Ethnic cultural carnival enlivens SW China's Guiyang

Moved by the cheerful rhythm of a song and dressed in her own ethnic costume, Chen Chuanqian, along with many others from different ethnic groups, sang and danced in Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province.

At 9:30 am on Saturday, thousands of ethnic minority people from all over Guizhou gathered and paraded in Guiyang.

Although soft rain fell from time to time, people's enthusiasm to participate was not at all dampened. Both sides of the main parade road running from Zhonghua North Road towards the fountain were swarming with people, who were cheering and shouting in excitement.

Ethnic minority people dressed in different ethnic costumes assembled on a parade square, blowing a traditional musical instrument known as a Lusheng, banging gongs and drums, singing and dancing, and creating a unique "ethnic carnival" for tens of thousands of spectators along the route followed by the parade.

Chen, aged 23, from the city of Bijie in Guizhou province, performed in the "Flower Sea Bijie" section of the carnival. Most performers in this section came from Nayong county, Hezhang county, and Weining county, and were Yi and Miao people. They demonstrated the Yi bell dance, Miao rolling beads and other forms of intangible cultural heritage.

Zhu Shengji, aged 10, participated in the Miao rolling beads performance. This is one of the Lusheng dances handed down from generation to generation by the "Little Flower Miao," a branch of the Miao ethnic group living in Nayong County and a few other places. The Miao rolling beads performance combines Lusheng playing, dance and acrobatics.