Giants
By admin on 2015-01-14

“Giants” are often seen in Yongdeng county, Gansu province, whenever there are important celebrations.

This is particularly true on Kushui Street, on the second day of the second month in the lunar calendar, which is called "dragon raising its head".

This is a time when men walk on stilts that are more than 3-4 m, a tradition that dates back to the beginning of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

This folk art has been passed on from generation to generation. Performers wear traditional costumes and makeup used in Shaanxi opera.

The men are accompanied by a team of drummers and walk in a line that can be up to 400 m, from one end of the street to the other.

Bright costumes, colorful flags and thunderous drumming creates a festive atmosphere. The performances last three days, drawing 50,000 to 60,000 people daily.

It is fun to watch but a difficult skill to master.

Ju Chongzhao, an experienced stilt walker, says the binding around the legs should not be too tight or loose, and while stepping forward the waist needs to straighten, while the eyes look forward. In the past only males were allowed to walk on stilts. Nowadays, females also join in the performance, adding new energy and vibrancy to this ancient tradition.

Usually, more than 100 stilt walkers take part in the Kushui Street event, with middle and high school students playing leading roles, while the other participants are in their 20s or early 30s. Every stilt master is trained from a young age. The youngest performer in Kushui is just 5 years old. They start with short stilts and work their way up, until they can walk on the tallest stilts when they are 16 years old.

"Beside having excellent skills, it is vital to be able to walk and perform for more than three hours with heavy costumes and stilts weighing over 10 kg," Ju says.

The stilts used in Kushui Street are longer than those used anywhere else in China.

The excellence of the walkers was honed by rivalry. According to the elders, there used to be two teams, called South Street Society and North Street Society. They competed against each other at the annual festival and as a result the stilts got longer.

There is also an interesting folk legend behind the stilts. To the east of the village is a mountain ridge called Changshan, which is like a long dragon.

Before the Ming Dynasty, this ridge and the drainage area along Zhuanglang River, was lush and green. According to legend, Liu Bowen, military advisor to Zhu Yuanzhang, who later became the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), passed the village and saw the ridge had a dragon shape. This symbolized the birth of a king, so Liu raised his sword and cut the ridge in half.

As a result the area became bleak and desolate. In order to remember this piece of history and encourage the dragon body to grow back and thereby make the area green again, the Kushui Street locals started the custom of holding a festival on "dragon raising its head" day. Thus the tradition of walking on stilts has lasted for hundreds of years.

On May 20, 2006, the stilt-walking performance was approved by the State Council as an intangible cultural heritage. In recent years, the Kushui Street stilt walking performances have been held around the nation and even abroad.