Anshun Dixi (Ground Opera)

Anshun dixi is current around Anshun in Guizhou, an ancient folk drama kept alive by the Tunpu descendants of Ming and Qing garrisons, rooted in Nuo plays and rites brought into Guizhou by Jiangnan troops, and hailed as a "living fossil of Chinese drama." It entered the first national ICH list in 2006, item Ⅳ-90.

Performers bind their heads in dark cloth and war-skirts, wear carved wooden masks on the forehead and carry spears and halberds, singing and dancing in response to one another in seven- and ten-syllable verse, to a single gong and drum with one leading voice and the chorus joining in; the plays tell of loyalty and war from the Three Kingdoms, the Investiture of the Gods and the Yang family generals.

Anshun dixi carries the historical memory of the Ming garrisons and an archaic form of Han folk drama, holding irreplaceable academic value for the study of Chinese opera origins, Nuo culture and Ming-era migration.

Dixi is often performed in Tunpu villages such as Tianlong and the old town of Jiuzhou, with transmission sites also found in central Anshun.