Wikipedia
Yangge is a form of Chinese folk dance originating from the Song Dynasty. It is very popular in northern China and is one of the most representative form of folk arts. It is popular in both the countryside and cities in northern China. It is especially popular among older people. Crowds of people will go out into the street in the evening and dance together in a line or a circle formation.
Some dancers dress up in red, green, or other colorful costumes, and typically use a red silk ribbon around the waist. They will swing their bodies to music played by drum, trumpet , and gong. More people will join in as they see Yang Ge going on and dance along. Some dancers use props like the waistdrum, dancing fan, fake donkey, or litter. In different areas Yangge is performed in different styles, but all types express happiness.
There are two major types of yangge, one is Stilt Yangge which is performed on stilts, the other is Ground Yangge which is more common and is performed without stilts. Another version of the yangge is the village play, an anthology of which was published by Sidney D. Gamble in 1970, based on transcriptions made by Li Jinghan as part of the Ding Xian Experiment's surveys in the 1930s.
In the 1940s, the Chinese Communist Party launched the new yangge movement where the dance was adopted as a means of rallying village support. This version of the dance incorporated socialist elements, such as the leader of the dance group would hold a sickle instead of umbrella, and it is also known as "struggle yangge" or "reform yangge".