Chen Xishun

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Influenced from childhood by his father and his uncle, he learned the craft with the Ximen Township centipede dance team and took part in its performances, gradually becoming one of its principal dancers. Within the regional tradition and school record of Wugong Dance in Shantoushichenghai, Guangdong: This dance imitates the movements and habits of the centipede with remarkable fidelity; as soon as it appeared it delighted the local people, spread rapidly, and has been passed on continuously ever since. Centipede dance takes its origin in Ximen village, Chenghai District, Shantou City; it was created by Chen Chengjin and Shi Wen Yong in the years from the Tongzhi to the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty, and has since been performed without interruption at the deity-procession gatherings and festivals of the towns and countryside of Chenghai. Night performances require drum music and cheering fireworks, and the formations produce the numbers "2", "3", "6", "7" and "8" as well as patterns such as water ripples and plum blossoms dotted on a coiled branch. The inheritor Chen Xishun drew on the standard sequences of the Chinese dragon dance and absorbed the footwork of southern martial arts, making the centipede's characteristic mixture of strength and gentleness all the more pronounced. Centipede dance is a folk dance transmitted in Chenghai District, Shantou City, Guangdong Province. It originated in the years from the Tongzhi to the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty and was created by Chen Chengjin of Ximen village together with his friend Shi Wen Yong.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnicity, born in October 1952, a native of Chenghai County, Guangdong Province. Drawing on the traditional routines of the Chinese dragon dance, he imitated the bearing and habitual movements of the centipede, selecting and refining them, and transformed a hundred-legged venomous creature into an auspicious, majestic and beautiful spirit animal, so that the performance is at once traditional and innovative. Adopting the footwork of the southern martial arts, he substantially improved the movements of the centipede dance, bringing out a suppleness within strength, adding many highly difficult techniques and endowing the dance with greater artistic beauty and power to move. For many years he has actively organized youth performance teams and worked to train a new generation of performers. Within the documented technical tradition of Wugong Dance in Shantoushichenghai, Guangdong: Centipede dance is a large-scale animal dance performed in an open square; the centipede prop used in it consists of a head, a body and a tail, and measures 22 metres in total length. The body of the centipede is flattened and rounded, joined from 28 segments of stiff and soft cloth frames, 80 centimetres wide and 60 centimetres high, bending and extending freely. In performance, one performer holds a coloured pearl and leads the way at the front, and 15 performers carry the centipede in their wake; the performer with the pearl hides under the centipede's belly, bends at the waist and the knees, and, using movements such as "double descent to the hall", "T-shaped horse stance", "bow stance" and "Guanyin seated on the lotus", makes the whole centipede wind and weave through space, dancing with vigour and agility, and forming design patterns such as "2", "3", "6", "7", "8", "water ripples" and "plum blossoms dotted on a coiled branch". In night performances the huge centipede pitches and dives as it weaves along, its two eyes flashing with green light, its body brilliantly lit and translucent, its scissor-shaped red tail raised high and swaying freely; set off by the accompanying drum music and the cheering fireworks, the scene becomes all the more grand and magnificent, presenting an awe-inspiring scale. The head, body and tail of the centipede prop are linked by stiff and soft cloth frames; its twenty-eight-segment body is eighty centimetres wide and sixty centimetres high, and the whole prop is twenty-two metres long, bending and extending freely. When it dances at night its two eyes flash with green light, its body is brilliantly lit and translucent, and its scissor-shaped red tail is raised high. The performance is formed by a team of sixteen: one performer holds the coloured pearl at the front to lead, and fifteen performers each carry one segment behind, while the performer with the pearl hides under the centipede's belly, bends at the waist and the knees, and steers the whole centipede as it winds and weaves. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The twenty-two metre, twenty-eight section centipede": Head, body and tail make up a prop twenty-two metres long; the flattened body joins twenty-eight hard and soft cloth frames, eighty by sixty centimetres and freely bending. "The operators' postures": Hidden beneath the belly, the pearl bearer bends and crouches in postures such as the double descent, T-stance, bow stance and Guanyin on the lotus to steer the centipede. "The numeral and wave patterns": The dance shapes numerals 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8 along with water ripples and coiled plum-blossom dots, the ranks opening and closing at the pearl's lead. "Pearl leading, fireworks at night": One dancer leads with the pearl and fifteen carry the centipede; at night its green eyes and glowing body turn the dance majestic against drums and fireworks.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Wugong 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. Chen Xishun · National Representative Bearer Archive