The performer of bamboo drifting on the river 霓裳青山间,一苇渡绿江
2021-10-30孙大有
孙大有
This is not a martial arts movie, but a form of intangible cultural heritage: Chinese bamboo drifting. When Yang Liu, a young girl from Guizhou Province, was seven years old, she started practicing bamboo drifting with her grandmother. After decades of steadfast practice, she was finally able to do Chinese qinggong on the water.
It is reported that the bamboo drifting Yang Liu practices is a folk stunt(特技) in northern Guizhou originated in the Chishui River basin. Ancestors from previous generations invented this method of bamboo drifting to make travel more convenient. Nowadays it has evolved into a kind of folk sporting performance. Performers need to be very skilled, which requires that their feet remain positioned along a nine-meter-long bamboo pole. It's a formidable test of one's core strength. Yang said the most difficult part of bamboo drifting was keeping balance. She fell in the water several times when she was practicing. Integrating (使成為一体) dance elements into single bamboo drifting makes it especially difficult to practice.
Yang Liu is one of the few inheritors. When she was 7 years old, she was thin and weak, so her grandmother wanted her to become strong by practicing this stunt. All the year round, regardless of awful winter and summer, she never stopped practicing. Practice makes perfect. After the boring and demanding repetition day after day, she finally felt the fun of the solo bamboo drifting performance. She not only has graceful posture, but she can also perform many extraordinarily difficult movements. She integrates her own artistic elements while carrying on the traditional techniques of bamboo drifting. She hopes that more people will appreciate and admire this intangible cultural heritage.
“I hope bamboo drifting will sail abroad so that more people in the world will like Chinese culture. I want to be a fairy woman, riding the single bamboo drifting into the world,” she said.
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