Flower Show and Yangko Dance staged in Pinggu for festival

The reporter learned that the government of Pinggu District invested about 55 million yuan annually in recent years in supporting cultural construction in order to transform Pinggu into a main cultural district. Currently, the district has a total of over 490 amateur civilian art troupes and cultural organizations of various kinds, including 21 performance groups, 226 Yangko troupes and 94 flower fair societies with the "spark" performing qualification approved by the Beijing Municipal Cultural Bureau. Drum sounds can be heard in every village, performances are organized every day and everyone can participate. The district organizes over 4,000 various cultural activities annually, involving over 300,000 performers and they draw a total audience of over 6 million. Civilians are not the only consumers of the cultural and artistic performances, but also participants and the creators of native culture and arts. This situation of cultural prosperity is called the "Pinggu Cultural Phenomenon."

The over 80 performance teams taking part in this activity, including 45 teams with over 40 members, were selected from the 226 Yangko troupes and the artistic teams from all the organizations, schools, army units and businesses. In order to optimize the performances, the performing teams all designed proper, unique and beautiful costumes and props. The entire performance was splendid, elegant and delightful.

The 123 students excellently played the traditional Chinese drum, showing the morale of residents in Pinggu District. Xiao Xiangyu, the famous Henan Opera performer who has settled in Pinggu, taught the 123 students to play the Chinese drum.

The dragon dance performance in Beidian Village, Liujiadian County, which is an integral part of Pinggu's cultural heritage, dates back more than 100 years. The performance team, comprised of 85 people, was well-trained and made the dragon head and body move up and down effortlessly, showing that Pinggu residents are as energetic as a horse and dragon.

The gong and drum performance team, comprised of 200 soldiers, gave a magnificent and loud drum performance. The flower stick performance, which was presented by 100 people from Dahuashan County, dazzled the audience. Pinggu's dragon dance performance team, which has won hundreds of Chinese and international awards, did difficult actions on the quincuncial piles, jumping up and down and trying to avoid each other. All in the audience applauded for them. The Kuaiban performance team, comprised of 100 people from Yukou County, cleverly blended Pinggu's highlights and development strategy with the performance, and presented the Kuaiban performance as they walked. Through the form of Chinese rap, people learned that Pinggu is accelerating its development.

The happy exercise team was comprised of over 100 staff members from Pinggu's governmental organizations. The team members held footballs, basketballs, badminton rackets and other exercise tools, and read the slogan "exercise everyday to make yourself healthy" in a loud voice in order to appeal to the entire society to join in the fitness rush. The performance team, comprised of 200 students from primary and middle schools in Pinggu, gave unicycle, rope skipping and roller skating performances. The slogan that "one-hour exercise every day enables you to work 50 years and live a happy life" well encapsulates the concepts behind national fitness.

To better fit in with the cultures in other regions, Pinggu District specially invited performing teams to present Hebei's Changli yangko dance, Shandong's Jiaozhou yangko dance, and Beijing's Mentougou Taiping drum, which have all been listed as integral parts of the national cultural heritage. The Changli yangko dance, which dates back to thousands of years, mainly includes three performing forms called "Niu," "Kuai" and "Chou," and won the Excellent Award during the First China Yangko Dance Festival. The unique Yaozhou yangko dance is said to twist your waist, and it won the Gold Harvest Cup Award during the First China Peasants Performance. The Jingxi Taiping drum show performed at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the evening party for the 60th anniversary of People's Republic of China.

Culture promotes harmony and development. The yangko dance fitness activity also kicked off a series of cultural feasts to be held in Pinggu in 2010. On the peach blossom platform from April to October, hundreds of grass-roots performance teams and thousands of other artists will present the public with a cultural feast.