In the picture, a girl is standing on a bamboo pole (竹竿) on the river and dancing beautifully. It’s not a scene from a movie, but a form of intangible cultural heritage ( 非物质文化遗产) — bamboo drifting (独竹漂).
Yang Liu is an inheritor (传承人) of bamboo drifting. She started to learn it from her grandmother when she was 7. As she was weak in health as a child, her grandmother wanted her to get into better shape through this sport. Yang threw herself into practicing bamboo drifting all year round, even in the winter cold and summer heat.
“It was common for me to fall into the water when I started practicing,” recalled Yang, adding that it took her three years to learn the basic skills of bamboo drifting.
In order to acquire more bamboo drifting skills, Yang had to practice countless difficult movements on a bamboo pole that was 9 m in length and 15 cm in diameter (直径), and stand all the physical pain that came with it. Through years of hard training, Yang now considers the bamboo pole as her “best friend”.
At one point, inspired by her grandmother, Yang began to combine dance with bamboo drifting. “My grandmother came up with an idea. She said that I had been practicing bamboo drifting since I was a child, so why not try to combine dance with the skill? It might be something different,” the young woman explained.
Yang’s hard work gradually paid off when she was able to perfectly perform dancing with the traditional bamboo drifting skill. “I hope that more people can know about bamboo drifting and enjoy this form of art,” said Yang.