Carried Pavilions (Changle Story Pavilion)

The Changle story pavilions arose in the Sui and Tang dynasties and flourished under the Ming and Qing, a form of carried-pavilion performance kept alive in the festival customs of Changle town in Miluo, Hunan, growing out of ancient first-month rites and Lantern Festival revels. In 2008 "carried pavilions" (item X-87) entered the second national ICH list as an extension project, with the Changle story pavilions among its declared regions.

From the first day of the lunar year to the Lantern Festival the people of Chalance split into the upper-market and lower-market streets and compete with story pavilions in four forms—ground tales, platform tales, high-colour tales and stilt tales—setting children dressed as opera figures atop tall pavilions, fusing performance, painting, theatre, folklore and acrobatics in a show of daring, wonder, risk and craft.

The Changle story pavilions braid together historical legend, theatrical art and folk competition as a living survival of the Chu-region Lantern Festival, of real value for studying folk festivals, community pageantry and the theatricalisation of custom.