Li Chengfeng

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Li Chengfeng, Male, Tujia, from Zhangjiajieshicili, Hunan, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Dragon Dance (Ⅲ-4). The tradition is documented in Zhangjiajieshicili, Hunan. Within the regional tradition and school record of Dragon Dance in Zhangjiajieshicili, Hunan: The board board dragon lantern, popularly called the “board board lantern,” is one kind of bench dragon, passed down in Cili County, Zhangjiajie City, Hunan Province, and mainly handed down in eighteen villages of the townships of Longtanhe, Erfangping and Gaoqiao, extending as well to the towns of Huangshi and Jiuxi in Taoyuan County, Changde City. Traditionally it was handed down through generation after generation by more than twenty clans including the Li, Zhu, Zhang, Ye and Pan clans, and the dragon was brought out on a clan basis; from 2014 this was changed to townships and towns organizing large dragon dance teams to bring out the dragon, so family transmission gave way to social transmission, and today the Cili County Board Board Dragon Lantern Association already has three dragon lantern teams — at Longtanhe, Erfangping and Gaoqiao — with 221 members. From 2014 the form of bringing out the board board dragon lantern changed from being organized by clan unit, as in the past, to townships and towns organizing large dragon dance teams to bring out the dragon.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The bearer record for Li Chengfeng is anchored in the documented technical standards of Dragon Dance in Zhangjiajieshicili, Hunan. Within the documented technical tradition of Dragon Dance in Zhangjiajieshicili, Hunan: The board board dragon lantern, popularly called the “board board lantern,” is one kind of bench dragon; it is a traditional dragon dance passed down in Cili County, Zhangjiajie City, Hunan Province. Sericulture, the planting of hemp and the growing of cotton are important modes of production and sources of livelihood for the people of Cili. People pray for favourable wind and rain and for abundant harvests of mulberry, hemp and cotton; because the Dragon King governs wind and rain, the dragon must be welcomed with sacrifice at the beginning of spring, and the custom of sacrificing the dragon lantern in spring derives from this. The Gazetteer of Cili County records: “there is what is called the board lantern dragon lantern, … dozens or hundreds of benches joined into one dragon, which is indeed a strange spectacle.” The board board dragon lantern opens the way with cloth gongs and cloth trumpets, uses the silk-worm lamp placed on the sitting board of each household's weaving loom as its dragon body, and performs the “ritual of tending the mulberry” by weaving through the mulberry groves, preserving the long-standing agricultural and sericultural cultural customs. When dancing, its principal expressive form is a linear or chain formation. Before the dragon comes out, people burn incense and sacrifice to the ancestors, dot the dragon's eyes, a nine-eyed gun is fired to clear the way, and an auspicious lantern procession leads in front. Grooms with bells tied round their ankles carry the bodhisattva shrine on their shoulders, pony riders escort the dragon head, and dragon dancers shoulder the lantern boards and grip wooden tenons; led by the lantern guide they wind forward amid drums, music and firecrackers, cheering and dancing wildly, praying for favourable wind and rain and for the nation to prosper and the people to live in peace. Its basic movements include dragon walking step, dragon running step, dragon retreating step, dragon swaying step, dragon swaying head, dragon shaking head, dragon nodding head, the zigzag dragon walk and the divine dragon swaying its tail. Its dance routines include circling the pan, dragon striding like a tiger, and riding the clouds and the mist. The music of the board board dragon lantern is artistically stirring, the movements coordinated and balanced, the composition beautiful, the emotions rich, and the collective character prominent. It integrates bamboo work, paper pasting and hand painting into one, fuses physical culture, acrobatics and dance in a single art; in the form of entertainment it teaches people unity and cooperation, harmonious coexistence, perseverance and courage to press forward, and it has exerted far-reaching and wide influence in western Hunan, possessing cultural and artistic value that cannot be underestimated. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The basic steps": Its basic actions, which with head-shaking, nodding and thrashing movements form a system performed chiefly in linear or chain formations. "Coiling and striding routines": Its dance routines, balanced and well-composed, emotionally rich and strongly collective in character. "Traditional formation patterns": The traditional ground patterns, to which recent years have added new formations such as the Chinese Dream and Long Life and Rich Harvests. "Silkworm lanterns on loom seats": Because sericulture, hemp and cotton were the region's livelihood, cloth gongs lead the way and silkworm lanterns form the body, preserving an ancient mulberry-and-silk custom.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2025, Li Chengfeng was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Dragon Dance, with Zhangjiajieshicili, Hunan as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Dragon Dance in Zhangjiajieshicili, Hunan: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2021 (batch 5), with Zhangjiajieshicili, Hunan as its declared area, and Cili County Intangible Cultural Heritage Safeguarding Center as its safeguarding unit. Since the project was inscribed in the national inventory, its declared area and safeguarding unit have carried out documentation, transmission and presentation within the national safeguarding framework. Together, the inventory record and the project archive form the public documentary basis for the bearer’s transmission practice.

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. Lichengfeng (Zhangjiajieshicili, Hunan) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Lichengfeng · China ICH Official Archive