Longde County Gaotai
During the pavilion-lifting activity, several children dress up as ancient opera characters, and according to the plot, they form wonderful shapes, which are fixed on the iron pillars and brackets of the square pavilion, and carried by people. The traditional shapes of the pavilion-lifting are mostly taken from the plays "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai", "The Fairy Couple", "The Legend of the White Snake", "Journey to the West", "Zhaojun Going to the Frontier", "The Blue Bridge Meeting", "Yellow Crane Tower", "Fishing and Killing the Family", etc. The height of the shape is about 3 to 5 meters, and the pavilions range from 3 to 5 floors. Generally, there is 1 person on each floor, and there are also 4 people on the bottom floor, 5 to 6 people on the middle floor, and 1 person on the top floor. When the pavilion-lifting parade is carried, 4 pavilions are generally used, and sometimes up to 6 or even 8 pavilions are used. Each pavilion is carried forward by 4 or 8 people. The pavilion-lifting integrates painting, opera, colored paper-cutting, paper-sculpture and other arts. It has beautiful shapes and spectacular pictures. It is loved by the general public and has been popular among the people for a long time. With the acceleration of modernization, the activity of lifting pavilions has gradually declined, and the situation of no successors in the production skills of lifting pavilions has appeared in rural areas. The relevant rescue and protection work is imminent. Gaotai in Longde County is a form of community fire evolved from the activities of worshiping gods. Performances are held regularly on the ninth day of the first lunar month every year. Gaotai horse community fire is popular in almost all towns and villages such as Wenbao, Fengtai, Shanhe, and Shatang in Longde County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The folk culture of Longde County has a long history, and there are many types and varieties of community fire. Gaotai horse community fire, lion, stilts, push carts, drive donkeys, flower boats, yangko teams, bamboo horses, floats, waist drum teams, and Xiren, etc., contain a variety of artistic contents such as performance, modeling, language, painting, and hand-made, and have become a living fossil of folk art in Liupanshan District. With the development of the times, the production of Gaotai in Longde County has become more and more exquisite and delicate, paying more attention to the portrayal of character and the display of content and plot, and has also made great progress in decoration, skills and height. The designer used the principles of mechanics to install ball bearings and gears on the platform, and developed lifting and rotating functions, and then used high-tech materials for decoration, so that the platform performance reached a higher artistic level. Longde County Gaotai is a precious traditional art passed down from generation to generation by the people of Longde, and has a high value in folklore and folk art research. With the rapid development of modernization, Longde County Gaotai has been increasingly neglected and its development space has been shrinking. At present, many old artists are old and there is a lack of successors. Longde County Gaotai is on the verge of extinction and urgently needs protection. (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.) (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.)