The Monkey Drum Dance

A roadside performance of the Baiku Yao monkey drum dance, a subgroup of the Yao ethnic group in southwest China.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89QMxT4Wap8

Monkey drum dance is a traditional percussion performance using a double-headed barrel drum, bronze drums, and bamboo tubes. It's traditionally performed for funeral ceremonies and ancestors' rituals, guiding souls to their final destination. Since the early 2000s, it's also performed in secular settings like festivals and tourist events.

The monkey drum dance is a folk dance originating from a legend of monkeys rescuing the Baiku Yao ancestors during their migration to Libo. The dance commemorates their journey, incorporating monkey movements like scratching and expressing cleverness and liveliness, and is performed by descendants of the original settlers.

The Yao ethnic group, a 2.6 million-strong group in China, speaks various Hmong-Mien languages and primarily inhabits mountainous regions. They call themselves Mien, Mian, or Lu Mien. In 2007, their monkey drum dance was included in the Guizhou Province Province-Level Intangible Cultural Heritage List and in 2008, inscribed in the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of China by China's Ministry of Culture.