After "Dynamic Yunnan", Yang Liping, a Bai nationality dancer known for her "Peacock Princess" seemed to have vanished from the general public for several years. Then all of a sudden, she emerged with another ecological Tibetan dance and song called "Tibetan Riddle" in 2007 summer.

Darker and thinner this time, she looks completely different from her traditional image of white peacock for her stage role now is a Tibetan goddess.

Ever since the first public show in August, 2007,in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan province, "Tibetan Riddle" has striked not only the media but also the public being hailed as another masterpiece of ecological dance and song after "Dynamic Yunnan". Wherever it goes, "Tibetan Riddle" has always won repeated and long-continued bursts of applause whether in international cities like Shanghai and Beijing, or in other provincial capitals such as Wuhan, Nanjing and Hangzhou.

As a byproduct, "Tibetan Riddle" had aroused a fever nationwide on Tibetan culture. Many audiences expressed the same feeling, "I want to become one of the Tibetans myself after watching 'Tibetan Riddle'."

It is no doubt that Tibet will see floods of home visitors in the following days.

Tibet Complex

"To be honest, after the success of 'Dynamic Yunnan', there were a huge amount of people from all over China come to invite me to create a similar ecological song and dance program to brand their hometowns, which make me feel rather dull because they can not touch me. However, when Rongzhongerjia, a Tibetan singer, approached me with his dreaming Tibetan dance and song, I was caught immediately. It is his persistence and love for authentic Tibetan culture reminds me of my deep-rooted Tibet Complex. Everything is ready. Why not try it?"

That's what Yang Liping said when asked why she chose to cooperate with nobody Rongzhongjiaer with such a Tibetan culture theme.

As a matter of fact, Yunnan's Dali, where Yang was born, isn't far from Tibet and there is a Deqen Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture inside Yuannan, too. According to Yang Liping, she had been shaken by those Tibetan pilgrims who spent two or three years kowtowing their way to Lhasa from their hometowns when she went to Tibet to collect materials for her "Dynamic Yunnan" several years ago.

" I almost cried whenever I saw those Tibetans crawling along the way. Their firm worship to the Buddha share many similarities with the pursuit for art. Hence, I made up my mind that I will move these touching pictures onto the stage someday if I have a chance."

Thus, it is no surprise to see Rongzhongerjia, a boy from a poor Tibetan rural family, once a country school Chinese teacher in Sichuan, then a wandering singer in Guangzhou, now stations in Jiuzaigou fancying his 'kingdom', who never gives up his dream for Tibetan dance and song and devotes his whole life to promote Tibetan culture, win Yang's heart

Unique Tibetan dance and song

Yang admits that perhaps she is connected with Tibetan culture in nature just like she is born to dance. When producing "Dynamic Yunnan", Yang had been in and out Tibet for many times and nearly all places with Tibetans had seen Yang's footmarks. Like a hungry man embracing bread, Yang grabbed as many dance and song as possible and saved as priceless treasures.

The unique Qinghai-Tibet Plateau creates unique Tibetan dance and song, some are definitely belong to the top level in the world, some can even be called stunts to be exactly. As a famous saying goes, people can speak can sing and people can walk can dance.

"I felt shamed for I could not compete with those farmers after I watched their six-string performances." Since Tibetan dance and song comes from the daily labor, it is an easy job for Tibetans for they just perform what they do everyday like planting, harvesting cattle grazing, carrying water and chopping wood.

Yang Liping had edited a piece of Tibetan dance in "Dynamic Yunnan", yet limited by the time, she could not express the true nature of the authentic Tibetan culture. "It's the 'Tibetan Riddle' that enables me a chance to fully display those wonderful Tibetan dance and song I know."

What's more, religion has played a key role in forming of Tibetan dance and song. Different parts of Tibet under different religion influences have different kinds of dance and song. Yet, all the dance and song have to be chained by a story in order to show on the stage. Hence, an old Tibetan woman is created to connect all these artistic elements together.

'I am just a convenor'

In recent years, ecological dance and song has become a sort of fashion after "Yunnan Dynamic". Yang Liping is inevitably labeled as someone developing ecological dance and song, yet she never agrees with this.

" I am just a convenor at most. Take 'Tibetan Riddle' for an example, it is merely a collection and rearrangement of original Tibetan dances, songs, music equipments, clothing and customs. Nothing new and nothing re-created in it. They remain completely what they are in real life. That's what ecological dance and song means."

As for all those ecological dancers scattered nationwide, Yang Liping gives very high remarks and shows great respects to them. Since they do not dance for a living, they take it for a kind of spiritual comforts inspired by the real need of souls, which is totally different from those professional dancers, which are something very natural, very pure and very clean. Therefore, she is willing to serve as a collector or convenor to gather them together to present their own spirits and values on the stage, which is a powerful strength.

Yang has emphasized for many times that it is the thinking towards something unknown like clouds, the moon, the sun, the life even human being themselves within those ecological dancers that affects her most. In Yang's eyes, ecological dance contains the profound reasoning on birth and death, present and future as well as some mysteries inside mankind, which are most lost in modern society.

Considering the different reactions from professional dancing sectors such as "how far will ecological dance and song go?" Yang refuses to comment. Everyone has rights to speak out his opinions, but for Yang, it is OK to be herself and do a good job.


The commercial side of 'Tibetan Riddle'

"Our performance is for urban citizens instead of rural people since those Tibetan farmers and herdsmen do this kind of dance everyday themselves. It is from their real life that 'Tibetan Riddle' originated," said Yang Liping two hours before her third performance in the Fifth Beijing International Dance Festival on Nov.16, 2007, when asked whether the sky-high ticket price of "Tibetan Riddle" is too much above the average level.

Upset by this "unfriendly" question, this proud Peacock Princess cried out:" We dancers also have to earn bread just like you reporters make livings by writing articles. It is the same."

However, Yang's anger is understandable given the fact that she has to consider the survival of her 60-plus colleagues, most of them are from rural areas with no experience at dance.

Though growing up in a single-parent rural family of four kids from a remote village in southwest China's Yunnan province, Yang Liping seems not to be shadowed by her miserable childhood full of poverty and prejudice at all. With a happy nature and gifted talents, she revels in being the queen in her dancing world. For this woman still beautiful at her fifties, Yang would rather choose to die if not being allowed to persure her dream, yet, the dream-hunting has price, too.　

Quitting from China Central Ethnic Dance Troup in early 1990s, Yang Liping has to relate herself more closely with commerce in order to realize her goal although she is backed by her wealthy husband (a Taiwanese American). That's why "Yang Liping has changed from a dancer to a business woman in the eyes of most of her friends."



After all, everyone has his own Shangri-La. The final success always belongs to those who know clearly what they want, who has the heaven-born abilities in the field and who can never be stopped by any barrels on the way. Whatever others talk, Yang Liping, an evergreen tree on the stage, has won herself an important place in the history of the development of China's ethnic dance.

The more ethnic, the more global. In the near future, maybe Yang Liping will shake the international market with her ecological dance and song.

From: China Tibet Information Center
By: Dora Zheng