Study Of The Traditional Dances Of The Liangshan Yi

The dissertation, adopting materialistic dialectics and historical materialism as guiding principles, focuses upon traditional dances of the Yi ethnic group living in Liangshan Mountain of Sichuan province, which faded away since the movement of democratic reform in 1956. Furthermore, by putting dances against historical and cultural background and investigating their relationships, the author manages to study the traditional Yi dances in this region systematically, comprehensively and thoroughly. The dissertation comprises 12 such following sections: introduction, varieties and characteristics, dances of self-appreciation, dances of amusement, holiday dances, wedding dances, mourning dances, dances of memorial ceremony, key elements in dancing forms, inside information and functions, comparative study and conclusion.The first part gives a brief review to the cause of title selection, materials and documents upon which the dissertation depends and research methods.Chapter two looks back and evaluates other's perspectives on the methods of classification and their achievements. The author discusses several popular methods of classification in the academic circles of dance and points out the limitation of these methods when applying to classify the dances of the Yi ethnic group in Liangshan Mountain. Taking into consideration the actual conditions of the traditional dances, the author combines the methods of "grade classification" and "classification in the same level" together in order to further analyze the peculiarities of the traditional dances on the aspect of variety.The next six chapters discuss the great variety of different dances, and make an inspection on the origin, development and pattern of six different types of dances in an effort to illustrate their relations with society and history.Viewing the traditional dances of the Yi ethnic group in Liangshan area as a whole in chapter nine and ten, the author dwells upon the attempt in these two chapters on analyzing the key elements of dancing forms, their implied information and their social functions. Chapter eleven makes a comparative study of dances among three branches of the Yi ethic group in Liangshan district. In addition, similar comparison has been done between these in the central area and those in the border district of Liangshan region. The traditional dances of Liang shan have also been compared with the traditional ones of other Yi ethnic groups living in other areas.Finally, the author illustrates in the last section cultural characters, the adoption and variations of the traditional dances at present time, and this shows the author's contemplation about how to preserve the traditional dances.