Wooden Drum
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Genes in her photos
A Chinese-American artist celebrates her roots in a pop-up photography collection, Kelly Chung Dawson reports in New York. Genes in her photos Three shows put Chinese photography in the frame Genes in her photos Hoof it to Life Hub for equine art In transit at a Chengdu train station in 1996, the photographer Colette Fu, then an English teacher traveling around China, spotted a group of Yi people wearing capes that marked their heritage. She approached them with a map, and signaled that one of them should point to their home. Fu's own mother was from the Yi ethnic group, so when the boy pointed to the Daliang Mountains, she decided to travel there. In the region's capital, by chance she met a man who shared her surname. He agreed to take her home to her mother's village, and although they barely shared the same language, she agreed to go. For 10 days they traveled to her ancestral home, where she was welcomed as though she had fallen from the sky. Her relatives sacrificed chickens, goats and finally a cow, thanking the gods that she had returned. A tree was planted in her honor. And although her camera died shortly before arriving at the village, her memories of that week remain vivid because they changed the course of her life, she recalled recently in an interview with China Daily on We Are Tiger Dragon People, a new project of pop-up photography about Chinese ethnic groups. Fu's books were on display at Brooklyn's LA Art Book Fair in New York, which ended on Feb 2. She will participate in the Asian Arts Initiative 20th Anniversary Exhibition that runs from Feb 7 to May 23 in Philadelphia. "For the first time I really felt a sense of identity and pride in being connected with my heritage," says Fu, who grew up in New Jersey and Virginia. Before traveling to China, Fu had drifted, partying aimlessly and working restaurant jobs. Her heritage was more than unimportant; for years she had refused to eat Chinese food, she recalled with a laugh. "For so many Chinese-Americans, there's a sense of being lost in feeling Chinese in America, but feeling American in China," she says. "As a child I was sensitive about being called a 'Chink' and in some ways, I ended up denying my culture. So when I was finally there in the village, even though I couldn't fully communicate in Yi, the experience completely changed me for the better." Fu eventually returned to the US for a second degree in photography, later graduating as the valedictorian of her class. In 2008, she returned to China on a Fulbright scholarship to apply her training in the construction of pop-up books to the documentation of Chinese minorities. "I want to bring an awareness of these people, because in America people assume you either speak Cantonese or Mandarin," Fu says. "Americans don't understand how wide a variety of people there is beyond Han. I didn't understand why I was different from other Chinese girls growing up - my hair was wavy, and I had big bones, but all I knew was that I didn't feel the same." Fu has designed pop-up art and other work for Vogue China, Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton and Canon Asia; her work is also archived in the Library of Congress. The books are strikingly colorful. In one scene, young women of Wa descent whip their dark hair in a ritual swinging dance, paying respect to what they believe to be the "divine" beat of a wooden drum. In another scene, a Dulong woman's tattooed face grins with rotted teeth against the backdrop of a rushing river. Numbering only 4,600 today, the Dulong people reside in the Tibet autonomous region along the border with Myanmar; their women are tattooed to render them unattractive to neighboring tribes. As of 2009, there were only 40 tattooed women left in the tribe. Fu will travel to Shanghai this year to continue her documentation of ethnic groups, this time with a focus on southwestern China, she says. She hopes to broaden her focus to include migrant workers, pollution and other topics on which she might collaborate with journalists. Although Fu has faced criticism for potentially exploiting traditional cultures, she believes she has chosen to portray them the way they would hope to be viewed. "I think they are beautiful people, and I think their festivals are fun, so I hope that's clear in the work," she says. "I'll leave the political stuff to other people, because although I understand that there's a history of exploiting 'the other', I'm also 'the other'. I'm not interested in showing the struggle of being poor or disenfranchised, because this project was always about me finding something I became proud of - my heritage."
