Zhao Bolin

01 · Lineage & Regional School

He is the fifth-generation bearer of Caota Doushizi, the Caota lion-shaking performance. Within the regional tradition and school record of Xianshi in Zhuji, Zhejiang: Caota lion jerking takes Qiandian Village of Caota Town, Zhuji City as its centre, and also extends to neighbouring cities and counties such as Shaoxing, Jinhua and Lishui. Lion jerking originated in the Qing dynasty. In the late Song and early Yuan periods, the Zhao clan (descendants of the Song imperial family) and the Yang clan (descendants of the famous Song general Yang Jiye) fled to Caota one after another because of the wars, but the two did not get along with each other: in particular they quarrelled endlessly over water sources and irrigation, and the feud was only gradually settled when the authorities intervened in the Qing dynasty.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnicity, born in September 1949 in Zhuji City, Zhejiang Province. In childhood, under the influence of his forebears, he became fascinated by lion-shaking. In the 1980s he organized a wire-lion team and served as its captain, taking part many times in provincial and municipal cultural and sports performances and competitions. In order to make Caota Doushizi more attractive to watch and more popular with ordinary people, he has continually improved and innovated the structure of the lion apparatus, its materials, its exterior design, the string-pulling technique and the performance skills. Where the lion had formerly been able to move only simply back and forth, he made both the large and the small lions dance in every direction, forward and back, up and down, left and right, breaking through the technical difficulties of lion-shaking and enhancing its artistic appeal. Over years of taking on apprentices and teaching the art, he has passed on to his students the understanding of lion-shaking that he has gained, so that the craft has been transmitted and developed. Within the documented technical tradition of Xianshi in Zhuji, Zhejiang: Xianshi (Caota lion jerking) is a traditional recreational and entertainment item that organically fuses physical exercise, acrobatics and puppetry technique. It is practised in Zhuji City of Zhejiang Province and in neighbouring cities and counties such as Shaoxing, Jinhua and Lishui, with Qiandian Village of Caota Town, Zhuji City, as its representative. Taking this opportunity, the Zhu clan (descendants of the Song Neo-Confucian master Zhu Xi), which lay between the Zhao and Yang clans, was inspired by the stone lions the two had fought over, and proposed that at the traditional temple fair on the nineteenth day of the second lunar month each year the taige platforms should be assembled to welcome spring with dragons and lions auspiciously displayed, as a sign of neighbours living together in harmony. The Zhao and Yang clans, long worn out by their quarrels, gave their assent, and from this arose the Zhao family taige, the Yang family dragon dance and the Zhu family lion jerking. According to the "Customs" chapter of the Zhuji Minbao Fifth-Anniversary Souvenir Album, "there are those who bind their bodies and practise boxing, with sabres, spears, halberds and swords, forming teams and displaying their skills. There are those who perform lions seizing the embroidered ball... some hang a lion on a frame, with one person inside working the ropes, leaping to fight for the ball, every posture dazzling to the eye." In Caota lion jerking the ropes are pulled during the dance, so that the ball moves and the lion dances; hence the name "lion jerking". A lion-jerking team generally consists of about 20 people, divided into the performance troupe, the ball-tossers who lead the lion, the women's drum band, and so on. The percussion instruments consist mainly of drums, gongs, flags and cong (a kind of ancient trumpet or cannon). The performance props consist mainly of one lion cage, one coloured ball, five lions and a number of thin ropes. The five lions are decorated in yellow, green, blue, red and brown, five colours standing for metal, wood, water, fire and earth, the Five Phases. Four sturdy young men carry the cage on their shoulders as they walk, and behind them eight people hold the ropes, controlling the coloured lion as it jumps, jerks, twists, or raises its forepaw to scratch its ear inside the cage. A lion-leader skilled in martial arts then tosses the ball to tease the lion, and the coloured lion rolls and dances to the beat of the drum, performing such postures as jerking, teasing, soaring and pouncing; accompanied by the blowing and striking of the women's grand gong-and-drum band, a joyful festive atmosphere is fully revealed. All the roles in a lion-jerking team must work together in tacit understanding, which embodies a social atmosphere of neighbourhood solidarity and harmony and of a stable and peaceful village. Caota lion jerking combines the art of modelling with the art of performance, incorporating both acrobatics and string-puppet technique; it demonstrates superb artistry, broad popular entertainment value, strong cooperativeness, outstanding spectator appeal and marked folk character. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Five-coloured lions and the five elements": The equipment is one lion cage, one coloured ball, five lions and cords; the lions are yellow, green, blue, red and brown, standing for metal, wood, water, fire and earth. "Four to carry, eight to pull the cords": Four strong men carry the cage and eight pull the cords, making the lions jump, shake, twist and scratch, while a martial ball-thrower teases them into rolls and pounces to the drum. "The Zhao, Yang and Zhu clans and the temple fair": Descendants of the Song imperial house and of the general Yang Jiye, long at odds over irrigation, joined in a temple-fair procession proposed by the Zhu clan, descendants of Zhu Xi, giving rise to the Zhao pageant, Yang dragon and Zhu lion. "The Zhuji folk-custom record": The fifth-anniversary volume of the Zhuji newspaper records teams of boxers with swords and spears and a lion suspended on a frame pulled by one man inside to seize the embroidered ball.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Xianshi (Caota Doushizi), a fifth-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. Zhao Bolin · National Representative Bearer Archive