Dragon Dance

Ⅲ-4Traditional DanceLishui, JiangsuBatch 2 (2008)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

The Luoshan great dragon has a history of more than 400 years; its rise is said to be connected with Yang Peian, a Ming-dynasty jinshi from Luoshan Village in Kong Town, Lishui, Jiangsu. It is said that in the 20th century it was performed only a few times, at the victory of the War of Resistance against Japan and in the 1980s, with a long interruption in between.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

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. Legend has it that Yang Peian once took shelter from the rain in a temple, where he happened upon a little white dragon that had been punished. Seeing that the dragon's tail had been severed, he took pity on it, carried it home to his native place, and from that day Luoshan Village had the custom of dancing the dragon. The Luoshan great dragon was modelled on the little white dragon, so its tail is bare and it is unlike other dragons. The Luoshan great dragon has a broad mass base locally; at the end of every year each household sews embroidered clothes for its children, and every family contributes people and money to the dragon dance. The whole village busies itself as if keeping a festival, making the dragon, pasting lanterns, doing embroidery and rehearsing; the atmosphere is warm and the mood high. The dragon dance activities generally begin on the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month of the previous year and end on the eighteenth day of the first lunar month of the following year. Luoshan Village adjoins Shijiu Lake, which is low in water in winter, and the broad lake beach becomes the best place for the dragon dance. The Luoshan great dragon consists mainly of three parts. First, bead-jumping: the bead leader guides the dragon's head forward at the front. Second, dragon-jumping: the bead leader holds a fiery red dragon pearl and teases and lures the great dragon in every way, and under his guidance the great dragon jumps with rising and falling movements; its formations include the great dragon swishing its tail, the single-file long snake formation and the coiling formation. Third, cloud-jumping: 66 boys aged 8 to 12, dressed in coloured clothes and caps and embroidered shoes, each hold two cloud boards painted with clouds, and perform in the open space enclosed around the dragon's body; the performance is divided into 'diagram formations' and 'character formations'. The special geographical environment gave Luoshan dragon dancing features different from those of other regions. First, the dragon's body is enormous, nearly 100 metres long, with a head 2.2 metres wide and 2.3 metres high; each of the 24 body sections is 2.8 metres long, and the dragon is known as 'the number one dragon of Jiangnan'. What distinguishes it is that it has no dragon tail. The performance involves many segments and clearly divided labour, and as it dances it winds and turns, rising and falling; candles must be lit inside the dragon body both by day and by night, with 9 people responsible for replacing the candles, 6 firing horseshoe firecrackers, 18 beating gongs and drums, and 8 playing suona. Second, there are many participants: the Luoshan dragon dance involves as many as 500 performers, who take on tasks such as carrying the banner, carrying the lamp, blowing the horn, dancing the dragon, bead-jumping and cloud-jumping.

Pearl dance, dragon dance, cloud dance

The three parts of the Luoshan great dragon: the pearl bearer leading the head, the dragon leaping high and low at the pearl's provocation, and the cloud dance.

The cloud-board figure and character formations

Sixty-six boys aged eight to twelve in colourful dress each hold two cloud-painted boards and perform in the space enclosed by the dragon, forming pictures or characters.

The largest dragon of Jiangnan

The Luoshan dragon is nearly a hundred metres long with a head 2.2 metres wide and 2.3 metres tall, in twenty-four sections, known as the first dragon of Jiangnan and notable for having no tail.

The tailless dragon

The dragon is modelled on a tail-broken white dragon that the Ming jinshi Yang Peian is said to have pitied and carried home, whence the village's dragon dance began.

Five hundred hands and nine candle-changers

Five hundred performers share the tasks of flags, lanterns, trumpet, dancing, pearl and clouds; candles burn inside the body by day and night, tended by nine men with six firing salute bombs and eighteen drumming.

The dragon season

The season runs from the twenty-fourth of the twelfth month to the eighteenth of the first; the dry winter lakebed of nearby Shijiu Lake becomes the finest dancing ground.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

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.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

For historical reasons the Luoshan great dragon was often interrupted, resulting in a situation in which it was danced only once every several decades; the technique of making the dragon has been lost, which brings great difficulty to transmission, though fortunately the dance patterns are still preserved. After 2005 the Luoshan great dragon was restored, but it remains in an endangered state and urgently needs rescue, sorting out and protection.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Dragon Dance (Lishui, Jiangsu) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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