[Deng Qiyao] Discipline, Translation and Cultural System of Body Expression

Abstract: The article starts with practical cases from field visits and analyzes the misunderstandings of "training" of intangible cultural heritage inheritors, and raises issues such as "who will discipline" and the relationship between originality and creativity.

At the same time, in response to the popular practice of developing ethnic cultural resources into tourism products, it is emphasized that the translation, misappropriation and re-creation of traditional culture must be clearly distinguished, what is the source, what is the flow, what is the teacher, what is the student, who should be, and who should learn from.

and other principled issues.

It further points out that physical expressions such as folk music and dance, like other artistic expressions, must have their own mother tongue and establish their own cultural system in order to have true cultural confidence.

Keywords: dance; discipline; translation; cultural system Author profile: Deng Qiyao 1952-), male, distinguished professor of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, director of the Visual Culture Research Center, main research fields: visual anthropology, folk and religious art heritage.

Dance is a body language art that conveys information and expresses emotions through physical movements, expressions, and spatial scheduling.

In the non-literal era and non-literal ethnic groups, physical movements, including dance, were once a non-literal "writing" form of cultural expression.

This form of physical expression belongs to one of the cultural symbols studied in visual anthropology, postures or semiotics.

With the maturity of language ability and the invention of written symbols, human cognitive models, thinking symbols and expression methods have evolved.

The pre-comprehensive thinking of chaos and unity has been differentiated into thinking types such as image thinking, abstract thinking, intuitive thinking, and logical thinking.

The complex functions of non-written expression behaviors have also been differentiated, and the subject has gradually been internalized into religion such as "picking flowers and smiling","drinking","not standing up words, conveying your heart", etc.) and folk customs, or externalized and formalized into etiquette, art and aesthetics.

With the strong expression of language and writing, as well as the transformation of social consciousness, carvings, paintings, and dances with body expression that continue to use visual expression in religious rituals and folk activities have gradually been separated from the core of religion, folk customs, etc., and classified as art.

Therefore, people are accustomed to discussing many issues about sculpture, painting, and dance within the framework of art disciplines.

However, in many cases, especially those involving the so-called "prehistory" of the non-literate era, non-literate ethnic groups and intangible cultural heritage, physical expressions are still not fully interpreted by pure art.

How to understand the original meaning and "context" of such body expressions is related to the accuracy and credibility of interpretation, as well as the quality of protection and inheritance.

There will be many ultra-"artistic" issues in the discussion of them, or "cultural" issues that require attention.

1.

Who will discipline: Misunderstandings in the "training" of intangible cultural heritage inheritors

Since Confucius "tame" oral folk songs in written form, people who think they stand at the center of culture or at the commanding heights of civilization have become accustomed to "processing" non-self "," bottom-level "or non-written culture." The transformation of "improving sublimation" has domesticated "native" or "wild" works into standardized products recognized by them.

Among them, the so-called "collection and collation","art training" and "cultural improvement" are some common terms for folk literature and art.

Foucault's discussion of physical discipline and ideological discipline singled out this issue clearly from the level of power control.

In recent years, research on the body and its discipline has had a lot of discussions on women's bodies, body consumption, cosmetic surgery and decorations such as foot binding, bras, high heels, etc.

This article does not intend to cover these aspects, but just wants to share my views on the phenomenon of "discipline" of intangible cultural heritage such as folk dance that is often seen in field inspections.

From 2002 to 2010, the author followed Professor Zhou Kaimo, a music anthropologist at Xinghai Conservatory of Music, many times to conduct field visits to some Yao villages in Liannan Yao Autonomous County, Guangdong Province, and assisted her in taking video shots of field visits for Lingnan music and dance research.

During this period, the author was invited by the local government and the Organizing Committee of the Lianzhou International Photography Festival to serve as the chief planner of the opening ceremony of the "China Yao Panwang Festival" held in Lianzhou City, Guangdong Province in 2006 and the host of the Yao cultural seminar, as well as a judge or guest of several Lianzhou International Photography Festivals, and participated in related activities organized by the village, county and municipal tourism and cultural departments with Yao songs and dances as cultural elements.

