On the floor before the ancestral hall the line opens out to dance, a stick in each hand

Puning · Niigou, Liaoyuan

Niigou Yingge Team

Niigou lies in Liaoyuan; the village is more than seven hundred years old. It dances the medium tempo, and the double throw is its mark.

medium tempoOne of three schools

2004To Beijing for the 55th national day

2022Shanhua Award

700+ yearsVillage history

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

The line opening out on a square, rows of tower blocks behind

In the dressing room, a dancer having his face painted

The strike is made low, upwards from below; both arms lift, one leg kicks, the stride is wide. A turn of the wrist and the stick spins.

One village, several teams: men’s, women’s, and a junior team.

1 · Ground and method

medium tempo

It will not slow down and cannot speed up; the medium tempo tests the back and legs hardest.

Ground

village open ground

Niigou dances mostly in front of the ancestral hall or on open village ground. Once the medium tempo starts, the sticks work low and strike upwards, both arms lift, one leg kicks, the stride is wide.

2 · Repertoire

Five strikes, two formations

The names come from an encyclopaedia entry and Nanfang Plus.

push strikestick work

back strikestick work

closing strikestick work

rolling strikestick work

zhao strikestick work

double coin in a figure of eightformation

two dragons switching tailsformation

five stars flickeringnewly composed in the 1950s

Five further routine names exist — Guanyin seated on the lotus, single chain, double chain, hooking step, flying hawk — but no floor plans at all.

3 · Street level

Drum and stick

The medium-tempo drum sits heavy, and the sticks fall between the beats.

A man with a large red drum in the foreground, the team marching behind — One man carries a large red drum, the team following behind. Photo: Zoemonday, CC BY-SA 4.0

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

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

4 · Images

The medium-tempo ground

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

The line opening out on a square, tower blocks behind, confetti in the air — The line opens out on a square, rows of tower blocks behind.

Red vests read Niigou Yingge Team; a bearded dancer at the front waits to go on — Red vests carry the team name; at the front a bearded dancer waits to go on.

A painted dancer waiting on a red plastic chair, a face design printed on his T-shirt too — A painted dancer waits on a red plastic chair.

Niigou is strongest at the medium tempo; before going out the faces are painted in the dressing room, then the costumes go on.

5 · Close reading

Nine notes

Village, school, stick, award — each one checkable.

Village

Niigou village, Liaoyuan subdistrict, settled about 1286 (the 22nd year of the Yuan Zhiyuan era); nearly 80,000 emigrants abroad.

School

The representative team of the medium-tempo route.

Method

Sticks held low and struck upwards; both arms lift, one leg raised, wide stride; the wrist works the stick loose and it spins.

Routine

Guanyin on the lotus, single chain, double chain, hooking step, flying hawk.

Award

In 2022 “Grand Bearing of a Flourishing Age” took the 15th China Folk Literature and Art Shanhua Award.

The women’s team

In 1953 it formed the first women’s Yingge team, breaking the old rule that the art passed from men to men only.

Going out

In 2004 it went to Beijing for Guangdong to dance at the 55th national day celebrations.

rear section

At the 2026 Yingge league it staged again the rear-section “cloth horse” that had faded out more than forty years before.

Images

The ancestral-hall floor and the village-ground pictures belong to Niigou; the two street pictures are generic scenes with no team credited.

Last

Three things not yet settled

All three lack primary material.

One

How the double throw is done. It is called the most distinctive move in Puning Yingge, but how the sticks are thrown, and how many times, is not recorded.

Two

Which version was restaged. How far the 2026 “cloth horse” departs from the old one has not been compared.

Three

How many teams Puning has. Three counts coexist — 103, over 100, more than 200 — and none of them is taken.

Elsewhere · exits

Look elsewhere

Puning Yingge Nanshan Yingge Team Fumei Youth Yingge Team Teams Glossary

Sources

Sources	Type
Niigou old villageNanfang Plus2020-09-01	Media reports
Niigou Yingge danceBaidu BaikeEntry undated	Encyclopaedia entry
Puning Yingge: how does it dance out a hero’s spirit?Xinhua · Puning Local Records Office2026-07-29	Media reports
Footage from the Niigou 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