The team coming straight down the street, painted faces and sticks, a banner pole raised at the front, crowds on both sides

Puning · Nanshan, west of Liusha

Nanshan Yingge Team

Nanshan is a mountain village west of Liusha. The representative team of the fast route, it has produced a ninth-generation inheritor.

fast tempoOne of three schools

1953To Beijing for a national showcase

380-plusfirst year in schools

2025Osaka Expo

drumstickface paintingformationfront sectionrear sectionslow tempomedium tempofast tempogong-and-drum band

An elder painting a boy’s face

A painted dancer holding a child in team kit

Three face each other at night, green and pink costumes in front

Nanshan’s sticks are short: 37 cm long, 3 cm across. Fast without confusion, still within movement, quick strike and quick recovery.

The team splits into senior and junior. Every dancer learns every position — if one is missing, someone steps in at once.

1 · The team

One team in two

Learn every position, and a missing man is covered at once.

A junior member with his face painted, purple robe and yellow jacket, a stick in his hand

Into the schools

Junior team

Tried at Nanshan Primary School in 2017. Children from the village and from outside it, boys and girls alike, may sign up; 380-odd in the first year. The picture shows a junior member having his face painted.

2 · Method and repertoire

vertical strike

The stick is 37 cm long and 3 cm across.

vertical strikeHow Nanshan dances

two dancers strikingone variation

four dancers strikingone variation

Shi Qianthe snake leads the way

Two dragons to seaformations

snail coilformations

striking the four gatesformations

Washing the street · New Year callsroutines, each with a meaning

“Washing the street” means crossing the river to break the enemy; “New Year calls” means swearing an alliance — per a Puning local records office article.

3 · Street level

One team, one street

Officials and villagers, faces and drums.

A painted dancer beside a steward with a work pass — A painted dancer walking beside a steward with a work pass. Photo: Zoemonday, CC BY-SA 4.0

Two dancers with drums at the waist, beating as they walk. Photo: Zoemonday, CC BY-SA 4.0

Marching in the street: painted faces, sticks, small drums. Photo: H2v5o68z, CC0

The three street photographs here come from Wikimedia Commons; no team is credited and they are not Nanshan’s own.

4 · Images

The length of one street

All three come from the Nanshan team’s own account.

A street parade; the team passes in front of the crowd.

The team crosses the middle of the street in backlight.

The crowd thick behind the yellow barrier, a dancer leaping inside it — Behind the yellow barrier the crowd stands thick; inside it a dancer leaps.

On the day they go out, yellow barriers go up on both sides and people watch from behind them.

5 · Close reading

Eight notes

People, years, methods — each one checkable.

Inheritors

Chen Laifa, born 1957, joined Nanshan Yingge at 18, has coached since 1990, is a national-level representative inheritor and was named a 2024 “ICH Person of the Year”.

Earlier

In 1953 Nanshan Yingge went to Beijing for Guangdong at the first national folk music and dance showcase; the lead stick was Chen Ruipeng.

Changing the formation

At the 1992 “Nankai Cup” in Tianjin he turned the closed circle to face the audience. The older dancers refused at first and he won them over one by one.

Into the schools

Tried at Nanshan Primary School in 2017. Children from the village and from outside it, boys and girls alike, may sign up; 380-odd in the first year.

Base

Opened in 2024; training and transmission now happen here.

fast tempo

Quick strike, quick recovery; speed is what wins. The stick is 37 cm by 3 cm — the size itself is this school’s craft.

Civil and martial branches

Another account divides the fast route again into a “civil” and a “martial” Nanshan branch: the civil branch does not all carry sticks and takes a small drum in one hand in the later part; the martial branch has more formation plans and mixes in duelling. Whether it is the same troupe as Nanshan in Puning, the material does not say.

Images

The boy being painted and the three at night belong to Nanshan; the three street pictures are generic scenes with no team credited.

Last

Three things not yet settled

All three lack primary material.

One

The civil and martial branches. The names appear in a Chaoyang account and their relation to Nanshan in Puning is not explained.

Two

How many dancers. The size of the senior and junior teams has not been published.

Three

Village and team. “The Nanshan village troupe” and “the Nanshan Yingge transmission base” are used interchangeably in two sources; whether they are one body or two is not made clear.

Elsewhere · exits

Look elsewhere

Puning Yingge Fumei Youth Yingge Team Niigou Yingge Team How it is danced Teams

Sources

Sources	Type
Fifty years of carrying the art, stick in handPeople’s Daily · profile of Chen Laifa2026-03-27	Media reports
Dance a hero, be a heroPeople’s Daily (reprint)2025-10-10	Media reports
Improving within the “fast” rhythm, holding on in a “new” eraYangcheng Evening News2024-08-23	Media reports
One Yingge tune shows the martial bearingChina Tax News (reprinted by the Guangdong Tax Service)2025-01-20	Media reports
Puning Yingge: how does it dance out a hero’s spirit?Xinhua · Puning Local Records Office2026-07-29	Media reports
Footage from the Nanshan Yingge Team’s own account Team-run accountsUsed October 2026 under team permission; not credited on site	Image permission
Yingge images (Wikimedia Commons)Wikimedia Commons; photographers credited in captionsRetrieved 2026-10	Openly licensed images

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Last revised: 25 October 2026