Local Traditions and Customs - Miyun Tourism, Beijing China

Miyun Butterfly Assembly

"Butterfly Assembly" is a form of folk dance performances with the butterfly as its image. As it usually performs with the walking team, it is also regarded as a group. It has ever been widely circulated in Miyun like Xiejia Mountain, Kangge village, Jianyan, Gubeikouhexi, Bajia village etc. and has been deeply welcomed by the local people.

According to the legend, "Butterfly Assembly" originated in the early Yuan Dynasty. As is proved in the known materials, it has been spread for more than 200 years in Miyun. Miyun "Butterfly Assembly ", unlike other forms of performances with butterfly as the image elsewhere in the country, adopts the way of superimposing adult and children on the shoulder, which expands the room for the performance and adds the appreciative value to the performance. Its basic form is: choosing a young and strong adult as the bottom actor, selecting three, five, seven, or twelve preschool boys aged from five to nine disguised as butterflies. At last, the bottom actor shoulders butterfly actors performing different sorts of actions of mimicking the dancing butterflies and children’s frolicking with butterflies.

The basic elements of "Butterfly Assembly" include shape, costumes, props, action four parts: the children actors dressed as butterflies perform on the shoulder of the bottom actor; there are four kinds of costumes: costumes of the female butterflies, male butterflies, the bottom and the replacement actors, and the band; props are fans, bouquets or fake butterflies; actions include four parts: ways of holding the props, the basic paces, the basic moves, as well as the skillful moves.

"Butterfly Assembly", with the interaction of adults (the bottom actors) and children (Butterflies) as the main performances, and with the regional folklore, folk beliefs and traditional floral clubs as a rest, integrates dance, acrobatics, music, costumes and so on many art components, while using certain skills and rich formation changes at the same time, which has a unique artistic charm.

"Butterfly Assembly" is a folk art form, unique in Beijing, and original in Miyun with higher Miyun regional historical and cultural value, aesthetic value and emotional value.

"Butterfly Assembly", due to the social, historical, and its own reasons, faces a survival crisis. Council of Culture in Miyun County is organizing forces for emergency treatment, protection, and has drawn up a five-year conservation plan.

Wuyin Drum

In a small remote village called Wumudi in Miyun County in Beijing, there is a house built on a high ground during the late period of Qing Dynasty and the early period of Ming Dynasty. Here, "Wuyin Drum", the only folk art retained in Beijing is being performed.
Standing in the middle is the performer (who sings and tells stories) called Li Maosheng, he is striking the drum beside him with a drum stick in his right hand from time to time. The two Yuanyang plates in his left hand give forth a sharp and pleasant sound with the opening of his fingers. He describes vividly the characters of the story with a generous, tragic, soft with strength, and cold with hotness tone. Around Lee's two sides are four elderly accompanists. The old man playing the Sihu is called Qi Dianming, the one playing the sanxian is named Jia Yunming, the one striking the musical instrument is called Qi Dianzhang, and the one playing the Waqin is called Chen zhenquan. Without any command, their accompaniment is as smooth as water. These five veteran artists are the fourth generation of successors of "Wuyin Drum" that Beijing has retained exclusively.
In the early years, in the countryside of Xinglong, Chengde counties, during the spring festival, people began to pitch "light sheds", and invited some artists to sing and tell stories. In order to play the "Wuyin drum" there, in the first day of the first month of each lunar new year, Li Maosheng’s father, Li Jinyi and Chen Zhenquan 's father Chen Chaowen took dry food and water and walked more than 200li to arrange the performance around the villages of Xinglong, Chengde, and Lanping in Hebei province. When the performances of the villages within the distance of 10li were well arranged, the two would quickly embark on the journey home. The second time they came, they five had been "heavily armed" for performance. The old people recalled in the rural area of 60li where story singing and telling was going on, there were more than 20 “light sheds" set up. Although there were many "light sheds", “Danxian” was the one way of story singing and telling. And only the "light sheds" from Wumudi performed the rap of "Wuyin drum". Their brilliant and unique performance was very famous in the local place.

"Wuyin Drum" now exists in only one place of Wumudi in Miyun County, and this precious folk art attracts much attention. It is said that "Wuyin Drum" appeared in Anci County (now in Langfang City) of Hebei Province in Daoguang period of Qing Dynasty. One branch of "Wuyin Drum" entered into Beijing and became a stagecraft for the public to appreciate. It was developed from Anci "Wuyin Drum" into "Single-Qin Drum", and afterward developed into the "Beijing-Qin Book." Another branch was spread from Anci to the village of Wumudi, and was preserved by the old artists of Wumoudi as the folk art to amuse the farmers themselves in their free time. It has absorbed the tunes of other drums like Feng tune, Leting tune, Meihua tune, tragic tune and so on, thus producing the basis of the original ecological tune of drums.
The musical instrument of “Wuyin Drum" is ancient and unique. "Waqin" is the most peculiar kind of musical instrument in the accompaniment of "Wuyin drum", which was, however, not found in the accompaniment of any other drum tune in the literature. The Waqin used by Chen zhenquan is passed down by the grandfather. Because of the restoration, it has lost the original tone. "Daqin" is another relic musical instrument in the accompaniment of "Wuyin Drum". According to the inspection of Mr. Qian Feng, a cultural relic collector, the Qin, made by the handicraft art workshop of Qing Dynasty, has at least a history of about 150 years. In addition, Sanxian and Guban of "Wuyin Drum" in Wumoudi also have a history of over 100 years. "Wuyin Drum" is composed of five species of musical instruments, with one performer and four accompanists. The performer is the core, and Sanxian is the standard musical instrument of accompaniment. "Wuyin Drum" can produce five kinds of Qupai(tones). They are Feng tune, Siping tune, Erxing board, Lvzi board, and Mankoumeihua. These five tunes can convey many emotions like happiness, anger, sadness, joy etc. When the performers sing and tell stories, they should pay attention to clear articulation. One person can sing multiple roles, and play a variety of characters.

Nowadays "Wuyin Drum" has rapidly flown from small villages to the theaters. This ancient folk art is carried forward, well received, and much awarded. In CCTV's "Big World of Village" program, they got the "Award for Star of Talent", and in “3.15 General Assembly of publicity” organized by Miyun business department last year, they got "Best Performance Award". Now, in the Caijiawa Village Committee of Jugezhuang town, the pennants, trophies ...of the performers of "Wuyin Drum” are fully arrayed.