Taking this opportunity, the author saw the physical expression of the Changgu Dance, a landmark intangible cultural heritage project of the Lingnan Yao people (Paiyao), in different "contexts".

1) Long Drum Dance as a Tourism Program

The national policy on the protection of intangible cultural heritage and successful cases of the development of cultural industries such as cultural tourism have encouraged many villages, towns and cities with lagging economies but certain cultural resources to "build" local or ethnic cultural brands and try to develop the tertiary industry.

Liannan Yao Autonomous County is located in the mountainous area of northern Guangdong and has a weak agricultural economic foundation, but the traditional Yao culture is very unique.

Therefore, at the initiative of the government, through investment promotion, an ancient Yao village in Nangang was completely packaged and transformed into a scenic spot with "Millennium Yao Village" as a tourist advertisement.

Similar tourism projects have also been developed in some nearby Yao villages.

For example, the Yao customs tourism in Youling Village was contracted by individuals at that time and villagers participated, becoming a sideline in the village.

As long as there are tourists, the contractor organizes villagers to perform at any time and content.

In order to facilitate the collection, the contractor also invested in building a closed dam to perform rehearsed programs.

In these scenic spots, Yao customs are the main selling point, providing tourists with some fee-for-fee Yao songs and dances, amusement and folk activities.

Among them, offering sacrifices to the Pan King, singing a song hall, and long drum dancing are reserved programs.

The author has participated in several such activities, and the performance content is similar, with different scales depending on the level of the organizer.

Moreover, in order to have better performance effects, these performances have without exception been directed and trained by foreign literary and artistic workers.

From the perspective of style, it is basically the routine of the local song and dance troupe: the actors are all dressed up and hold long drums.

Men and women mix and mix into various formations.

Sometimes they are arranged, sometimes they dance in pairs, or form a circle, or interspersed with each other.

At the end of the song, all the costumes appear, some raise their hands, some hold their heads high, and some hold the long drums high.

According to the height of the formation, they make lunge, T-step and ballet standing postures.

During rehearsal, there was even a choreographer wearing black tights and long straight legs who was teaching two young Yao men and women singing love songs to do a stylized dance move to express shyness: the head was lowered, the body was twisted, one hand slightly covered the face, the other hand swung back and rotated with the body, and the foot trailing behind was straightened like a ballet standing posture.

Fortunately, the Yao villagers didn't know how to do that and did it very awkwardly, so the director gave up.

In a larger-scale performance, organizers arranged for about 30 gentlemen to perform a sacrificial performance "Shigong Dance".

Wearing red robes and red baotou heads, the teachers gathered in front of the newly built Panwang Temple, holding bronze bells, divine staff, ring-headed short daggers, and jade cups.

Following the director's order, the masters shook bells and danced daggers one after another, performing the ceremonial ceremony of worshiping ancestors and honoring gods and chasing out ghosts.

In order to facilitate tourists to take photos, the director asked the gentlemen to turn around and perform in front of the tourists.

Amid the sound of shutters, the gentlemen turned their backs to the gods and ancestors of the Panwang Temple.

This is obviously a violation of folk traditions.

An old Yao man at the scene shed tears and murmured to himself: "I'm messing around! If you do this, the grandfather will blame you!"

2) Long drum dance in the family ancestor worship ceremony

The folk long drum dance is a part of the family's traditional festivals and has long been recorded in the long volume of their images "History Books" and "Meishan Painting".

Once every few years, Liannan Paiyao ceremonies are held mainly based on the family name.

The "Shuagetang" and the "Wangge Tang" ceremonies are held.

Long drum dances are required in both ceremonies.

Why do you need to dance the long drum dance? It is said that when King Pan was hunting and chasing a goat, he accidentally fell to his death and his body hung on a tree.

