Not only is the ancient village called Ma chenghe in Donggong Town, Nanzhang County, Hubei Province, one of the few places where Chu culture originated, but it is the cradle of Donggong Town's folk culture and arts. Among the folk art forms originating in the place that have since become well-known around the country and even all over the world are dances performed on stilts (pinyin: gao qiao; Chinese: 高跷), lotus harvesting on boats (pinyin: cai lian chuan; Chinese: 采莲船), dances performed by wearing a clamshell-like costume (pinyin: bang ke wu; Chinese: 蚌壳舞), dragon lantern dances (pinyin: wu long deng; Chinese: 舞龙灯), and waist drum dances (pinyin: da yao gu; Chinese: 打腰鼓).

Dances performed on stilts are a pioneer in Donggong Town's effort to make many of its indigenous folk art forms known to the world. In 2006, "Donggong Stilts Dances" (also known as Dances Performed on Stilts from Donggong Town) was included in the National Protected Intangible Cultural Heritage List; in 2008, Donggong Town was named the "Hometown of Stilts Dances" by the Chinese Ministry of Culture. In fact, in Donggong Town—which has a population of less than 30,000 and 22 villages—there are 32 stilts dance teams, 80% of people can walk with stilts, and over 3,000 people can participate in performances.

Donggong Stilts Dance is also known as Flower-drum Opera on Stilts (pinyin: gao qiao hua gu; Chinese: 高跷花鼓), and because as a folk art form it combines both dancing and singing, it falls into two major categories, gentle stilts dances (pinyin: wen qiao; Chinese: 文跷) and rough stilts dances (pinyin: wu qiao; Chinese: 武跷). The gentle stilts dance features gentle moves and humorous singing while the rough one lays emphasis on dramatic stunts, including many acrobatic moves with high degree of difficulty.

Noted for its thrilling stunts, Donggong Stilts Dance exists mostly as rough stilts dances, and contains a large number of somersaults, splits, and other difficult moves; most performers are normally dressed as clowns who both dance and sing in a performance, with the accompaniment of an ensemble of Chinese wind and percussion instrument players, and songs are impromptu composed and sung.

In Donggong Town and even in the entire Nanzhang County, it has become a tradition to invite a stilts dance team to give a big performance whenever a store opens or a wedding ceremony is held, with a view to making the event more joyful and whatever will come of it more successful.