Viral dance puts Shandong folk heritage in the spotlight

A dance that looks like a bear shaking its fur has become a viral trend in China, with netizens posting videos of themselves trying to copy the moves.

The craze received a fresh boost on Sunday, when a Shandong provincial square dance competition and showcase was held in Qingdao, Shandong.

Square dancing, or guangchangwu, is a popular group activity in China, often performed in parks and public squares. At the end of the event, performers invited Ming Wenjun onto the stage for a demonstration. Ming is the teacher who demonstrated the original version of the "bear shaking its fur" dance.

The dance comes from a classic foundational rhythmic movement of the drum yangko dance passed down in Shanghe county of Jinan. It may look like random full-body trembling, but it aims for steadiness rather than floating, controlled shaking rather than chaos, and a rough, simple look that relies on core strength.

In 2006, the drum yangko was included in the first batch of China's national intangible cultural heritage list. Yangko carries the memory of thousands of years of agricultural civilization and embodies the passion of the Chinese people.

Ming also presented Jiaozhou yangko, which is known for its distinctive twisting, stretching, swaying, and resilience. This dance variation originated in Jiaozhou, a county-level city of Qingdao, and is also a national-level intangible cultural heritage.