Zhang Guangwu

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Zhang Guangwu, Male, Han, from Huangshanshixiuning, Anhui, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Dragon Dance (Ⅲ-4). The tradition is documented in Huangshanshixiuning, Anhui. Within the regional tradition and school record of Dragon Dance in Huangshanshixiuning, Anhui: In the Huizhou dialect “lamp” and “population” are homophones, so it connotes a growing population. It is an important component of Huizhou culture, a vivid witness to the moral concepts, ideal aspirations, practical wisdom and creativity of the local people, and it plays a positive role in strengthening cultural confidence and promoting social harmony. When the bench dragon dances the scene is immense: at one moment it is the “divine dragon leaving the sea,” the dragon body rising and falling in a coiling spiral from front to back, like a flood dragon swimming on the sea; at another it is the “earth dragon gazing at the moon,” the dragon head raised high while the dancer holding the tail lies on the ground, twisting the waist and turning the body; at another it is the “jade dragon bringing rain,” meteors spurting from the mouth like splashing rain flowers; at another it is the “golden dragon coiled round the pillar,” the dragon head held still while the dancers holding the tail run round and round like a millstone, coiling the dragon body into a ball and then swiftly unravelling it and coiling it the opposite way — a magnificent sight.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The bearer record for Zhang Guangwu is anchored in the documented technical standards of Dragon Dance in Huangshanshixiuning, Anhui. Within the documented technical tradition of Dragon Dance in Huangshanshixiuning, Anhui: The Huizhou bench dragon draws on local materials, involves broad participation, is grand in scale, simple in movement and deep in meaning. The Huizhou bench dragon consists of a dragon head, body and tail; the length varies from village to village, generally one section per household, so the larger the village, the longer the dragon body. The dragon head and tail are made by professional craftsmen engaged by the clan head of the ancestral hall, while the body sections are the responsibility of each household. The bench sections of the dragon body are generally made of fir planks, 1.5 metres long and twenty centimetres wide. A round hole is chiselled at each of the two ends of the bench top: at one end the hole is used for the dragon dancer to insert the handle, and the hole at the other end is used for the head post of the handle of the following dragon section to pass through and be joined. Large red lanterns are fixed on the bench tops, in varying numbers. The performing team of the bench dragon consists mainly of five parts: the lantern bearer, the dragon head, the dragon body, the dragon tail and the gong and drum team. When the dragon is danced, each household carries the dragon body section it has kept at home to the Dragon King temple at the village water inlet and joins it to the head and tail; each dragon is at least 100 metres long. According to records, in the late Ming dynasty the Zhang clan of Youlong village, Hecheng, began making and performing the bench dragon, to pray for and celebrate abundant harvests and a growing population. It afterwards spread gradually to the surrounding areas. In performance all the dragon dancers are farming households from the village, and the organizers are mostly the clan head or persons of renown in the village. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the principal village officials took on the organizational work related to the protection and practice of the bench dragon. The Huizhou bench dragon embodies the people's fine ideal of praying for favourable wind and rain and for peace year after year, and its dragon body, with board joined to board and section locked to section, tells the world that only unity and cooperation can bring wishes to fulfilment. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The four signature manoeuvres": The four grand manoeuvres: the dragon leaving the sea, the earth dragon gazing at the moon, the jade dragon bringing rain and the golden dragon coiling the pillar. "Division of head, body and tail": Head and tail are commissioned by the clan elder from specialist craftsmen while each household makes one section, so the larger the village the longer the dragon, each at least a hundred metres. "Fir planking and socket joints": Each fir plank is 1.5 metres by 20 centimetres with round sockets at both ends, one for the dancer's handle and one for the next section's post, and carries a red lantern. "Lantern and population homophony": In Huizhou dialect lantern and population sound alike, so the dance means a growing household; the Zhang clan of Youlong village began it in the late Ming to pray for harvests and descendants.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2025, Zhang Guangwu was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Dragon Dance, with Huangshanshixiuning, Anhui as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Dragon Dance in Huangshanshixiuning, Anhui: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2021 (batch 5), with Huangshanshixiuning, Anhui as its declared area, and Xiuning County Cultural Center (Xiuning County Art Museum) 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. Zhangguangwu (Huangshanshixiuning, Anhui) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Zhangguangwu · China ICH Official Archive