Shanxi Jiangzhou Drum Troupe

Established in 1988, the Shanxi Jiangzhou Drum Troupe, has been exploring ways to blend traditional percussion music with its contemporary counterpart and vice versa. It was the first to introduce the ethnic gongs and drums of Jiangzhou to the international stage. The group has won the highest honor at the All China Folk Music and Dance Competition, over twenty awards at national level, and consecutive championships at national tournaments of gongs and drums. It has performed to popular and critical acclaim in Denmark, Morocco, the US, the UK, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and the regions of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. ‘Jiangzhou Drum Music’ was among the first items to be included in the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of China, and was inscribed onto the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre’s List of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2002.  It was also named ‘A National Pioneer of Privately-operated Collectives of the Performing Arts’ by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China and the Ministry of Culture.