Butterflies Cause Storms in the World

We had heard so much of the 18 Butterflies Dance at home and abroad and watched so many of the shows that we thought we had already known everything about the folk dance that originated in Yongkang, a flourishing region in central Zhejiang. We found that we didn’t know very much about the fascinating dance.

The other day we read a story in a village newspaper about the birthplace of the 18 Butterflies. We became aware of our virtual ignorance. We visited Gaozhen Village, the birthplace of the folk dance, to know more. The village is now part of the urban Yongkang City.

The people of Yong Kang worshiped Hu Ze, an honest local official in the Northern Song Dynasty. The official later became a legendary demigod. At a time in history, a tradition gradually formed and Hu Ze was deified. Around August 13 on the lunar calendar every year, local villages organized parade teams and traveled to the Square Rock, a famous rock formation in this part of Zhejiang. This celebration was known as Square Rock Temple Fair. In 1946, villagers of Gaozhen came up with a new invention in order to outsmart all other parade teams at the fair.

By using the open and close part of a shell dance and the techniques used in making a kite, the villagers made butterfly wings with bamboo strips and silk and painted them. Eighteen girls wore the beautiful butterfly wings on their backs. Another few girls were dressed as goddesses of flowers. The parade team from Gaozhen caused a sensation in the fair in 1946.

Over years, local folk artists have improved on the original dance and costumes. Nowadays, the folk dance is a stunning folk art show that represents not only Zhejiang but China as a whole.

Gaozhen Village gave birth to the dance for a reason. Yongkang has been a place of hardware manufacturing. In the past, many local craftsmen used to make a living in the outside world. More often than not, they were away for half a year or a whole year. They needed to get protection from the demigod they worshipped.

Today, Gaozhen epitomizes the rise and economic miracle of Yongkang through reform and opening up. Yongkang has already become one of the world’s largest hardware manufacturing and sales centers. In 2008, the city’s manufacturers exported hardware goods worth 2.4 billion US dollars, hardware goods exported through other channels not included in the data. The highly urbanized village serves as the very center of urban Yongkang. It is now home to the city’s government, the city’s television studio, and the city’s most manufacturing groups’ headquarters. The village’s annual income is 1.1 billon yuan.

During our visit to Gaozhen, we watch villagers rehearse their village song entitled “Eighteen Butterflies Take Wings Here”. We sensed the strong pulsation of pride, power, and charm in the singing and in the faces of these villagers. The Party chief of the village told us: “A village of material wealth is not wealthy at all. Only when it is culturally and materially wealthy can it be really called wealthy. We are determined to inherit our cultural and historical tradition. We sing the song, we dance the dance, and we want our village economy to take wings and fly higher. We want the butterfly dance to help Yongkang take wings and fly.”