Later generations cut down the tree where his body was hanging and made it into a drum body.

They killed the goat and used its Pimeng drum to beat the long drum in memory of King Pan.

Figure 1 The director of the city's cultural performance group is guiding the villagers.

In Liannan Yao Autonomous County, Guangdong Province, in 2003, Deng Qiyao

pictures of the

Figure 2 According to the director's arrangement, men and women arranged flowers to form a circle and danced long drum dancing.

Liannan Yao Autonomous County, Guangdong Province, 2003, Photo by Deng Qiyao

We participated in two ceremonies called "Wangge Hall", one in Niulandong Village and the other in Nilou Village.

The ritual activities are similar to the "Shuagetang", with the main content of "guarding" and are all spontaneously organized by the Yao family surnamed Tang.

According to them, they have not performed such a ritual for more than 40 years since the 1950s, resulting in many people not undergoing "rehab" when they are old.

The direct consequence of this lack is that without a Dharma name, one cannot be recognized by one's ancestors.

After death, one cannot ascend to the throne of god, one cannot be qualified to sit in a spiritual sedan chair, and one cannot return to one's hometown, and one becomes a lonely ghost.

Today, these ceremonies are recognized as "cultural heritage" and have become cultural performances publicly organized by the government.

Naturally, the Yao villagers are actively enthusiastic and quickly restored the national tradition.

The first few days of "Wangge Hall" are preparatory ceremonies, including fasting and completing "entry" procedures in advance for those who will marry in.

On the first day of the ceremony, we went to the ancestral cemetery in the mountains to welcome the ancestors and held the ceremony of "inviting the public to enter the altar"; on the second day, we chanted scriptures and danced the long drum dance to "cross Jiuzhou"; on the next few days, we would break the fast, congratulate relatives and friends, eat and drink, and my uncle would take them to "cross Jiuzhou" every day.

Those who did not have an uncle would ask the husband to lead them.

The long drum dance was a must; relatives and friends would go to the "cross Jiuzhou" site and put red on the people who had" taken their vows".

At the end of the ceremony, participants collected the crowns, costumes and red drapes with the Buddhist names written on them, and buried them together when they died, so that their ancestors could "recognize" them.

Comparing the long drum dance as a tourism program and the long drum dance in the family ancestral ceremony, we can see that there are obvious differences between the two: in terms of cultural content, the long drum dance as a tourism program has quietly shifted its purpose of tracing the origin of ancestral worship, and the function of folk beliefs has been diluted, ritual activities have been dismembered, and only the performance content has been extracted and recreated into new works to please tourists.

The long drum dance in the family ancestral worship ceremony originated from a collective image expressed through symbolic physical behavior during the "Shuagetang" ceremony where they sacrificed their ancestral ancestor, King Pan.

When ceremonies such as "Crossing Jiuzhou" were held, it tells the story of the ethnic history of the descendants of King Pan following the footsteps of their ancestors, singing gongs and drums to open the way, and moving around.

In terms of "artistic" form, most of the long drum dances, as a tourism program, have been "polished" and "improved" by professional literary and artistic groups, strengthening the "aesthetic feeling" of the dance; the design of the formation adds many movements such as rising and appearing to the sinking of traditional movements, all of which have obvious traces of song and dance troupe style; the performance time is arbitrarily controlled, the performance space is arbitrarily regulated, and the ritual behavior becomes artistic behavior, and the style is gorgeous and exciting.

As the long drum dance in the family ancestral ceremony, it is basically in its original state, and the ceremony time and ceremony space are strictly regulated.

The dance posture is generally lowered, with more knees bending, squatting, and turning.

All movements and sounds are subject to the procedures of the scientific instrument, and the style is solemn and solemn.

Figure 3 "Wangge Hall" spontaneously organized by the Yao family name Fang: a long drum dance of "crossing Jiuzhou".

Liannan Yao Autonomous County, Guangdong Province, 2004, photo by Deng Qiyao

These two expressions of the Yao people's "Shuagetang" or "Wanggetang" long drum dance present two different value orientations.

