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Old Art, New Practitioners

Beijing's southern area best keeps the "Old Beijing" traditions, for example, Dazhalan is still a business district and Liulichang still attracts numerous shoppers searching for antiques or, perhaps, some of the “five-treasures” found on a calligrapher’s desk. Tianqiao Cultural Square can be dated back to nearly a century ago, when it was the core of Beijing's folk arts. The square aims to illustrate these arts, most of which have fallen into disuse, but zhongfan, one of the most popular arts, still has more than 100 practitioners today.

Zhongfan is a category of fan, which is a bamboo pole with a long flag. Fan are classified into three categories, based on their lengths: long, middle or short. Zhongfan is the middle-sized or generally-nine-metre-long fan and the folk art titled zhongfan refers to the skill of throwing the zhongfan into the sky and carrying it on the head, shoulders, arms, back, knees and other places a performer can bear.

Originating as an instrument of the emperors' guard of honour during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618–907), zhongfan became a Beijing-stylised folk entertainment of the Qing Dynasty court (1644–1911). In the early years of the Republic of China (1911–1949), zhongfan had two significant practitioners who developed and disseminated this folk art: Wang Xiaobian and Bao Shanlin. Wang popularized the art from a royal entertainment into a folk practice and Wang's student Bao developed the art from a solo performance into a group activity. In addition, Bao was also a wrestler and had lots of students. So almost all the practitioners of zhongfan are Bao's students of a second-, third- or fourth-generation and all can wrestle to some extent.

Beijing This Month interviewee Fu Wengang is of the second generation. He learned the art from his father Fu Shunlu and Fu Shunlu inherited it from Bao.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Bao and Fu Shunlu were often invited to perform at the People's Congress Hall and Zhongnanhai for top national leaders such as Premier Zhou Enlai and former President Liu Shaoqi.

Fu Wengang was inspired by his father and developed a fondness for zhongfan, which explained why he mastered the art’s difficult skills so well. There are nearly 100 specific zhongfan skills divided into seven series, that is, by the head, shoulders, elbows, hands, crotches, knees and feet. Each type of skill has a beautiful title. Zhongfan is also regarded as a branch of folk acrobatics.

Fu Wengang also has tens of students now. He carefully teaches these students and is striving for zhongfan's official recognition as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage.

If you want to know more or are interested in folk arts, please write to lastword@btmbeijing.com.