Xiushan Flower-Lantern Performance

Xiushan huadeng, also called lantern-dancing or lantern theater, is a folk art of song, dance, and storytelling from the Tujia and Miao autonomous county of Xiushan in Chongqing, weaving together dance, drama, folk custom, acrobatics, and paper craft. Its roots reach to the Tang and Song, it flourished in the Qing, and it was formally named in the late Qing and early Republic as a key branch of southwestern lantern art.

Its core movement is the wai, a swaying step, so central that locals say there is no lantern dance without it, joined by turning and leaping figures, in solo, paired, and group forms. The performances run from the second day of the lunar new year to the fifteenth, with a full ritual sequence of lighting, viewing, and bidding the spirits farewell, lively and humorous throughout.

Blending Tujia, Miao, and Han culture, Xiushan huadeng is a treasure of the folk art of southeastern Chongqing, carrying the seasonal customs and aesthetic spirit of the area. It was inscribed on the first national intangible-heritage list in 2006.

It is most often performed at Spring Festival lantern fairs, folk holidays, and cultural-tourism events in southeastern Chongqing, a window onto the ethnic culture of the Wuling mountains.