Dragon Dance

Ⅲ-4Traditional DanceFenghua, ZhejiangBatch 1 (2006)Newly Added Item

01 · Historical Records

Already in the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang dynasty there appear characters recording groups of people performing collective dragon sacrifice to pray for rain; the Han-dynasty record in Dong Zhongshu’s Chunqiu Fanlu already contains explicit accounts of various kinds of dragon dancing to pray for rain; from that time on, poems and prose of successive dynasties recording dragon dancing at court or among the common people are frequently met with. The Fenghua cloth dragon takes its name from its origin and circulation in Fenghua, Zhejiang, and is one of the representative dragon dances of considerable influence nationwide. It evolved gradually from the folk ritual of honouring gods, inviting gods and pleasing gods into a folk dance with distinctive character of its own, and to this day has a history of more than eight hundred years. In 1990, the Fenghua cloth dragon was selected into the Anthology of Chinese Folk Dances (Zhejiang Volume); in 1996, Fenghua City was named “Hometown of Chinese Folk Art” by the Ministry of Culture; in 2005, the Fenghua cloth dragon was listed by the Zhejiang Provincial Government in the first batch of intangible cultural heritage representative works.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The most basic expressive means of dragon dancing are the modelling of its props, the changes of composition, and the sequences of movements. According to the different materials used to build the dragon-shaped props, dragon dances are divided into cloth dragon, gauze dragon, paper dragon, straw dragon, coin dragon, bamboo dragon, palm-fibre dragon, bench dragon, Baiye dragon, lotus dragon, fire dragon, chicken-feather dragon, flesh dragon, and so on; northern dragon dances are generally tall, large and heavy in construction, with a simple, archaic and vigorous style; southern dragon dances are exquisite and finely detailed, lively and nimble. The composition and movements of dragon dancing generally have the characteristics of “round curvature”, “rolling”, “twining”, “interweaving” and “leaping about”. The traditional performance procedure of dragon dancing is generally: “inviting the dragon”, “bringing out the dragon”, “dancing the dragon” and “seeing off the dragon”. Among the people there is a saying: “at seven or eight one plays with the straw dragon, at fifteen or sixteen one plays the small dragon, and young men dance the big dragon”. Dragon dancing may involve as few as one person dancing two dragons, or as many as a hundred people dancing one big dragon. The dragon is the totem and the ancestor believed in by the Chinese nation; dragon dancing is a symbol of the spirit of Huaxia, embodying the spirit of unity and cohesion and of striving and pioneering of the Chinese nation, and containing the cultural connotation of harmony between heaven and humanity and of benefiting humankind. It is the most common form of entertainment for Chinese people at auspicious times and at times of blessing; the atmosphere is ardent and stirring to the spirit, and it is an extremely precious heritage of the Chinese nation. Dancing alive, dancing round, true in bearing, rich in routines and fast in tempo are the main artistic characteristics of the Fenghua cloth dragon. The whole dance consists of basic routines such as coiling, rolling, swimming, turning, leaping and playing, together with transitional movements such as the small dragon swimming, the big dragon swimming and the dragon diving its tail. The dancers’ movements are agile, their poses endlessly varied, and their technique thoroughly mastered. All the dance movements are carried out as the dragon swims, achieving that “the form changes without the dragon stopping, and the dragon’s travel gives rise to the routine” and that “the people are taut and the dragon is round too; the dragon flies and the people dance as well”. The modelling is vivid, the transitions ingenious, and the connections and progressions between movements are very compact. Because the body of the dragon is light, it moves quickly when danced, the coils of the dragon interlock ring by ring, and the body is wound tightly around itself. The Fenghua cloth dragon has more than forty traditional routines, rarely seen in ordinary dragon dances; some of them have already been adopted as prescribed movements for the national sports dragon-dancing competition and transplanted to dragon dances all over the country.

Anthology of Chinese Folk Dances (Zhejiang Volume)

In 1990, the Fenghua cloth dragon was selected into the Anthology of Chinese Folk Dances (Zhejiang Volume); in 1996, Fenghua City was named “Hometown of Chinese Folk Art” by the Ministry of Culture; in 2005, the Fenghua cloth dragon was listed by the Zhejiang Provincial Government in the first batch of intangible cultural heritage representative works.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Dragon dancing, also called “dragon play”, is known among the people as “playing the dragon”, “playing the dragon lantern” or “dancing the dragon lantern”. 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. By colour, dragon dancing can be divided into yellow, white, blue-green, 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 dancing remains one of the dance forms commonly found in folk celebrations and on festival occasions. Because the cultural value of the Fenghua cloth dragon is comparatively outstanding and the ecological environment of its folk circulation faces a latent crisis, the local government was the first to bring it within the scope of protection. Chen Xingguo (as recorded in the official archive of the associated inheritor): Male, Han nationality, born in 1961, native of Fenghua, Zhejiang. He began to take part in the village youth dragon-dancing team at the age of 17 and has since led the dragon head. Not only did he inherit the fine traditional routines of the Fenghua cloth dragon, he also innovatively introduced more than ten new modelling movements and routines, making the Fenghua cloth dragon even more charming. Chen Xingguo is not only a master of dragon dancing but also a skilled craftsman; the cloth dragon props he makes are lifelike in image, bright in colour, light in body, sturdy and durable. Representative inheritor of the second batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects, Dragon Dance (Fenghua cloth dragon). For many years Chen Xingguo has been devoted to teaching the Fenghua cloth dragon; besides training more than ten youth dragon-dancing teams for some local primary schools, he has also been invited to Guixi in Jiangxi and to Wenzhou, Huangyan, Tiantai, Zhoushan, Jiaxing and other places in Zhejiang to pass on the Fenghua cloth dragon dancing skills.

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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