ABOUT THE BAILES CHINOS...

 

The bailes chinos are a genre of crossed-cultural religious brotherhood participating in most of the religious festivities on the northern half of Chile. Their geographic expansion includes the regions of Tarapacá and Maipo Valley (near Santiago). In central western Argentina some bailes chinos are also active in the region of San Juan. 

The groups, known as bailes originate on the model of ancient colonial brotherhoods, characterizing through a strong masculine identity and religious rituality essentially associated to the Virgin. The importance of the chinos at the shrines of La Tirana, La Candelaria-Copiapo and Andacollo is a good example about this aspect of their rituality. 

According to legend, the term chino issues from the Quechua language meaning “servant”, hence its current popular meaning "servant of the Deity." However this assumption, as well as involving them in the Chinese Immigration (China) to Chile, has been confronted to discussion.  

The chinos differ from other bailes religiosos brotherhoods in several aspects. They rituality concerns dancing with simultaneous instrumental performing. The chinos usually play mono-tubular complex Panpipes, presenting a double diameter tube and a double notch in the mouthpiece. This type of flute seems to be of pre-Hispanic Andean origin if we compare it to similar archaeological specimens. The other instruments played by the chinos are drums and flags, guiding the music and dance from a visual perspective. 

In spite of this common denominator, the music, dance and clothing of the bailes chinos can vary significantly according to the region: Norte Grande, the Norte Chico and central Chile. This ritual diversity among different chinos seems to derive not only from their respective local histories but also it can be directly associated with the evolution of the modern Chilean national state, of the Church and that of social paradigms generated through an increasing globalization. 

 

PhD document of « Les bailes chinos : identité, religion et métissage au Chili » :

URL : http://bdr.u-paris10.fr/sid/these.php?2008PA100069 
 

Five short videos, filmed by myself between 2003 and 2005 that illustrate the ritual diversity of the bailes chinos in Chile through five religious holidays and from a comparative perspective. These, moreover important throughout the Andean area, are representative of the five poles concerning the chinos in my PhD.