04:30Beauty of the Beasts! Shanxi kicks off Chinese New Year with traditional animal-on-stilts performance
Residents of Yuci, a district of Jinzhong city in Shanxi province, celebrated the arrival of the Chinese New Year on Tuesday with its annual 'beast on stilts' performance.
The video shows performers putting their makeup on and trying out their stilts, with some seen riding the different 'animals', as musicians played traditional songs.
According to one participant, Yang Chenglin, the festival started in the reign of Yongzheng, in the Qing Dynasty, where there is a temple that offers sacrifices to the goddess of fire.
"Beast on stilts' performance has its unique characteristics. There are mainly eight immortal beasts, including four literary beasts and four martial beasts. For the martial beasts including unicorns, wolves, black raccoons and tapirs. In terms of the literary beasts, there are Qilin, sika deer, Chiwen and elephant," Chenglin explained.
During the performance, two people operate the 'beast' with wooden sticks to carry the 'rider', which requires lots of skill and synchronisation.
04:30Residents of Yuci, a district of Jinzhong city in Shanxi province, celebrated the arrival of the Chinese New Year on Tuesday with its annual 'beast on stilts' performance.
The video shows performers putting their makeup on and trying out their stilts, with some seen riding the different 'animals', as musicians played traditional songs.
According to one participant, Yang Chenglin, the festival started in the reign of Yongzheng, in the Qing Dynasty, where there is a temple that offers sacrifices to the goddess of fire.
"Beast on stilts' performance has its unique characteristics. There are mainly eight immortal beasts, including four literary beasts and four martial beasts. For the martial beasts including unicorns, wolves, black raccoons and tapirs. In terms of the literary beasts, there are Qilin, sika deer, Chiwen and elephant," Chenglin explained.
During the performance, two people operate the 'beast' with wooden sticks to carry the 'rider', which requires lots of skill and synchronisation.