Huang Jinjian

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Huang Jinjian, Male, Han, from Zhongshan, Guangdong, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Dragon Dance (Ⅲ-4). The tradition is documented in Zhongshan, Guangdong. Within the regional tradition and school record of Dragon Dance in Zhongshan, Guangdong: 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. The Drunken Dragon combines southern-style martial arts, the drunken boxing and acrobatics; it has been deeply popular with the local people of Zhongshan since ancient times and has influenced surrounding areas, and may be called a treasure of Chinese folk dance. The Drunken Dragon originated in Changzhou Village in the western district of Zhongshan, and spread from Changzhou to places such as Zhangxi in Shiqi, Shaxi, Dayong and Haotou in the Torch Development Zone.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The bearer record for Huang Jinjian is anchored in the documented technical standards of Dragon Dance in Zhongshan, Guangdong. Within the documented technical tradition of Dragon Dance in Zhongshan, Guangdong: 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. The Drunken Dragon is a dance peculiar to the folk of ancient Zhongshan, Guangdong; it originated in the Song dynasty, flourished in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and was originally a spontaneous improvised dance for inviting the deities, later developing into a dance with props, performed in the procession held after the Bathing Buddha Festival on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month every year. Besides this, it was also transmitted to Macao by Zhongshan natives who had migrated there from places such as Changzhou in the early years. A Drunken Dragon performance includes ritual worship, the insertion of golden flowers, inviting the dragon, three bows and nine kowtows, drinking wine, dancing the dragon at the feast, pouring wine and the procession. During the performance the dragon dancers must first be made to drink an adequate quantity of wine, and then dance while drunk. As soon as they are slightly sober, those holding the wine jars must forcibly pour wine in from the side, insisting on getting them into a state of deep drunkenness. In the performing team, apart from those who pour wine at the dragon head and tail, each dragon must 'drink' two bottles of wine; the dancers drink until they are seemingly drunk but not truly drunk, spouting beer, holding the dragon head in their arms and dancing with drunken steps, opening the performance in high spirits. The seemingly drunken steps look staggering but are in fact exquisite. Originally the Drunken Dragon dancers waved the dragon head and tail about as they pleased during the ritual worship, which was called 'turning the dragon'; it later developed into a kind of folk dance. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The ritual opening": The opening protocol of the drunken dragon, performed in the procession after the Buddha's birthday rites on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month. "Drinking, force-drinking and dancing": The most distinctive episode: dancers are plied with wine before dancing and force-fed again whenever they sober; each dragon consumes two bottles and the dancers mouth beer as they stumble into the dance. "Zhuan Long (turning the dragon)": The free handling of head and tail during worship that later became a formal folk dance, the key step from improvised spirit-possession dance to codified performance. "Southern boxing, drunken boxing and lion steps": The drunken dragon merges southern boxing, drunken boxing and acrobatics; the inheritor Huang Zhuogen combined drunken-boxing routines with lion-dance steps to reach the state of a drunken form with a sober mind.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2025, Huang Jinjian was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Dragon Dance, with Zhongshan, Guangdong as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Dragon Dance in Zhongshan, Guangdong: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2008 (batch 2), with Zhongshan, Guangdong as its declared area, and Zhongshan Xi QuJieDaoXuanChuan Culture Service Center (Dangan Hall) 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. Huangjinjian (Zhongshan, Guangdong) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Huangjinjian · China ICH Official Archive