the national hero Yue Fei in the Southern Song Dynasty, but in fact they satirized and humiliated the traitor Wu Sangui's crimes. The folk dances of Zhecheng Dawu are divided into two categories and seven kinds, namely: dance without rap and dance with rap. There are five kinds of dance without rap: dragon lantern dance, lion dance, bamboo horse, stilts, and ghost meeting. There are two kinds of dance with rap: small car and land boat. All seven kinds of dances are accompanied by percussion music. Among them, dragon lantern dance, lion dance, stilts, and land boat are familiar to us. Dragon lantern dance mainly shows the various movements and vivid scenes of fire dragon and green dragon fighting and playing (playing with beads). Lion dance is a celebration after the harvest, and people use lions to express their joy. During the performance, two mighty and majestic lions and a cute little lion attract the audience through a series of fascinating and funny movements such as rolling embroidered balls, coiling flowers, jumping on tables, biting itches, stepping on steps, biting flowers, rolling, panting, rutting, and eating living people. Bamboo horses are imitating the size of real horses, with bamboo sticks as the skeleton, and colorful paper strips pasted on the outside. They are hung between the crotch of the performers. Under the command of the colorful umbrella holder, several horses perform festive and auspicious scenes. Ghost meeting is also called "pulling Qin Hui", which was created by folk dance artists in Dawu North Street in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. This dance has a strong lineup and requires more than 24 performers. The main content is that Qin Hui, a minister, killed the national hero Yue Fei, and one person complained. The Jade Emperor was angry and ordered the King of Hell to visit the world. The King of Hell sent the three judges to lead the little ghosts, the little judges, the ox-headed and horse-faced to capture the souls of Qin Hui and his wife. Because it reflects the stories of the underworld, it is called "ghost meeting". Zhecheng Dawu folk dance can be performed alone or together. It takes more than 180 people to perform a full set of folk dances. Its rough and bold grand momentum is combined with the joyful scenes of walking, playing and funny. Inheritance After the reform and opening up, in order to carry forward the folk dance art passed down from generation to generation by ancestors and revive its glory, Wang Guoming, a retired worker who grew up in a folk dance family, together with retired soldiers, old branch secretary Shao Zhenshan and villagers Wu Zhenjiang, Li Fulin, Zhao Hongjun and others, initiated and established the "Dawu Township Beijie Village Folk Dance Art Troupe" in the winter of 1995. Old man Wang Guoming said: "Our folk dance art troupe is not for fame or profit, but only to make the villagers happy and to keep the folk dance art treasure. Although I am so old, as long as I beat the drum and direct the performance team, my waist and legs will not hurt, and I will be free of any disease and full of energy." The folk dance programs in Beijie Village, Dawu Township are now rich and colorful and amazing. There are all kinds of performances such as lion dance, dragon lantern dance, bamboo horse, dry boat, small car, ghost meeting, stilts, steel fork, yangko, waist drum, etc. There are traditional programs such as "Water Flooding Jinshan", "King Kong Beheading Qin Hui", "Tang Monk Journey to the West", "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea", "Making Trouble in Hejian Mansion", as well as modern programs such as "Harvest Music" and "Praise of Chili". Development According to Yang Jianhua, director of Zhecheng County Cultural Center, Zhecheng Dawu folk dance has a strong local flavor and regionality, and the props are exaggerated but realistic. Not only are the folk customs and national characteristics prominent, but also the artistic characteristics are also very distinct. For hundreds of years, it has been deeply rooted in social life and has been accompanied by people's reproduction, inheritance and development. However, with the departure of old artists, more young people have gone out to work, and the folk dance team has shrunk year by year. There are few young people to continue Zhecheng Dawu folk dance, which is in an endangered state. Last year, the staff of the cultural system of Zhecheng County began to investigate the Zhecheng Dawu folk dance, visited a few old artists, left precious oral materials, and sorted them out in the form of text and pictures and stored them in the archives. They organized personnel to conduct research performances, collected and sorted out relevant materials, costumes, and props, and preserved the precious materials of these folk dances. In order to protect the Zhecheng Dawu folk dance, Zhecheng County has formulated a "Ten-Year Protection Plan", intending to establish a "Dawu Township Folk Dance Cultural Ecological Protection Village", and implement key protection for 60 main performance backbones among more than 180 folk dance performers of seven folk dances; adding folk dance as a teaching content to the physical education classes of Dawu Township Experimental Middle School and Beijie Village Primary School, and constantly cultivating new folk dance art talents will fundamentally solve the practical problem of the difficulty of inheriting the Zhecheng Dawu folk dance.