Doumen Piaose performance stands out in Foshan

The 400-year-old Qianwu Piaose Street Procession of Doumen District was a highlight among the legacies performed at the 2017 Guangdong (Foshan) Intangible Cultural Heritage Week from Nov 3 to 5.

Classical Chinese fairytale opera Tian Xian Pei (The Heavenly Match) provided the backdrop for the Qianwu show. Seven girls dressed as fairies were supported by a hidden steel bar to create the illusion of floating in the air. A boy was costumed to play the role of a mortal named Dong Yong while standing on the Segui -- a cupboard used to support the steel sticks. 

Doumen Qianwu Piao'se Street Procession [Photo by Zeng Yao / Zhuhai Daily]

Lighting, smoke, and music were finely tuned to ensure perfect presentation of their first trial in the evening, according to Zhou Yongshen, head of the Qianwu Town Cultural Center. Featuring opera, magic and acrobatics, both Piaose shows at the Foshan Ancestral Temple and Sanshui District were a success, winning admiration of a large number of viewers.

Qianwu Piaose Street Procession was designated a provincial intangible cultural heritage in 2007.

The highlights were included in the traditional cultural event -- Foshan Qiuse Parade (also known as Foshan Autumn Color) -- as part of a large local branding folk art activity.

Qiuse, symbolizing the radiant scenery of autumn, is a festival celebrating the harvest. After reaping, people used to fete to express appreciation to gods and Mother Nature, and make good wishes for the coming year, thus giving birth to the Autumn Color Festival.

Foshan Qiuse Parade includes craftwork competition and performances, during which the items are rich and colorful. There are seven styles in manifestation -- vehicle, horse, floating, land, water, lantern, and view colors.

The parade's many activities include horse riding, lifting lanterns, playing the suona horn, drama, crafts, walking on stilts, and dragon and lion dances. The 600-year-old folk festivity gives spotlight to locally nurtured artistic performances and artwork including paper-cutting, binding items, and colorful lanterns. National acknowledgement has encouraged the event to be held once a year since 2010.

Coinciding with the activity, Heritage Week was held in a larger scale to consist of provincial heritage items performances, an autumn sacrificial ceremony at Foshan Ancestral Temple, and a banquet.

Forty performances were staged on eight floats in the parade. Joining the Zhuhai team were troupes from Jiangxi, Hunan, and Fujian provinces and cities from the Guangdong-Guangxi-Guizhou high-speed railway economic belt. Germany's Ingolstadt, the sister city of Foshan, and neighboring regions and cities along high-speed railway in Guangdong and in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area also attended the Qiuse Parade.