Photo: Zzz108Chaoyang · Meihua, Jinpu
Meihua Yingge
Meihua is in Jinpu subdistrict. One village, four teams, a stick method of its own; and a drummer who has played for more than thirty years is still on the ground.
Meihua is in Jinpu subdistrict, Chaoyang. The village has four teams — Shangyuan Temple, Hongyixing, Yishunxing and Longwei Temple — and when the gods and Mazu go out, each turns out by lineage branch.
Only what the footage shows and what the teams say of themselves. The list entry, the tempo categories and the rules of stick work are in What it is and How it is danced and are not repeated here.
Before the door, under the awning, the strike
Photo: Zzz108Before the door
Two striking
Stone columns, red couplets, lanterns under the beam; two dancers leap and strike, red and green crossing.
Photo: Zzz108Under the awning
a shed packed to the edge
An awning goes up on the square and the shed is packed to its edge. The drum is at the rear, the sticks at the front, and the sound rides over the voices.
Photo: Zzz108The strike
the whole ground falls together
The whole ground strikes together, white and black crossing, every foot on the same point. A beat slow and it comes apart; a beat fast and it comes apart too.
Photo: Zzz108The full ground
ring inside ring
The ground covered with people, ring inside ring. The front rank crouches, the back stands, sticks raised like a stand of trees.
The drum he has been beating for thirty years
The title of the team’s own video says: this drummer has played for more than thirty years, and the blade is not blunt — he can still go thirty minutes without a break. He is not named and his age is not given, so this section calls him only “the old drummer”. The drum sits at the rear and governs the whole ground: the front section’s rises and falls, the changes of formation, the close, all follow this one drum.
Thirty-six, eleven, seven
These numbers come from the titles of the team’s own videos, not from an official rule; the official project page gives only a headcount and a general description of stick work — see the sources in How it is danced. Two further names belong here: the set of the early 1980s was called “firewood-head Yingge”, and Yishunxing is also called “Qicheng”. The names exist; the floor plans do not.
One face, two streets
The last two are the street at Chaoyang’s Shuangzhong Cultural Festival and carry no team name: there were many teams on the ground and they were not checked one by one.
Six notes
Meihua is in Jinpu subdistrict, Chaoyang; the four teams — Shangyuan Temple, Hongyixing, Yishunxing, Longwei Temple — are named in the titles of the team’s own videos.
Thirty-six, eleven and seven come from video titles; the official project page does not give them, so they cannot be cited as a rule.
The title says “more than thirty years” and “thirty minutes without a break”. He is not named and his age is not recorded.
On one banner in the footage here it reads “the wuzi year, eighth month”, that is August 2008. The rest carry no year.
The video from the early 1980s was then called the Meixi Yingge team; the original tape has no known public home.
All ten images here are used with the permission of the photographer, Zzz108; the frames top out at 1024×576 and are shown at native size.
Three things not yet settled
The old drummer’s name and age. The footage says only “more than thirty years” and gives no name.
Which temple each of the four teams belongs to. The titles match only Shangyuan Temple and Hongyixing; the other two are not stated.
What divides the thirty-six from the eleven. Whether by team or by occasion, the material does not say.
Look elsewhere
Sources
| Sources | Type |
|---|---|
| Meihua Yingge footage (ten frames)Douyin, Zzz108 (account Zzhu108) · display permitted by the photographer by direct messagePermission given 2026-10-25; the form of credit awaits the photographer’s instruction | Licensed footage |
| Yingge (Chaoyang Yingge)China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network / Digital Museum of China ICHNo publication date on the item page; announced in the first batch, 2006 | National list entry |
| Chaoyang district local standard, “Intangible cultural heritage: Chaoyang Yingge”DB 4405/T 315—2025, Shantou Administration for Market Regulationissued 2025-02-24, in force the next day | Local standard |
| Reply from the Chaoyang district government to a CPPCC proposalChaoyang District People’s Government, Shantou2025-05-14 (https certificate error; this link runs on http) | Government website release |
Home › Intangible heritage › Yingge dance › Meihua Yingge
Last revised: 25 October 2026