Bao Mushun

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Bao Mushun, Male, Han, from Yuhuan, Zhejiang, is a fifth-batch national representative bearer of Dragon Dance (Ⅲ-4). The tradition is documented in Yuhuan, Zhejiang. Within the regional tradition and school record of Dragon Dance in Yuhuan, Zhejiang: The Kanmen flower dragon is passed down in Kanmen Subdistrict, Yuhuan City, Zhejiang Province, and the surrounding fishing villages; it is a variety of dragon dance unique to the local Fujian-origin fishermen's settlements. The dance teams are organized by fishermen according to the inlet they belong to; the dragon sections, head and tail are normally kept in separate households and assembled when the dragon comes out. The performance ground is not limited to the beach: pillars may also be erected to dance in the forecourt of a village temple or among the corridor pillars of a residential courtyard, and the spacing of the dragon pillars and the weaving routes of the formations are directed on the spot by the dragon leader. The Kanmen flower dragon has been handed down through generations among Fujian-origin fishermen in the fishing settlement of Kanmen, Yuhuan; its origins run in the same line as the “rolling dragon” and “kua dragon” customs of southern Fujian's coast. Yuhuan's main island lies between Yueqing Bay and Xuanmen Bay, and since the Ming and Qing dynasties large numbers of southern Fujian fishermen have crossed the sea to settle and fish here, bringing with them the tradition of sacrificing the dragon lantern to the sea and praying for safety. This gave rise in the inlet villages to the flower dragon dance, in which the dragon's mouth holds a pearl and the dragon winds around pillars, and it also left the fixed ritual sequence of choosing an auspicious day in the twelfth lunar month to “raise the dragon pole” and of “transforming the dragon back into the sea” on the eighteenth day of the first month.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, of Han ethnicity, born in November 1924 in Yuhuan City, Zhejiang Province. He is the fourth generation of dragon dancers in his family. From the age of twenty he learned the flower dragon encircling the pillar technique from his father, and he has practised it for more than seventy years. He knows its performance skills and formation routines inside out and is equally adept at crafting the flower dragon, having reformed the structure of the head, body sections and tail so as to reduce their weight and increase their length. The dragon dance team of the flower dragon activity centre that he directly instructs now numbers nearly one hundred members and has drawn many young people into the art, so that the craft has been effectively transmitted and has regained vitality. Within the documented technical tradition of Dragon Dance in Yuhuan, Zhejiang: The Kanmen flower dragon is a form of “dragon dance” passed down in the fishing settlement of Kanmen, Yuhuan County, popularly called the “rolling dragon” or the “kua dragon” (in the southern Fujian dialect). In the past this dance was passed down only among Fujian-origin fishermen who fished and lived in the inlets by the sea. The flower dragon dances with a pearl held in its mouth; the fishermen regard it as a “sea dragon,” a dragon of the sea that “has attained its true form,” so dancing the flower dragon carries the meaning of “sacrificing to the sea” and “praying for blessing” for the fishermen. “Choosing an auspicious day to raise the dragon pole” (selecting an auspicious day in the twelfth lunar month to make the dragon head and tail) and “transforming the dragon back into the sea” (burning the dragon head and tail on the eighteenth day of the first month), among others, are ritual and customary elements indispensable to the Kanmen flower dragon activities (the dragon festival may be used for successive years). During the New Year, dragon dance teams carrying the dragon lantern go from village to village, and every household joyfully receives the dragon lantern. The household receiving the dragon must tie a red cloth strip to the dragon head (called “hanging red”), and then take down the red cloth that was previously tied to the dragon head and nail it to its own door lintel (called “changing red”). The dragon dance team then performs a routine for that household. The most distinctive feature of a Kanmen flower dragon performance is the “dragon winding around pillars”: with eight dragon sections and the dragon tail following the dragon head, they weave back and forth among dozens of dragon pillars erected on the beach (or in a village temple, or among the corridor pillars of a household courtyard), rising and falling, coiling and leaping, displaying in full the ferocity and agility of the “sea dragon” and the uninhibited, expansive character of the dragon dancers. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Long Rao Zhu (the dragon winds the pillars)": The dragon's eight body sections and tail thread and coil among dozens of pillars set up on the beach, in temple courtyards or house corridors, now rising, now dipping. "Choosing the auspicious day and returning the dragon to the sea": Indispensable rituals: head and tail are made on an auspicious day in the twelfth month and burned on the eighteenth of the first, meaning the dragon's return to the sea, while the body sections may be reused. "Hanging and exchanging red cloth": Households receiving the dragon tie red cloth to its head and nail the previous year's strip above their door, whereupon the team dances a round for them. "The Fujian fishermen's sea rites": Holding a pearl in its mouth, the dragon is understood by fishermen as a sea dragon already perfected, and the dance carries the meaning of sea sacrifice and blessing.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

Representative bearer of Dragon Dance (Kanmen Flower Dragon), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. In recent years, through his efforts and with the guidance of experts, Kanmen Flower Dragon has achieved notable results in transmission and development, appearing many times at provincial and municipal events and earning honourary titles such as Distinctive Dragon Dance Team.

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. Bao Mushun · National Representative Bearer Archive