After being captured, Yang Ye refused to take any food and died, still loyal to the Song. In memory of Yang Ye, Weifeng drummers composed a special piece, whose sound effect is low and deep yet often punctuated by loud and sonorous drumbeats, as if telling people the heroic and soul-stirring story.

The 1930s and 1940s saw the reemergence of the Weifeng Drum as a weapon against the Japanese aggressors. It represented a call for Shanxi people to unite and heralded the final defeat of the aggressors. During those years, several anti-Japanese military bases were set up in Shanxi Province.

After the 1937 September Pingxingguan military success, which broke the myth of the "invincible Japanese army," one victory came after another, steadily paving the road for the final blow against the Japanese in 1945.

At one juncture in the anti-Japanese war, a poet named Guang Weiran found the right vent for his patriotic impassion while watching the Hukou Waterfall on the Yellow River, the origin of Weifeng Drum Dance. He seemed able to extricate the drumbeat from the thunderous and earthshaking waterfall; hence the glorious Yellow River Cantata, which gives vivid and powerful expression to the heroic spirit as well as the military contributions of the Chinese people in the anti-Japanese war.

Ansai Waist Drum-the Drum for Celebration of Victories

Northern Shaanxi Province, hometown to the Ansai Waist Drum, is located in about the middle of the loess plateau, cut off from the surrounding areas either by the Yellow River or by cultural and ethnic factors. Nurtured in such a geographically isolated place, the Ansai Waist Drum has absorbed little, if any, outside cultural and artistic influence, and has therefore developed its own distinct features.

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