Originally, there is nothing wrong with two or even multiple expressions in a work, and there is room for development or re-creation of dances from folk life.

Prototypes and derivative works have different values, so it is better to keep their strengths.

Unfortunately, in real life, people are still accustomed to treating prototypes as blanks, and believe that only those with improved processing can be refined.

Artists will go to "collect styles", visit folk art masters, experience life, collect materials, and then process and organize the "materials" derived from life to make them "higher than life." Not only that, they are now even keen on training "teachers" and using the second-hand theoretical third-rate skills they have learned outside to discipline and "improve" the "artistic" level of folk dancers.

We have seen that many folk singers and dancers with distinctive personalities and unique styles have lost their original advantages after this training and have become homogeneous wholesale products for toddlers in Han Dynasty.

What is even more worrying is that this conscious training and unconscious influence of media programs have made the younger generation of intangible cultural heritage inheritors agree with such "improvement" and self-transformation.

Not long ago, we met the son of a late Yao intangible cultural heritage inheritor in Liannan.

He proudly introduced to us how he transformed the traditional culture of the Yao people in order to attract tourists and how he mixed it into the dull "old" songs and dances.

Rock, street dance and other elements popular in the market.

2.

Native and creative

The author does not oppose the translation, misappropriation and re-creation of traditional culture, but what needs to be emphasized is that the two must be clearly distinguished, what is the source and what is the flow; what is the teacher and what is the student; and who should learn from whom.

The following are two examples related to dance, which may help us understand the relationship between originality and creativity.

1)"You are the teachers!"

Around 2002, the author was invited by Yang Liping to participate in the creation of the large-scale original ecological song and dance collection "Yunnan Image" hosted by her, and served as a folk consultant and writer.

The inspiration and cultural resources of this program are inseparable from Yunnan, where we have lived for many years; the direct influence cannot but mention the "National Culture Training Hall" of the famous composer Mr.

Tian Feng.

In 1994, when Mr.

Tian Feng founded the "National Culture Training Center", I was entrusted by the sponsor, Professor Zhou Wenzhong, director of the US-China Art Exchange Center, to participate in the initial preparation.

Mr.

Tian Feng's approach is to go to different ethnic minority villages, select some inheritors of folk culture, and gather them in one place on the outskirts of the city to teach ethnic culture in a closed manner.

He calls this the "off-site teaching model." He standardized teaching with "original flavor, seeking truth and prohibiting change", believing that the most valuable thing about ethnic minority culture is the original ecological tradition, and the teaching hall should retain its state before the 1950s.

But in fact, the biggest dilemma faced by the protection and transfer of cultural heritage from other places is the "original ecology".

Not to mention those young people who are full of longing for urban and modern life, even the elderly cannot adapt to this kind of teaching that is divorced from local life.

An old priest once asked to leave the teaching hall.

Tian Feng was very sad and asked the old priest,"Is it because I treat you badly?" The old priest replied,"No, you are too good to me." Tian Feng asked: "Is that because the salary is low?" The old priest replied,"This salary is much more than what I earned in my hometown." Tian Feng asked: "Then why did you leave?" The old priest replied,"If I leave my hometown, my gods will no longer come." Mr.

Tian Feng is an artist, and what he values is the form of art); as a cultural inheritor, he cares about the cultural spirit of music and dance.

Based on the academic standpoint of anthropology, we understand the concerns of the old priest and emphasize "local teaching" and should be autonomous by cultural holders.

Since the concept of teaching national culture was different from that of Mr.

Tian, the author quit this work after the establishment of the teaching center, just to cooperate as much as he could when he needed it.

Yang Liping intervened more in the later period and became the deputy director of the teaching hall.

After Mr.

Tian Feng's death, folk artists scattered.

Some of those who remain in the city participate in tourist performances, and some are included in their artistic creation and cultural protection projects by artists such as dancer Yang Liping and documentary director Liu Xiaojin.

