Renhe Gaotou Bamboo Horse

Gaotou Bamboo Horse (高头竹马), also known as "Bamboo Horse Lantern" and "Bamboo Hose Running", belongs to the category of Horse Lantern Dance. It is a major folk dance form of the Han ethnic group and is so named because the horse's head is very high. It prevails in Yongtai Village, Renhe Town, Yuhang District of Hangzhou.

The early form of the horse lantern dance is a solo horse-riding performance, called “Magic Horse” and later was developed into a performance by five horses of different colors, red, yellow, blue, white, and black. The five-man horse train consisted of two male characters, two female characters, and a clown. They normally acted the roles of some legendary characters and sang some folk tunes to the accompaniment of Sizhu musical instruments (a set of stringed musical instruments and bamboo wind instruments). When dancing, they generally took the formation of a plum blossom, trotting, jumping, slowly retreating, and crossing from left to right. It has other formations as well. 

Gaotou Bamboo Horse today innovates on the basis of inherited traditions. In the past, Gaotou Bamboo Horse was simple and wrapped in colored paper. The mane on the horses' shins was replaced with dyed cotton roses. Now, the Gaotou Bamboo Horse uses colored pleuche instead of colored paper, which makes the colors brighter, and the mane is made of red and green silk threads, which is more beautiful than before. In the past, the performance was done by eight bamboo horses, all male. The number of bamboo horses has now increased to twelve, both male and female. The accompanying musical instruments are switched from Jingqiang gong and side drum to copper gong and bass drum, which makes the performance grander. In particular, the show has revamped its once-simple dance moves and incorporated dance routines. Every gesture and movement of the performers is rendered more beautiful. Brilliantly colored and simple yet lively are the main performance art features of Gaotou Bamboo Horse.

This folk art is based on the life and expresses the farmers' good wishes for a good harvest and leadership in farming. It usually occurs on New Year's Day or other festivals, as well as at temple fairs and weddings, and other happy occasions.

In 2009, Renhe Gaotou Bamboo Horse was inscribed on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Zhejiang Province.