Wang Jianwen

01 · Lineage & Regional School

In 1982 he became a disciple of Liu Dehai, sixth-generation transmitter of the Baizhifang Tai Lion, studying lion dance and martial arts under him, and became the seventh-generation transmitter of the Baizhifang Tai Lion. Within the regional tradition and school record of Lion Dance in Beijing: The forms of lion dance differ from place to place across China, and their regional characteristics are very distinct. The Baizhifang great lion is a prominent representative of the northern-school lion dance art. It concentratedly embodies the folk customs and mores of Beijing, especially of the Xuannan area, and displays a strong regional cultural character. The Baizhifang great lion (tai shi) was originally a performance form within the ritual processions and fairs (xingxiang zouhui) and later gradually became independent, turning into a folk dance form warmly welcomed by the people of Beijing; it originated in the Great Lion Old Society (Taishi Laohui) of Baizhifang in Xuanwu District, Beijing. This famous folk flower society is said to have been founded in the fifth year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty (1740). In the ninth year of the Tongzhi reign (1870), Li Tingpu and Chen Zihe, leading families of the Baizhifang district, came forward to reorganize the Great Lion Old Society, and the two of them served in turn as its society head (huishou). In 1956 the Beijing Banknote Printing Works, where Liu Dehai was employed, established a lion dance team and procured a full set of costumes and props, with Liu Dehai responsible for transmitting the great lion skills.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

He was a man of Han ethnicity, born in October 1965 in Beijing. He is an international judge of traditional lion dance and a national first-class social sports instructor. He has mastered the full repertoire of lion-dance routines and techniques; his performance is solidly grounded and his style delicate and expressive, rendering the lion's leaping, pouncing and roaring and its moods of joy, delight, fear, alarm and repose with both form and spirit. He has performed at the evening celebration in Tiananmen Square for the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, at the opening ceremony of the Second National Workers' Games and at other events. He has been engaged as coach of the lion-dance teams of Beijing Sport University and the Shandong Dongfang Martial Arts School, compiled the Prescribed Routines of the Northern Lion, contributed to the Textbook of Lion Dance, and revised the Treatise on the Tai Lion. Within the documented technical tradition of Lion Dance in Beijing: Lion dance, also called “shizi wu” (lion dance), “shi deng” (lion lantern), “wu shi” or “wu shizi”, is an important component of the traditional Chinese hundred-performances and acrobatics repertoire. Lion dance has a long history. It is widely popular in the Han areas of China and appears frequently in festival celebrations such as the Spring Festival, using lively and cheerful performance to express the Chinese people's good wishes for auspiciousness and the warding off of disaster. It is generally divided into two major types, the southern lion and the northern lion. The southern lion is agile and fierce and often performs high-difficulty techniques; the northern lion is playful and naive and usually performs teasing and frolicking movements. The lion dance of Beijing has two forms, the “great lion” (taishi) and the “young lion” (shaoshi). The small lion played by a single performer is the “young lion”; the large lion, in which one person plays the lion's head and one person plays the lion's tail, is called the “great lion”. Traditional performance comprises thirteen sets of routines and twenty set pieces, including “small three items” (xiaosanyang), “long five images” (changwuxiang), “single ball” (dantuanshi), “paired heads” (duitou), “dragon embracing the pillar” (longbaozhu), “censer horn” (xianglüjiao), “coin stamp” (jinqianzhangzi), “dry boat great chase” (hanchuandagan) and “playing in the water” (xishui). Chen Zihe was a fourth-rank official of the Gunpowder Bureau of the Ministry of Works. Referring to the stone lions in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City, he redesigned the form of the great lion. The lion's body is about 1.2 zhang long from front to back and its head weighs more than seventy jin. It is mighty and fierce, with a broad forehead like a great stele, upturned nostrils, deep-set eyes and a blood-basin mouth, and seven large bronze bells hang on it. The Chen family later engaged a lion dance artist from Yong'an Bridge inside Yongdingmen, nicknamed “Shaizi Liu Wu”, to teach the performance skills, gathered followers widely, and repeatedly took part in the ritual processions and fairs held in various parts of the capital. At present, the main performance activities of the Baizhifang great lion are all carried out under the organization and leadership of the Beijing Banknote Printing Works. According to the folk saying “the yellow-maned lion roars with a blue mane”, when the Baizhifang great lion performs, one yellow and one blue great lion appear on the stage together. They are fierce and rugged, united in form and spirit, and display the distinctive characteristics of the Chinese folk “northern school” lion dance. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Great lion and small lion": Beijing lion dance has two kinds: the small lion played by one man and the great lion played by two, one at the head and one at the tail. "Thirteen routines, twenty tricks": The traditional catalogue of Baizhifang lion dance: thirteen routines and twenty tricks, forming a teachable and assessable system. "Named routines of the great lion": The named routines of the Baizhifang great lion, covering openings, duels, coils and play, the documentary basis of the northern great-lion repertoire. "Modelled on the Forbidden City lions": Chen Zihe, a fourth-rank official, remodelled the lion on the stone lions before the Hall of Supreme Harmony: a body some four metres long and a head of over thirty-five kilos hung with seven bronze bells.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He is a national representative bearer of Lion Dance (Baizhifang Tai Lion), a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. In 1997 he took part in the First National Dragon and Lion Dance Championship, organised by the China Dragon Dance Sports Association, and won the title King of the Northern Lion.

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. Wang Jianwen · National Representative Bearer Archive