Serving the feast with a dance
"Tiaocai" — literally "jumping the dishes" — also goes by the name "carrying-the-course dance" and in the Yi language wuchieba. It is a ceremonial dance the Yi of Nanjian perform while bringing out banquets. Bearers step to the music, moving in characteristic Yi footwork from the kitchen to the tables, and playfully set each dish out in arranged patterns — dance, music and food on one stage, and the guests laugh before they even eat. The art made the first Yunnan provincial intangible-heritage list in 2007 and the second national list in June 2008.
Banquet-style and stage-style
Tiaocai comes in two broad forms. Banquet Tiaocai belongs to weddings, housewarmings, greeting honored guests and birthday celebrations — the rule is "eat and be merry," with festivity coming first. Stage Tiaocai splits by venue: stage performances feature roughly twenty dancers with bold, powerful, bright-voiced moves, while plaza performances range from dozens to hundreds of dancers in sweeping, unified waves.
From the Wuliang Mountains to a British palace
The custom thrives across the Yi villages of Nanjian's five towns and three townships, densest in the Yi-strongholds along the Wuliang and Ailao ranges. In 2003 the Ministry of Culture named Nanjian the "Hometown of Chinese Folk Dish-Dancing Art," and in 2006 the county trademarked the word "Tiaocai." In 2013 the Yunnan legislature passed a dedicated regulation protecting and transmitting the art — the first time such a law shielded the tradition.
Now, backed by the county culture house's databases, transmission halls and grassroots programs, Nanjian Tiaocai has leapt beyond the mountains: it has appeared on CCTV's Spring Festival Gala and performed before the British royal court, traveling from rural banquets across China to become a distinctive, celebrated card of the nation's entertainment and restaurant culture.
