Wenshan City Entertainment

Wenshan city is a multi-cultural city with many ethnic minority groups, including the Zhuang, the Miao, the Yi, the Buyi, the Hui, the Yao, and the Bai. They live together harmoniously and retain their cultural legacy and life practices. Varied eating habits, ceremonies, costumes, folk legends and festivals such as the Sanyuesan Festival of the Zhuang people, the Caihuashan Festival of the Miao people, the Panwang Festival of Yao people, and the Torch Festival of the Bai people, make Wenshan a colorful prefecture.

Zhuang brocade is a splendid handicraft which originated in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Woven in beautiful designs with natural cotton warp and dyed velour weft, the brocade is excellent for making quilt covers, table-clothes, braces, aprons and handbags. Winning national fame during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911), Zhuang brocade has been steadily improved and at least 40 new designs have been developed in the past few decade.

 

Folk literature

In Wenshan City,legends, fairy tales, stories and ballads frame the folk literature of the Zhuangs who have also been reputed for their singing. Sweet songs can be heard wherever you go in the Zhuang area. Extemporaneous melodies and lyrics and clever use of metaphors, riddles and cross-examinations add charm to their songs. It is said that, in the Tang Dynasty, a Zhuang woman singer called Third Sister Liu became known not just for her beautiful singing but especially for the courageous exposure in her songs of the crudeness of local tyrants. Today her name is a household word throughout China thanks to a successful film about her made in the 1950s.

Songfests

In the old days, every Zhuang community held its regular songfests at given venues. On those occasions, young people from nearby villages would come together in their holiday best to meet each other and choose their lovers through songs. 

Common Zhuang musical instruments include suona (Chinese cornet), bronze drum, cymbal, gong, sheng (Chinese wind pipe), xiao (vertical bamboo flute), di (Chinese flute) and huqin (a stringed instrument) made of horse bones.

Zhuang dances 

Wenshan city’s Zhuang dances are characterized by distinct themes, forceful and nimble steps, jocular and humorous gestures and true-to-life emotions. The Rice-Husking Dance, Silk-Ball Dance, Shrimp-Catching Dance, Tea-Picking Dance, Shoulder-Pole Dance and Bronze-Drum Dance not only vividly depict the Zhuangs’ life and work, but also display their straightforward, unbending nature. 

 Yet what combines the Zhuangs’ folk literature, music, dance and other forms of art is the Zhuang Opera, which first originated from religious rites in the Tang Dynasty. 

 

Festival 

Yi People’s  Hualian Festival 彝族花脸节

Address: Puzhehei in Qiubie county of Wenshan.

Time  :May  2nd every year

Content: Wipe face carnival, Ritual performances by Bimo(毕摩祭祀表演),Yi People ancient song and dance proformance and all kinds of Traditional sports of ethnic minorities.

 

Name:  Tiaogong Festival 跳宫节

Address: Puzhehei in Qiubie county of Wenshan.

Time : 8th of the calender or the June of lunar calendar

Content: Ritual performances to memory of their ancestors

 

Name :Panwang Featival 盘王节

Time : Farmers’s  free time in winter 冬季农闲时

Content: Visiting relatives  and friends

Name: Dabei  Featival 打背节 
Time:3th to 15th in Lunar New Year

Content: Yong people’s festival

 

 

Name :Caihua shan 踩花山 
Time: 1st ,3rd,6th in Lunar New Year.

Content: Grant festival of Miao people.

Name; Huajie (Flower Street) Festival 花街

Time : Annually held around lunar March 3rd

Content: is one of the grandest traditional festivals of the Zhuang people living in Guangnan County. As a matter of fact, the Flower Street Festival is the “Valentine’s Day” of the Zhuangs.