Yangge (Haiyang Great Yangge)

Haiyang great yangge circulates around Yantai's Haiyang city, a folk art form that fuses song, dance and theatre. Records such as the Zhao family genealogy of Zhaojia Village in Haiyang trace its roots back to the Ming dynasty, and it has endured unbroken, spreading through more than a dozen Haiyang townships and beyond. In 2006 yangge (Haiyang great yangge) was entered by the State Council into the first national ICH list under traditional dance.

Haiyang yangge fields large troupes with a rich cast of roles centred on the "doctor," the "flower drum" and the "emerald flower"; the dancing is bold and earthy yet vividly comic, often thrilling audiences with massed formations and the leaping, tumbling "big frame" moves, driven by percussion and suona horns in a fervent, driving rhythm.

One of the three great yangge traditions of Shandong, Haiyang great yangge carries the farming and fishing folklore of the Jiaodong coast, has won the "Mountain Flower Award," the highest prize in Chinese folk art, and was performed at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, making it a key window onto Jiaodong folk dance and festival culture.

Haiyang great yangge is most often performed during the Spring Festival, temple fairs and festivals of Haiyang city, with related ICH displays in Yantai.