Dragon Dance

Ⅲ-4Traditional DanceShanwei, GuangdongBatch 1 (2006)Newly Added Item

01 · Historical Records

Already in the oracle-bone inscriptions of the Shang dynasty there are records of several people collectively sacrificing to the dragon and praying for rain; the record of Dong Zhongshu's 'Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn' in the Han dynasty already contains clear accounts of the various dragon dances used to pray for rain; from that time on, poems and prose of every dynasty recording dragon dancing at court or among the folk are found again and again. According to records in the book collection of the old man Huang Tianshu of Nanxi Village, Shanwei City, Guangdong Province, and the accounts of some people who know the matter, the 'rolling golden dragon' was created in the Southern Song dynasty; during the Ming Jiajing era a branch of the Huang clan descended from the noble Guangzhao moved from Zhangzhou, Fujian to Nanxi Village, Lufeng, Guangdong, bringing with it a transmitted copy of the 'Historical Biography of the Rolling Golden Dragon'. In 1996 Nanxi Village was awarded the title 'Hometown of Folk Art' by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Culture; the rolling golden dragon was included in the 'Gazetteer of Chinese Dances' and won many awards in major events at national, provincial and regional level.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The most basic expressive means of dragon dance are its prop modelling, its compositional variations and its sequences of movement. According to the different materials used in binding the dragon props, dragon dance is divided into 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 so on; northern dragon dance is generally tall and massive, simple and archaic in style and full of vigour, while southern dragon dance is exquisite and fine, lively and quick. The composition and movement of dragon dance generally have such characteristics as 'rounding', 'rolling', 'twining', 'interlacing' and 'leaping'. The traditional performance procedure of dragon dance is generally: 'inviting the dragon', 'sending the dragon out', 'performing the dragon' and 'seeing the dragon off'. Among the people there is a saying: 'at seven or eight one plays with the straw dragon, at fifteen or sixteen one plays with the small dragon, the young and middle-aged dance the big dragon'. The number of dragon dancers may be as few as one man dancing two dragons, or as many as a hundred men dancing one big dragon. The dragon is the totem of the Chinese nation and the ancestor in which it believes; dragon dance is a symbol of the spirit of China. It embodies the spirit of the Chinese nation's unity and cohesion and its pioneering and striving spirit, and contains the cultural meaning of harmony between heaven and humanity and of bringing benefit to humankind. It is the most common form of entertainment for Chinese people on auspicious and celebratory occasions; its atmosphere is ardent and stirring to the heart, and it is an extremely precious cultural heritage of the Chinese nation. The Huang clan's Nanxi 'rolling golden dragon' has been handed down for seventeen generations. It was later transmitted by the village's golden dragon artists and traditional martial arts masters to Shengou Village of Tanxi Town, Lufeng; Anbo, Xia'anlian, Dingtan and Antang villages of Da'an Town; Liangjun and Xia villages of Xinan Town; and Shangshen Village of Chengdong Town, Lufeng. When the 'rolling golden dragon' of Nanxi Village is performed, two people crawl into the 'dragon body quilt', one dances the dragon head and one dances the dragon tail. The whole performance is divided into eight dance sections: 'opening with salutations', 'beating the enclosure and touring the cave', 'touring the pool and playing in the water', 'stretching the sinews and washing the scales', 'lying dormant and hearing the thunder', 'rising to dance at the thunder', 'riding the clouds and soaring' and 'closing with salutations'; in the performance it imitates such dragon movements as spinning and soaring, playing in the water, brooding and rousing itself, coiling gently and quietly, and pressing forward boldly. The accompaniment uses the 'named-section big gong-and-drum set' of the Hailufeng Zhengzi opera, which is majestic and stirring, resonant and spacious; the large suona plays different tunes according to the different episodes of the performance, with tune patterns such as 'Palace Maid's Lament', 'Lament for Heaven', 'Slope Sheep' and 'Eight-Plate Head'. Rich expression, numerous routines, splendid dance sections and mastery of many techniques are the basic characteristics of this dance.

The first four dance sections

The first four of the eight sections of the Nanxi rolling golden dragon, danced by two performers inside the dragon skin with Hai-Lufeng opera gong-and-drum accompaniment.

The last four dance sections

The last four sections, imitating the dragon's soaring, water play, awakening, coiling and charging; rich expression and multiple routines are the dance's basic traits.

Opera tune titles

The suona tune titles of the rolling golden dragon, played according to the episode by the Hai-Lufeng opera percussion and suona band.

The Chronicle of the Rolling Golden Dragon

Local records hold that the rolling golden dragon began in the Southern Song; the Huang clan brought the transmitted chronicle with them from Zhangzhou to Nanxi in the Jiajing era and have passed it down for seventeen generations.

The golden dragon martial-arts team

The dragon has long coexisted with Nanxi's traditional martial-arts society; the inheritor Huang Ruisheng joined the Golden Dragon team at eighteen and became its head dancer.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Dragon dance, also called 'performing the dragon', is known among the people as 'playing the dragon', 'playing the dragon lantern' or 'dragon lantern dance'; it is widely distributed throughout the country and among all ethnic groups, and the diversity of its forms and varieties is beyond comparison with any other folk dance. In terms of colour, dragon dance is divided into yellow, white, azure, red, black and so on, of which the yellow dragon is the most noble.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Down to the present day, dragon dance is still one of the dance forms commonly present at folk festive and seasonal occasions. Huang Ruisheng (official archive record of the associated inheritor): male, Han ethnicity, born in 1943, native of Lufeng, Guangdong. He formally joined the 'Golden Dragon Martial Arts Team' at the age of eighteen, receiving the instruction and favour of his seniors, and afterwards became an artist dancing the dragon head in the rolling golden dragon. He kept exploring the performance art of the rolling golden dragon, raising his performance standard through practice, and innovating in his creations on the basis of the tradition, making the dragon dance performance more coherent and compact, more varied in its rises and falls, and full of spirit. His representative works include 'Two-Person Dragon Dance' and 'Golden Dragon Playing in the Water'. Representative inheritor of the second national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project Dragon Dance (Shanwei rolling golden dragon).

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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