What are the main types of Li folk dances?

Li folk dances can be broadly categorized into three types: ancestral dances, life dances and production dances.

The ancestor dances include the ghost-catching dance, the ghost-expelling dance, the soul-recruiting dance, the yearly dance, the peace dance, and the bowl-playing dance. The life dances include the firewood dance (i.e., "jumping on bamboo poles"), the gong dance, the maids' dance, the money bell double knife dance, and the money string collar dance; and the production dances include the rice pounding dance, etc. The "Ghost Repellent Dance" and the "Soul Inviting Dance" are the most popular dances in the country.

The "Chai Dance" is known in Li as the "Turning Shibu", and the "Jumping on Bamboo Poles" is known in Li as the "Jun Twin" and the "Karo". When jumping, people in the sunbathing field or hillside on the ground, parallel to the two calf-thick quadrangle wood (wood trusses) or logs, on which a number of wrist-thick logs on the horizontal frame, firewood relative to each of the hands of each holding a log at the end, according to the same beat will be the logs with the quadrangle wood, logs with the logs and the logs knocked against each other, which is called "firewood".

The "Blessing Dance," also known as the "Blessing Dance," is popular in the Tongshi and Maoyang areas of Hainan Province. The dance is performed on the ox days in March, July and October of the summer calendar every year. According to legend, the ancestors of the Li people believe that all things in the world are in the existence of "good" and "bad" points. The day of the Ox is auspicious. March dance, can attract cattle "fortune", so that cattle continue to reproduce; July dance, can attract "rice soul", so that the seedlings grow strong, a good harvest; October dance, can attract people "fortune", so that members of large and small peace. The dance is performed in October, which attracts "blessings" from all people, makes members of all sizes safe, and enables infertile women to give birth to sons and daughters after marriage.

The rice-pounding dance, in daily life, the pounders are also the dancers. Take four people pounding rice as an example: the two people who stand opposite each other to pound rice are standing with their right legs in a bow-step and pounding motion; the other pair is pounding rice with their feet flat and their legs and knees curved and straight at times. When one of the pairs pounds rice into the wooden mortar, the other pair raises the pounding rod and hits the edge of the mortar; some use the rod to pound once or twice into the wooden mortar, and when they raise the rod, they hit the edge of the mortar once or several times; some hit the mortar at the mortar meal.