The author has also discussed with Yang Liping and others about branding the large-scale song and dance collection "Yunnan Image" as "original" and believes that it is not academic rigorous.The marketing director explained that this is a marketing strategy in program promotion.

Although the author reserves academic objections, since it is a commercial artistic creation, I will not argue.

Looking at the choreographer's ideas and cast, it does retain a lot of "original" flavor: about 70% of the choices of song and dance come from prototypes, with little change; almost 70% of the actors come from villagers of all ethnic groups in rural areas.

At the rehearsal ground where welding was burning, chief choreographer Yang Liping shouted to the ethnic minority villagers who admired her and were waiting for her to "guide":"You are the teachers.

You can dance whatever you want!" I have seen these songs and dances in the training hall.

They are folk classics carefully selected by Mr.

Tian Feng in the countryside.

The movements are completely different from the stage performances he is accustomed to and are very wild.

Coupled with Yang Liping's famous dance works such as "Water" and "Spirit of Sparrow", the organic synthesis of the two classics has created the success of "Yunnan Image".

"You are the teachers!" It is based on this understanding and respect for native culture that "Yunnan Image" has become another masterpiece of China song and dance.

2) The core of the problem: not whether it is "new", but how to "old"

In 2006, the Lianzhou City Government and the Lianzhou International Photography Festival Organizing Committee, which took the lead to host the 8th "China Panwang Festival", entrusted the author to plan large-scale song and dance performances for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Panwang Festival.

I checked the videos of previous opening ceremonies and found that there was a common feature, which was that the Yao representative teams from various provinces that performed had undergone excessive training and decoration by the local song and dance troupe, and their costumes and movements had been modified and "improved" too much.

The school training of the directors of the song and dance troupe was based on the routines that everyone knows.

Therefore, the costumes and dance movements of the Yao performers from different regions and branches were almost the same: plastic foam sandwich head, covered with woven lace and sequins, the dance movements of the song and dance troupe, and the adaptation and synthesis of dubbing...

As a result, several performances were similar, and even the costumes and movements were surprisingly similar.

How to innovate has become a topic of concern to everyone.

The author believes that in fact, the core of the problem is not whether it is "new", but how to be "conservative".

As long as we have seen the original Yao costumes and Yao songs and dances, we will find that the creativity of traditional culture far exceeds our imagination.

The clothing styles, production craftsmanship, music and dance passed down from generation to generation are cultural and artistic masterpieces that have been tested over thousands of years.

We didn't realize the value and brilliance of the originality of national traditional culture, so we always thought about how to create something new.

As for the so-called "new", due to its limited vision, its lack of new knowledge at the forefront of disciplines and its international level, it is inevitable to create something that was once popular for a while but is now paradoxical.

To this end, the author put forward several requirements to the entrusting party: all representatives participating in the opening ceremony were composed of local Yao villagers, the performance costumes should be local traditional costumes of the participants, the performance content should be in the local Yao style, and no professional literature and art group guidance.

At the same time, I led the preparatory team to conduct field inspections in northern Guangdong, Hunan, Guangxi, Yunnan and other places where the Yao people live, and searched for cultural resources such as original folk songs and dances, folk crafts, and local specialties based on the Yao culture.

After investigation, the author regards paying attention to the original form of national culture, based on maintaining and reconstructing the rich individuality of traditional culture, and respecting the cultural ecology and the sustainable development of human regional culture as the planning concept of the 8th "China Panwang Festival."

The author believes that "Panwang" is a banner that unites the self-identity of the Yao ethnic group.

The beliefs, customs, art, etc.

symbolized by "Panwang" are the core of the Yao traditional culture, and the "Panwang Festival" is a concentrated expression of all this.

The opening and closing ceremonies of the "Panwang Festival" will reinterpret all this in an artistic way.

In order to truly reflect the dominant position, subjective consciousness and thematic vision of the "cultural holder", this opening and closing ceremony rejected false "adaptations" by non-ethnic people and "adaptations" of song and dance troupes.

