In the summer of 2022, Cai Pa and the team of “Hainan Stories” visited the home of husband-and-wife golden dance duo Chen Qiao and Liu Xuanliang in Guangzhou. Despite being in the winter of her life, the years have not diminished Chen Qiao’s youthful zeal and artistic grace. Many moons ago, when she was just a teen, Chen Qiao was ‘taken in’ by the Li people of Hainan’s Wuzhishan area, who soon came to see this young Han girl from Chaoshan as their adoptive daughter. Chen Qiao, with her quick wits and keen eyes, rapidly adapted to life among the Li, even learning the Li language and Hainan dialect of Chinese.

As an evergreen of the performing arts scene in China, Chen Qiao has been prolific over the years, choreographing various classic dance numbers over four decades. Apart from being a feast for the senses, her work, which includes “Sanyuesan”, the “Straw Hat Dance”, “Merrily We Deliver the Grain”, and “Catching Butterflies”, have given traditional Li folk dance a great deal of exposure, both domestically and internationally.

Artists are constantly seeking to create something unique, and this search is what gives art life. Chen Qiao’s life, with all its twists and turns, searching, and striving, has been a critical source of creativity for her. In this new series of “Hainan Stories”, where the focus shifts from folk song to folk dance, we are honored to join Chen Qiao and her husband, Liu Xuanliang, at their home in Guangzhou to record their story and listen as they remember precious moments from their dancing careers. Check out this video to see them share their happy memories of their time in Hainan and recall the golden age of Hainan folk dance.