Editing Yangge (section)

== Struggle (Reform) Yangge and the Chinese Communist Party ==
[[File:Struggle Yangge.jpg|thumb|Struggle Yangge in Beijing]]
The new struggle yangge had roots in the traditional folk rite yangge that was performed in the rural parts of Northern China prior to the Japanese invasion of 1937.<ref name="Asian Dance Traditions">"Asian Dance Traditions" International Encyclopedia of Dance, edited by Selma Jeanne Cohen and Dance Perspectives Foundation, E-reference ed., e-book, New York, Oxford UP, 2009.</ref> The folk rite was performative and was often associated with New Year’s celebrations, incorporating spirited dance, garish costumes, and loud music. The dance troupe was led by a leader dancer known as ''santou'' (umbrella head) and consisted of dancers, ranging from a few dozen to more than one hundred dancers. Simple plays were enacted during the dance, mostly about everyday life in rural China.<ref>Hung, Chang-tai. Mao's New World: Political Culture in the Early People's Republic. E-book, Ithaca, Cornell UP, 2011.</ref> The songs that accompanied the folk rite were conversations between young men and women about love or congratulatory greetings, and the swinging movements of the dances were generally sexually suggestive.<ref name="Asian Dance Traditions"/>

The struggle yangge that was popularized by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in urban settings from 1949 to 1951 was a political instrument used to communicate the socialist ideals of the CCP to the people. In fact, the dance limited artistic freedom and improvisation with specific guidelines that the dance must adhere to including: prohibition of male performers to dress as women; elimination of any flirtatious or erotic moves; forbiddened the portrayal of ghosts, deities, Buddhist monks, and Daoist priests (elements that were common in rural yangge); no vulgarity or negative portrayals of the working class in the dances, and dancers were not permitted to wear excessive makeup. The power of the struggle yangge came from the dance’s simplicity and visibility, aimed at reaching a larger and wider audience. Unlike rural yangge with its complex and vast dance patterns, struggle yangge utilized simpler dance moves such as Double Cabbage Heart (spiraling move) and Dragon Waves Its Tail (snakelike movement) to, as one yangge dancer puts it, “to express an exuberant mood and to invite as many people as possible to share in the joy”.<ref name="Asian Dance Traditions"/>

Struggle yangge’s purpose was to tell a story about the success of the CCP developments, of how the Communists came to power, about the valor and strength of the People’s Liberation Army, the undying support of the Chinese people, the righteous leadership of the CCP, and the bright socialist future of China. The story was told in three musical performances, consisting of song and dance, with the production of these performances in chronological order to achieve maximum impact. The first was ''The Great Yangge of the Celebration of Liberation'' (庆祝解放大秧歌), which told the war of liberation from the Nationalists. The second piece was ''The Great Musical of Long Live the People’s Victory'' (人民胜利万岁大歌舞), which illustrated the remembrance of the people’s victory in the revolution. The last musical was ''The Great Yangge of Building the Motherland'' (建设祖国大秧歌), which depicts the construction of a new socialist country under the leadership of the CCP.<ref name="Asian Dance Traditions"/> The production of each performance was elaborate and complex, with shows lasting four to five hours.<ref name="Asian Dance Traditions"/>