Dragon Dance

Ⅲ-4Traditional DanceYuhuan, ZhejiangBatch 3 (2011)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

The Kanmen flower dragon has been handed down through generations among Fujian-origin fishermen in the fishing settlement of Kanmen, Yuhuan; its origins run in the same line as the “rolling dragon” and “kua dragon” customs of southern Fujian's coast. Yuhuan's main island lies between Yueqing Bay and Xuanmen Bay, and since the Ming and Qing dynasties large numbers of southern Fujian fishermen have crossed the sea to settle and fish here, bringing with them the tradition of sacrificing the dragon lantern to the sea and praying for safety. This gave rise in the inlet villages to the flower dragon dance, in which the dragon's mouth holds a pearl and the dragon winds around pillars, and it also left the fixed ritual sequence of choosing an auspicious day in the twelfth lunar month to “raise the dragon pole” and of “transforming the dragon back into the sea” on the eighteenth day of the first month.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Kanmen flower dragon is a form of “dragon dance” passed down in the fishing settlement of Kanmen, Yuhuan County, popularly called the “rolling dragon” or the “kua dragon” (in the southern Fujian dialect). In the past this dance was passed down only among Fujian-origin fishermen who fished and lived in the inlets by the sea. The flower dragon dances with a pearl held in its mouth; the fishermen regard it as a “sea dragon,” a dragon of the sea that “has attained its true form,” so dancing the flower dragon carries the meaning of “sacrificing to the sea” and “praying for blessing” for the fishermen. “Choosing an auspicious day to raise the dragon pole” (selecting an auspicious day in the twelfth lunar month to make the dragon head and tail) and “transforming the dragon back into the sea” (burning the dragon head and tail on the eighteenth day of the first month), among others, are ritual and customary elements indispensable to the Kanmen flower dragon activities (the dragon festival may be used for successive years). During the New Year, dragon dance teams carrying the dragon lantern go from village to village, and every household joyfully receives the dragon lantern. The household receiving the dragon must tie a red cloth strip to the dragon head (called “hanging red”), and then take down the red cloth that was previously tied to the dragon head and nail it to its own door lintel (called “changing red”). The dragon dance team then performs a routine for that household. The most distinctive feature of a Kanmen flower dragon performance is the “dragon winding around pillars”: with eight dragon sections and the dragon tail following the dragon head, they weave back and forth among dozens of dragon pillars erected on the beach (or in a village temple, or among the corridor pillars of a household courtyard), rising and falling, coiling and leaping, displaying in full the ferocity and agility of the “sea dragon” and the uninhibited, expansive character of the dragon dancers.

Long Rao Zhu (the dragon winds the pillars)

The dragon's eight body sections and tail thread and coil among dozens of pillars set up on the beach, in temple courtyards or house corridors, now rising, now dipping.

Choosing the auspicious day and returning the dragon to the sea

Indispensable rituals: head and tail are made on an auspicious day in the twelfth month and burned on the eighteenth of the first, meaning the dragon's return to the sea, while the body sections may be reused.

Hanging and exchanging red cloth

Households receiving the dragon tie red cloth to its head and nail the previous year's strip above their door, whereupon the team dances a round for them.

The Fujian fishermen's sea rites

Holding a pearl in its mouth, the dragon is understood by fishermen as a sea dragon already perfected, and the dance carries the meaning of sea sacrifice and blessing.

Four generations of the Bao family

The inheritor Bao Mushun, fourth-generation dancer, learned pillar-winding from his father at twenty and has since reformed the head, links and tail for weight and length; his team now numbers nearly a hundred.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The Kanmen flower dragon is passed down in Kanmen Subdistrict, Yuhuan City, Zhejiang Province, and the surrounding fishing villages; it is a variety of dragon dance unique to the local Fujian-origin fishermen's settlements. The dance teams are organized by fishermen according to the inlet they belong to; the dragon sections, head and tail are normally kept in separate households and assembled when the dragon comes out. The performance ground is not limited to the beach: pillars may also be erected to dance in the forecourt of a village temple or among the corridor pillars of a residential courtyard, and the spacing of the dragon pillars and the weaving routes of the formations are directed on the spot by the dragon leader.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

At present the folk cultural activities associated with the Kanmen flower dragon are growing ever weaker; the performers who have mastered the skill of “flower dragon winding around pillars” are in their eighties and nineties, and the dance has few successors. Bao Mushun (as recorded in the official archive of the associated inheritor): Male, of Han nationality, born in November 1924, native of Yuhuan City, Zhejiang Province. The fourth generation of dragon dancers in his family. He began learning the flower dragon “winding around pillars” technique from his father at the age of twenty, and for more than seventy years since has not only mastered the flower dragon pillar-winding performance technique and its formations inside out, but is also skilled in making the flower dragon; he moreover reformed the original structure of the dragon head, dragon pole and dragon tail by reducing their weight and increasing their length. The flower dragon performance team of the Flower Dragon Activity Centre, which he guided directly, has grown to nearly one hundred members, and it has also drawn in a great many young people, so that this skill is effectively transmitted and has regained vitality. Representative inheritor of the dragon dance (Kanmen flower dragon) inscribed in the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage. In recent years, through his efforts and the guidance of experts, the Kanmen flower dragon has achieved remarkable results in inheritance and promotion, has taken part many times in provincial- and municipal-level events, and has been honoured with titles such as “Distinguished Dragon Dance Team.”

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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