The dancing Crane
2 min read1997 was the most important year in the life of Deng Aizhen, born in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and a pivotal year in the life of Chen Fuyan, living in a small village in Sanzao Town, Zhuhai. That year, a newly married Deng Aizhen settled down in Haicheng and saw the village’s New Year “crane dance” for the first time in her life, without knowing she would become the first female “crane dancer” and the only female inheritor of cultural hallmark of her adopted home. If these two persevering souls had never crossed paths it is highly possible that the town’s most treasured cultural art form, now recognized in the country’s gleaming, statelevel, cultural heritage “hall of fame”, would have been lost forever, resigned to the dustbin of history or, at best, the dwindling memory of isolated old men to whom the world has no time to listen.
Throughout history that dates back to Song Dynasty(960-1279), it had been an unwritten rule that the secrets of the dance, together with its crane-making craftsmanship, were to be passed exclusively to males; and rumor had it that a woman who learned the trick would be cursed and have babies with legs as lanky and frail as a crane’s.
The fateful day for Deng Aizhen, who had been eking out a living as a cleaner at the Zhuhai Airport, came in 2011, when the city was bracing for the international tourism festival to be held in Guangzhou. curious Deng, turning 40 that year, attended the qualification trials to test her luck, and caught the eye of Chen Fuyan-the “crane king “in Sanzao. The chance meeting of the two changed the course of the “Crane Dance” history, and at just the right moment.
The relay baton was finally passed to “the right person”at the very time that the tradition was teetering on the edge of cultural oblivion. The more details and secrets Deng Aizhen learned about the craft the more spellbound she became, drawn into its unique artistry. In 2013, the former airport cleaner became the proud district-level “guardian” of this unique tradition.
The story of Chen Fuyan, together with the intriguing “Crane Dance” tradition of Sanzao, was transformed into a short documentary directed by Li Weinian, who is also an avid advocate of the protection of Zhuhai’s cultural relics. In the film, the octogenarian made his cinematic debut by playing the ‘crane king.