The culture and art formed by the Yao people over thousands of years are classics, and there is no need to replace them with second-and third-rate fakes! This is not only a kind of cultural confidence of the Yao people themselves, but also consistent with the contemporary trend of building a major cultural province, promoting the culture of the Chinese nation, and protecting the cultural diversity of the world.

Through this tradition-based performance, it aims to prove to the world the profound originality and enlightenment of national traditional culture.

It can mutate with the changes of history, but it will not die or disappear.

It will "return to its original point" in some form and continue to radiate new vitality in the "modern era".

Our purpose is to spread national culture and display the original ecological dance, music and other visual arts of the Yao people in a concentrated manner, integrating physical vocabulary, plastic arts, and stage performances, supplemented by comprehensive interpretation such as modern installations, lighting, and sound effects.

means to showcase the world's most precious cultural heritage and artistic wonders.

Its root is the Yao nationality, its god is the national traditional culture with the symbol of Panwang, and its form is the Yao song and dance art.

The key word for the basic concept of "Native" in the large-scale square performance is "original"-native, original, prototype, and cultural restoration.

"Original" points out the theme and constitutes the basic aesthetic image of the program.

At the same time, due to the joint display of this "Panwang Festival" and the 2nd Lianzhou International Photography Festival, the theme of the opening ceremony of the Panwang Festival,"Native", and the theme of the photography festival,"Back to Origin", complement and interact, which are beneficial to each other.

First, the so-called "native" refers to "original ecological" works that are native to the local area and have been passed down for thousands of years; second, the so-called "original" refers to folk originality, which emphasizes and respects the dominant position of the "cultural holder" and the "copyright" of the main creation, except for any "adaptation" of the scale of the performance based on a song and dance troupe or the original enlargement of certain cultural relics such as the long scroll of the ancestral pictures of the Yao nationality); third, the so-called "prototype" refers to the "original model" in layman terms.

Performers and models need to be "original models", mainly composed of villagers, are not influenced by the current popular song and dance model, and do not make up; costumes need to be "original", which is the actual local ethnic costumes, without additional "processing"; musical instruments and other props are also original, and must be local products without any substitutes; sound needs to be "original sound", that is, the sound of the venue will be based on the original sound, including background music, sound produced by performances by local representative teams, etc.; The language needs to be "original words", that is, Yao is the main language, with Mandarin and English translation.

Leaders 'speeches are concise and concise, and less clichés; program hosts put an end to adjectives and only explain informative content.

It is best for Yao compatriots from all over the country to speak it themselves, in their own dialect, and the hosts only play a connecting role; Fourth, the so-called "cultural restoration" is not only reflected in the square performance, but also extends and runs through the entire process of this activity, including the preliminary preparation stage, the performance scene, and afterwards.

The early preparation stage is equivalent to a discovery and certification of the cultural heritage of the Yao nation and requires the intervention of multidisciplinary experts.

Their job is to go deep into the people,"explore the family's wealth" with the villagers, and select local representative works to participate in the opening ceremony.

On the surface, this is just a single "selection" of folk art, but it will play a good role in protecting national cultural heritage and enhancing the nation's self-confidence and cultural consciousness in its own culture.

At the performance site, the grand scenes and group atmosphere will inspire people's sense of national pride and feel the pulse of the times; after the event, if it can promote the protection and healthy development of national culture in some aspects, it will have a positive impact on local cultural construction and even the sustainable development of the cultural industry.

In order to embody this idea, this opening and closing ceremonies need to firmly grasp one principle in terms of overall structure, dance, music, clothing, sound, visual installations, lighting design, etc.: to combine the most original cultural spirit with the most classic folk art, based on original classic folk songs and dances from the local area, and use original classic dances, music and other visual works in national style throughout the audience.

