Negation Of Negation: Changyang "funeral Ceremony

The Funeral Dance is one of the typical fetes for Tujia ethnic minority in Changyang, Hubei Prov. In modern Tujia people's life, when an elder passes away, the neighbors will hasten to the deceased person's home in groups to memorize the deceased and comfort the relatives and friends in the means of funeral dance. Back to the ancient times, the Funeral Dance is a very mysterious and grand minority ritual. Now modern Tujia people have broken the shackles of class, and participated in the ritual for elder deceased, dancing in a commodious ground with the interaction of audience to memorize the deceased; acclaiming for the drummer's talented singing and dancers'tiger-like movements. The Funeral Dance reflects Tujia people's philosophy of life and death. They are open-minded, considering death as natural as the rotation of the four seasons and therefore deserving a happy ending. Plus, the participation of women becomes a big challenge towards the ancestors, and also that some people start to use the Funeral Dance to celebrate the elders'birthday broaden the development of ancient Funeral Dance.The Funeral Dance is an activity involving many participants and has been handed down through generations. Now many cultural departments have recognized the importance of protecting the Funeral Dance and the tradition itself. It's Qin Fachi, an offspring of local Tujia people, that composed the Ba-mountain Dance by inheriting and refining the Funeral Dance with his unique insight and bold innovation in the 1970s. He brings the Ba-mountain Dance to the stage of art and separates the audiences from actors as the dance turns to formal theater art. And also the dance turns up in the film,TV drama and musical .Meanwhile, people start to dance in groups on the squares in the town on the purpose of exercising. The Ba-mountain Dance has stepped into a new stage of all-around sports exercise from every family in the town to the whole country. And the diverse folk culture in Tujia minority in Chanyang has brought economic benefit as the Funeral Dance and other folk art show up in the scene spots in which the tourists experience the folk culture in the ritual theatre. This is just the modern embodiment of the original fete.Many forms of dance derived from the Funeral Dance coexist in diversity and develop in the voice of denial. This essay expatiate the development of Funeral Dance in different historic periods, for the external forces and historic reasons. No matter it is original fete, stage art, mass sports exercise or experiencing ritual theatre, the relationship between audience and actors and the activity in the stage change as it goes .This is the point in this essay through the means of self experiencing, interviewing with the art workers and the study of documents and media data. The initial goal of this essay is to explore the theatre evolvement of traditional ethnic ritual with the further study of the development and the demand of ritual theatre.