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Sparks spring out between foreigners and Chinese flower drum

2017/9/4 15:11:27   source:Sdchina.com

Nine foreigners from four countries, at the invitation of Sdchina.com, went to Longju Town of Dongying, east China’s Shandong Province recently to learn a local traditional art: short-ear flower drum, or huagu.

42-year-old Zhang Xiufang, the 3rd generation of heritance of the short-ear flower drum, started to study the flower drum when she was 12 and has taught this folk art for over 20 years.

“The ear tied on the drum stick is made up of some special threads to pray for a prosperous year,” said Zhang Xiufang. Zhang studied the flower drum while seeking a livelihood when her family migrated into the Northeast in her childhood.

Over the past decades, Zhang has not only spared no efforts to carry forward the flower drum but added some new elements to it. “Typically, the flower drum makes a sound with the drum stick, but the short-ear flower drumis played with the ear on the drum stick,” said Zhang Xiufang, “In this way, the range of motion when we beat the drum is much wider to make the dance more graceful.”

The foreigners were deeply touched by Zhang’s story. Nacer from Algeria said his daughter, the same age as thedrummers of huagu, couldalso playa drum—the Algerian tambourine. “I want to teach her the short-ear flower drum and tell her something about Chinese drum and dance.”

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