DaShuHua Molten Metal Fireworks – Yu County Lantern Festival, NuanQuan

Throwing an arc of molten metal at the icy cold city wall

We’d been waiting outside for three hours at -15C, barely moving. Despite wearing a Chinese military-issue greatcoat, the cold had seeped through to the point it was painful to move and my face was burning with the early symptoms of frostbite.

When the first arc of molten metal flew through the air and burst into glowing sparks onto the castle wall the adrenalin kicked in and the faces of the assembled soldiers and villagers cracked into delighted grins.

Molten Metal Fireworks at Yuxian Lantern Festival

I’d been invited to travel across to YuXian (Yu County), as a guest at their unique DaShuHua (tree flower) Lantern festival.

History of DaShuHua

At one time, there were many blacksmith shops in the farming town of Nuanquan. During the Chinese New Year festivities wealthy people would buy fireworks as part of the demon scaring celebrations during the lantern festival, but the blacksmiths couldn’t afford them. Inspired by the sparks emitted during their iron working they splashed molten metal on the city walls, creating beautiful iron flowers.

Over time, the people came to prefer the DuShaHua to the firecrackers and donated scrap metals to the blacksmiths to carry on the performance. By experimenting with these metals, the performers have managed to create a multi-coloured array of flowers, improving on the original red.

DuShuHua Today

Despite being a 300-year old tradition there are only four DaShuHua performers left so the event has been made an Intangible Cultural Heritage, the only one in HeBei Province.

This influx of money and interest has enabled the organisers to build a dedicated ShuHua square. A large stage holds folk dances and performances, against the background of a 10-metre high, 30-metre long city wall.

Arriving at 5 to secure our seats we had to wait in the cold until the performance started at 7. Being 6’3” and sat front centre I felt rather conspicuous as the only obvious foreigner in the crowd of 1,500. Nuanquan has a number of nearby military bases, so a couple of bales of khaki greatcoats had fallen off the back of a lorry and were being given out at just £2 each. Donning the coat and hood had the dual effect of hiding me from the crowd and keeping me alive, which was a bonus.

The newly promoted general and some random Tiki types

The show started on time, but wth the narration in heavily accented Chinese, I didn’t quite follow the story. After a dragon dance it seemed someone got jealous of a lettuce and sent an army. A wizard killed a girl to make a sword and some Tiki dolls attacked. There may have been more to it than that, but once the Tiki dolls were vanquished the swords were melted down and the molten metal thrown at the city walls.

Fire Flowers

Using a ladle, the performers throw arcs of molten metal against the cold brick of the city wall. As the metal strikes the cold hard wall it explodes into a shower of sparks, mostly over the performer. The ladle is made of wood, soaked for three days, but it still starts to smoulder so the performers throw the metal as quickly as possible. They wear just a sheepskin coat and straw hat to protect them from the 1,000 degree metal.

(Youku version) (Vimeo)

A few minutes of dancing and one resurrection later the show is over. After the performers take their bows the audience dispersed back to the warmth of their cars and I headed back stage to get a look at the wall and the preparation area.

DaShaHua performers taking a bow at the end of the show

The only light in the backstage area came from the bubbling cauldrons of molten metal, heated by the coal dug from the surrounding hills. The wall is patterned with solidified fire flowers, but the surrounding area is awash with puddles of glowing metal.

The molten metal, ready for throwing

The city walls, covered in rapidly dried molten iron

One of the DaShuHua performers came over to check out the random foreigner wandering round backstage. He may have been surprised to see me, but I couldn’t tell – the first thing I’d noticed about his sooty face was the singed off eyebrows.

Overall, a cold and painful but exhilarating way to spend my birthday!

On further investigation:

(1)    A young couple in a peaceful town that grew lettuces were separated when an army arrived and the boy had to go and work as a blacksmith making swords. His swords were weak and brittle so a wizard suggested sacrificing a girl. To help her lover and her village, the young lettuce grower killed herself to improve the weapons, enabling the village to fight off the army. With the army vanquished and the boy promoted, the swords could be melted down and thrown at the city walls(?) This brought the girl back to life and they all lived happily ever after, except the Tiki dolls.

Hopefully related posts:

In Photos: Lost in a small town lantern celebration – NuanQuan, Yuxian Mythology at the Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival – Longtan Park, Beijing Cherry Blossom Festival – YuYuanTan Park, Beijing ZongZi and the Dragon Boat Festival in China