Organic combination with modern audio-visual expression, modern communication, etc., we need to use the power of Lianzhou International Photography Festival) to form a new structural work that has both traditional beauty and modern power, striving to bring special audio-visual shock to people, embody the comprehensiveness of art in a large way and lay the foundation for organic integration into the operation of the cultural industry.

This activity is not only a census of the Yao intangible cultural heritage with the participation of a large number of people, but also a preliminary development project of the local cultural industry.

The rewards it brings may be multi-faceted.

For example, the development of certain songs and dances, folk crafts, unique skills, unique skills, and games may promote the improvement of tourism projects; special cooking skills and the production and processing of local specialties also play a certain role in enriching the content of the local catering industry.

As the traditional culture of the Yao people has been impacted by years of ideology and economic waves, it has been difficult for some provinces and regions to find well-preserved Yao costumes and songs and dances.

Therefore, our plan has actually only been implemented half of it.

Even so, when those Yao villagers dressed in unique styles of earthen cloth costumes, strange ornaments, and dancing in a "earthen" dance, they still caused a sensation in the audience.

So much so that the next flag-receiving agency said: "We are under too much pressure if you do this!"

3.

The mother tongue of physical expression: the issue of cultural system

The ideas about the above ideas actually come from our practice and research in Yunnan.

Since 1993, we have begun to cooperate with the U.S.

-China Art Exchange Center of Colombia University in the United States for more than ten years on the "Yunnan Project" project.

The person in charge of the US project is Professor Zhou Wenzhong, National Academician of the Arts and famous composer.

As a Chinese artist, he was the first person to promote cultural and artistic exchanges between China and the United States after the Cultural Revolution.

His greatest wish was to let the world know the value of China's diverse traditional culture.

Yunnan, with its diversity of ethnic cultures, was valued by him.

Mr.

Zhou emphasized that China culture is very different from Western culture and each has its own cultural system.

China's affairs should be decided by the China themselves.

Foreigners only provide their experience and lessons for reference.

He brought a large number of world-class scholars and artists to communicate with us, but never interfered in the research of Chinese scholars.

Mr.

Zhou asked me to be in charge of a "field study group" composed of young and middle-aged scholars across disciplines and units.

Our basic work is anthropological field visits, insisting on recognizing the diversity of national cultures on cultural sites; the research theme is "self-transmission of national cultures and protection without leaving the local area", which is different from Mr.

Tian Feng's "off-site protection model"."Different, we explore each other from two directions.

"Self-inheritance" emphasizes the dominant position of cultural holders;"adhering to local inheritance" adheres to different inheritance models based on local inheritance and local conditions;"protection" was later changed to "maintenance") focuses on the coordinated development of national culture, ecological environment and economy.

relationship.

With the joint promotion of Chinese and foreign scholars and artists, the "Yunnan Project" has been carried out brilliantly.

Some universities and scientific research institutions also want to participate in cooperation.

One year, Mr.

Zhou led a team to Yunnan for exchanges.

An art school heard that many world-class scholars and artists had arrived, and hoped that we would arrange for us to visit their school.

After obtaining approval, they organized the best teachers and students in the school and spent a lot of money to schedule a special performance in preparation for communicating with foreign scholars and artists.

After the program was confirmed, Professor Zhou Kaimo, an expert in field research on group music and dance art, felt that this kind of program adapted from bel canto, ballet or modern dance, even if some "national elements" are added, is still a translation and imitation from the other party's cultural system.

Things do not have the conditions for "dialogue" in front of international scholars and artists at the top of this system, so it is recommended to arrange local and more original programs.

Unfortunately, the leaders couldn't listen and said that this was our highest level.

How could those vulgar things be elegant?

As a result, you can imagine that although the host was very enthusiastic and thoughtful and the performance was vigorous, those straight-minded artists did not even give a ceremonial applause.

Fortunately, Professor Zhou Kaimo from the field expedition group had a plan.

She invited some Hani farmers to sing a multi-part folk song for disappointed friends in her research institute.

These farmers stood and squatted.

They didn't have much stage appearance and started to cry while singing.

