Art form gets back in the saddle

Chen Liying has been a big fan of various traditional dramas. She says she is impressed by the presentation of the drama.

"The pair of stilts resemble horse legs, and performers look as if they are floating in the air, juggling between keeping balance and delivering the intensity of combat at close quarters," she says.

Having done so much for his beloved bamboo horse drama, Guo is not resting on his laurels. He has continued to make inroads into local schools to promote the art.

"Intangible cultural heritage is a nonrenewable resource, which contains the wishes and emotions of our ancestors, and their unique ways of thinking and aesthetic habits," he says. "That makes it a living fossil of folk art."

Therefore, he considers it necessary to tell local children about the history of the land and the unique folk art growing on it.

"Because they, and only they, are the real inheritors of the intangible culture of the bamboo horse drama," Guo says.

Peng Ke'er contributed to this story.