Li Chengjia

01 · Lineage & Regional School

He established several Jinzhou dragon dance transmission bases in local primary and secondary schools and actively trained successors to the tradition. Within the regional tradition and school record of Dragon Dance in Dalianshijinzhou, Liaoning: Dragon dance, also called 'dragon performance', is known among the people as 'playing the dragon', 'playing the dragon lantern' or 'dragon lantern dance'; it is the most widely distributed and most far-reaching folk dance in China. This dance takes varied forms in its performance, and dragon dances among different ethnic groups and different regions differ markedly in style. In the seventh year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty (1881), Commander Liu Shengxiu of the Yi Army led the cavalry and infantry of twelve battalions to garrison at Jinzhou; at every Lantern Festival dragon dance was performed inside the barracks, but it was forbidden to be taught outside.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, of Han ethnicity, born in February 1957 in Jin County, Liaoning Province. At the age of twenty he joined the Jinzhou dragon dance troupe and learned dragon dancing from veteran performers; because of his steady footwork, speed, high lifts and stamina, he was chiefly responsible for the 'dragon neck' position, which links the head and the body. Building on traditional techniques such as the coiled dragon, the walking dragon and the reversed grip, he and his fellow performers devised and choreographed more than forty new routines, including Leaping the Ridge (Yue Ji), the Dragon Rolls (Long Dagun), Small Waves (Xiao Bolang) and Turning the River and Sea (Fanjiang Daohai); he also compiled written and photographic materials on the troupe's routines, costumes and props into bound volumes, creating a complete archive of Jinzhou dragon dance. Within the documented technical tradition of Dragon Dance in Dalianshijinzhou, Liaoning: Classified by the form the dragon takes, dragon dance includes cloth dragon, gauze dragon, paper dragon, straw dragon, coin dragon, bamboo dragon, palm-fibre dragon, bench dragon, hundred-leaf dragon, lotus-flower dragon, fire dragon, chicken-feather dragon, flesh dragon and many other types; because the forms differ, their dance postures and dancing techniques also differ in their own ways. The traditional performance procedure of Chinese dragon dance generally consists of such segments as 'inviting the dragon', 'sending the dragon out', 'performing the dragon dance' and 'seeing the dragon off'. Dragon dance embodies cultural meanings of pioneering effort and of the unity of humanity and nature, and is an important part of the spirit and cultural heritage of the Chinese nation. In the eleventh (1885) to thirteenth (1887) years of the Guangxu reign the Mingzi Army took over the garrison, and dragon dancing was still performed at every Lantern Festival. At that time ordinary people were allowed into the barracks to watch together with the officers and soldiers; Chen Deyuan, a shed-builder from Yuanyi Village outside the west gate of Jinzhou, and Li Tianying, a paper-maker, took the opportunity to copy a dragon in secret and gradually remodel it, and so the wondrous and enchanting Jinzhou dragon dance took shape. The Jinzhou dragon dance is performed mainly in the slack farming season and at festivals as an entertainment; its movements are highly varied, and it has become a form of folk dance with distinctive features of the southern Liaoning region. In a performance, one dragon dance team is made up of two dragons and one dragon pearl, with 19 people in all. The dance postures are highly varied, with close to 40 patterns. The accompanying music mainly uses tune patterns of the Northeast yangge, with no strict requirements as to instruments or the tune patterns played. As an art form that has long circulated among the people and remained vigorous, the Jinzhou dragon dance is no longer merely a pastime of farmers in the slack season, nor only an entertainment for festivals; it has become a folk dance form with distinctive features of the southern Liaoning region and has high historical and cultural value. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Two dragons and one pearl, nineteen performers": The performing unit of the Jinzhou dragon dance: two dragons and one pearl, nineteen dancers in all, with nearly forty figures. "Traditional techniques": The traditional techniques of the Jinzhou dragon dance, on which the inheritor Li Chengjia and his team built a large body of new routines. "Modern routines": Representatives of over forty routines created by Li Chengjia's team, who also compiled a complete written and pictorial archive of routines, costumes and props. "Northeast Yangge tunes": Its accompaniment draws mainly on Northeast Yangge tunes without strict rules as to instruments, showing the interpenetration of southern Liaoning dance and Northeast Yangge.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Dragon Dance (Jinzhou Dragon Dance), a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Li Chengjia · National Representative Bearer Archive