"When I was a kid, the red envelopes with money were tied to the roof's beam. We had to get them by throwing daggers at the ropes," Fu Xingbing recalled while tossing and catching his daggers. The combination of dagger juggling, drumming and singing forms the traditional folk art of Tujia ethnic group called Triple-Dagger Drumming.

Triple-Dagger Drumming originated in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.). Hanging a flat drum on the neck, the performer would juggle three sticks and beat the drum with two sticks. People usually escaped during famines with their musical instruments. In order to draw a crowd, they used daggers instead of wooden drumsticks, which gradually evolved into the current art form that is popular in today's Chongqing Municipality, Hunan and Hubei provinces. Later when it was introduced in Central Europe and Southeast Asia, the performers were regarded as "Chinese Gypsies."

Fu Xingbing is the fifth-generation inheritor of the Fu-style Triple-Dagger Drumming. When the drum is hit, Fu starts to sing with the gong and the cymbal. He tosses three sharp daggers in turns and catches them without any hesitation. Sometimes he plays thrilling tricks, such as tossing from under the leg or from the back, leaving the audience stunned in awe.

When Fu was young, his father would take him to perform in the neighborhood during farmers' slack seasons. Fu fell in love with the craft as a little boy and decided to learn the skills. He started practicing when he was around eight years old with stones and sticks, before he was capable of juggling daggers.

While playing with daggers, "Of course it takes guts. The more you fear, the more you fail," said Fu. Muscle memory is essential in the practice. It fades. That's why Fu always carries his daggers to practice now and then. He also practices with sickles, kitchen knives and cleavers.

Getting cut is normal. "In the beginning, I didn't have to trim my nails," said Fu. With his father's encouragement and his own perseverance, he grew to shoulder the responsibility of passing on the cultural heritage.

Fu became a solo performer at the age of 18. As most of the masters of his father's generation have passed away, there are only four people in the country who possess the complete knowledge of Triple-Dagger Drumming. Realizing that the unique folk art might be lost, he is determined to pass it on. Apart from daggers and sickles, he has invented new tricks with kitchen knives and axes. "Kitchen knives are the most difficult," he said. "Even the best performers can't play them well all the time." That's because the kitchen knife's center of gravity is different, causing troubles for the blindfolded performer who has to rely on his instincts.

Courage, concentration and consistency are the credo that Fu learned from Triple-Dagger Drumming, and also the virtues he seeks in his would-be pupils. Holding fast to the faith, he is devoted to creating new techniques and training his pupil, in order to pass on the art of Triple-Dagger Drumming to the next generations.