Exploring China's ethnic diversity through pop-ups
Discovering a sense of pride and identity with a neglected heritage In transit at a Chengdu train station in 1996, the photographer Colette Fu, then an English teacher traveling around China, spotted a group of Yi minorities wearing capes that marked their heritage. She approached them with a map, and signaled that one of them should point to their home. Fu's own mother was Yi, so when the boy pointed to the Daliang Mountains, she determined to travel there. In the region's capital, by chance she met a man who shared her surname. He agreed to take her home to her mother's village, and although they barely shared the same language, she agreed to go. For 10 days they traveled to arrive at her ancestral home, where she was welcomed as though she had fallen from the sky. Her relatives sacrificed chickens, goats and finally a cow, thanking the gods that she had returned. A tree was planted in her honor. And although her camera died shortly before arriving at the village, her memories of that week remain vivid because they changed the course of her life, she recalled recently in an interview with China Daily about We are Tiger Dragon People, a new project of pop-up photography about Chinese minority groups. "For the first time I really felt a sense of identity and pride in being connected with my heritage," said Fu, who grew up in New Jersey and Virginia. Before traveling to China, Fu had drifted, partying aimlessly and working restaurant jobs. Her heritage was more than unimportant; for years she had refused to eat Chinese food, she recalled with a laugh. "For so many Chinese Americans, there's a sense of being lost in feeling Chinese in America, but feeling American in China," she said. "As a child I was sensitive about being called a 'chink' and in some ways, I ended up denying my culture. So when I was finally there in the village, even though I couldn't fully communicate in Yi, the experience completely changed me for the better." Fu eventually returned to the US for a second degree in photography, later graduating as the valedictorian of her class. In 2008, she returned to China through a Fulbright Scholarship to apply her training in the construction of pop-up books to the documentation of Chinese minorities. "I want to bring an awareness of these people, because in America people assume you either speak Cantonese or Mandarin," Fu said. "Americans don't understand how wide a variety of people there is beyond Han. I didn't understand why I was different from other Chinese girls growing up - my hair was wavy, and I had big bones, but all I knew was that I didn't feel the same." Fu has designed pop-up art and other work for Vogue China, Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton and Canon Asia; her work is also archived in the Library of Congress. The books are strikingly colorful. In one scene, young women of Wa descent whip their dark hair in a ritual swinging dance, paying respect to what they believe to be the "divine" beat of a wooden drum. In another scene, a Dulong woman's tattooed face grins with rotted teeth against the backdrop of a rushing river. Numbering only 4,600 today, the Dulong people reside along the borders of Tibet and Myanmar; their women are tattooed to render them unattractive to neighboring tribes. As of 2009, there were only 40 tattooed women left in the tribe. Fu will travel to Shanghai in the coming year to continue her documentation of minority groups, this time with a focus on southwest China, she said. She hopes to broaden her focus to include migrant workers, pollution and other topics on which she might collaborate with journalists. Although Fu has faced criticism for potentially exploiting traditional cultures, she believes she has chosen to portray them the way they would hope to be viewed. "I think they are beautiful people, and I think their festivals are fun, so I hope that's clear in the work," she said. "I'll leave the political stuff to other people, because although I understand that there's a history of exploiting 'the other', I'm also 'the other'. I'm not interested in showing the struggle of being poor or disenfranchised, because this project was always about me finding something I became proud of - my heritage." Fu's books will be on display this weekend at Brooklyn's LA Book Fair in New York. kdawson@chinadailyusa.com
Folk art of Va people in China
Singing and dancing are very important to the Va people. On festivals, the Va people, wearing their best costumes, sing and dance day and night for several days. There are many forms of Va folk dances including the drum dance, pole dance, sword dance, plume dance, lusheng dance, hand towel dance, string instrument dance, gong dance, and bamboo flute dance. The subdivisions of drum dance are wooden drum dance, tom-tom dance, elephant-foot drum dance, bronze drum dance, and bamboo drum dance. Of these, wooden drum dance best represents the characteristics of the Va ethnic minority. The Va people regard the wooden drum as a divine tool that has exceptional power and is the symbol of existence and prosperity. They believe in many gods, of whom, Muyiji is a powerful god that creates all things in the world and has the right to decide their life and death. Legend has it that, long ago, at the beginning of history, a disastrous flood devoured almost all the lives on land. It was Muyiji that saved the Va people with a wooden trough, which later enabled them to survive and develop. Therefore, in most of the traditional sacrificial rites, the Va people pay a high tribute to the wooden drum and worship Muyiji, praying for his blessings. The most common wooden drum dance is "beating wooden drum". The Va people use wood drums and cymbals as major instruments, which are blended with songs and chanting, to create the main melody with strong and harmonious rhythm full of encouragement and impulsion. Men wear red ribbons on their heads and wide pants; women, with white ribbons on their heads, wear bracelets and skirts, and their long hair swings loose and wild. The dance is grand: At dusk, a long haired female dancer stands on the wooden drum, raising hands to the sky. Two men stand at each end of the drum with drum sticks in hand; other actors are around the drum, dancing slowly to the singers' call, the drum and cymbals. It's a mixture of slow and fast beat, anger and sadness, anxiety and happiness. As the highlight comes, the dancing steps become orderly and powerful, straightforward and uninhibited, grand and magnificent, which, seeming to shake the sky and the land, fully describes the Va people's vigorous vitality and their spirit of fighting against nature. The content and the performing techniques of today's wooden drum dance have reached a higher level. It has adopted some movements of the Va women such as "swinging hair", which thus adds to the charm of Va's art. Wooden drum dance is a shining pearl in the culture of wood drum. Sculpture and Painting The sculptures and paintings of the Va people bear strong minority characteristics and high artistic levels. Ancient cliff paintings of the Va people have been discovered in Yunnan Province in recent years. The cliff paintings in Cangyuan county, which describe the hunting, dancing and working scenes of the ancient Va people with simple, straightforward and uninhibited patterns, are rare and valuable artistic treasures useful to the study of the history of the Va ethnic minority. Chinatravel, wikipedia
Knowledge Graph
Examples
1 There are numerous national festivals including the Wooden Drum Festival of Wa people, Calabash Festival of Lahu people, the Twins Festival, and the Three Kingdoms Packet Loss Carnival. Famous high-quality songs popular in thousands of families, including Vows, Dai People Sing New Songs, and Really Cannot Let you Go, were written here.
2 The Wood Drum Dance of the Miao ethnic group is also used in worship and involves a wooden drum and the lusheng, a reed-pipe.
3 The Yongkeluo clan preserves the world’s largest wooden drum.