Refreshing Earth
Music by Guo Feng
People have many names for rain in China - on-time rain, sunny rain, feather rain, gusty rain, bursting sky rain, thunder rain, and heavy downpour rain… People love the good rains, especially the farmers and the agricultural people, who depend on the weather for their lives. The weather’s temper has always ruled the long history of China’s agriculture. A knowledge and respect of nature factors heavily in the responsibility of feeding the largest population on Earth. The Chinese New Year happens six weeks later than New Year in the west because the holiday is tied to the moment on the agricultural calendar when seeds are planted in the fields of south China. This dance is the story of a young Yiao ethnic girl walking down a mountain path during seed planting time in Yunnan province. As she talks and sings to the rain, a beautiful rainbow opens in the sky to light her way. The Yiao are one of the 56 ethnic peoples of China; they live in Yunnan province in the southwest of China.