At the end of the song, the guests were amazed and said that this was music we had never heard before! This is China's own thing!

We know that in many cases, school art education and its "modern" understanding by ordinary people is actually an art education and performance system imported from the West or even from Soviet Russia.

After several translations, transfers, screenings or transplants, what you can come into contact with is already second-and third-and second-rate things.

Using these things to guide local culture and art is not only estranged, but also seems ridiculous.

International scholars and artists don't come all the way to see their copycat versions.

Those who are well-informed need to see different expressions and hear "music they have never heard before." They expressed great interest in this art that grows directly in the soil, believing that "this is China's own thing." This statement reflects an important concept: a diverse world has different cultural systems and different cultural values.

If a culture wants to stand in the forest of world civilizations, it must respect its own mother tongue and have unique cultural classics before it can be qualified for equal dialogue.

The most important thing about art is originality.

No matter how good the translation is, it is still second-hand goods.

In the 1980s, we were enthusiastic about the influx of foreign theories and art forms, but when the original author came, you even used a copy that you had rotated several times to learn the tongue, and people would laugh.

Without your own things, there is no foundation for "dialogue".

The so-called "one's own things" are expressions based on one's own cultural system.

The difference between the two performance examples given above lies in that one is imitation within the formal framework of others, and the other is originality based on one's own cultural system.

Speaking back to music and dance, the Western classical classics are Bel Canto, ballet, etc., and modern masterpieces include modern dance, rock, street dance, etc., with a mature musical system and body language composition.

The cultural connotation and artistic expression form of China's national dance have a set of cultural system and expression language in terms of functions, dance steps, expressions, body movements, spatial scheduling, etc.

This "language" is our own cultural "mother tongue".

In fact, even traditional Western art that has become classics is drawing on cultural nutrition beyond the Western "mainstream".

African music and dance, Indian and Australia indigenous art are all important sources of the birth of modern Western art.

Mr.

Zhou Wenzhong and the artists from all over the world he brought with him know the main branches of Western art like the back of his hand, but regret the world's lack of understanding of Asian, especially China's culture and art.

The "Yunnan Project" promoted by Mr.

Zhou Wenzhong and the projects he has carried out in Beijing, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces all aim to promote such exchanges.

After we arrived in Guangdong, my husband also visited Guangzhou, Hong Kong and other places many times to talk with us about how to extend Yunnan's experience to the Pearl River Delta region.

The investigation and research and museum construction in Lingnan music, religious art, etc.

that we have been engaged in the past 20 years are based on this commitment.

Through long-term face-to-face exchanges and cooperation, we have carried out some work in field visits, promoting different teaching models according to local conditions, research on ethnic culture, the entry of folk art into the teaching system of colleges and universities, the commendation of folk artists, and the coordinated development of ethnic culture, ecological environment and economy.

We have gradually reached a consensus: to open up an international perspective in order to understand the location and characteristics of our own culture; to persist in learning traditions and field research, the purpose of which is to discover and recognize the essence of our own culture from history and life reality; through different disciplines, concrete and practical professional work from different perspectives boils down to how to build our cultural system.These concepts and practices have influenced local political planning to a certain extent.

For example, the Yunnan Province government proposed three major strategies in the late 1990s-building a major ethnic and cultural province, a strong green and ecological province, and a major channel for Southeast Asia.

Among them, the "Master Plan for Building a Major Ethnic and Cultural Province" was drafted by us.

After this plan was reviewed and approved by the Provincial People's Congress, it was implemented through legislation.

Now, Guangdong Province has also put forward the strategic goal of building a strong cultural province.

The country has vigorously promoted China's excellent traditional culture and promoted the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage.

Although the goal is still far away, the start is gratifying.

As long as there is more constructive rather than destructive work, every brick we provide will add a higher level to the China cultural system that stands in the forest of the world.

(This article was published in the Journal of Beijing Dance Academy, No.

4,2020.

The annotations are omitted.

See the original issue for details)