Zhangjiajie Tourism Resources
 2016-12-21 11:14:50   Zhangjiajie Tourism Information Website  

3.Zhangjiajie Folk Custom

Zhangjiajie Western charm Grand Theatre

Western charm Grand Theatre, is a long history of theater in the Zhangjiajie Scenic Area.It was founded in March 2001, after eight years of development, has gradually become a world famous brand of cultural tourism.It can accommodate 1080 people in the performing arts field, located in Wulingyuan Scenic Area: Show various forms of ethnic culture and folk customs of Zhangjiajie:Singing love songs and Wedding crying and The traditional Hand-waving Dance and Xiangxi ganshi and Zhangjiajie Hard Qigong and so on.

Zhangjiajie Tianmen Fox Fairy

Dear friends, have you watched a real-scene musical drama that is created in a grand valley? Do you want to visit it? I believe you will say, “Yes”. Today, I will lead you to get a full picture of such a wonderful performance -Tianmen Fox Fairy.

Known as the world’s first real-scene musical drama with the high mountains and deep valleys as the stage background, Tianmen Fox Fairy was put on at the foot of Tianmen Mountain, Zhangjiajie in September, 2009. Originated from a traditional Chinese myth and folk tale- “Love between Man and Fox”, the drama integrates the elements of folk music and modern art. As the story progresses, you will find settings everywhere from the foot of the hill to the peak, be it spotlight, stage for the chorus, background houses…everything. The visual presentation is spectacular and amazing, the music is impressive, and those dancers and singers are also charming.

Every night except harsh winter months it will be on show at the Grand Valley of Tianmen Mountain. Here you can listen to sweet singings, admire colorful lighting scene, and experience the strong folk custom of Tujia and Miao minorities. Since this open-air drama　is only performed at night, when the weather gets cold you had better bring a coat to enjoy it.

With an investment of 120 million Yuan and a cast of 530, the wonderful drama has attracted bout 150,000 travelers from home and abroad since its debut performance. Tickets are available from most travel agencies or hotels.

Zhangjiajie Local custom

Zhangjiajie is a world famous tourist city located in the northwest of Hunan province of china, its total population is 1.62 million in accordance to the latest population statistics, nearly half of the them are minorities, including it’s over Tujia, the Bai and the Miao as well as some Hui, Man, Dong and the Yao. So the local custom is quite interesting and different from Han people.The Tujia people have a long history. It is a hard-working and brave ethnic group.

Singing mountain songs is one of the Tujia people’s favorite traditional custom, including love songs, war songs and labor songs, etc. Yong boys and girls show love to each other by singing love songs.

Tujia Crying Marriage Song

Wedding crying is the most important thing in a girl’s whole life, the minority people regard wedding crying as the symbol of a girl’s wit and virtue.

The "Crying Marriage Song" is a folk song originating from Tujia people. According to their customs, bride begins to cry a month before the wedding day in different ways with diversified words, to convey attachment to their loved ones and recount Tujia women's sad fate in feudal society when they had no say in their marriage, which was typically arranged by a matchmaker and her parents. Conventionally, the bride must cry for seven days at least and a month at most before the wedding, even in conditions of exhaustion.

The "Crying Marriage Song" is a systematic jeremiad of Tujia women and a mirror of the feudal marriage system.

The song follows a structure of "united music system ". The bride sings a long passage repeatedly, and in the process, the rhythm changes with the renewal of words. The changing rhythm, together with the weeping, expresses the singer's profound anguish.

Adopting regular tune and a fixed text, the "Crying Marriage Song" features rich content, refining and plain language, impeccable rhyming and is easy to sing.

Tujia Hand-waving Dance and Xi Lan Ka Pu

The Tujia is also a versatile nationality. The traditional Hand-waving Dance and Xi Lan Ka Pu (a kind of colorful bed cover) are regarded as the best preferable part of Tujias’art.  People do Lusheng Dance as well as Bench Dance and Monkey Drum dance here.  The ethnic group has their own traditional clothes, according to local chronicles, the Tujia people - both men and women wear a short upper garment and no shoes. They cover their head with a cloth and tend to dye their clothes in a variety of colors. Formerly, theTujia minority wore handmade clothing, which was dyed blue and black. Their clothing style is characterized by the notion: same in trousers, but distinct in the upper wear almost the same trousers-a kind of skirt with colorful trim, which in the late years has been changed into a kind of pants with two or three colorful stripe adorning the trouser legs.

Zhangjiajie Spring Festival

The Spring Festival is the most important and popular festival that start from the 30th day of the 12th lunar month. And the New Year’s Eve falls on the 29th of the 12th month of the lunar year, which is one day before the last day of the year. This is quite different from the Han people.

Zhangjiajie Lantern Festival

The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th of the Fist month of Lunar year，it is one of the busiest festivals in zhangjiajie, all the people will go out and gather together on  the street in the evening on that day, cars and buses are not allowed to run on the street. It is impossible to make a call with your cell phone because of no signal caused by crowds. There are lots of performances such as Dragon Dance, Lion Dance, and local opera,etc.

Zhangjiajie torch festival

The torch festival gained the most popularity of the Bai Ethnic Group. At dusk on the 25th day of the 6th lunar month, the Bai people put many torches together and jump over them repeatedly. They pray in this way to the god of Fire to eliminate all the pests hazardous to the farmland and to chase away all evil.

Mid-Autumn Festival is also popular in this area. Like many Chinese, people of the Tujia ethnic group celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. They eat moon cake but are not very keen to appreciate the moon. An interesting activity on this occasion is for people to steal wax gourds and present them to couples who have no children, implying fertility and the delivery of babies to them.

Zhangjiajie Yang Opera

Boasting a long history, Zhangjiajie Yang Opera has a distinguished style and prides in variedness of local custom. The Opera is based on the local dialect in terms of stage language characterized by clear alteration between Ping (level tones) and Ze (oblique tones) with "R" rhymes.

Zhangjiajie Yang Opera is also exclusive in music, especially, the usage of Cucurbit flute hanging by gold threads make it different from other Yang Operas. Tujia People has integrated local chant into the opera, making the music the most extraordinary, original and penetrating among Chinese operas.

The way of singing in the opera entwines the chest voice and falsetto. The chest voice is used in the lyric part and dragged parts adopt falsetto with high octave, unique among Chinese operas.

The integration of chest voice and falsetto presents the rough and straightforward characteristic of Tujia People, in addition to projecting the spectacular style of singing in Zhangjiajie Yang Opera.

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