Art form gets back in the saddle

"It was filled with festivity everywhere," says Guo Yonghu, who still fondly reminisces about the grand and joyous scenes from the first local bamboo horse drama festival staged in his rural hometown Guojiagou in late July.

"It was so great to see the type of show make a comeback," says the 60-year-old, who has committed himself to the inheritance and development of bamboo horse performance that originated in Guojiagou in Shouyang county, Shanxi province, over the past decades.

His excitement is evident when he introduces the local art.

The performance is a traditional theatrical dance that uses horse-shaped props and boasts a history of around 700 years.

It integrates folk dance and opera elements and is mostly based on figures from well-known historical dramas.

Under the artists' ingenious maneuvering, the bamboo horses seemed to have a life of their own, turning their heads and thrashing their tails.